20 replies to this topic

[RageSW]

If you are using iWeb to create your websites and are hosting your website on your iDisk with domain forwarding, you need follow these steps to get your website published and verified. Please make sure you follow them exactly as this special case requires a few small adjustments;


XML Sitemap & iDisk with Domain Forwarding Instructions

[studiousmom]

If you are using iWeb to create your websites and are hosting your website on your iDisk with domain forwarding, you need follow these steps to get your website published and verified. Please make sure you follow them exactly as this special case requires a few small adjustments;


XML Sitemap & iDisk with Domain Forwarding Instructions

Do I need to re-verify if I have been unsuccessful with the sitemap and now I am re-trying?

[RageSW]

What do you mean by "unsuccessful with the sitemap"? Can you explain this further?

If you log into your Google Webmaster Tools account it will tell you whether or not you are verified.

[GARYsParries]

If you are using iWeb to create your websites and are hosting your website on your iDisk with domain forwarding, you need follow these steps to get your website published and verified. Please make sure you follow them exactly as this special case requires a few small adjustments;


XML Sitemap & iDisk with Domain Forwarding Instructions

I am new to this site, and considering purchasing the RAGE Sitemap Automater. I read the instructions you provided above; however, I am still not sure that your product will resolve the problem I am experiencing with the Google web crawler.

I currently have several domains of the form x.com, y.com, z.com, etc., registered at 000Domains. I use their 'stealth' URL forwarding feature to redirect my site visitors to web.me.com, where I have a MobileMe account of the form web.me.com/mymobilemename. When visitors navigate to any of my sites, for example x.com, they are redirected to web.me.com/mymobilemename/x/somepage.html; however, the 'stealth' url forwarding hides that address and puts x.com in their browser address bar. I am sure you are familiar with this scenario.

The problem I am experiencing with the Google web crawler is that, when it indexes my sites, it uses their actual web.me.com page addresses, rather than my domain names, such that when visitors click on the Google links to get to my sites, they see web.me.com in their browser address bar, rather than x.com.

Using your RAGE Sitemap Automater, is there a way to direct Google to use my domain names rather than the web.me.com addresses when they index my sites?

I know it is possible to achieve this because I have seen one Google link where they did use my domain name, but I have no idea why they did so on this one link and none of the others.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

[studiousmom]

What do you mean by "unsuccessful with the sitemap"? Can you explain this further?

If you log into your Google Webmaster Tools account it will tell you whether or not you are verified.

I got 404 error message so I started over. I deleted the original site in google webmaster and then resubmitted it. It still had a checkmark under "verified".

[RageSW]

I know it is possible to achieve this because I have seen one Google link where they did use my domain name, but I have no idea why they did so on this one link and none of the others.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

The set up you have here is very detrimental to you search engine rankings.

The only way to fully fix this issue is remove your MobileMe hosted site and use a real web hosting service.

An XML Sitemap file may help, but it is not likely to solve this problem. You need to remove your MobileMe hosted site and use a real web host now.

[RageSW]

What do you mean by "unsuccessful with the sitemap"? Can you explain this further?

If you log into your Google Webmaster Tools account it will tell you whether or not you are verified.

I got 404 error message so I started over. I deleted the original site in google webmaster and then resubmitted it. It still had a checkmark under "verified".

If you still have the checkmark than you are OK and your site is verified.

[GARYsParries]

I know it is possible to achieve this because I have seen one Google link where they did use my domain name, but I have no idea why they did so on this one link and none of the others.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

The set up you have here is very detrimental to you search engine rankings.

The only way to fully fix this issue is remove your MobileMe hosted site and use a real web hosting service.

An XML Sitemap file may help, but it is not likely to solve this problem. You need to remove your MobileMe hosted site and use a real web host now.

Thanks, Paul. I used the free trial of your Sitemap Automater tool over the weekend, and came to the same conclusion. The tool works great, but it sure doesn't like "stealth" URL forwarding, and I imagine the search engines are the same way.

I am not quite ready to make the leap to a real web hosting service just yet. If for no other reason, I already have a couple hundred dollars invested in MobileMe. What I did try, however, with one of my domains, was using the MobileMe "Personal Domain" feature. Your tool seemed to like that.

