Question
If you would like to know when your site was last indexed by Google, you can find out easily by using the Google cache command. By typing “cache:www.simplybaskets.com” into the Google search engine, I learned that my site was last indexed on July 25th. The Google cache also displays the web page at the time of indexing, so you can see the latest version of your page that was indexed by Google.
As some webmasters have learned, the Google cache feature can be particularly handy when a valuable website and its backup have been lost due to computer failures. It may be time-consuming, especially if you have hundreds of pages, but you can actually retrieve the “lost” pages from your site in the form that Google last indexed them. If this doesn’t work, you might also try the Wayback Machine at archive.org.
Forensic experts have also used the Google cache feature to their advantage—to retrieve incriminating evidence from the web. This should be an important reminder to all webmasters not to publish sensitive material online. A later decision not to publish some tantalizing tidbit, and the frantic page-pulling that ensues, may not be enough to erase those ill-said words from the Net.
Other helpful search engine operators of particular value to webmasters include:
LINK: The LINK operator, when used in conjunction with your domain name, is supposed to tell you how many links are pointing to your site. The syntax for this command is “link:http://www.simplybaskets.com/. By way of caution, this only shows how many links indexed by Google that are linking to you.
INURL: Google’s INURL operator will restrict your search to one site only. For example, typing “inurl:www.simplybaskets.com nantucket baskets” will bring up the Nantucket baskets only on the Simply Baskets website. This is a particularly helpful option if you are looking for a specific phrase on one site.
INTITLE: The INTITLE operator is helpful if you are looking for sites with a particular keyword in their title tag. Use this phrase at Google by typing in “intitle:baskets” or whatever other search term you are looking for.
-Cari Haus
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Great information. I use Google's Cache a little differently. I use it from Googles toolbar. First I use it to check to see if someone that I'm helping has been indexed by Google.
Google did a major update last month and during the update I noticed my hits from Google dropped over 60%. This was a huge drop and really effected my income. My website sales dropped 80% and my Adsense revenue dropped 50%. I started looking around and decided to check my cache pages. Lo and behold 5 of my main pages had dropped out of Googles index. Like any website owner I panicked. I checked everything I could think of. Could not find a thing. I emailed Google but got a canned response and if you think about it what is one little site among billions. I convinced myself that I had not used any "black hat" methods and everyone was advising me to wait it out. Well I did and my site returned on Friday after about 45 days. Anyway this is another way to use Google's cache.
Mike
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Thanks for posting that, Kathleen. Two of my "commercial" (I wish) sites were indexed July 2 and 13. Two personal sites that I've never submitted have never been indexed.
A Google tool I use frequently is "define: whatever" in which "whatever" is a word I want to look up.
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You learn the best stuff here, I swear. Thanks Kathleen!
I was visited on July 18 - wish they'd come back - I made some enhancements last weekend that I think should help. Think if I baked cookies they'd visit sooner?
Mike, I know what you mean - my sales have really dropped since April and it is also because of my rankings in Google. I did something wrong and someone did something right, and I dropped big time!
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Melbay if you want to PM me your url I'll take a look see. My heart goes out to you it was driving me nuts. I use the same methods on all my sites so I was pretty sure it was just a Google thing. Now Mildreds case was different she had added java script to her headers (by accident) and it took use a long time to figure it out.
Mike