See What Google Sees On Your Blog Or Website

by Bonnie Boots

Google is probably the most important entity on the internet--for now.

Sooner or later, something is bound to come along and knock it off the top of the food chain, but for now, Google is the 600-pound gorilla in the room. We all know it's there, watching everything we do. And we don't dare ignore it, because the Google gorilla can make or break our business on the internet.

The Google index is the database where Google records everything it sees on the internet. When someone types a query into the Google search engine, Google looks through its index and tries to find the most relevant sites to meet that query.

For example, if someone types in "How do you stuff a turkey?" Google will look through its index and send back a list of the best sites it knows of that explain how to stuff a turkey.

That's why its important to know what the Google index has recorded about your site.

You can see exactly what Google has in its index for your blog or web site by going to Google and typing this command into the search bar: site:yourdomainname.com

That is,

1)the word "site"

2) acolon punctuation mark

3) the name of your site minus the http://www.

For instance, you can see what Google has indexed for The Internet Wizards Blog by typing this command into Google:

site:theinternetwizardsblog.com

In return, Google will show you a list of every page it has indexed from my blog.

By checking that out, I can see that Google has indexed all the pages I want it to see. And it has ignored some pages that I don't want it to see.

Why would you want to hide a page from Google? Because some pages might have private material you don't want show in search returns. Membership sites, for instance, often have material they only want members to see. They don't want Google telling the general public where that material is.

By checking the Google index, you can also see what your site listings look like when Google shows them to searchers. This is a great way to see for yourself if you're doing a good job of writing attention grabbing titles and page descriptions...the kind that make people want to click on your link in a search return.

Google is critical to every small business owner, solopreneuer and self-employed professional. That's why it's also critical for you to know what Google sees on your site.

 
About the Author

To republish this article in your newsletter, you must agree to reprint the article in its entirety and include the author's information box. If you have questions or comments, contact the author here.