Do you think, if I get rid of the stealth URL forwarding on my websites, and use the Personal Domain feature of my MobileMe Family Pack instead, that will solve the search engine problem, as well?

Thanks again for your help.

[RageSW]

Thanks, Paul. I used the free trial of your Sitemap Automater tool over the weekend, and came to the same conclusion. The tool works great, but it sure doesn't like "stealth" URL forwarding, and I imagine the search engines are the same way.

I am not quite ready to make the leap to a real web hosting service just yet. If for no other reason, I already have a couple hundred dollars invested in MobileMe. What I did try, however, with one of my domains, was using the MobileMe "Personal Domain" feature. Your tool seemed to like that.

Do you think, if I get rid of the stealth URL forwarding on my websites, and use the Personal Domain feature of my MobileMe Family Pack instead, that will solve the search engine problem, as well?

Thanks again for your help.

Yes you should use the Personal domain forwarding but you really should consider a real web hosting service to totally solve this problem.

Make sure you submit an XML Sitemap using your real domain and try to get other websites to link to your real domain instead of MobileMe one.

Keep in mind this may take a while until you see changes.

[GARYsParries]

Thanks, Paul. I used the free trial of your Sitemap Automater tool over the weekend, and came to the same conclusion. The tool works great, but it sure doesn't like "stealth" URL forwarding, and I imagine the search engines are the same way.

I am not quite ready to make the leap to a real web hosting service just yet. If for no other reason, I already have a couple hundred dollars invested in MobileMe. What I did try, however, with one of my domains, was using the MobileMe "Personal Domain" feature. Your tool seemed to like that.

Do you think, if I get rid of the stealth URL forwarding on my websites, and use the Personal Domain feature of my MobileMe Family Pack instead, that will solve the search engine problem, as well?

Thanks again for your help.

Yes you should use the Personal domain forwarding but you really should consider a real web hosting service to totally solve this problem.

Make sure you submit an XML Sitemap using your real domain and try to get other websites to link to your real domain instead of MobileMe one.

Keep in mind this may take a while until you see changes.

Paul, I tried your Sitemap Automater tool again. After setting up my MobileMe personal domain and getting rid of the stealth redirection I had been using, I ran the tool using my real domain name, as you suggested. It found all my top-level URLs just fine; however, it was not able to find any of the lower-level URLs created by iWeb for the 'Photos' pages of an iWeb 'My Albums' page.

The URL for an iWeb 'My Albums' page looks like this:

http:// www.domainname.com/ iWeb_Site_Name/ My_Albums_Page_Name/ My_Albums_Page_Name.html

(Yes, the 'My Albums' page name is specified twice. The blank spaces were added just to make the link easier to read.)

The URL for an iWeb 'Photos' page within a 'My Albums' page then looks like this:

http:// www.domainname.com/ iWeb_Site_Name/ My_Albums_Page_Name/ Pages/ Photos_Page_Name.html

The Sitemap Automater tool found the top-level 'My Albums' page link, but it did not find any lower-level links for the many 'Photos' pages I have within the 'My Albums' page.

Am I doing something wrong? I think I can enter the missing links manually, but I was hoping there would be an easier solution.

[RageSW]

Hi,

What is your website URL?

[GARYsParries]

Hi,

What is your website URL?

The website I am testing is www.sharonsable.com. Thanks.

[jdg]

I paid for and downloaded the sitemap automator, followed all of the steps and got conformation that the sitemap is working correctly. However, when I click Notify search engines it says that I need to purchase this program which I've already done. I have entered by registration number as well. Please help

Edited by jdg, 20 June 2009 - 08:10 PM.

[RageSW]

@jdg: If you go the About window in Sitemap Automator do you see your name in there?

If not, enter your registration information again and that should fix the problem.

If it doesn't, please send your registration number to support using the form at http://www.ragesw.com/support/ and we will see if we can sort out the problem for you.

[jdg]

I paid for and downloaded the sitemap automator, followed all of the steps and got conformation that the sitemap is working correctly. However, when I click Notify search engines it says that I need to purchase this program which I've already done. I have entered by registration number as well. Please help

When I open it, it says "thanks to: (my name) I went back and re-published again and this time it's working. It says it has been submitted to google etc. However, first there was a note asking me to register with google webmaster to verify my URL, do I need to do that?