You’ve just created a site on OurLocality.Org and now you can’t find it. You’ve already tried Google, Yahoo! or Bing. Here’s 4 possible whys:
1 – Your site isn’t public yet!
Sites are not public when first created, you have to change the privacy settings to let Google see and index your site; this measure allows you to experiment before you go public; to find your site go to the email sent when you first registered the site and click the link.
2 -Your site isn’t indexed yet
So you’ve made it public, but it is not yet indexed; usually it takes a few days for Google to come around and retrieve things for the index – try waiting or get people to link to you, a sign which Google takes that your site is bona fide and ready for consumption.
3 -Your search terms don’t find any matches on your website!
If the site is in the index, certain search terms may not actually be present in the text of your site; e.g. the fictitious site https://ourlocality.org/lothiansunseekers/ has a contact form, a picture gallery and an intro, but the words “Lothian Sun Seekers” do not actually occur in the site title, the front page or anywhere else; only searching lothiansunseekers will retrieve your site; moral: use the correct terms in your titles, site title, articles etc and see the difference.
4 – Your site appears lower down the rankings
If the site is in the index but obstinately ranks lower than another site, possibly an older and more important one that mentions you, there a a few options. Get your own domain should guarantee that for a specific project or business name you will be placed first, provided that your chosen name is sufficiently distinctive and unique. When choosing a name think about easy it will be for others to remember your name and if not how they will then find you.
