Why is Google blocking this profile? [closed]

Question

OK, weird issue.  I recently realized that the profile for James Albert McClain (McClain-3352) seems to be being intentionally blocked from search returns on Google, Bing, etc!  If you search for the exact name (James Albert McClain) on Google you do get a separate WikiTree profile for a different James Albert McClain (McClain-2515), and then after that other McClains but not this James Albert.  What's really weird is the profile for Harold McClain (McClain-3312) -- who is James Albert's son -- will come up as the 4th web page return, because it refers to James Albert in the bio!  I even tried a specific search for "James Albert McClain (1873 - 1940) Oklahoma Wikitree" -- and that brings up Harold's profile again and also the profile for Euphema Viola Shay (Shay-549) who was James Albert's wife, but not James Albert.  Even if I search for the exact URL for this profile in a Google search, Google will not return James Albert's profile.  Instead, it returns a few other profiles that are xx-3352, and the generic McClain list on WikiTree, but not James Albert's profile!  What gives?  Is this profile being blocked for some reason?

Comments

Scott, I'd propose adding the tags 'Tech' and 'Search' to your question to bring it to the attention of Chris or others who might be able to come up with an explanation.  I know the site goes to some trouble to attempt to optimize the profile structure so search engines will find them.  I think it's unlikely that there's any intentional block, but there may be some other factor involved that the techies would notice.

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I see on a google search that MYHERITAGE has info on James, www.myheritage.com/names/jim_mcclain  and again google turns up a familytree at https://www.familysearch.org//en/LZY-3XJ/mary-shook-1840-1921

There's others turned up, so I don't THINK (IMO) google is blocking him being found but I guess you mean blocking? a WT URL for him .. again that might be, as was said, a matter of tags on the html

If the tags aren't there then no search engine will pick it up

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Thank you - I just tried to do that, but the Tech tag does not seem to want to attach to question...

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Hmmm, I'm not sure why it wouldn't take a tag.  I see the question is already in the WikiTree Tech category, so maybe the tag would be redundant.  If not that, perhaps a moderator will come along and be able to add any appropriate tags.

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They did something a while back about tags - only certain ones are followed, so they eliminated all the ones that are not, but had previously been commonly used.  This is not documented anywhere that I know of, nor are you told when it happens - it just automatically doesn't add the tag you entered and you're left to scratch your head in wonderment.  I know from experience that "tech" is one of these.  The ones that they follow now are "bugs" and "sysops".

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The TECH tag was disabled because our "tech" staff prefer that people (1) post in the WikiTree Tech category and (2) use more focused tags such as BUGS and IMPROVEMENTS.

Answer 1

I checked the Google Search Console and the page is in queue to be Crawled. We prepare a sitemap for Google and other search engines, but due to the size of WikiTree, it can take some time for the page to be indexed.

Answer 2

Google returned McClain-3037, McClain-3352 and more in one item. Maybe google is having an off day!

Answer 3

I don't think it is blocking it - its just buried in the 100's of other James McClains. WikiTree has over 500 of them let alone all the other sites on line. Also the profile is only a month old. Give it a little time and it will probably move up the rankings on it's own.

Answer 4

The page is only 2 months old.  Sometimes you can find things on Google that went away weeks ago, so I suspect they don't crawl the site very often.