Fine tuning google results - google emulator?

Gordon · 21-11-2009 6:08pm #1

I'm getting a bit more of an understanding on how Google views websites by simply viewing the website in a text based browser like Lynx. There are some things that were a surprise to me, like the fact that Google's results will show the alt text of images with a forced space in between the alt text, and if the alt text appears in the page, it will not appear again. Ie: if you have three images with alts "1" "2" "1" it will only show "1 2". Which is understandable I guess.

I'm sure there are other quirks out there like that, is there an emulator that will show you exactly how your site will look when google updates its cache? Like browsershots.org, but for Google, and/or other search engines. It'd be handy for a webdesigner I'm sure.

mneylon · 21-11-2009 8:05pm

Do you mean how its spider will view it? If so the webmaster tools are pretty good

Gordon · 22-11-2009 12:31am

Sorry, in the search results. The headline is it? The text underneath the link to the site when you find the site via search. (not adwords)

HandWS LTD · 22-11-2009 2:37pm

Google robots.txt normally block people from viewing how their spiders are displaying their info via search results (or in the cache), same goes for other search engines.

That is correct on the alt tags. This is why its recommended to use unique alt or title texts. I found a good web page that can do this a while back....i'm unsure if it'll work on search engines tho. However, there is a way around this. I'll be checking it out in a while.

EKRIUQ · 22-11-2009 3:04pm

In that Lynx browser difficult to install or does the documentation make it look more complicated that it is ?

22-11-2009 3:25pm

I haven't run lynx in a while but if memory serves, it's a doddle to install.

I used to use it at work years ago. My boss hadn't a clue that I was surfing the net. Boards.ie in Lynx looks like a shell script at a glance

Edit: just installed it again for the craic. Brilliant - reminds me of using gopher back in the day

Not particularly web 2.0 friendly though - a jQuery free zone XD

Gordon · 22-11-2009 4:03pm

m.boards.ie will show up a bit better on Lynx if you want to do some stealth browsing.

Actually, what I meant was 'snippets'! I found a Rich Snippet beta testing tool, but what I'm after is simply a snippets testing tool to see what exactly the site's results will look like through google results.

EKRIUQ, I can't remember tbh, but if I installed it then anyone can! Cheers HandWS.

Fine tuning google results - google emulator?

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