Tumblr google issues

November 18, 2008 5:33 PM

Why does my tumblr blog not show up in google search?

I started a tumblr blog maybe about a month ago with some friends and have recently come to realize that it is not showing up in the google search at all, by which I mean I get absolutely no results searching for specific phrases or the title of the blog or anything similar. Nothing.

Does anyone know why this might be? What I can do about it? It appears that other tumblr blogs show up on google, but I do remember reading somewhere that tumblr as a site has bad seo or some such thing.

posted by ecab to computers & internet (8 comments total)

people have to link to your blog before it will show up in google.
posted by tumult at 5:50 PM on November 18, 2008

I suppose that makes sense. But the last blog I kept, on wordpress, was findable on google before I remember having anyone link to it. But I guess, too, I could be misremembering.
posted by ecab at 5:52 PM on November 18, 2008

Hmm. I've heard that Tumblr isn't super SEO-optimized, but it is weird that Google isn't indexing you at all after a month.

If you haven't already, you could submit the URL to Google. Usually neither of those is strictly necessary, Google finds sites anyway, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

Also, do you have any inbound links from other sites? Maybe a friend with a more established blog could add you to their blogroll, or mention you in a post?

It might also help to sign up for Google webmaster tools, which can tell you if there are any special issues with your site. (Maybe robots.txt was inadvertently set to blocking all spiders?)
posted by CruiseSavvy at 5:57 PM on November 18, 2008

You may already know about this, but if not check your tumblr settings. Go to tumblr dashboard, next go to "customize," and then, under the advanced settings, there is a directory subheading where you should check the box for "Allow search engines to index your tumblelog."
posted by five_dollars at 6:06 PM on November 18, 2008

When you first sign up for Tumblr you can opt to create a "private" Tumblr blog. Have you checked to see that you can access the blog from a computer when you aren't signed into Tumblr?
posted by so_necessary at 6:47 PM on November 18, 2008

The box is checked, and I just added the submit link. No inbound links I'm aware of, but I suppose I could find a way to fix that somehow, though not from anything extremely well trafficked.
posted by ecab at 6:58 PM on November 18, 2008

Our Tumblr page took at least two months to show up on Google searches, even though we were linked from established outside sites AND I'm a stockholder. If that matters. And it probably does.
posted by roger ackroyd at 7:19 PM on November 18, 2008

huh, interesting to see that other people are also having this issue. one of my weblogs used to have pretty good page rank, but when i moved it over to run off of tumblr, it totally dropped off the google radar. it is hosted at my own domain, so it's not like it is a tumblr subdomain or anything now. i wonder if google has something against tumblogs in general?
posted by Hackworth at 4:46 PM on October 18