I have updated this post – see the end!
I bought Andy Black’s Index Checker before Christmas but only recently got around to actually installing it and using it. I liked the sales pitch – it claims to allow you to check any xml site map or RSS feed to see which url’s are indexed. This seemed to me quite useful to double check that my articles on Web 2.0 properties such as HubPages were indexed.
The product is a $7 instant download which you then need to install on one of your own domains. The instructions are detailed and accurate and I certainly managed to install Andy Black’s Index Checker on my Hostgator account with no problems.
The problems came when I tried checking the indexing of my articles on Hubpages and EzineArticles.com – check out my first ever screencast below to see why I won’t be recommending this product – even for $7.
For a larger version of the video click here.
UPDATE
As you can see in the comments Andy is acutally a respnsive and responsible developer who gets major kudos for showing up and supporting his product! In the video below I was using an outdated version of the software – its now just a matter of drop down lists to chose ezinearticles/hubpages/squidoo feeds. Still not perfect – ezinearticles does some odd stuff with titles with a dash in them – you might want to avoid those in the future anyways -and Hubpages is still only giving me the last 10 results – but Andy’s working on it! Meanwhile here is my shameless affliate link
Actually I forgot to mention in the video – the Index Checker failed entirely to manage the RSS feed for this blog which is a feedburner freed!
Help guys- this is the first time I’ve done a screen cast – am I speaking slowly enough? Its a Kiwi trick to speak too fast, especially compared to Americans – so have I slowed it down enough? Did I make you dizy with the mouse moves?
Why Indexing is Important
Its quite possible for a site to have PageRank and yet not be indexed in Google! If I am doing guest posting or otherwise considering using a third party’s site to get a link back to my site I always double check the age of the site’s cache in Google (Google the site’s url and click “cache” in the results) – it shouldn’t be more than about 10 days old, and also check how many pages are indexed (site:theirsite.com in google.com and then go to advance to see how recnetly pages have been indexed).
Checking for Indexing of Articles
This is what I do to keep an eye on which support and other articles of mine are indexing and how fast.
- I use Google Alerts on my author names – that tells me exactly when an article is indexed;
- I use link:mysite.com in Google Alerts to know when a link is indexed in Google (they will never tell you them all!);
- Grab a sentence or so of the published article and google it with quotes – you will find not just he original article but all the copies as well -if you are after plagarists chose a phrase from lower than the first paragraph – some smart ones will re-write the first paragraph.
So for now I don’t have a program that automates the checking of my support article’s indexing – Andy Black’s IndexChecker isn’t the answer for this problem – does anymore have an automated tool for this? One that actually works?
53 replies on “Andy Black’s Index Checker Review – Do You Need to Check If Your Support Article is Indexing?”
woo…. sexy whispers…
LOL.
LOL Costa – I’ll try shouting next time! There’s nothing sexy about the old Kiwi accent – I should get my sister-in-law to do voice overs for me – she’s Irish – now that’s a cool accent!
As fascinating as this conversation is, what I truly need to know is………….
Why does Lis have a picture of a nude man in this post?
LOL Glenn – to see if anyone wa paying attention?
Congratulations on your very first screencast. Very nicely done. Some parts were a little too fast and a little bit low speech wise but other than that, done well done. Look forward to more.
Nice to be able to put a voice to the name, to the photo.
Good Luck
TTC
OK tiptop – I’ll keep practicing LOL
Good call using google alert for check which aticles/pages have been indexed. I get a lot of alerts daily for current or past articles. Good work on the videocast on the first try.
The video is an excellent first effort, Lis. Good on you for gettingout there and actually doing it!
Improvement suggestions: Don’t mumble. The words tend to run together.
Open new screens in separate tabs and then just switch tag to tab as the floe of the article progresses. Nothing detracts more than watching a broadcaster type, click and wait, type click and wait, etc.
And do consider that there is a letter in the alphabet between “Q” and “S”. It’s called “R” … and as along-time US born Eastern hemisphere resident, I notice it is a casualty of the Equator, perhaps.
