Search engines NOT indexing Tribal Pages

Discussion in Technical Forum started by Fil Yeskel, Aug 12, 2016
FY
Fil Yeskel
  website
How can I get search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) to index my Tribal Pages so those pages are discoverable from anywhere on the web? I've tried tinkering with the Privacy Level settings and waiting for weeks, to no effect. There are queries from 2010 on this forum asking this question but no definitive answers. I'm guessing there's something in the metadata of the site that we users can't affect???
FG
Fernando `Danny` Gil
Hi Fil Yeskel. I also am curious about that. Do the popular search engines troll Tribal Pages' data? I wish they did, so there'd be more visitors to the sites.

However, the security codes maintained by majority of the sites would be a barrier. I notice only 15 visitors have gone into your site since 2011. In contrast, I don't have any security codes, and in that same time frame, I have about 2560 visitors. Of course I have more names, which I have designed as more of a relational database, with no personal data, of hundreds of family trees.

http://tinyurl.com/j8xb2ky

FY
Fil Yeskel
Hi Fil Yeskel. I also am curious about that. Do the popular search engines troll Tribal Pages' data? I wish they did, so there'd be more visitors to the sites. However, the security codes more ...
maintained by majority of the sites would be a barrier. I notice only 15 visitors have gone into your site since 2011. In contrast, I don't have any security codes, and in that same time frame, I have about 2560 visitors. Of course I have more names, which I have designed as more of a relational database, with no personal data, of hundreds of family trees. http://tinyurl.com/j8xb2k
Thanks Danny for the reply, however it seems unlikely that "security codes" (by which I assume you mean privacy settings) are the culprit. Those settings appear intended to control the detail that visitors can see about individuals, (e.g, birthdates of living persons) NOT whether those individuals are visible per se. Thus anybody who happens on my site can, without any 'security codes', see the names of all individuals in the tree. The problem is they can't find those names in an online search - because the search engines are not indexing them. Why not?
FG
Fernando `Danny` Gil
Thanks Danny for the reply, however it seems unlikely that "security codes" (by which I assume you mean privacy settings) are the culprit. Those settings appear intended to control the detail more ...
that visitors can see about individuals, (e.g, birthdates of living persons) NOT whether those individuals are visible per se. Thus anybody who happens on my site can, without any 'security codes', see the names of all individuals in the tree. The problem is they can't find those names in an online search - because the search engines are not indexing them. Why not
Hi Fil. Thanks for your crystal clear rejoinder. I fully agree. Yours is the 64 dollar question. Perhaps it's high time that TP Help, or some of the TP readers could shed more light.

By the way, I contribute to a site

http://tanjaycity.org/index.html

which among others, has a section on Family Trees, a series of PDFs of selected kin. When one Googles say "Neri Family", that particular family tree is one of the choices shown. I guess all these PDFs are "indexed" by the search engines. And I do get lots of comments/updates via this venue.

AS
Alan Scott
  website
Thanks Danny for the reply, however it seems unlikely that "security codes" (by which I assume you mean privacy settings) are the culprit. Those settings appear intended to control the detail more ...
that visitors can see about individuals, (e.g, birthdates of living persons) NOT whether those individuals are visible per se. Thus anybody who happens on my site can, without any 'security codes', see the names of all individuals in the tree. The problem is they can't find those names in an online search - because the search engines are not indexing them. Why not
Under "tools > privacy" have you got the following ticked.

Site Features

Other Search (Google, Yahoo, MSN)

Homepage

Deceased Relatives

FY
Fil Yeskel
  website
Under "tools > privacy" have you got the following ticked. Site Features Other Search (Google, Yahoo, MSN) Homepage Deceased Relatives
YES.

All three Site Features options have been ticked ON for more than a year.

AS
Alan Scott
  website
YES. All three Site Features options have been ticked ON for more than a year.
I wonder if its anything to do with Tribalpages search engine ranking if yours is free site. If your site is free it will have a low search engine ranking according to Tribapages pricing information.

