Strange Google Question

[truthaddict]

I'm currently involved with two sites that both run the same version of vBulletin. Recently I posted the exact same message on both sites (you can see the messages @ http://www.zaadz.com/community/showthread.php?p=1278#post1278 and http://www.truthaddict.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719). When you search Google now on the term "Sarah Reinertsen" (http://www.google.com/search?q=sarah+reinertsen) you'll see the zaadz thread listed as the #3 result but the TruthAddict thread is nowhere to be found.

According to the Google Toolbar, both of the individuals thread have a Google PageRank (PR) of 0. However, the main page for the TruthAddict forums has a PR of 4 while the main page of the Zaadz forums has a PR of 0. (By the way, zaadz.com itself has a PR of 5 while truthaddict.com has a PR of 4.) A search of Google on the domain truthaddict.com with the term "Sarah Reinertsen" (http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...rah+reinertsen) yields no results.

Can't figure this one and since I'm helping with the SEO for both sites I wanted to post a message here to see if anyone has any ideas.

Also, I think I'm posting this message to the right forum. If not, please feel free to move this post or ask me to do so.

Thanks!

[Jake Bunce]

Google's PR ratings are based on link exposure. Maybe one link doesn't have as much exposure as the other.

[truthaddict]

But wouldn't that be reflected in the PR? The forum that has the higher PR (TruthAddict) does not have the thread show up while the forum that has the lower PR (Zaadz) has the thread show up as #3.

And I guess if one were just showing up later than the other then maybe this would make some sense. But that's not what's happening. One is showing up #3 and one is not showing at all. That just doesn't make sense to me...

[Jake Bunce]

I don't know why that is. You might try contacting Google. I don't know if they reply to issues like this.

[truthaddict]

I can try contacting Google but I won't hold my breath waiting for a response.

I'm just wondering if there is something on the TruthAddict forums that is preventing Google from indexing. Looking at the two pages it doesn't appear that there are any major differences. Just seems strange for me that you can have two virtually identical pages and have Google list one as #3 for a term and not list the other at all.

[ewbarnard]

Do both have the same robots.txt files? I had a case where the ErrorDocument (404) was feeding a weird page in place of the missing robots.txt file, and the google spiders didn't bother going much further.