It’s a very rare spokne gem anywhere in the Antipodes. North of the Equator it abounds … I watch many of my English-based TV shows from the ABC (Australian, not American) and from the BBC.
All the missing “R”‘s and then some seem to have migrated to Britain, where they continually talk about a big country in Asia named “Chiner” and some politician in the US name of “Obamer”, etc.
Do you think if we opened some sort of word channel between hemispheres the “R”‘s would somehow equalize to their natural distribution? ;-).
Kidding aside, very useful and informative video. Don’t hesitate to make more.
My brother now lives in Ireland – so he uses up all my “r’s” as well if you see what I mean 🙂 I’ve never noticed the “R’s” I must say – I was trying to not end every sentence on the rising intonation though – that’s good eh bro? I am thinking too that I do’t mumble that much – maybe I should spend some money on a decent mike!
Yeah the ‘questioning every word’ with the rising intonation gives me a case of insanity here in the Philippines. Girls/women especially add that intonation for everything … better than Singapore, though, where they ad a ‘la’ to every other word LoL.
I was going to question the mike myself … it could be that you were actually speaking quite clearly, but the mic was making it sound a bit ‘muddy’. I bought a really cheapheadset a few months back to use when making Skype calls. An Americna freind here warned me I’d be sorry.
One day my cheapy broke and I switched to a really high price … like $8 US headset from LogiTech .. I called my son in the US and the first thing he said was, “Wow did you switch providers?” People often won’t say things sound rotten, even when they do. Also, if your audio file is separte from the video, or when making audio only podcasts,run the file through Levelator … free at the website of the same name … a fantastic quality enhancement tool.
I liked “la” in Singapore – it means as much as the “eh” in Canada or NZ apparently – quite catchy I thought. I’ll check out levelator with someaudio only and see how it works Thanks
Hi Lis,
I have to join the others that said “so, that is how Lis sounds”, great to hear the voice for the first time in all this years 😉 As for the video, I found it great, I have a slight hearing problem and I am, as you know, not a native English speaker. Despite all that, I could understand you perfectly well. I check myself the fate of my projects with Market Samurai (here my referral link http://www.marketsamurai.com/c/hospitalera in case you allow them in blog comments, if you prefer that not, simply delete all content between the brackets, no problem) It takes some minutes of work to set a project up, but then the checking and re-checking is done with only a few clicks.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, putting a bit more space between you and the mike might be an good idea. The “hoarse whispry sound” reminded me a bit of Marlene Dietrich, which might work for some videos, but not for others 😉 SY
Hmm – there is something really wrong with the video wait until I tell my partner that I have a sexy whispering voice – he’s going to hurt himself laughing! No problem with MS aff link – but great though Market Samurai is it won’t do what IndexChecker is attempting to – watch this space…
Hi Lis,
Plenty of interesting stuff in this post. Lots of tips and tricks regarding indexing – I only know less than half of them 🙁
Anyway, why do you check if your support articles are indexed? Is there anything you can actually do about it?
>> double check the age of the site’s cache in Google (Google the site’s url and click “cache” in the results) – it shouldn’t be more than about 10 days old, and also check how many pages are indexed (site:theirsite.com in google.com and then go to advance to see how recnetly pages have been indexed).
Why do you say that we need to check the age of the cache and also how many pages are indexed?
About EZA – did you know that all EZA articles have more than one URL associated with them? There is one URL that has just the article ID (this one is quite new, just started last year, I think), and there is at least one URL that contains your keywords (I have definitely seen two URLs for some of my past EZA articles). Unfortunately, they seem to be promoting the URL with the article ID instead of the long URL nowadays. At least, I only remember seeing the short URL in the article acceptance emails they send to me. It’s one more reason why I’ve cut down on my article marketing efforts using EZA.
Your screencast is interesting. Paraphrasing what Tiptopcat said earlier – so this is what Lis sounds like. Your voice sounds a bit breathy. Maybe you were speaking with your mouth too close to the microphone? BTW, how did you edit out all the background noise? Or did you have a soundproof room available?