Just a thought. Tribalpages should tell you if this is the case. Means their search engine is virtually non existent for free sites. Even perhaps much less than what most free site members expect. It would be in their interests to answer you because if this is the situation it may encourage more members to upgrade.

FG
Fernando `Danny` Gil
Under "tools > privacy" have you got the following ticked. Site Features Other Search (Google, Yahoo, MSN) Homepage Deceased Relatives
Hi Alan, thanks for the tip. And like Fil's, all those options are ticked off.

So theoretically, if I were to Google for an obscure name on my TP site, Google should return such a name as being associated to the TP site, among the hundreds of resulting pages.

Logically, the name would be buried somewhere at the tail end of the list, unless hundreds of inquiries were made on that same name. If true, that sounds fair enough. If not true, then Fil still has a point.

When I Google myself, with a very common name, I get hundreds of results. But hahaha, I know it ain't me.

FY
Fil Yeskel
Hi Alan, thanks for the tip. And like Fil's, all those options are ticked off. So theoretically, if I were to Google for an obscure name on my TP site, Google should return such a name as being more ...
associated to the TP site, among the hundreds of resulting pages. Logically, the name would be buried somewhere at the tail end of the list, unless hundreds of inquiries were made on that same name. If true, that sounds fair enough. If not true, then Fil still has a point. When I Google myself, with a very common name, I get hundreds of results. But hahaha, I know it ain't me
The situation is even worse than Danny suggests. E.g., when I Google: "'name-of-deceased-person-in-my-tree'+ Tribal Pages", thereby telling Google exactly where to look...I still get nothing, no hits!
AS
Alan Scott
  website
Hi Alan, thanks for the tip. And like Fil's, all those options are ticked off. So theoretically, if I were to Google for an obscure name on my TP site, Google should return such a name as being more ...
associated to the TP site, among the hundreds of resulting pages. Logically, the name would be buried somewhere at the tail end of the list, unless hundreds of inquiries were made on that same name. If true, that sounds fair enough. If not true, then Fil still has a point. When I Google myself, with a very common name, I get hundreds of results. But hahaha, I know it ain't me
Hi Danny,

See the message I wrote about low priority for free sites. Don't know about yours but I don't have a problem with my premium site. I can Google a name of a deceased person and my site usually can be found without too much trouble.

I also have several free sites and cannot recall ever having seen one of these come up in Google when I have Googled a name of a deceased person. It is always my premium subscribed site that comes up. As I said in the other message, the search engine appears to give free sites VERY LOW priority. Maybe nothing. That, I guess, is to be expected. The more one pays, the more one can expect.

FG
Fernando `Danny` Gil
Hi Danny, See the message I wrote about low priority for free sites. Don't know about yours but I don't have a problem with my premium site. I can Google a name of a deceased person and my site more ...
usually can be found without too much trouble. I also have several free sites and cannot recall ever having seen one of these come up in Google when I have Googled a name of a deceased person. It is always my premium subscribed site that comes up. As I said in the other message, the search engine appears to give free sites VERY LOW priority. Maybe nothing. That, I guess, is to be expected. The more one pays, the more one can expect
Hi Alan,

Good for you, having no problem getting Google to link a name in your site to your paid TP site. Mine is a paid site, too, but doesn't seem to work that well.

I Googled an "unusual name" and got back 10 hits: 3 were blogs of the guy's clan wherein he was mentioned, 3 were directories with addresses of people with the same family name, 2 were FB pages, 1 was a My Heritage site, and only 1 was of my creation, the PDF file of a family tree wherein he is listed. But no TP link.

I then did what Fil mentioned, Googling "unusal name + TP", and got 7 hits. The first 5 were all about TP, and the last 2 were PDFs on family trees I posted that had nothing to do with TP.

In conclusion to wrap it all up, allow me to wax poetic with this ditty.

Levity with brevity. To test is best. Fil needs TP to fulfill. The desire is to let search engines not to backfire.

Cheers. 'Nuff said.

