Earlier this month I noticed my GoogleUK SERPS totally collapase to the extent that I thought I had been kicked of Googles index altogether. I received an e-mail 'apparantly' confirming my worst fears......stating that I had been removed from the index because of hidden text on my home page.

It turns out this is because of the hidden text included on every ShopFactory created website up until SF recently released an upgrade created after I bought this issue to their attention (Since Shop21.uk.com was the first SF created site to be kicked off google).

Strangely though I was still getting a SERP for 'Shop21', my company name, so I had not been removed from the index after all, I had just had all my SERPS decimated to such a low position I cant find any of them apart from 'Shop21'. For aprox 5 Years my website has held Page 1 positions for all the keywords & phrases relating to the products I sell on Google.co.uk (most also repeated on google.com). A good example of a keyword I have held a Position #1, Page 1 on Google UK is 'Griffin iTrip' for which shop21 is still currently #2 on Google.com but no ranking at all on GoogleUK anymore.

I also have a Paid Search Campaign running with Google via a 3rd party company. I asked them if they could shed any light on this & they asked their account manager at Google who said that SF created websites 'historys' have been wiped due to the hidden text issue but would be re-instated soon since hidden text not malicious. This is apparantly the reasons for the collapse of my rankings since history counts alot towards your SERP's.

Apparantly most of these websites have now had their historys re-instated. Shop21 has not but is still getting good rankings on google.com but nothing on google.uk apart from a search for 'shop21'.

Apparantly, from the information I have received, Google will be reinstating my History at which point my SERPS should be back to what they were or therabouts. It has been two weeks though and they still havnt done this & this is now seriously effecting my business.

This all seems very unfair to have been effectively booted off google for something totally out of my control. The hidden text was not there for marketing reasons and was not put there by any of the merchants using this Shopfactory software but was included by Shopfactory coders as part of the product. It has been like this for 5 years without any issues.

Does anybody know:
A) How to get Google to re-instate history when its been unfairly & unreasonably deleted (or do so faster than they currently are)?
B) Know my legal position with the creators of the software that caused this issue contrary to their claim that all sites created using their software are S.E. friendly/compliant ?
C) Any other cures or remedies :) to aid the situation ?