Site search problems: http://www.edenpics.com

Hello.

I'm having a big problem since 1 month with my site www.edenpics.com that was successfully on ODP for several months.

If I ask the keywords: "Nature pictures" on ODP, my site doesn't list at all, nor on MSN which is powered by ODP as I heared. Before, I came on the 6th rank.
I did not change anything to the keywords in between, and did not use some tricky spam solutions.

I would like to ask if it is possible to be on a black list and if I am on it. My site is still in the ODP directory, it does just not come up at keyword searches, like if my description field in the database would be empty.

Can someone tell me the state of the site, and where to ask for further information on how to solve the problem, or anybody has an idea of what happens?

I hope you can help me..
Thanks in advance

OPD category of the site: Computers: Software: Desktop Customization: Wallpaper: Nature

>www.edenpics.com ... on ODP for several months.
And .. still there.

>If I ask the keywords: "Nature pictures" on ODP, my site doesn't list at all
Not a problem at all. If you search for the comain name "edenpics", you can find it; if you search for "Nature Wallpaper" finds the category it's in.

>nor on MSN which is powered by ODP as I heared.

Someone told you an incredibly stupid lie. I would recommend that you never again believe anything they say on any subject more technical than the wetness of paint ... and make a practice of checking the paint.

>Before, I came on the 6th rank.
Which has absolutely and unquestionably nothing whatsoever to do with any ODP product past or present.

>I did not change anything to the keywords in between, and did not use some tricky spam solutions.
The ODP search does not index anything on your website: only words from the ODP listing.

>I would like to ask if it is possible to be on a black list and if I am on it.
The site is still listed...what kind of blacklist is that?

>My site is still in the ODP directory, it does just not come up at keyword searches, like if my description field in the database would be empty.
You can see the description field if you look at the category. There is no other description field.

>Can someone tell me the state of the site, and where to ask for further information on how to solve the problem, or anybody has an idea of what happens?
Listed, and there is no problem. The site is still present, there is no blacklist, ODP search works for the words that were in the description the last time the search index was updated ... and we are absolutely not responsible for inktomi results (which show, after about half-dozen different categories of paid results) at MSN search.

Dear Hutcheson,
Thanks for your quick answer.

I didn't know that MSN was not powered by ODP.
When I said 6th rank, it was on ODP, and on MSN only after the 'WAB PAGES' tag. Of course Inktomi is used for the paid ranking system there for the first results.

You said that "Nature Wallpaper" will allow me to find my site. I had a try with these keywords on ODP, but I looked at all the 112 results and didn't find my site. I don't think that this is normal, is it ?
If yes, then what to think about what you said that ODP uses the description to rank it's sites?

For the black list, it was only a question to know if it existed on ODP or not. I understand now that it's not the case.

Thanks for the status of the site, it's nice to know that everything is OK.

Can you still tell me why the kaywords can reach any other site as mine, and that it was working for me before too but not anymore now ?

Kind regards,
Daniel

When I said 6th rank, it was on ODP

Click to expand...

For the record, ODP does not rank sites.

The keywords "nature wallpapers" finds the CATEGORY. Anyone can look at that category and see all the sites there, including yours. Yes, this is ideally how search should work in a directory (not that the ODP search is necessarily ideal in every respect, but it's doing just exactly what it should in this case.)

Hello, Hutcheson.

For finding the category, and then from there my site, this is OK, I knew it.
I understand your point of view: It's true that for a directory the purpose is reached. However, there are a lot of people using ODP to find sites through it's ranking with the direct search through keywords. The fact that ODP almost always replies 'Server is buzy, try again later..' is a proof of what I say.

Thank you Hutcheson for everyting you helped me up to this point, that's nice of you. Would you have an idea what I need to do now to make ODP list my site again in the 'search' function, and whom to contact for this ? I still think that it is an ODP bug.

Kind regards,
Daniel

The fact that ODP almost always replies 'Server is buzy, try again later..' is a proof of what I say.

Click to expand...

No, it just means we can't afford a huge cluster of high-powered servers like Google can.

It is not a bug. There is no problem. If you were to request for 'Nature Wallpaper' to be added to the description it would be rejected because it's already in the category path, and is therefore redundant. We are a directory, not a search engine; we just happen to have a search facility, that's all.

>> there are a lot of people using ODP to find sites through it's ranking with the direct search through keywords <<

Then there are a lot of people that are using the search function incorrectly. There is no 'ranking' for ODP search, we don't apply any sensible form of ordering to the results.


>> The fact that ODP almost always replies 'Server is buzy, try again later..' is a proof of what I say <<

Or perhaps it's proof that we're updating the servers, creating a lot of background activity, and the public search function has a very low priority.


>> Would you have an idea what I need to do now to make ODP list my site again in the 'search' function <<

There is nothing that you can do to get your site listed in any specific search results. Editors are required to ignore search engine placement when writing titles and descriptions, and they have no power over the search function.


>> I still think that it is an ODP bug <<

As hutcheson said, the search function is not designed to pick up specific sites. Failing to do something that it isn't supposed to do can't be considered a bug.

The DMOZ search is based on what you see in the directory listing... URL, site title and description. Both words "Nature" and "Pictures" are in the title so they should find the edenpics site.

I searched for "Nature Pictures" (including the quotes so it looks for the phrase) and DMOZ found 6 sites and edenpics is one of them.

I searched for Nature Pictures without quoting the phrase and it found some 7880 sites... I did not go through all of them but I am confident the site will be in there somewhere.

Searching using more words from the DMOZ title and description will narrow it down. For instance, a search for: HIGH QUALITY FREE WILDLIFE PICTURES ... returns 4 sites including edenpics.

Looks like it is working to perfectly to me.

Troy

No, we do not tamper with ranking for specific sites in the ODP search. In fact, so far as I know there's no way to.

And no, we don't try to make specific sites show up separately, when the whole category also shows up. It would be ideal if NO sites in that category showed up -- just sites in categories that didn't show. Obviously, the search doesn't work perfectly. But for this site, and this search, it is already doing as close to the theoretical ideal as it can.

Hello to all.

Thanks a lot for your answers. Yes, I saw my site now again with the keywords: "nature pictures" with the quotes.
I'm happy and see that the description is still in the database, like you said all.

Maybe there has been a change in the way ODP ranks sites last month, and this is perhaps the reason why edenpics.com comes so far in ranking.

Anyway, I thank you all again, because you helped me to try to find out what happened. It's good to see that you're doing here a very good job!

Bye,
Daniel

The ODP doesn't rank sites, period.