SourceWatch:Google-index

robots.txt check
Click here to check SourceWatch's robots.txt file: http://www.SourceWatch.org/robots.txt

Its contents should be exactly as follows: User-agent: * Disallow:

The December 2004 robots.txt problem
The last time that SourceWatch experienced search engine indexing problem was in December 2004, due to the fact that the robots.txt file was missing. The problem was identified on Dec 13, and the robots.txt file was recreated almost immediately by Sheldon Rampton. The number of pages indexed by Google has been steadily recovering since then.

The Jan 22 2005 switch from disinfopedia.org to sourcewatch.org
On Jan 22, 2005, Disinfopedia was renamed to SourceWatch. The primary domain name was switched from disinfopedia.org to sourcewatch.org. The number of sourcewatch.org pages indexed by Google appears to be rapidly increasing (24 hours after the changeover, it was about 25).

SourceWatch's Google PageRank
The domain name switch to sourcewatch.org also effectively zeroed this wiki's page rank. This explains why Google searches which used to return Disinfopedia pages near the top of the results, no longer did so after the switch. It is not known what disinfopedia.org's page rank was before the switch, and as disinfopedia.org now redirects to sourcewatch.org, it is impossible to find out. However it seems reasonable to assume it was comparable to that of prwatch.org.

SourceWatch was assigned a non-zero page rank sometime in late April 2005. However, as of April 27th, this does not yet seem to be having an impact on Google search results. It probably will take a few days for the new PR to filter through to all Google data centres.

To check sourcewatch's page rank, download and install the Google Toolbar from http://toolbar.google.com/. Alternatively, you can visit http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php. This gives similar results to the Google Toolbar for sourcewatch.org and prwatch.org.


 * Feb 4, 2005: sourcewatch.org page rank = 0; prwatch.org page rank = 7
 * Feb 22, 2005: sourcewatch.org page rank = 0; prwatch.org page rank = 7
 * Mar 11, 2005: sourcewatch.org page rank = 0; prwatch.org page rank = 7


 * April 27, 2005:
 * via Google toolbar: sourcewatch.org PR = 6; prwatch.org PR = 8
 * via prchecker.info: sourcewatch.org PR = 7; prwatch.org PR = 8


 * June 1, 2005:
 * via Google toolbar: sourcewatch.org PR = ?; prwatch.org PR = ?
 * via prchecker.info: sourcewatch.org PR = 7; prwatch.org PR = 5

It should be noted that despite the handicap of a zero pagerank over the last few months, some topical SourceWatch pages have been doing very well in Google searches. For example, the USANext page has been consistently third or fourth in a Google search for 'usanext'.

Before name change to SourceWatch
Number of results in Google when searching for site:www.disinfopedia.org "log in"


 * Oct 28: 650 (203)
 * Oct 29: 205 (201)
 * Oct 30: 347 (334)
 * Oct 31: 512 (498)
 * Nov 1: 512 (498)
 * Nov 3: 1,040 (692)
 * Nov 4: 2,000 (713)
 * Nov 5: 2,450 (912)
 * Nov 6: 2,990
 * Nov 7: 5,820
 * Nov 9: 6,520
 * Nov 10: 12,400
 * Nov 11: 15,300
 * Nov 12: 17,400
 * Nov 13: 18,700
 * Nov 14: 19,400
 * Nov 16: 19,700
 * Nov 17: 20,400
 * Nov 19: 21,500
 * Nov 20: 21,800
 * Nov 22: 22,100
 * Nov 23: 22,100
 * Nov 25: 22,200
 * Nov 26: 22,300
 * Nov 27: 22,200
 * Dec 9: 9,860
 * Dec 13: robots.txt identified as missing, and recreated.
 * Dec 15: 4,550
 * Dec 16: 3,750
 * Dec 17: 9,360
 * Dec 19: 2,970
 * Dec 20: 5,920
 * Dec 21: 7,550
 * Dec 23: 9,470
 * Dec 24: 10,600
 * Dec 25: 12,400
 * Dec 26: 17,000
 * Dec 27: 19,600
 * Dec 29: 20,000
 * Jan 1: 23,700
 * Jan 4: 24,500
 * Jan 5: 25,300
 * Jan 7: 25,600
 * Jan 14: 27,100

After name change to SourceWatch
Number of results in Google when searching for site:www.SourceWatch.org "log in" (or for site:www.disinfopedia.org "log in")


 * Jan 22: Primary domain name switched to sourcewatch.org
 * Jan 28: 1,930 (22,200)
 * Jan 30: 3,910 (5,970)
 * Feb 4: 17,800 (3,860)
 * Feb 10: 6,890 (1,080)
 * Feb 22: 29,000 (1,080)
 * April 27: 193,000 (1,070)
 * July 7: 144,000 (5,080)

Before name change to SourceWatch
Relevant Google search: "log in" site:disinfopedia.org within last 3 months


 * Oct 29: 22
 * Oct 30: 124
 * Oct 31: 222
 * Nov 1: 222
 * Nov 3: 451
 * Nov 4: 686
 * Nov 5: 819
 * Nov 6: 1,000   (Google only shows 3 significant digits)
 * Nov 7: 2,700
 * Nov 9: 3,000
 * Nov 10: 5,570
 * Nov 11: 6,820
 * Nov 12: 7,750
 * Nov 13: 8,210
 * Nov 14: 8,400
 * Nov 16: 8,410
 * Nov 17: 8,640
 * Nov 19: 9,020
 * Nov 20: 9,120
 * Nov 22: 9,190
 * Nov 23: 9,210
 * Nov 25: 9,240
 * Nov 26: 9,100
 * Nov 27: 9,130
 * Dec 9; 11,800
 * Dec 13: robots.txt identified as missing, and recreated.
 * Dec 15: 1,840
 * Dec 16: 3,640
 * Dec 17: 4,030
 * Dec 19: 981
 * Dec 20: 1,450
 * Dec 21: 3,890
 * Dec 23: 4,860
 * Dec 24: 5,200
 * Dec 25: 6,060
 * Dec 26: 7,950
 * Dec 27: 9,220
 * Dec 29: 9,300
 * Jan 1: 11,100
 * Jan 4: 11,500
 * Jan 5: 11,800
 * Jan 7: 12,000
 * Jan 14: 12,300

After name change to SourceWatch
Relevant Google search: "log in" site:SourceWatch.org within last 3 months (or for "log in" site:disinfopedia.org within last 3 months)


 * Jan 22: Primary domain name switched to sourcewatch.org
 * Jan 28: 1,070 (3,280)
 * Jan 30: 1,870 (2,480)
 * Feb 4: 2,340 (1,200)
 * Feb 10: 10,800 (11)
 * Feb 22: 12,000 (6)
 * April 27: 193,000 (14)
 * June 1: 201,000
 * July 7: 144,000 (11)