My site has been blocked from Google's index

[garysims]

Hi,

My site http://www.lowpricehosting.net has been blocked from Google's index and the "Google Team" have told me so!!!

Let me explain... I noticed that my site wasn't in Google at all and it should have been as other sites of mine with high PR numbers contain links to it.

A search on Google for:

site:www.lowpricehosting.net - no results
link:www.lowpricehosting.net - no results
[www.lowpricehosting.net] - 46 results

So Google know I am there. So I sent them an email and this is what they say:

Hi Gary,

Thank you for your reply. Your page has been blocked from our index because it does not meet the quality standards necessary to assign accurate PageRank. We cannot comment on the individual reasons your page was removed. However, certain actions such as cloaking, writing text in such a way that it can be seen by search engines but not by users, or setting up pages/links with the sole purpose of fooling search engines may result in permanent removal from our index. Please read our Webmaster Guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html for more information.

Regards,
The Google Team

Now my site doesn't contain any cloaking or hidden text. In fact the site is only 5 pages!!!

Two possibilites I can think of:

1) I have a link exchange running at http://www.lowpricehosting.net/partners which is linked from the main page.
2) I have a link to a resource directory provided by http://www.linkexchangeexperts.com/

HELP!!! Could someone please give me there sage advice.

IS the link exchange experts at fault? Is it my link exchange?

Also can I get back into Google?

Thanks

Gary

[garysims]

Hi,

As a precaution I have removed myself from the "automatic" resource directory (I guess read link exchange) http://www.linkexchangeexperts.com/ and I have emailed the "Google Team" back and I will see what happens now!

Thanks,

Gary

[glengara]

I notice esyndicat.com has also been pinged, may be wise to drop their "directory" as well....

[garysims]

glengara,

Thanks for replying... What do you mean when you say "I notice esyndicat.com has also been pinged"

Pinged? Are they banned? Is it wrong to have a manual reciprocal link directory.

Thanks

Gary

[garysims]

glengara,

I see now... www.esyndicat.com aren't in Google's index either!!!

It is only a reciprocal link script... I wonder if it has something to do with the PageRanking icon they show on each page. To get that they fire off a request to Google using features=Rank in the query.

I guess that violates the guideline "Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings"

Ho hum, it was quite a good script to :-(

Gary

[glengara]

I didn't check why they might have been pinged, but I also noticed you have empty categories that have AdSense on them, another dangerous factor, IMO.

[garysims]

Hi,

I asked the guys at esyndicat.com about their site and script and this is what they said:

First of all some reasons why we are not in Google index.. eSyndiCat.com is completely new site and it is online less than a month. It is possible you know about so-called 'Google sandbox'. Google does not index new sites at once. I have many examples of this. We are not indexed in Yahoo also, and this is also because we are a new site. There can be found tons of information proving that.

We also have examples of directories with Google PageRank display and they are ranked well in Google, their pages have a good page rank. And you can find lots online yourself. If you want I can send you link with examples.

We suppose our script can not be the reason of your disappear in Google index. Anyway, we plan to send an email to Google team and ask about using our script. We will inform you about the results. Let's keep in touch and find out this problem.

[glengara]

"Sandbox" affects ranking rather than indexing AFAIK, as for directories showing AdSense, a lot were pinged a while ago, a feature common to most was empty category pages showing AdSense.

Moral of the story, if you're going to have a recip directory, remove all "footprints" to third party sites...

[garysims]

I told Google that I removed the automatic link exchange and they said:

Hi Gary,

Thank you for your reply. We encourage you to review our Webmaster
Guidelines at www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. If you make
changes to your site, please let us know.

Regards,
The Google Team

Why do I get they feeling that they will never tell me anything other than "please review the guidelines"

Gary

[ADAM Web Design]

A semi-off-topic observation, but still one that I think may reflect somewhat on your problem.

I noticed, as others have, that you had AdSense on your site.

And while I find the screen capture I posted pretty funny (especially the first ad), I think it also goes a long way toward detailing what kind of a company Google has become:



although I gotta admit, I like the idea of being able to shop for a wife to swap online. But I gotta know, are there dealerships for this sort of thing? If I get tired of my significant other, do I get to trade her in on a newer model? How does this work?

