Optimize your web pages 70This means that search engine spider programs are not able to use Web browser
technology to access your site. If your Web pages require Flash, DHTML, cookies,
JavaScript, Java or passwords to access the page, then search engine spiders might
not be able to index your Web site.
- Make sure that your web server returns the correct HTTP status code
Some web servers are not properly configured and they return an error code when
someone requests a web page. Although the page is displayed fine your web browser,
search engine spiders might receive an error code.
Check your web pages with IBP's search engine spider simulator to make sure that
your website returns a 200 OK code to search engine spiders.
- Make sure that search engines can resolve your DNS name
A mistake that novice users often make is to register a domain name (for example,
http://www.mygreat-site.com),,) and immediately submit the website URL to the search
engines. Then they wonder why the search engines didn't index their site. It could be
that they tried, but the domain name was not available yet.
It takes approximately 2-4 days until a domain name becomes active. All Internet
access providers must update their records (DNS tables) to reflect new site locations.
The process of updating DNS tables is called propagation. Search engines must also
update their DNS tables and until then, the new domain name
http://www.my-great-site.com doesn't work. So when you register a new domain name, you
must wait about 48-72 hours before submittng the domain name to the search
engines.
- Make sure that your website has enough content
If your website consists of only one or two optimized pages it will be difficult to get
good search engine rankings. Search engines try to find web pages that offer valuable
How to create content
Your website should have at least six pages and each page should have at least 200
words. And this is only a start. Search engines need text to index web pages.
The more related pages you have on your website, the better.