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How To Maximize Your Findability (Search Engine Stuff)

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    Erick LErick L Registered Users Posts: 355 Major grins
    edited September 28, 2010
    I don't know Andy. You tell me. You're the host. I've read about shared IP problems, bad configuration and people who fixed the problem by changing host. Unfortunately, switching host means changing all my infrastructure.
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    LichtenHansenLichtenHansen Registered Users Posts: 55 Big grins
    edited September 28, 2010
    Erick L wrote: »
    The cache for borealphoto.com is showing smumug.com, as well as searching for info:borealphoto.com. After some research, it could have something to do with shared IP. I even have SM's pagerank of 7 but keep losing pages and images in the SERP. This is no fun at all.
    Hi Eric,
    It is well known fact that the googlebot gets another version of your site than the one you see on your PC. I, too, can see SM's homepage on Google's cached version of www.borealphoto.com.
    Ihis was the fact on Sep-09-2010 05:47 PM when you first reported it. The cached version that I see now is dated sep-26-2010 03:21:23 GTM.
    It looks like it is a permanent og returning issue for your site.
    This is indeed a serious problem for you - All links to your site goes to SM.
    You might be able to check the googlebot version on your webmaster tools - Labs - Fetch as Googlebot. Do it also for borealphoto.com (without the www). Might be able - I have no way to know whether SM gives the same result to Googlebot and 'Fetch as Googlebot'.
    I thing that you should ask SM to check their log files to see why Googlebot is being redirecting from your site to SM's home page.
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    Erick LErick L Registered Users Posts: 355 Major grins
    edited September 28, 2010
    I looked at the fetch and it looks fine. I asked Google and they said the problem is on Smugmug side.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 28, 2010
    Erick L wrote: »
    I looked at the fetch and it looks fine. I asked Google and they said the problem is on Smugmug side.

    But we don't do anything different for you than any other account. I really don't know what to say, but I'll sure ask around. Have you tried asking google to re-crawl your site?
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    LichtenHansenLichtenHansen Registered Users Posts: 55 Big grins
    edited September 28, 2010
    Andy wrote: »
    But we don't do anything different for you than any other account. I really don't know what to say, but I'll sure ask around. Have you tried asking google to re-crawl your site?

    Andy, Please read my post again:

    Hi Eric,
    It is well known fact that the googlebot gets another version of your site than the one you see on your PC. I, too, can see SM's homepage on Google's cached version of www.borealphoto.com.
    Ihis was the fact on Sep-09-2010 05:47 PM when you first reported it. The cached version that I see now is dated sep-26-2010 03:21:23 GTM.
    It looks like it is a permanent og returning issue for your site.
    This is indeed a serious problem for you - All links to your site goes to SM.
    You might be able to check the googlebot version on your webmaster tools - Labs - Fetch as Googlebot. Do it also for borealphoto.com (without the www). Might be able - I have no way to know whether SM gives the same result to Googlebot and 'Fetch as Googlebot'.
    I thing that you should ask SM to check their log files to see why Googlebot is being redirecting from your site to SM's home page.

    and Erick L's:

    I looked at the fetch and it looks fine. I asked Google and they said the problem is on Smugmug side.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 28, 2010
    Andy, Please read my post again:

    I read it. We don't do anything differently for ErickL's site than anyone else's - so it's rather a difficult problem to diagnose.
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    LichtenHansenLichtenHansen Registered Users Posts: 55 Big grins
    edited September 28, 2010
    Andy wrote: »
    I read it. We don't do anything differently for ErickL's site than anyone else's - so it's rather a difficult problem to diagnose.
    Nice to hear you admitting the problem.
    It might be difficult, but do you actually believe that it is Erick L's problem?
    What do you expect Erick L to do?
    You have access to all your log files - no one else has. Are you just going to ignore this problem?
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    richpepprichpepp Registered Users Posts: 360 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Hi Erick

    I had a quick look at your dns records and they seem to suggest that you aren't using a 'CNAME' record to direct borealphoto.com to smugmug. If I check my site and brandolinoimaging.com I see

    photos.miseast.org canonical name = domains.smumug.com
    brandolinoimaginging.com canonical name = domains.smugmug.com

    but for your site I see

    borealphoto.com internet address = 208.79.45.23

    Which might suggest that you are using an A record rather than CNAME. As this address is a SmugMug address maybe google is pulling the smugmug info instead of yours?

    Just an idea

    Rich
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    Erick LErick L Registered Users Posts: 355 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    I had a CNAME before and was told to change it to an A Record and that specific IP.
    Are you just going to ignore this problem?

    I'd really like an answer to that.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Erick L wrote: »
    I had a CNAME before and was told to change it to an A Record and that specific IP.