@Calvin sometimes a site can have say a good PR – but when you check the cache – the site looks totally different – usually its a site that has just been bought and a new blog put on top of old content – these generally lose PR in the next update in my experience – I’ve seen the cache as old as a month too in this circumstance -the site has been static too long and G hasn’t visited.
I’m only seeing this format for eza http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-You-Make-Money-With-AdSense-on-Hubpages?&id=2585578
I am wearing headphone & mike set so maybe I have the mike too close – but that will explain why there was no background noise. I’m alone in the house but its wooden – though I did close the door to keep the street noise out! I didn’t edit anything – there is not the option with the free version of ning
Hi Lis,
1) So we need to check the cache to make sure that the site is still being crawled AND to make sure the site is not a “re-purposed” spam site.
2) Regarding the EZA article URLs, what I see in the article acceptance emails is usually like this: http://ezinearticles.com/?id=2585578
3) Your noise level in NZ seems to be very low. Where I’m staying, I can always hear something happening outside.
4) I just read your email offering to sell a football site. Congrats and good luck on your first site sale. Let us know how it turns out, will you? Was everything easier than expected, or was it harder, etc. BTW, I thought the rest of the world calls it football and only the Americans called it soccer?
LOL Calvin – there are some low life, bottom dwelling scum on the Internet – hadn’t you heard? Must admit I don’t read the acceptance emails – just so long as the bloody do say ACCEPT I am good to go – the version the Google indexes does have the keywords.
Yeah I will let you know about selling a site on list (thats on the sign up list on http://netmarketingtoday.com folks). The fact that google can take the word “football” and give you what you expect is truely remarkable. Football or footy in Australia is Australian Rules (related to gaelic football, lots of jumping and attractive short shorts and cut off tops), football in New Zealand is probably soccer but we also call it soccer. futbol in Spanish is soccer, football used in English in most of the world I think is soccer but I could be wrong …
Liz – the proper spelling of “eh” is “eh?” – must have the question mark as we Canadians are always looking for affirmation. 🙂
Loved the voice – accent and all. I’ve been hibernating but just had to pop in and say hi. Hope all is well and life in NZ is suiting you.
Griz??? I used to know a Griz guy from the snowy wastes of Canada – but I think he fell thru an ice flow which melted due to global warming and disapeared from the onoline world eh? Hey I get out of my comfort zone and get you out of hibernation – way cool! And don’t argue about my spelling – we’ve been there before eh? Next you will tell me that content is king eh?
Hi Lis,
It’s Andy here, the owner and developer of Index Checker. Unfortunately I cannot view or see the video at all. Just replaced m laptop so not sure if I need to install anything to do this but wouldn’t have thought so.
With regards to the app. Have you uploaded the latest version which was sent to all buyers automatically? v1.04.
Wih regards to the feed extraction. I can implement this without problem. So far the app can extract quite a lot of xml types but I have found that there are LOADS of different formats so I am adding them as I go along. A simple email with a request would have sufficed.
I try to resovle any issues that buyers of my products have. If you are referring to the blocking of certain urls then this is down to Google. Google is sensative to cache queries. You should though be able to process a decent number of urls per day providing you do not run through the same list more than once in ‘any’ one day.
If your issues are regarding inaccurate results then you are running an older version. The new version has been thoroughly tested not just by me but by some of my users too and the app is now returning ‘correct’ data.
Feel free to email me with your issues and I’ll gladly look at them for you.
Many thanks
Andy Black
Hi Andy, thanks for droppping by and commenting. I sent you an email with details just now – but I think I am running the current version – I sent you the specific examples I had issues with. I’m running v2.04 according to the main screen.
Must admit I have generally found trying to email developers of $7 products (excepting the ones I personally know) – to be a waste of time – I guess the issue with hubpages (which you specifically mention in the product sales page and user manual) was the one that got me. Obviously that was a misjudgement on my part in your case – apologies.
