Google Index and Sitemaps

I'm really confused about Google's index. I used to think I understood it really well, but now that I've gotten into this sitemaps business, it's much more confusing.

I mean, Google had www.cedarrapidsalive.com indexed fairly well shortly after I released it. Then I added the link to Google Sitemaps (without submitting an actual sitemap) in an attempt to get the pages picked up faster. It made things worse... So I eventually made an actual sitemap and submitted it. However, now if you check out the index, they only have 2 results indexed, wtf.

QC Alive seems a bit underindexed as well, but it's doing a little better with 514 results. However, I'd really like them to be fully indexed like Des Moines Alive, which currently has about 4,260 results.

It also seems that Google has a much slower process than MSN and Yahoo. When Des Moines Alive was released we got tons of hits from Yahoo and MSN, it took quite a while to start getting them from Google. The same is true for QC Alive and Cedar Rapids Alive. I mean, I launched qcalive.com the first week in June and cedarrapidsalive.com the first week in August. They should definitely be indexed after over a month online, especially with sitemaps submitted.

I'd also like to point out that I don't have a sitemap submitted for any of my sites, except for qcalive and cedarrapidsalive... All of the sites without sitemaps seem to be prospering in Google searches...

Stupid Google. I love you (but not your indexing so much).
Next comes Iowa City Alive... hopefully it'll do better.

written by 25 year old Derek Brooks

too bad iowa city isn't alive. this town is dead.

ia resident posted

who are you, ia resident?

derek posted

i'm patiently waiting for mtvernonalive.com

kevi posted

and now the cedarrapidsalive index is down to 1 result - the homepage... wtf.



qcalive is up to 517 though, ha.



google index is weird.

derek posted

1 from www.iowacityalive.com

3 from www.cedarrapidsalive.com

644 from www.qcalive.com

4,380 from www.desmoinesalive.com

derek posted

4 from www.cedarrapidsalive.com

90 from www.iowacityalive.com

490 from www.qcalive.com

3,550 from www.desmoinesalive.com

derek posted

49 from www.cedarrapidsalive.com

132 from www.iowacityalive.com

560 from www.qcalive.com

3,520 from www.desmoinesalive.com

derek posted

won't be shared or displayed
optional