Why is Google not indexing my site?
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I'm a bit confused as to why my site just isn't indexing on Google. Even if I type in my brand name, my social channels rank and there's no evidence of my website. I've followed all of the advice I've read and gone into webmaster tools and got the Wordpress yoast plug-in but nothing seems to be making a difference!One thing I've noticed, in Google Webmaster Tools it says "Couldn’t communicate with the DNS server." in site errors. I've called GoDaddy and they said that everything is fine. A bit frustrating. Trying to work out what my next steps should be but feeling a bit lost to be honest! Any help GREATLY appreciated!
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These two URL's
http://simplycrowngreenbowls.wordpress.com/
http://simplycrowngreenbowls.com/
Should 301 Redirect to
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Got ya. Sorry for being slow, but what should I make sure is pointed there?
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Your best bet would be to login to the WP account and have it redirect to your new site. This would be the quickest way to let Google know that the WP site is the old site, plus if you had any links to it the juice would flow to the new one instead of going away.
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Preferred Landing Page.
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Ah I see, thank you. I've deleted the wordpress.com site, I started it before the proper site and don't need it so hopefully simplycrowngreenbowls.co.uk will start to replace that?
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Apparently Google thinks the http://simplycrowngreenbowls.wordpress.com/ site is more relevant. (I see that this is also your site.) Google cached the .wordpress site first, so it might just be holding on to that because there is no overwhelming reason not to.
You have a line in the content of that .wordpress page instructing people to go to simplycrowngreenbowls.co.uk, but you do not actually 301 redirect the page. As Shawn said, you should do that.
If you do a Bing or Yahoo search your site simplycrowngreenbowls.co.uk comes up first, and as I mentioned I can find your site with the site: operator in Google, so I do not think it is a case of your preferred site not being findable. (I also took a look with Screaming Frog and didn't see any glaring errors.)
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How come I don't see my site if i type in "simply crown green bowls"?
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I can see your site indexed in Google. When I do site:simplycrowngreenbowls.co.uk in a Google search bar, I see nine pages from your site come up.
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Thanks Shawn. What do you mean by get everything to point to your PLP?
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That shouldn't be an issue as long as you have the correct DNS in the settings.
Something I noticed, is this you as well? http://simplycrowngreenbowls.wordpress.com/
If it is, you might want to do a 301 redirect from that to your domain.
Are you parking the US version of the domain? I found http://simplycrowngreenbowls.com/ and it shows GoDaddy.com saying that the domain is parked for free courtesy of GoDaddy.
My guess, and I am by no imagination a server wizard, there is a disconnect with what you want to rank and what Google is finding. I would talk with 1and1 or GoDaddy to see if they can help you get everything to point to your PLP and go from there.
I am all over the place on this reply, but hopefully it helps get you in the right direction.
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By the way, GoDaddy is the host and 1and1 is registrar. Could that be causing a problem? I spoke to them both today and both said they couldn't see any problems.
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Hi Shawn,
I don't mind posting the URL, it's http://simplycrowngreenbowls.co.uk
It would be fantastic to know if you see any technical issues.
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Without knowing the URL it's hard to troubleshoot if there are technical issues with the page/site.
If you don't want to post personal or business stuff here no worries.
Things to try:
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Screaming Frog - have it crawl your URL to find any issues
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Do a Google site search to see if they have any pages indexed
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Use semRush for those URL's and see if any keywords rank
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Is GoDaddy your host or just the registrar? If they are not your host, contact them. Make sure to provide the exact error from GWT to help troubleshoot
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Check robots.txt to ensure that isn't blocking.
Those are the few things top of head I would try
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OK, thanks.
Any idea where the problem lies then? The site is about two months old and competing for moderately low competition key words and is just not ranking, even if I type in the brand name!
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That is correct, if there was an issue it would say partial or something else and then you could click into it to see what Google sees.
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Hi Shawn,
Thanks for the response. It says completed with a green tick so I presume that's fine?
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Try to fetch your site as Google in GWT to see what it says. If there are DNS errors, it should give you some indication of where the error is.
Google Support article to do some more research - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2598813
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