    We fully support CNAMEs, and A-records direct to our IP address are conveniences that are allowed. Can you tell me when and how you were told to use an A-record only? We do not recommend that.


    But it does appear to me, when I use our tool, that you have a CNAME set up:

    Using domain server:
    Name: NS53.DOMAINCONTROL.com
    Address: 216.69.185.27#53
    Aliases:

    www.borealphoto.com is an alias for domains.smugmug.com.

    PASS: Custom hostname www.borealphoto.com is an alias for domains.smugmug.com.

    Erick: can you verify your settings on your Domain Host? Please post a screengrab of your CNAME and your A-Record from your Domain host's web page. Thanks.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Nice to hear you admitting the problem.
    It might be difficult, but do you actually believe that it is Erick L's problem?
    What do you expect Erick L to do?
    You have access to all your log files - no one else has. Are you just going to ignore this problem?

    Hi LichtenHansen, of course not. Read my post above. I said we'd check into it.
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    Erick LErick L Registered Users Posts: 355 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Andy wrote: »
    We fully support CNAMEs, and A-records direct to our IP address are conveniences that are allowed. Can you tell me when and how you were told to use an A-record only? We do not recommend that.


    But it does appear to me, when I use our tool, that you have a CNAME set up:

    Using domain server:
    Name: NS53.DOMAINCONTROL.com
    Address: 216.69.185.27#53
    Aliases:

    www.borealphoto.com is an alias for domains.smugmug.com.

    PASS: Custom hostname www.borealphoto.com is an alias for domains.smugmug.com.

    Erick: can you verify your settings on your Domain Host? Please post a screengrab of your CNAME and your A-Record from your Domain host's web page. Thanks.

    I had CNAME before and it was supposed to be a forever thing. Back then, SM was saying not to use an A record. A few months later, there was a thread telling some people should change things to an A Record, and I was part of those people. Finally, I had to change the ip to the one I have now. Sorry if I'm getting a little cynical about all that.

    Here's the screen capture. I hope there's something wrong with the settings.
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    richpepprichpepp Registered Users Posts: 360 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Hi Erick

    (EDIT:this is wrong, I didn't look at your screen capture properly. See my next post)

    I believe that you are meant to have both the A record AND the CNAME. You appear to be missing the CNAME . I'm going by this that appeared at the time of the akamai stuff last year:

    "In a nutshell, to set up the CNAME correctly you need the following:
    1. for the www host point a CNAME record to domains.smugmug.com
    2. also add or change an A record to 208.79.45.23 if you want people to be able to
    access your site without www. Some domains allow you to use an @ sign
    for the host to indicate that it is empty. Check the help at your
    domain host to see what they recommend"

    However I see that the latest smugmug instructions say to use CNAME only . It's all confusing

    I can say that we only use the CNAME if that helps but let's await an official reply
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    richpepprichpepp Registered Users Posts: 360 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Maybe the @ record is to allow a non-www version of your site as I think smugmug can only handle one version ie borealphoto.com OR www.borealphoto.com. Therefore the info. from Doc that you linked to would have been correct.

    You do have the CNAME for the www version but maybe Google is assuming the www version is the same as the non-www version which from their point of view may be the same as smugmug as that is the one you are using the A record for. From the Google point of view they have been talking a lot in the last few months about a 'canonical' tag to help them identify sites which have different names for the same site. Maybe therefore they have also changed something to which has made your listing change ne_nau.gif

    FWIW you can tell Google which version of your site (www/non-www) you prefer using Google webmaster tools. It's under SiteConfiguration/Settings. Who knows, maybe that would make a difference. In your case you would want the www version as that is what you have CNAME'd
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Erick L wrote: »
    A few months later, there was a thread telling some people should change things to an A Record

    Where do we say this? If it's out there, it's wrong. A Records are optional. CNAMEs are what we offiicially and fully and forever have supported.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    richpepp wrote: »
    FWIW you can tell Google which version of your site (www/non-www) you prefer using Google webmaster tools. It's under SiteConfiguration/Settings. Who knows, maybe that would make a difference. In your case you would want the www version as that is what you have CNAME'd

    15524779-Ti.gif

    ErickL, have you set borealphoto.com in google webmaster tools or www.borealphoto.com ?
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    richpepp wrote: »
    However I see that the latest smugmug instructions say to use CNAME only . It's all confusing

    Sorry to confuse. Our instructions have always, and also now, specifically stated "You must specify a CNAME record with the registrar you purchased your domain from." http://www.smugmug.com/help/professional-accounts then also see the 'how do I drop www' section. A-records are optional.

    But we know this is geeky stuff, that's why we have two specialist heroes on staff to just take care of any of this stuff for you and all of our customers if you want us to.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Erick L wrote: »
    Finally, I had to change the ip to the one I have now. Sorry if I'm getting a little cynical about all that.