Okay...seriously...your problem isn't likely that you have the eSyndicat link script. It's that you have a link script. Engines are getting more and more wise to this tactic, as many people have inappropriate and useless links "organized" into a myriad of often unrelated categories.

in your case, you even link to another "cheap hosting" company! Why would you link to your own competition? (And for those of you who say it will boost your ranking, the effect will be minimal if at all since there are two jokers not smart enough to effectively market themselves trying to piggyback off of a competitor. In other words, it does bupkes.)

Gary: drop the link script. It isn't helping you. Just kill it entirely.

And while you're at it, the same logic applies to the links page that's titled "Links". Drop that too, since you've got nothing of use there.

Look at it this way...if it's not of use to your customers, it shouldn't be linked on your site.

[garysims]

Hi,

I appreciate your comment and I am getting so desperate now that I might very well drop all those links.

But two things:

1) Google open write that links are the key to boosting PR. Are they schizophrenic. On the one hand they say you need links and on the other they tell me I am breaking their guidelines for having links. Errrmmm... Hello?

2) Why me? There are many thousands of sites with link exchanges reciprocal and automatic and they haven't been banned. What did I do to annoy Google.

I agree with your comments about what type of company Google has become. We all cheered when Google started, "What a great search engine" we all said. But now they have too much power, now they can break or make a web site. That is too powerful.

Gary

[glengara]

eSyndicat may well be the actual problem, IIRC the last entry in the Wayback machine shows it as a P orn site, which may also explain those ads.

Doesn't inspire much confidence in the company that presently owns the domain though....

[garysims]

glengara,

I had a check in the way back machine (a great tool by the way I didn't know about it) and you are right about the eSyndicat site. So I have dropped their script and for the moment I won't be doing any other reciprocal linking. I feel sorry for them as the script is really good. I also them an email about the previous owners of their site.

If I don't get into Google now then Google is broken.

Thanks,

Gary

[glengara]

Gary, don't know if it's my broadband acting up, but your pages take an age to download....

[garysims]

Here is my latest reply from Google... A ray of sunshine maybe...

Hi Gary,

Thank you for your reply. We appreciate your efforts to comply with Google's quality standards. We have sent your request on to our engineering team who will review your site to determine if it is eligible for re-inclusion. If the website is reinstated, it will appear in Google's search results sometime in the next few months. We appreciate your patience during this process.

Regards,
The Google Team

[random2004]

Yahoo to the rescue!

Well, Google will usually boot out anything that artificially contributes to enhancing page rank. It's also a way to keep things tidy within the index and prevent cheating.

[greeneagle]

GOOGLE:

"...If the website is reinstated, it will appear in Google's search results sometime in the next few months..."

That's a pretty good warning on one hand! Several months, would kill a lot of "bootstrapping" companies!

Ken

[random2004]

hat's a pretty good warning on one hand! Several months, would kill a lot of "bootstrapping" companies!

That's why you can't put all your eggs into one basket. 100% dependence on one program can make it or break it. How many millions of sites NEVER get to be on the first 10-20 SERPS? Or, show up in the SERPS for a few hours or a few days and then vanish?
I often thought that there was something wrong with this whole search engine thing. Think about it, millions of sites, a few thousand keywords and only a handful of sites make it to the top. That's why Adwords and PPC make so much sense, otherwise, the vast majority of websites/business would make no money off the Internet for lack of exposure.

[esyndicat]

Hi all,

Please advise, how can we change the situation?? We really bought domain name in August and did not look in Wayback Machine.. That's our great mistake.

Now it is too late to regret about it, we are not in index and we should solve this problem.

Do you think our PageRank feature can be a reason of dropping from index? Generally it is the same algorithm Mozilla Firefox uses for its `searchstatus` extension. I do have examples of its work and it did not affect negatively to google index.

IMHO, if we are banned (but I still believe we are not indexed because we are a new site) the major problem can be a link to us from script pages. Generally, eSyndiCat is just a link exchange software so itself it can not be harmful. We have too many similar scripts now.

Please advise anything in case we really banned by Google and if there are any possible ways to unban the sites?

Thanks in advance,
Simon Gooffin,
eSyndiCat CEO

[glengara]

Easiest solution may well be a new domain, particularly as the site is recent and you've little to lose.
I'd also make sure there are no "pointers" from Esyndicat to the new domain.

[esyndicat]

ok, thank you, glengara..

but in general may be I shoould wait for 1-2 week to make sure if it is banned or not ?

