• Have you waited long enough? Most engines tell you how long it normally takes them to review your site and then add it to their database. Double that length of time. Only then should you either resubmit your site or contact them to find out what's going on. Search engines can get very busy, and some of them won't get around to indexing your site for months.
  
  
• Submitting your site too often will sometimes get you banned. The search engines all have different limits, but submitting your site more than once a month to any search engine is risky. They will often interpret that as spam and just start ignoring your site altogether. Submitting your site more often does not mean you will eventually get noticed. Rather, it often has the opposite effect.

• Did you submit the right URL? Seems like a silly question, but if you've mis-spelt it, then when the engine goes to check the site it gets a "page not found" error, and usually dumps the reference immediately. This can also happen to you if your site is temporarily down and you are unlucky enough for the engine to visit your site at that time.

• If you've submitted a page that isn't your home page, can it be found from your home page? Many search engines will not index a page unless there is a link from your home page pointing to that particular page. This is because the "spider" can't find the page unless there is a link pointing to it.

• On the subject of links, most search engines won't index a site until there are a certain number of external links pointing towards that site. There's no magic number, but try for at least half a dozen quality inbound links.

• Free web sites are known to be indexed less often than paid web sites. For example, if you have a site with a free hosting service such as Geocities or Angelfire, you many find that many search engines refuse to index your site because they feel that too many poor quality junk web sites come from free hosts.

• Pages that require passwords or forms to be filled in before proceeding can't be read by search engine "spiders" or "robots". Therefore if your home page requires a login, many search engines will not be able to read it properly and therefore can't index it.

• Objectionable content is also another sure way to get ignored. This can range from the downright rude material (often referred to as "adult" content for some reason), through to content that incites hatred or violence, through to sites that are just plain offensive.

• Any page that redirects automatically is often interpreted as spam by most search engines. The reason why is a long story, but it's history comes from practices whereby people used to create a page that looked like it was about one subject and then redirected you to a page on another subject, thereby "polluting" the search results. Anyway, the search engines don't like it.

There are many other reasons but these are the main ones. If you're in doubt as to why your site hasn't been indexed, contact them to find out why.

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Disclaimer: This page is designed to provide information only and is not a substitute for advice that is specific to your business. Before acting on any of the information above it is important you seek further advice from a professional who has taken into consideration the nature and circumstances of your business.

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