You have probably implemented the basic steps to get the search engine spiders indexing your pages. However, sometimes there are one or two spots that business owners and web designers miss when setting up their site for online optimization.  Thus, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss what might cause the search bots from skipping over your sites content.

Remember websites become listed on search engine results if and only if the search engine spiders are indexing them. If they pass right by your pages, and don’t even know they exist, then you’re simply not going to get listed.

Here are 10 reasons search engine spiders might not index your webpage

As it is, some pages are just not meant to be listed. This may not matter to your overall SEO strategy however it’s important to understand what spiders do and don’t list.  They don’t index:

1. Pages only accessible by using a search form
2. Pages that require a log in
3. Pages that require visitors to submit a form
4. Pages that redirect to a different URL before showing content

While some pages are not meant to be indexed, other pages are and might be missed. Pages that spiders often ignore include:

5. Pages with too many outgoing links
6. Pages with complex URLs – these often give spiders an error result
7. Pages which are more than three clicks from the home page, often described as “deep pages”

Other factors may prevent your web pages from being indexed by search engines spiders. These factors include:

8. Broken links from your site
9. A webpage that exceeds 105K
10. A slow loading time or a down server.

Finally, if your page is a flash page, search engine spiders just won’t be able to recognize it and will therefore not index it. As you’re optimizing your website and specific web pages, pay attention to these factors. The goal, of course is to be indexed and to achieve first page search engine results from the spiders.