[osnet]

Originally Posted by glengara

eSyndicat may well be the actual problem, IIRC the last entry in the Wayback machine shows it as a P orn site, which may also explain those ads.

Doesn't inspire much confidence in the company that presently owns the domain though....

I have a hosting site that i'm developing.
www.example.com was owned by a p--n site.
www.example.net was clear...

the funny part is that I still get hits from various P--n related sites.

After about six months after the domain was purchased www.example.com returned to the index with a PR5 - due to my own efforts with backlinks to my other sites. I never contacted or submitted my site to google.

I suspect that the former owners (before it expired) didn't follow google's guidelines and were penalized.

[glengara]

Right Osnet, I'd taken the banned part as a given ;-)

*.. may be I should wait for 1-2 week..*

You could give it a while, and get some decent links to see if G will index you, though I'd also use the time to prepare another domain just in case.

[esyndicat]

hmm, last time GoogleBot visited my site on the 2nd of September and to say `it is strange` is similar to say nothing.. Msn bot and Inktomi comes to my site everyday and take content quickly enough. My positions in msn grow up, in yahoo also. I have written to Google team for several times but no reply yet.

Anyway, thanks for your recommendations about new domain name.. It seems it is really the best way out.

[ADAM Web Design]

I can't see the site getting banned just because its' a porn site. That doesn't make an ounce of sense. It MIGHT explain those ads that I posted (hell, it's as good an explanation as any), but even then I can't see that being the case.

I'd say what happened is that either you or the previous owners rubbed someone or something at Google the wrong way and ba-BAM! You're dropped. And I'm thinking it was you based on the artificial generation of traffic caused by offering a link script, and thus perpetuating a search engine problem.

It would certainly be an intelligent thing for Google to do; stop link scripts from being passed around by banning the sites of the creators. An ounce of prevention and all that.

I don't see switching the domain name as being the solution either. New name, same crappy service.

[esyndicat]

well, Adam,
I'm not sure if it is an "intelligent" position of Google to beat parents for their 'naughty' children. For say link exchange script is not a single idea of our site. besides there are too much similar sites that also offer link exchange scripts, recip checking scripts, etc.. And we can still see them on top of the Google SERPs.

Generally, I think we could not be a reason of dropping from index. It is possible our domain name was penalized before we bought it.

[garysims]

Hi all,

Well Google have lived up to their promise and I am now back in the index... Only 1 page and their cache is way wrong but a search for site:www.lowpricehosting.net now returns 1 result!

Thanks for all your efforts.

Gary

[freehits]

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

I don't see switching the domain name as being the solution either. New name, same crappy service.

That seems unfriendly, without even researching esynd's site ro service, I think calling any exchange script a crappy service goning a bit far. Relevent links, if that is the goal, may be useful to some no matter how they are gathered.

[glengara]

Sort of agree with both of you, may well endorse Adam's POV, but would wish he'd been a bit more "diplomatic" about it ;-)

[esyndicat]

hi all,

another interesting thing. we have 10-15 sites that link to us(usual script requirement). fortunately, they do not have problems like Gary had. (I want to sorry again in case we were the reason of your dropping from index). And they have a link to us for a quite long time, about two weeks. also content on their sites differs very much, from vacations to seo.

any opinions?

[ADAM Web Design]

Originally Posted by hoptoo

That seems unfriendly, without even researching esynd's site ro service, I think calling any exchange script a crappy service goning a bit far. Relevent links, if that is the goal, may be useful to some no matter how they are gathered.

And therein lies the problem. Most of the time when these scripts are used (garysims' usage being a prime example), they're not used for relevant links but simply for anyone that will link to them. That's not useful to an end user, and that's exactly the kind of thing a search engine should be looking at putting a stop to.

Originally Posted by glengara

Sort of agree with both of you, may well endorse Adam's POV, but would wish he'd been a bit more "diplomatic" about it ;-)

Tact never was my strong suit. ;)

[garysims]

Hi,

Just to finish this story, http://www.esyndicat.com/ is now back in Google's index. A search using site reveals 39 pages.

I think both these problems came about because the domains (http://www.lowpricehosting.net and http://www.esyndicat.com/) were previously owned and the previous owners got them banned.

Thanks,

Gary

[khurramali]

Drop the links exchange program for the moment.

Put some quality content on your website.

Just 5 pages are not enough.