What Googlebot Sees?

[The Leader]

If you know the answer to this question it is likely your site is doing well in serps. However, if you have know idea what I am talking about then you are working with a distinct disadvantage!

[Duke]

Are you referring to viewing your site through a text based browser only such as Lynx?

http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

[Phil Staff]

Kudos on the Lynx Viewer - I use that one with all my websites. Many times you will find that what the search engines can see and cannot makes a big difference. Additionally you will be able to see how the search engines read the flow of your information. Remembering to keep relevant keywords towards the top of your html page.

Little SEO Tip: Use an html comment after your body tag that is like your description. Don't stuff it with keywords but put in one or two main phrases and some supporting content. The SE's will read the comments.

[The Leader]

This is about What Google Sees and not search engines in general!

[Duke]

This is about What Google Sees and not search engines in general!

Not to be rude but your original post was about as vague as it could possibly be. I suggested the Lynx viewer as suggested by Google and the topic moved forward from there.

So far you have two posts in this topic and both are not even close to helpful :rolleyes:

[The Leader]

I'll be helpful now.

What Google Sees is a function in Google Webmaster Tools which has just been changed on the newest version and is now in Your Site On The Web / Keywords.

Google lists the keywords on your site in the order of occurence.
Its that simple but not many people check it and most use other programs to do similar but it ain't the same because what google sees counts.

The reason I bring this up is because when you look at this you find other words in your top three - five that aren't your keywords and would be reducing you chances of a higher position in serps.

Now check you site and see if the order of the keywords is what you want them to be.

[The Old Sarge]

What Google Sees is a function in Google Webmaster Tools which has just been changed on the newest version and is now in Your Site On The Web / Keywords.

I'm still not clear on what you're saying. Where is this "Your Site On The Web / Keywords"? You have a link or url?

[Duke]

I'll be helpful now.

What Google Sees is a function in Google Webmaster Tools which has just been changed on the newest version and is now in Your Site On The Web / Keywords.

Google lists the keywords on your site in the order of occurence.
Its that simple but not many people check it and most use other programs to do similar but it ain't the same because what google sees counts.

The reason I bring this up is because when you look at this you find other words in your top three - five that aren't your keywords and would be reducing you chances of a higher position in serps.

Now check you site and see if the order of the keywords is what you want them to be.

If you're actually referring to http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/keywords (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/keywords)........ it's a keyword density tool which only lists in order the density of keywords found on your site. As far as SEO is concerned or SERP placement its not even nearly as insightful as viewing a google cached version of your sites pages; at least there you know exactly what your indexed for.

Since I run Content Management Systems tools such as this offer little value as the CMS' monopolize my top keywords. For example just check one of your forums or blog pages where social bookmarking is used. You may run a site focused on dog collars but your highest keyword instances will be digg, furl, technorati, etc. Do the same thing with your forums and all you'll see near the top is post, avatar, thread, etc.

While it is nice to see where your keyword density lies, I wouldn't use it as an indicating factor of how google actually indexes your site nor will it give you any insight into how people find you.

I think a lot of webmasters confuse keyword density with high SERP placement and that simply isn't true. You can load your articles with tons of keywords/keyword phrases and not even place in the top 100 simply because there is such a thing as keyword spamming.

Anyway, if it works for you I'm glad but it's just too narrow a focus IMHO to give anyone a clear picture of what google is really indexing your site for.

I'm still not clear on what you're saying. Where is this "Your Site On The Web / Keywords"? You have a link or url?

www.google.com/webmaster/tools/keywords (http://www.google.com/webmaster/tools/keywords)

As mentioned above it gives you a list of keywords by density but thats all it tells you. If you're looking for what keywords and keyword phrases are bringing you the traffic, stick with Analytics or better yet, cPanel.

Personally though, this (http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/) is still my favorite way of finding out how I place in the SERPS.

[The Leader]

If you're actually referring to http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/keywords (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/keywords)........ it's a keyword density tool which only lists in order the density of keywords found on your site. As far as SEO is concerned or SERP placement its not even nearly as insightful as viewing a google cached version of your sites pages; at least there you know exactly what your indexed for.