    Me too. We did this (spending $millions along the way) to make your site faster by our use of Akamai for speed boost. This is why you had to change. Plain and simple. You want a fast website, yes? :D
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    Erick LErick L Registered Users Posts: 355 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Andy wrote: »
    Where do we say this? If it's out there, it's wrong. A Records are optional. CNAMEs are what we offiicially and fully and forever have supported.

    This was in a thread about two years ago. I wouldn't have change it for no reason, especially since CNAME were supposed to be good "forever". I can tell you I was frustrated by that change.

    Until two days ago, I've always gone without www and never had problems. I don't know why it matters. It's just telling Google which one to use. I did switch a couple of days ago so we'll see. I'm affraid it will make things worse as I have a lot more pages indexed without www.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Erick L wrote: »
    This was in a thread about two years ago. I wouldn't have change it for no reason, especially since CNAME were supposed to be good "forever". I can tell you I was frustrated by that change.

    Until two days ago, I've always gone without www and never had problems. I don't know why it matters. It's just telling Google which one to use. I did switch a couple of days ago so we'll see. I'm affraid it will make things worse as I have a lot more pages indexed without www.

    We've not changed anything in this regard, Erick. Other sites as I've shown are indexing just fine. You may 'never have had problems' but our officially supported method has never wavered or been changed, since Day 1: CNAMEs. Not ever. We only changed, a year plus ago, CNAMEing to domains.smugmug.com so we could make sure that pros with custom domains would benefit from the $$$$$ we're spending on speeding up delivery to you and your visitors.
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    richpepprichpepp Registered Users Posts: 360 Major grins
    edited September 29, 2010
    Andy wrote: »
    We've not changed anything in this regard, Erick.

    Hi Erick. I have to agree that I don't think that anything has changed. It jut used to be that you could get by with just the A record (iirc). Anyway, it does look as though you are actually correctly set up with the cname record for your site as you have told smug mug you would like it to be (www.borealphoto.com) and also with an additional A record to cover the non www version but which is a redirect rather than a cname. So it doesn't look as thoughnyou need to make any dns changes.

    However it is probably worth telling google which of the two versions you prefer to that it knows which to return in results. This may make the difference
  • Options
    Erick LErick L Registered Users Posts: 355 Major grins
    edited September 30, 2010
    Andy wrote: »
    We've not changed anything in this regard, Erick. Other sites as I've shown are indexing just fine. You may 'never have had problems' but our officially supported method has never wavered or been changed, since Day 1: CNAMEs. Not ever. We only changed, a year plus ago, CNAMEing to domains.smugmug.com so we could make sure that pros with custom domains would benefit from the $$$$$ we're spending on speeding up delivery to you and your visitors.

    I can't find the thread that made me add an A record but found other threads. At first, SM was first saying that a CNAME was required only, then... "oh yeah, if you want your site to work without www, you should also add an A record". Well, that's pretty important, no? What sane webmaster would not want that?

    Like I said, I never had problems. I shouldn't have had problems. My site is not set any differently than any other site. I don't think changing my preference from no-www to www in webmaster tools will change anything. Actually, I'm pretty sure it will make things worse, at least until Google adds www to all links.
    We did this (spending $millions along the way) to make your site faster by our use of Akamai for speed boost. This is why you had to change. Plain and simple. You want a fast website, yes?

    I changed IP in july and according to the webmaster tools site performance, my site has been slower since.

    I'm sorry Andy, but SM has a history of bad/wrong/semi-correct advices regarding SEO. It has gotten better but I simply don't trust anything you guys say.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 1, 2010
    Erick L wrote: »
    I can't find the thread that made me add an A record but found other threads. At first, SM was first saying that a CNAME was required only, then... "oh yeah, if you want your site to work without www, you should also add an A record". Well, that's pretty important, no? What sane webmaster would not want that?

    Like I said, I never had problems. I shouldn't have had problems. My site is not set any differently than any other site. I don't think changing my preference from no-www to www in webmaster tools will change anything. Actually, I'm pretty sure it will make things worse, at least until Google adds www to all links.



    I changed IP in july and according to the webmaster tools site performance, my site has been slower since.

    I'm sorry Andy, but SM has a history of bad/wrong/semi-correct advices regarding SEO. It has gotten better but I simply don't trust anything you guys say.

    Hi Erick - we've never, ever, ever changed our position on CNAMEs... they are the supported method. A-records have been a convenience. I'm really sorry for the misunderstanding, Erick.
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    AmosAmos Registered Users Posts: 109 Major grins
    edited November 14, 2010
    Hello Andy,

    I'm sorry for being absentee for so long (i changed countries and continents). I still have problems with search engines; a couple of clues are that more than half my galleries appear (according to my Google Analytics) without their NiceName and part of the entries in my Sitemap are rejected. Is this still the place for these things? If so, i'll bring screen shots and more accurate info.