FY
Fil Yeskel
  website
Hi Alan, Good for you, having no problem getting Google to link a name in your site to your paid TP site. Mine is a paid site, too, but doesn't seem to work that well. I Googled an "unusual more ...
name" and got back 10 hits: 3 were blogs of the guy's clan wherein he was mentioned, 3 were directories with addresses of people with the same family name, 2 were FB pages, 1 was a My Heritage site, and only 1 was of my creation, the PDF file of a family tree wherein he is listed. But no TP link. I then did what Fil mentioned, Googling "unusal name + TP", and got 7 hits. The first 5 were all about TP, and the last 2 were PDFs on family trees I posted that had nothing to do with TP. In conclusion to wrap it all up, allow me to wax poetic with this ditty. Levity with brevity. To test is best. Fil needs TP to fulfill. The desire is to let search engines not to backfire. Cheers. 'Nuff said
I not inclined to be as poetic on this subject as my newfound friend Danny. I note that blocking search engines takes an active effort in the TP site design; it's not an oversight. I further note that for TP to essentially advertise that their features allow a site to be search engine friendly and then actively block that capability is, at best, incompetent; at worst, fraud. TP tecchnical support: are you listening?
AS
Alan Scott
I not inclined to be as poetic on this subject as my newfound friend Danny. I note that blocking search engines takes an active effort in the TP site design; it's not an oversight. I further note more ...
that for TP to essentially advertise that their features allow a site to be search engine friendly and then actively block that capability is, at best, incompetent; at worst, fraud. TP tecchnical support: are you listening
See what Tribalpages say you get for the price. Free site - reasonable for no cost ?.
Related Link:Click Here
FY
Fil Yeskel
See what Tribalpages say you get for the price. Free site - reasonable for no cost ?.
Alan, There's no cost to me or you for Tribal Pages but that's only because we're not their customer, we're their product. Their customer is the advertisers they sell our ad views to. It's a common business model (TP is not a charity), and there's nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't excuse deception.
AS
Alan Scott
  website
Alan, There's no cost to me or you for Tribal Pages but that's only because we're not their customer, we're their product. Their customer is the advertisers they sell our ad views to. more ...
It's a common business model (TP is not a charity), and there's nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't excuse deception
That's how you see it and that's your prerogative. I was just pointing out what you get for a free site. I have free sites as well as my paid site and I am not unhappy with how they have described the free site as having "low priority".

Incidentally out of curiosity I tried "googling" Pincus Yeskel of Chechanovitzer, Poland. and your site did show up. Therefore you are one up on me compared to what I have seen for any of my free sites.

Anyway not much point in persuing this any further. Tribalpages will take little or no notice of what is said.

FY
Fil Yeskel
  website
That's how you see it and that's your prerogative. I was just pointing out what you get for a free site. I have free sites as well as my paid site and I am not unhappy with how they have described more ...
the free site as having "low priority". Incidentally out of curiosity I tried "googling" Pincus Yeskel of Chechanovitzer, Poland. and your site did show up. Therefore you are one up on me compared to what I have seen for any of my free sites. Anyway not much point in persuing this any further. Tribalpages will take little or no notice of what is said
Alan,

Thanks for explanation and your experiment. Now I'm even more curious. When I Google the name 'Pincus Yeskel' or even the phrase 'Pincas Yeskel of Chechanovitzer, Poland' I don't get ANY hits from my TP site. I do get hits from Familypedia, another genealogy site I was using for awhile. You see hits from my TP site?

AS
Alan Scott
  website
Alan, Thanks for explanation and your experiment. Now I'm even more curious. When I Google the name 'Pincus Yeskel' or even the phrase 'Pincas Yeskel of Chechanovitzer, Poland' I more ...
don't get ANY hits from my TP site. I do get hits from Familypedia, another genealogy site I was using for awhile. You see hits from my TP site
I have just taken a snapshot of what came up. See related link. Not sure if this will show up OK. If not send me your email address via clicking on above icon and then link in welcome message on my home page. I will send it on as an attachment.
Related Link:Click Here