Since I run Content Management Systems tools such as this offer little value as the CMS' monopolize my top keywords. For example just check one of your forums or blog pages where social bookmarking is used. You may run a site focused on dog collars but your highest keyword instances will be digg, furl, technorati, etc. Do the same thing with your forums and all you'll see near the top is post, avatar, thread, etc.

While it is nice to see where your keyword density lies, I wouldn't use it as an indicating factor of how google actually indexes your site nor will it give you any insight into how people find you.

I think a lot of webmasters confuse keyword density with high SERP placement and that simply isn't true. You can load your articles with tons of keywords/keyword phrases and not even place in the top 100 simply because there is such a thing as keyword spamming.

Anyway, if it works for you I'm glad but it's just too narrow a focus IMHO to give anyone a clear picture of what google is really indexing your site for.



www.google.com/webmaster/tools/keywords (http://www.google.com/webmaster/tools/keywords)

As mentioned above it gives you a list of keywords by density but thats all it tells you. If you're looking for what keywords and keyword phrases are bringing you the traffic, stick with Analytics or better yet, cPanel.

Personally though, this (http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/) is still my favorite way of finding out how I place in the SERPS.


You've touched on exactly why I wrote this and that is because the keywords you think have the highest density often don't but instead you get words like home, post, avatar, etc.

If those sort of words are at the top of the list in volume then you gotta ask what does google think your site is about. The object is no so much to repeat keywords aimlessly to improve density but to get rid of those words that might confuse googles view of your site. Afterall google gives you those tools so you can see what it thinks of your site.

[Duke]

I do understand what you're saying however my belief is the SE's focus on keyword relevancy instead of keyword density. I do not believe keyword density is a true measure of any site and just searching my niche is what gave me this opinion.

I've written extremely well researched articles rich in both keyword/keyphrase density and even alternate keyphrases only to rank much lower than a competitors site with my topic as part of their sites base url. Just looking at googles cached page of my article and my competitors site clearly demonstrates density does not apply as I can have half a dozen targeted keywords in a 500 word article yet rank 3 pages behind one keyword in a navigation menu.

IMHO this is not a result of poor SEO on my part, it's a function of losing out simply because google feels my site is not focused as much on this particular article as my competitors overall theme is. Of course like anything there are holes in this theory as I can rank much higher than all my competitors if everything in the article body is 110% original. While 99% of what I write is completely original one must link to an authority now and again for factual information to clearly demonstrate your not talking out your @ss.

This is where keyword tools fall short because while they list overall density they do nothing to rank keyword effectiveness. The only tool I've found so far that actually comes close to demonstrating my current and potential keyword effectiveness is google adwords keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). The nice thing about this as compared with webmaster tools is I can break this down to any page on my site and get far more targeted and relevant information all the while learning avg. CPC, Search Volume, Search Trends, etc., all based off my websites content.

Keep in mind it is a "keyword suggestion tool" however it does what webmaster tools simply cannot; actually helps me build relevant well ranked pages that are not affected by higher density keywords such as digg, furl, posted by, reply, etc.

I just don't think it gets much more informative than this and if it does I haven't found it yet.

[The Old Sarge]

Thanks for the link, Duke. That's where I thought he was talking about but I didn't see what he apparently sees. I agree more with your assessment.

[The Old Sarge]

You've touched on exactly why I wrote this and that is because the keywords you think have the highest density often don't but instead you get words like home, post, avatar, etc.

If those sort of words are at the top of the list in volume then you gotta ask what does google think your site is about. The object is no so much to repeat keywords aimlessly to improve density but to get rid of those words that might confuse googles view of your site. Afterall google gives you those tools so you can see what it thinks of your site.

Are you saying that Google sees the most frequently used words, and words used ahead of other words, as keywords ... whether we optimize for those words or not? That might, sort of, go along with the reports that Google tends to ignore META tags, but seriously ... is Google really deciding what's best for us in spite of ourselves?

[The Leader]

Are you saying that Google sees the most frequently used words, and words used ahead of other words, as keywords ... whether we optimize for those words or not? That might, sort of, go along with the reports that Google tends to ignore META tags, but seriously ... is Google really deciding what's best for us in spite of ourselves?

