valid KMLs not being indexed

[lpx]

After substantial time and effort, I, personally have geocoded and
written a series of KML files for Europe each indexing the location of
hotels for budget travellers.

Each file is broken down by catagory and region:

Hotel
Hostel
Apartment
B&B
Campsite

Town if less than 6
Individual locations if G=8.

Each has a price (where available) and an explanation to the property
and a picture.

Where an exact geolocation was not available (Geoaccuracy=4) I've
folderised the content to ensure customers won't miss out, they can
browse by other factors.

I've made sure these files work, to my utmost ability:
http://www.lonelyplanetexchange.com/kml/hotels/maps/Andorra.kmz

After having spent nearly 2 months in the process and being a UNIQUE
provider of information in this field, none of my competitors have
even thought of, let alone released maps for cheap hotels.

Why does it come as no surprise that Google has refused to index this
content?
I'm a small site with a small budget but I feeel that I am being
punished when I am an innovator in this field.

Google doesn't really represent the smaller mom&pop sites and this is
testament to that..

Perhaps someone from Google can explain, why, despite the fact I'm an
innovator in this field, providing UNIQUE content, according to
guidlines my content not being indexed?

[barryhunter [KML Guru]]

I not from Google, but see a few issues.

That KMZ file is not being served with the correct MIME type - as
feedvalidator.org will attest.

I temporally hosted a copy of the file you mentioned (to get the
correct mimetypes), and feedvalidator points out a few things:
http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nearby.org.uk%2Fgoogle%2Ftemp%2FAndorra.kmz


Files are indexed (or at least some)
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=site%3Alonelyplanetexchange.com+filetype%3Akmz+OR+filetype%3Akml
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&q=site:lonelyplanetexchange.com&mrt=kmlkmz
However many seems to be related to routes (rather than hotels)


You have some links that are indexed in Google returning 404 - are you
using Google Webmaster tools to track and repair these?


You should be linking to these files from your website, as well as the
sitemap - on at least one page I checked you had rel="nofollow" on the
download link.
http://www.lonelyplanetexchange.com/accoms/europe/1_Netherlands.php

I have also seen it recommeded to explicity hint that its geo content
<a href="../file.kml" type="application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml">KML</
a> (you might need the kmz type)


Now just being mean, but if the w3c validator cant read the page,
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lonelyplanetexchange.com%2Faccoms%2Fafrica%2F1_Egypt.php&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0
it doesnt bode well for the googlebot.


Cant see one, so not sure if you already done it, but would recommend
creating a KML file that acts as a sitemap to all the files - using
networklinks - basically the more links to your files the better. You
could maybe use a folder with checkHideChildren to help prevent users
from enabling all countries at once - simply to limit bandwidth.


Also I've had success with using lots of little files, rather than a
few big files - its more files to index, but it makes it more
digestible for Google? Anyway having both cant harm! - just need a
good set of indexes for them.


Finally you could maybe add the recently announced geoextensions to
the sitemap files
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=94555&ctx=sibling

[ManoM]

Hi Ipx,

What steps have you taken to get your content indexed? Have you
submitted a sitemap?
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=94555&ctx=sibling

Sitemaps are not a guarantee, but they are the best way to let us know
about your content.

Mano

[barryhunter [KML Guru]]

On May 28, 12:09 am, barryhunter [KML Guru] wrote:

> Cant see one, so not sure if you already done it, but would recommend
> creating a KML file that acts as a sitemap to all the files - using
> networklinks - basically the more links to your files the better. You
> could maybe use a folder with checkHideChildren to help prevent users
> from enabling all countries at once - simply to limit bandwidth.
>

Oops, I of course meant 'radioFolder' not 'checkHideChildren' !

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kmlreference.html#liststyle

[lpx]

Barry,

I've had a look at the suggestions, thanks for getting back to me.

After checking validation errors against functioning KML's, there is
nothing to suggest these KML's would not validate.
They work in maps, they work in earth.

MIME types: Again there is nothing to suggest from Google's previous
behaviour that it would not regonise valid KML's, as it has done in
the past, but I've added this to my .htaccess.
AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kmz .kmz
AddType application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml .kml
to cover bases.

Other than that, I can't see any valid reason why Google is not
indexing these files.

I hate to be paranoid.
I've lost 80% of my traffic from Google in the last 6 months.
I've developed this content to feed the monster. They are new. They
are Unique.
I'm pushing their KML medium for smaller providers, (if I can do it,
you can), but if Google simply r3efuses to index it, what chance do I,
or any other Mom&Pop orgainsation, have?

This is a good content, and it should be indexed.

> http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kmlreference.html#lists...

[ManoM]

Actually, no we don't:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=site:lonelyplanetexchange.com+hotel&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.406222,59.765625&ie=UTF8&t=k&z=4

Mano