Frequently Asked Questions About Google (For Webmasters)
Spidering
What is spidering? - Search engines use a robot to search through the web, looking for sites and web pages to add to their indexes. The robot is a automatic program which performing this searching and indexing. This robot is also called a spider. The primary spider for Google is known as Googlebot.
How often does Google spider a site? - I've noticed that my own sites get visits from Googlebot (the name of the Google spidering program) constantly. Barely a week goes by that Googlebot has not visited at least a few pages. Other sites report that they get visited only a couple of times a month or even less often.
How do I get my site listed with Google? - You can submit it manually using the submission URL. A better way is to get a link to your site added to as many other "quality" (sites with high page rank) sites as you can. Google seems to prefer listing pages which it finds in it's indexing rather than those that are submitted.
Can I pay some money to Google to get my site indexed faster, better or more often? - No. Google does not offer a paid submission program.
How do I find out which pages Google has indexed from my site? - Enter something like "+www.internet-tips.+net" The plus signs are required because "www" and "net" are too common and will not otherwise be searched for.
Directories
Does getting listed in directories help? - Google uses DMOZ and Yahoo as a base to begin looking for links and sites. Getting listed in both of these directories is a great way to get Google to notice your site.
Page Rank
See Google Page Rank for background information.
How does a site recover if it's PR gets dropped to zero? - Analyze what may have caused the problem, fix it, then block Googlebot for a month or two. Unblock Googlebot and then your site will be reevaluated.
Hosting
Does Google index virtually host hosted sites? - Most web sites these days are virtually hosted (more than one site on the same TCP/IP address.) Google has no issues at all with this type of hosting. There is no ranking penalty of any kind.
I need to change the TCP/IP address of my site; is this a problem? - If you can leave the old content around for a month or so, then no it's not a problem. Also, it works even better if you create a 301 redirect for the old content to the new content. If, however, the old site is just deleted immediately (if, for example, the hosting company folds), then yes, Google may drop you from it's index briefly.
Domains
Does the domain name matter to Google? - There is much debate about this issue. In my own experience, it appears to matter, especially if the domain name contains keywords.
How should keywords be included in the domain name? - I've used keyword-keyword.com and keywordkeyword.com and Google appears to handle each equally well.
Does Google handle subdomains? - Google handles subdomains in the same way it handles all other pages.
Linking
Some "bad" sites link to my site; is that a problem? - This is only a problem if you link back to the sites. Your site cannot be penalized for something another site does.
Does Google penalize sites which use Zeus? - My experience is that Google does penalize for obvious use of Zeus.
Does Google follow links in Javascript? -
Robots.Txt
How do I block Google? -
Cached Pages
How often does Google refresh it's cached pages? -