Hub site not indexed by Google (it is by Bing though...)

TylerCowdreyWADNR · ‎03-29-2022

I am experiencing issues trying to get a Hub site to show up in a Google search (url: https://kelp-canopy-vital-sign-for-puget-sound-wadnr.hub.arcgis.com/). When the issue was first identified a few weeks ago I added many tags thinking that might be the problem, but it does not appear to have changed anything. Further digging shows that the site is not even indexed by Google, despite being live for over two months now (see attached).

Using the Google Search Console, there are a number of options to add the site to Google's index but I have not been able to implement any of them. It appears that the level of "ownership" of the site required to implement these solutions is not something I have access to (e.g. edit DNS configuration, upload HTML file to site home page, embed HTML tag in the <head> section of the site, etc.).

I am not a web developer, so perhaps I'm missing some other way I should be going about this, but I'm at wits end currently. I've avoided creating a Google Analytics account so far because it's something we're not really interested in, but maybe that's a potential solution.

Hoping someone here knows more about this than me and can point me to a solution. Thanks!

KaraUtter · ‎04-05-2022

I have this same issue with a Hub site we developed for Northern Rockies URISA. Apparently there should be some updates this year that allow for a better search engine in Hub, if I remember correctly. Is that right, @ShaneClarke ? It was so long ago that we discussed this that I can't recall exactly.

TylerCowdreyWADNR · ‎04-05-2022

Thanks for your reply Kara. I just searched for "Northern Rockies Chapter URISA" on Google and did see your Hub site come up as the second result (though not your home page interestingly...). Glad to see your page has made it at least that far in the indexing process. Ours doesn't even show up on a Google search at all!

I do see that you have registered a custom URL for your site. I'm beginning to think that maybe is the start of a solution to this for us. Maybe Shane has some insight on that?

Thanks again!

KaraUtter · ‎04-06-2022

Not having our home page come up is a big issue. Most people won't understand what they are clicking into when they click into that Hub content page. So our site goes unused for what it was created for, and our events and workshops won't have as many views either.

TylerCowdreyWADNR · ‎04-06-2022

Got it, absolutely that sounds like it's still a big problem then. Surely ESRI wants our Hub sites to be prominent in search results, I'm really hoping we can get these issues resolved

AJ_devaccount · ‎04-07-2022

@KaraUtter did you guys do anything to enable your site to show up in searches? Since now it does show up?

KaraUtter · ‎04-07-2022

Our site is still not coming up in searches. The first image below shows two sites that come up in a google search, and neither of them are our actual Hub site. The first link takes you to a sub-page of our parent organization which then you need to click on a link on that page to be taken to our Hub site (second image below). The second link takes you to the search area of Hub which is also not our hub site home page or interactive website (third image below).

AJ_devaccount · ‎04-06-2022

I have the same issue as well. The Hub site doesn't show up in any web searches. It's been shared to the public for a few weeks now

TylerCowdreyWADNR · ‎04-06-2022

I'm really sorry to hear this, though selfishly it is validating that I'm not alone with this problem (ha). Really hoping someone at ESRI can help us out on this!

AJ_devaccount · ‎04-21-2022

Hi @TylerCowdreyWADNR and @KaraUtter, I asked Esri Support if they had any suggestions, and this is what they provided:

Pay Google to have your site be at the top of the search engine
Pay a company that focuses on Google marketing to have your site be more visible in the search engine
Create social media traffic to your open data site (post in on your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram etc. pages). As more people click on your link to visit your open data site, the site will be more visible in Google.

Hope that helps! I think we'll use a combination of social media and Google Analytics to make it visible.