Dropped Page?
Priority Build It! and Keep It Real!
Priority Build It! is useful for fine-tuning the priority of certain TIER 2 and 3 pages. Click here for general info on Priority Build It! and fine-tuning.
This page covers what to do and how to use Priority Build It! to get important pages (back) into Google's index. It likely is not worth doing this for any of the other engines. However, if you received large amounts of traffic for this page from one of the other engines, and that page has been dropped, the steps below should help you get it back into the index.
The techniques covered here are only for individual important pages. If most or all of your pages have been dropped, do not use Priority Build It!. This issue will most likely resolve itself as you build more quality content and links. Click here for more information on that.
While Priority Build It! is for important pages, the general help below is true for all pages. Priority Build It! "flags" an important page to the Search Engines, especially Google. The presence or absence in Google, not the other engines, should be your main decision-maker about whether to use Priority Build It!, because it drives more traffic than all other engines combined.
To get any page into Google's index, follow the advice below. The only differences are...
1) The more important the page, the more effort you should be willing to put into this. In other words, your time may be better spent creating excellent new content than worrying about a page not in Google's index. If it's good, it may become re-indexed on its own.
This is especially true when your site is less than 6 months old or has less than 50 pages. Create new content!
2) For less important pages, do a regular Build It! after checking and doing the "easier to do" items below.
Not a Magic Button
The most important caveat is that Priority Build It! is not magic. Do not just click on the button and expect your page to be listed. Clicking that button is the last step in a process, not the first. Here's how to get a page into Google's index (and the others, too), whether...
- it's a "not yet" page (give an important page at least 6 weeks before doing this), or
- it's a "dropped" page (was in the index, but the Submit-Spider-List report now reports it as "dropped").
First, update and improve the page for real. Do it for your human visitors, not the engines. Here's how...
- First, see the "How To Think About A Dropped Page" article.
- Review the entire page and "say it better." Add good material and update old content. Make this page as good as possible.
- Images are content, too. Add a photo or two.
- Make sure that the page can be reached from the home page navigation within 2 clicks.
- Link one or two pages from your site to it -- they must be natural/related pages.
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If you can get an inbound link pointing directly to it, so much the better!
How do you check the links from pages within your site to that page? Easy, use this Search It! function...
Back Links (From Your Site) To Page
Make sure your TIER 3 really can be reached from a TIER 2. And, if another page is related to it, link to it from that page as well.
You can also use the next search in Search It!, Back Links > Back Links (NOT From Your Site) To Page, to see if any pages from other sites "deep-link" straight to that page. If the page is really important, try to secure a deep link to it. See these TNT HQ articles for how to do that...
- Link-Building Strategies
- Link-Building Buzz
- Check the previous search in Search It!, Back Links > Back Links To (sub)DOMAIN -- any site that has given you one link, may give you another!
- Finally, just before building, click on Analyze It! to make sure that you haven't made any gross errors (like putting your Specific Keyword in your TITLE tag too many times).
Important
- Only use Priority Build It! after reworking a page as outlined above.
- Only use Priority Build It! to get the most important of your dropped pages into Google's index.
Why Not Do This for Every Page That Doesn't Make It Into Google's Index?
First of all, pages may be dropped for good reasons that you should not try to reverse. See this article on How To Think About a Dropped Page -- there are definite times to accept their fate.
Second, Google looks at the relative priority scores. So if you do this repeatedly for too many pages, it won't know which page you really think is important. Save this technique for your truly important pages that are not in Google's index. See Priority Build It! help for more on this subject.
One Last Tip
Which pages are "important" to you? Just in case you don't know the answer...
Your money pages! The ones that monetize (ex., high Demand, high CPC, pages that have a lead-generating form on them, etc.).