Lets see if we can get the issues I emailed you about sorted and then I will be happy to revise my review and start flogging the product with my affiliate link 🙂
You also have to see if your article posts have any PR. Just because the homepage Hubpages has high PR doesn’t mean the juice gets to your article. Same goes to Ezinearticles too.
-Kai
You have to keep an eye to see if your articles have any PR at all. Just because the homepage Hubpage has high PR doesn’t mean the linkjuice will get to your article. Same goes with Ezinearticles!
-Kai
Thats very true Kai – but first they have to be indexed to be of any use at all!
One thing I don’t like about Ezinearticles is that your article will get buried in the archive. If it’s not popular, then it will not have linkjuice if nobody links to that article or stays close to the top for “popular” articles.
Hi Lis,
I enjoyed your product review which feels totally and naturally honest without trying very hard to appear so.
And you don’t recommend the product. How cool is that?
You didn’t speak too fast on the video but similar to what others have said in their comments, your voice to me seemed a bit muffled as if you were trying to speak very quietly.
I could be wrong but I imagine you to have quite a strong voice in real life. So it’s likely the equipment that caused you to sound that way.
I don’t use any similar software that works. In fact before reading your post I had no idea that there could be one for that purpose.
Vance
Hi Vance – your first comment – and you have got me exactly – “speak up” is something that is NEVER said to me in real life – time to play with the mike or get a new one I think!
Yes I like the concept of the software – as you can see now in the comments the developer and I are in discussions so hopefully this will end well!
As often happens with a lot of blogs, there is often a great story in the comments, as much or more as in the original article. I was very impressed with Andy’s response to Lis’s unflattering review. There is a lot to learn here that applies to more than just software.
I don’t know or really are about the software itself, so I don’t have a ‘dog in the hunt’. But you may recall a few months back when Lis gained a lot of notoriety regrading another product she panned … SiteSell. The official response from SiteSell, especially some of Mr. Evoy’s comments ’round the ‘Net, convinced me … more than Lis’s review itself … to stop being a SiteSell affiliate and ‘divorce’ myself from a questionable product.
Andy’s response, on the other hand, is measured in tone, helpful, and doesn’t accuse Lis of being dumb and not using the software properly.
Anyone marketing any product or service can learn from these two examples. Complaints or bad reviews are going to be a fact of life. How you deal with them .. and ether or not you blame your customer .. is what will determine your success or failure. Good stuff.
And Mr. Griz, WTF, eh? You moved back to civilization and thus dropped off the map? “Not logical, Jim”.
Thanks Dave – saved em the trouble of writing this myself!
Hi Lis,
I replied to your email earlier this morning. You are running an older version as I explain in the video. Some fixes and new features have been added since then. I attached the latest version for you to try. If you are still experiencing any problems, such as the extraction etc then please do email me so that I can rectify this.
I must admit. This app has been a nightmare getting it to work correctly. I will hold my hands up and say that I maybe released it a little ‘prematurely’ but after a number of updates the tool is working as it should, with regards to giving completely correct results. The Google blocking can cause a problem but this is only if too many urls are processed in any one time… or the same list of urls are ran through the app within a close timespan of each other.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you.
Very best regards
Andy
Thanks Andy – got your email but haven’t had time to download the latest version – I will definitly be doing so in the next day or so though – thanks very much. I was going to write something about your mature response to my review – but Dave Starr has already said what I was thinking …
I concur – Andy comes across as a class act.
“And Mr. Griz, WTF, eh? You moved back to civilization and thus dropped off the map? “Not logical, Jim”.”
Yeah… been great! 🙂
Hi Lissie, i think you did a good job on the video, its something i really hate doing myself, mainly because of not liking the sound of my own voice all that much. If you get really good i’ve got around 27 plugins that need salespage voice overs and tutorials 😉
hey, how about an update on this blog missy?
BTW– your screen cast vid was cool, …as Costa said, that sexy voice was hot!! especially with your beautiful flowing NZ/Aussie accent!
