So why has my site disappeared--completely--from Google?

The things that are

coming up now are extremely obscure---posts I put on
message boards, someone mentioning me in their
resume.

Well, this is the main way google will find you - links on other sites!

Here's some more info:

http://www.varkgirl.com/Varkgirl/Google%20and%20iWeb.html

You are redirecting your domain to .Mac, so the pages Google will actually see are your .Mac pages ie

http://web.mac.com/alanthatcherdp/iWeb/Site/1FE804F0-31D5-421E-BBC8-B70617A59CCC .html

You should consider upgrading iWeb to 1.1.2 - should eliminate the weird page names.

You do come up as the top hit if you Google "alanthatcher". But the cached page is, as you said, blank.

That's because his domain is forwarded. So www.alanthatcher.com IS a blank page, forwarding to his .Mac pages, which have all the content.

I also updated iWeb today and republished the site.
It still appears with that long tag after the name.
What is that? It certainly can't help traffic.
www.alanthatcher.com

You have a slash in your page name, a big no no.

No, not your site name or domain name, the actual names of your pages in the Site Organizer determine the names of your html files. If you use a weird character, iWeb sometimes makes weird page names.

Hi Alan,

It seems that we're in the same boat. I myself have been dealing with the exact same problem. I published my site recently from iWeb to mac.com. I am a photographer, and used to be at least within the top 20 hits when searching for just my name alone on google. This was a great achievement since there's an actor by the same name as mine, who has been in some feature films.

Well anyways, no I'm no where to be found. So, I've been doing a lot of reading and research the last few days. Here's a few things I'm finding:

1. We are now on the 3rd generation of search engine algorithms. Before Google it was the web crawler mentality. These systems constantly scanned websites, just looking at the content in textual form, and gave results based on that. When Google came on the scene, everything changed. When you searched on "Alan Thatcher," your number one result would be based primarily on popularity, as far as hits on that subject and sites that had the most traffic. Now, in the third generation, things have changed once again. It's a science that is not easy to decipher. It's currently a combination of many factors:

* Textual content in the form of keywords and tags (these often times need to be edited by us (web developers). Usually these are not seen on the page, but are within the source code of a page. Go to a web page and choose view source from your pull down menu near the top right. You will see categories that have key words and tags. Right now, I'm trying to determine how to edit iWeb pages to include this. That's why I stumbled across your post

* Popularity in visits. Self explanatory.

* Customization based on your history. Google and others now recognize you as a person/user. If you commonly search on certain subjects, say "washers" such as in washers and dryers...you will receive content based on that whereas a construction guy might receive hits based on nuts and bolts (or washers of that sort).

* The rest I'm still learning. I know that for a long time now, you can register your website on the major search engine sites. I'm suggesting that you do a little google-ing yourself.

Search on Search Engine Optimization or SEO. I will report back if and when I find out how to enter keywords and tag codes on iWeb pages, because I think that is real big.

Best of Luck...

Chris
www.chrisowen.com
chris@chrisowen.com

Ah-ha! All I'd done was change the little 'Welcome'
at the top of the page to say: Alan Thatcher,
DP/Camera Operator thinking this would help in
searches. So that's where the slash was. So I
changed it to: 'Alan Thatcher, DP and Camera
Operator,' and while the page is fine, now the url
comes out (iweb, etc...then Alan%Thatcher%,DP%...etc.
Do I have to have it say 'Welcome' at the top? (I
have always wondered where all those %s come from.)

%'s come from spaces, etc. Make your page names in the Site Organizer short. You can put whatever you want at the top of the actual page content as a heading.

http://www.varkgirl.com/iWebFAQ/FAQ%20Home/EFC18081-F59F-4EEA-AA5F-0DB97AAA30D6. html

http://www.varkgirl.com/iWebFAQ/FAQ%20Home/F4CE7E92-331F-4E22-956E-D37E10C025B2. html

I am going to give another shot at getting verified
on Google tonight. Nothing worked the last time I
tried, despite the thorough and helpful instructions
from James and Varkgirl--which are much appreciated,
anyway.

Yeah, I have had some issues too, verifying .Mac... it used to work but now doesn't.

It seems that we're in the same boat. I myself have
been dealing with the exact same problem. I
published my site recently from iWeb to mac.com.

Again, you are dealing with the same issue - Google will find your .Mac pages because that is where the actual content resides. Yourdomain.com only has one page - a BLANK redirect page to your .Mac site.

I

am a photographer, and used to be at least within the
top 20 hits when searching for just my name alone on
google. This was a great achievement since there's
an actor by the same name as mine, who has been in
some feature films.

When sites are initially found by Google, they can fluctuate on the list until they settle into their spots. It is based on (I believe) how popular your site is based on how many other sites link to YOU.

Post your .Mac url here, starting with http. That will be a good start.

Right now,

I'm trying to determine how to edit iWeb pages to
include this.

http://www.varkgirl.com/Varkgirl/Basic%20HTML%20Additions.html

I will

report back if and when I find out how to enter
keywords and tag codes on iWeb pages, because I think
that is real big.

http://www.varkgirl.com/Varkgirl/Google%20and%20iWeb.html

However, my domain name forward has an area where I can put tags and descriptions. Are those useful at all??

Sure, but again, that redirect page has no real content.