My site, The Joke Jukebox , has been around since the middle of last month. I've managed to get listed in DMOZ/ODP and I'm seeing hits from the various Googles (different conuntries).

The thing that's funny is that when I do a Google search for 'jokes', my site does not come up in any of the listings returned. I've got about 1400 jokes and each page's title has the word 'joke' in it. The jokes are kept in a directory called 'jokes', and my site url has the word 'joke' in it.

Any idea on why this is happening, and any ways I can 'fix' this? Sorry for the newbie question! TIA

Right now you have a PR of 0. I would give it some time and try to get as many back links as possible. This way google will put more importance on your website. Jokes is a very broad and competitive keyword so if you can even come up on the first page with that keyword then your doing better than excellent, superb.

if you believe in it (i do - my site should be ranked 20th by all data for my top keyword but not even in top 1000). anyway, just get links. eventually, the work will pay off.

I'd like to come up on the first page, but I'm not coming up on ANY page when searching for 'jokes'. However, if you search for "toddler's ownership rules" I come up second in the list. I realize that the joke websites are abundant, but shouldn't I show up in the list when using 'jokes' as the keyword, albeit low in the list?

Jokes as a keyword on google has 22 million competing websites to be listed on that first page, that is in comparison to toddler's ownership rules which has only 481 competing websites!

I am sure you can see the difference there. So build your incoming links and setup your website well to distribute pr. Good luck sir.

Ahh yes. I guess I should get some rest before posting. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Displaying 100 results per page I can see 10 pages (roughly 1000 results). I don't know why I thought that was the complete list, but that was the assumption I made.

Anyone care to link to my site??

Whats a site i can check my PR rating on ? without having to sign up to places or anything

i know of one good google tool, http://gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go

Check it out

www.prlookup.com

yeah google is hard to get into

One more thing, should my PR change (read go up) after being accepted by DMOZ/ODP? My link has been propigated to all the sites that use that link database and I'm getting hits from them. If so, how long does it take before my PR will change? It's currently 0

You have to wait till the next update... I don't know when that will be.

Me again. I've noticed recently that the search phrases that were previously bringing visitors to my site via Google are no longer showing my site on the first page. Infact, I have to dig really deep to find them at all. Perhaps it was a fluke that they were there in the first place as my site is only a little over a month old.

I've checked my site at http://www.searchengineengine.com and am getting 800+ Google mentions, but no Google links. Also, I am not listed in Google Directory. I am listed in DMOZ. Should I expect to be included in Google Directory on the next update? Will this provide me with Google links?

I've noticed that too. I was listed for current horror movies and horror movies now in theaters. Now I'm not listed for either. But I am climbing the ranking for the keyword horror movies.