🙂
AL
Missy ??? Nearly got your self askimetted for that one Chicago boy! Nothing postiive to report so updates to be had here LOL
what’s wrong with “Missy”… ya know, like John Wayne, “hey there lil’ Missy”
🙂
Hiya Lis,
I’ve had a manic few weeks. I had major problems with my laptop and my Outlook datafile (.pst) got corrupted following a bad crash. I bought a new laptop but lost LOTS of emails including yours. I did receive your last email but can’t remember what you said in it and I lost access to it shortly after.
I do know you mentioned about your hubpages feed. The link that you gave me to your feed only displayed 10 urls which will be the 10 urls the app picked up. All I done was clicked on the link you supplied and it opened the feed up in the browser which shown the 10 urls. Not sure why it would only show 10?!
Anyway, please feel free to email me again if there are still issues you’d like resolving and I’ll do my best to rectify them.
Very best regards
Andy
WOW! I’ve got a lot to learn from this Andy guy. The way he handled this review is impeccable though expected as the review isn’t in any way harsh @ all.
Googling the title of my blog posts in quotes gets the job done when I want to check if it has been indexed or not.
Lissie, any update on this one? Whilst I am still happy to monitor the success of my hubpages, infobarrel articles etc in Market Samurai, I really could do with a tool where I simply drop in the rss feed and see if it is indexed. I “just” started a niche article directory and the amount of articles is great. So, if the index checker works now flawless with a wordpress rss feed, I am game to use your referral link https://lissowerbutts.com/recommends/IndexChecker 😉 BTW any idea why you have to upload the app to your hosting account? I am kind of cautious to put an unknown script into the middle of of my websites. And did not Google warns against something similar in their webmaster guidelines? But that might be just my good old paranoid me 😉 Anybody knows of a desktop app that does the same? SY
I need upload an update I’ll get back to you SY
I am looking forward to it! SY
Any new how it works now? I promise I will nagg you every month or so until we have the final review. Sometimes it is good to live on the other side of Mother Earth, lol, so you can’t kick me for being a nuisance 😉 SY
Hi Lis,
I like the way you check for the indexing of articles, especially using Google alerts for the author name, I wonder why I never thought about it. I don’t know how deep the rabbit hole goes?
Oh its a deep and strange rabbit hole Jason!
Though it may be cumbersome if that’s the only way for me to know whether my article or my blog is indexed then maybe I should stick on your style of index checking. Thanks a lot, I will try your idea on that.
When a user types in something (keyword) to search for in a search engine, he is displayed a number of results. The keyword or search term you used is a question that you have asked from search engine and it has shown you the search results as answer to that question. Here comes the importance of indexing. If a website is not indexed by the search engine, it will not be displayed in search results. So, the very first step towards getting your website a good exposure is to get it indexed in search engines.
Various search engines such as Google have what are called “spiders” or “robots” continually crawling the web indexing content for inclusion in their search engine databases. While most users view inclusion in search engine listings in a positive light and high search engine rankings can translate to big bucks for commercial sites not everyone wants every single page and file stored on their account publicly available through web searches.
That is what the noindex, nofollow tags are for 😉 If you don’t want to have part of your site showing up in the search engines, just use them 😉 SY
What an interesting post, Lis. And I love the discussion you have prompted with such an article. Don’t you think that Google has become such a powerful tool? They practically dictate and influence the survival and progression of blogs from around the globe. Just sayin’. 🙂
Andy’s index checker is no more working. It shows all links as indexed.
I mailed him but no reply and its more then 5 days.
The product is useless now.
Just order the andy’s index checker from http://www.index-checker.com.
Dear Sam,Now it’s ussless now?
The checker is working again – the new version was released a couple of days ago
Hi Guys,
Yes, the Index Checker is working again. I’m hoping to send out v1.09 tomorrow which has a final tweak. It has been thoroughly tested and compared against a few hundred manual checks using a diverse range of urls and ‘so’ far 100% … well except for one URL which has been brought to my attention which I’m checking tomorrow. Hence the tweak!
Also, I’m looking to develop a v2.0 in the near future whichwill include more functionality 🙂
Andy