    Regards,
    Amos
    Amos :D

    http://www.eMixPix.com - Stock Aerial Photos of NYC Metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut)
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/New-York - NY Aerial Photos
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/New-Jersey - NJ Aerial Photos
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/Connecticut - CT Aerial Photos

    http://www.BestAerialPhotos.com - Aerial Photography service in the NYC Metro area

  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 14, 2010
    Amos wrote: »
    Hello Andy,

    I'm sorry for being absentee for so long (i changed countries and continents). I still have problems with search engines; a couple of clues are that more than half my galleries appear (according to my Google Analytics) without their NiceName and part of the entries in my Sitemap are rejected. Is this still the place for these things? If so, i'll bring screen shots and more accurate info.

    Regards,
    Amos
    Amos, please write our Support Heroes ATTN: Andy with details, thanks!
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    AmosAmos Registered Users Posts: 109 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2011
    Andy wrote: »
    Amos, please write our Support Heroes ATTN: Andy with details, thanks!

    Hi Andy,

    Are you done traveling? I don't want to bother you but i didn't get my problems answered (like, why Google sees, and send searchers to, my galleries with and [mostly] without their niceNames? ...as i witness via my Google Analytics).
    I have more and will need time to get everything together, but let me know when you'll be ready for me.

    Thanks,
    Amos :D

    http://www.eMixPix.com - Stock Aerial Photos of NYC Metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut)
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/New-York - NY Aerial Photos
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/New-Jersey - NJ Aerial Photos
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/Connecticut - CT Aerial Photos

    http://www.BestAerialPhotos.com - Aerial Photography service in the NYC Metro area

  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2011
    Amos wrote: »
    Hi Andy,

    Are you done traveling? I don't want to bother you but i didn't get my problems answered (like, why Google sees, and send searchers to, my galleries with and [mostly] without their niceNames? ...as i witness via my Google Analytics).
    I have more and will need time to get everything together, but let me know when you'll be ready for me.

    Thanks,
    I've been here every day since December 17, ready for you anytime.
  • Options
    AmosAmos Registered Users Posts: 109 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2011
    Andy wrote: »
    I've been here every day since December 17, ready for you anytime.

    Thanks Andy, (i was looking through some treads that mentioned niceNames and saw that you were going traveling.)

    Anyway, i just got another good/worthy link from DGrin to my site...

    Basically i'm not complaining about my relations with search engines and i do appreciate very much the excellent job SmugMug is doing in that respect. I still think that some technical problems in my site (or the structure of my many galleries) that me from getting even better results. I'll address my concerns directly to you ...when i can find the time.

    While i'm here i'll take the opportunity to ask a few things:

    People are arriving to my galleries but hardly buy anything. I'm about to drastically reduce my downloads' prices , update my watermark (bigger and in the image's center) and then increase the viewing size (to 2x or even 3x).
    1. Any resources regarding prices' insights?
    2. I visited your site (to see your watermark and prices) and hardly found any watermarked galleries; then, in the Philam School i saw that your download price was $0.01. As long as nothing is wrong there, disregard this #2.
    3. I understand i'll have to go from gallery to gallery to update the watermarks (and only then, the viewing size, which can be applied to many galleries at once, but i'll do it manually since i'm inside a gallery anyway). I was going to read more about applying prices but can i change prices to all galleries at once but excluding my personal and unpublished galleries?
    I finally gave in and opened a commercial Page in Facebook but that required me to create a personal account/profile too. I'm still learning the subject and know there is a DGrin tread, but i wanted to ask you what of the SmugMug's Facebook features are meant to be utilized to enhance my commercial page (and not my personal profile)?

    Well, i asked too many questions already (and i still to work on a logo for Facebook)...

    Many thanks for your time and consideration Andy
    Amos :D

    http://www.eMixPix.com - Stock Aerial Photos of NYC Metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut)
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/New-York - NY Aerial Photos
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/New-Jersey - NJ Aerial Photos
    --- http://www.emixpix.com/Connecticut - CT Aerial Photos

    http://www.BestAerialPhotos.com - Aerial Photography service in the NYC Metro area

  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2011
      Any resources regarding prices' insights?
    Yup see the sticky here http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29
    and post in MYOB to get lots of input.
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited January 11, 2011
    Amos wrote: »
    [*]I understand i'll have to go from gallery to gallery to update the watermarks (and only then, the viewing size, which can be applied to many galleries at once, but i'll do it manually since i'm inside a gallery anyway). I was going to read more about applying prices but can i change prices to all galleries at once but excluding my personal and unpublished galleries?
    Yes you can - http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-pricing shows you how :)
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