I think google gives us every possible hint in webmaster tools but we choose to ignore much of it.
I have this one website which I built a year ago to compete in a very competative keyword phrase. Now I did everything I thought I could you make the whole website keyword phase specific and the best ranking I could get was 10th.
So I was looking at What Google Sees and I was horrified that the 3 words in my keyword phrase were not listed in positions 1-3 but instead I had my brand name there.
What I did next was create an image with my brand name in it and made it clickable to the homepage and put my keyword phrase as the image name and replaced all my headers with it.
Next I created a H1 Tag with my keyword phrase and parked that right under my image.

Now about a week later I saw my site go to position 6 and I was happy.
Two days later is went to position 3 right behind the website I was targeting to beat.
Then another 2 days later my site went to postion 2 and I was over the moon.
Still now no movement on positon 1 but I'm working on it!

[Duke]

I think google gives us every possible hint in webmaster tools but we choose to ignore much of it.
I have this one website which I built a year ago to compete in a very competative keyword phrase. Now I did everything I thought I could you make the whole website keyword phase specific and the best ranking I could get was 10th.
So I was looking at What Google Sees and I was horrified that the 3 words in my keyword phrase were not listed in positions 1-3 but instead I had my brand name there.
What I did next was create an image with my brand name in it and made it clickable to the homepage and put my keyword phrase as the image name and replaced all my headers with it.
Next I created a H1 Tag with my keyword phrase and parked that right under my image.

Now about a week later I saw my site go to position 6 and I was happy.
Two days later is went to position 3 right behind the website I was targeting to beat.
Then another 2 days later my site went to postion 2 and I was over the moon.
Still now no movement on positon 1 but I'm working on it!

This may or may not be keyword density specific as compared to keyword placement specific. I've heard on more than one occasion now that the best keywords/keyword phrase placement is at the beginning of your copy and at the end of your copy with the meat of the copy re-enforcing everything.

I will concede that you need some level of keyword/keyword phrase density to attain top rankings but do not agree that webmaster tools is the reason your getting there. I have plenty of copy on some competitive terms (according to google trends) and the keyword density it's even in the top 10 according to webmaster tools; in many cases it's not even in the top 50.

I think anyone using a blog, cms or forum should NOT focus on getting their keyword density above furl, digg, post, reply, etc., because all their doing is opening themselves up to keyword spamming. Conversely, if your site is hand coded .html then there's no reason your keywords cannot be at or near the top in webmaster tools.

Anyway, I'd be more interested to know if it's your keyword density pushing you closer to #1 or keyword placement?

[The Old Sarge]

I think google gives us every possible hint in webmaster tools but we choose to ignore much of it.
I have this one website which I built a year ago to compete in a very competative keyword phrase. Now I did everything I thought I could you make the whole website keyword phase specific and the best ranking I could get was 10th.
So I was looking at What Google Sees and I was horrified that the 3 words in my keyword phrase were not listed in positions 1-3 but instead I had my brand name there.
What I did next was create an image with my brand name in it and made it clickable to the homepage and put my keyword phrase as the image name and replaced all my headers with it.
Next I created a H1 Tag with my keyword phrase and parked that right under my image.

Now about a week later I saw my site go to position 6 and I was happy.
Two days later is went to position 3 right behind the website I was targeting to beat.
Then another 2 days later my site went to postion 2 and I was over the moon.
Still now no movement on positon 1 but I'm working on it!

Thanks. I'm beginning to see where this is going. It also might explain some of the good fortune one of my Web sites has experienced ... I may have inadvertantly stumbled onto something akin to what you're saying. I'll keep an eye on the situation and see what develops.

[The Leader]

Anyway, I'd be more interested to know if it's your keyword density pushing you closer to #1 or keyword placement?


It is both but keyword density was pushing me away from #1 because my brand name was in the top three words!

[Jenie0109]

what googlebot sees in your website?hmm...well they can only "see" is 'text' for them to categorize and indexed your website...they dont really care how good your design is...and of course the 'relevancy' of the content. Therefore, put great information in your content for them to hunt you down