Self Diagnosing Your Website Issues
Q. Is my website on Google?
A. If you are concerned that the Google search engine has not picked up your website, do a search. Simply search using text you know is in your website, perhaps your telephone number, or business name and part of the location. Look for your website on the first and second page of results. If it doesn't appear, it is likely that it isn't in Google.
Q. When did Google last visit my website?
A. Google and most other search engines use programs called "robots" or "spiders" to visit all the websites on the internet and collect data which they return to visitors when they do a search. If you know your websie is in Google, do a search and look for the "cached" link at the bottom of your Google result. Click to view the "cached" data and you will find the date that Google collected the data.
Q. Why can't I see my updated web pages?
A. Whenever you or your webmaster updates a web page, you must "refresh" your computer screen in order to see the changes online.
Q. How do I "refresh" my computer screen?
A. The refresh button is similar in all browsers. Simply click on the button in order to see the latest web page version online.
= refresh Internet Explorer.
= refresh Google's Chrome
= refresh Firefox
Q. What are my keywords?
A. Your keywords are in your website code. Open your website online. You will then want to look at the source code. In Internet Explorer, click on "page" and then click on "view source." In Firefox, click on "view" and "page source." A window will open where you can view the code. Somewhere in about the first 10 lines of code you will see a line that begins meta name="keywords". These are your keywords.
Q. What is valid code?
A. If your website is written in "valid" code, it will appear correctly in most browsers. Today's browsers forgive some code errors, while other errors can make the site look very different from browser to browser. If you have an older website or are concerned about how your website looks online, check to see if the code is valid at http://validator.w3.org. Scary warnings? Scores of errors? Over a hundred errors? Call Design to Spec!
