I've upset Google - what should I do?

[BenG]

Hi,

I'm new here, and I could do with some help. I would be extremely greatful for any assistance you could give me :)

I have a website here: http://www.camelaudio.com, which used to list well for 'vst plugins' and 'audio units' and various other terms. However, suddenly I have disappeared from all ratings.

Is there anything on the site itself which Google might interpret as a spamming practice? If so what? I'll change it ASAP.

Also, I changed my webhosting company, and the domain moved around a week ago or so. Its on its own IP, so I wouldn't have thought this should adversely effect things. Is it likely that this could be the cause of the trouble?

Also, I have a forum where users can discuss my products. I recently ran a competition on it, and I think this may be the cause of the problem. The thread with the competition is here: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewto...120484&start=0

The basic idea was that people wrote a sentance about why they liked my products, and linked the name of the product to the appropriate product page, and the name of the type of plugin they used (eg. vst plugin) to the Camel Audio home page. I thought that this was legitimate, since my home page does contain info on different plugin formats. One winner won it outright, and then the runners up got free software for having their entry in their sig on the forum.

It looks like Google has decided that I'm a spammer and has promptly dropped me. What should I do to fix this, and how long do you think it might take for Google to stop regarding me as a spammer?

For example, would getting rid of all the 'vst plugins', 'audio units' links from the competition thread and all posts on the forum solve the problem, do you think?

Is there anyone at Google who I can talk to about this? And if so, how do I go about contacting them? (I spend a fair bit on Adwords/Adsense, if this makes any difference).

I would be extremely grateful for any advice anyone can give me.

Thanks very much!
Ben

[BenG]

I've noticed that sometimes its listed on the search and sometimes not. I presume this is likely to be because a change is being propagated through? I presume its still bad news, and that ultimately I am going to get dropped for the time being.

Ben

[aaron2005]

too much history there for a mortal to follow in under an hour, file reinclusion with google? I still see a pr7 for your main site, maybe time to do something different in that area, you could be right, it now is seen as spam, do you feel it was spam, if so/then do something new, fresh and honest. Live learn, walk more upright...

[Gary Golden]

You need to get rid of the script that hold people on your site, very irritating and I for one never return to sites that use this. If people want to back out of your site they should be able to.

Maybe GOOGLE picked up on it also!

[corporateface]

Your forum site is listed #1 in google
for vst plugins and your main site is #12. Not bad.
Not perfect. but not bad.

[vano]

I see your site on the 2nd page for "VST Plugins" keyword.

Those are probably just some changes in google index, and there is nothing to worry about.

Google sometimes drop random sites, when they (google) update something, but those sites come back in a day or 2 :)

-Vano

[DrTandem1]

I didn't look at your site. I think you have found the answer with your contest. Recently, I have seen a number of sites disappear and they were all doing some sort of a link scheme.

[incrediblehelp]

You realize the way you are detecting flash and then redirecting to another page could be a issue? http://www.camelaudio.com/ has a PR of like 7 and then when it finishes loading in my browser I get redirected to this page:

http://www.camelaudio.com/index.php?flash=1

which has a PR 2. Shouldn't you be detecting and displaying flash in another more search friendly manner? In this current mode it more than likely gives the robot multiple versions of your home page. This could be effecting you home page from ranking for 'vst plugins'.

Also when you say you disappeared from the Google index and I not sure how you are seeing this. I see this website ranking just fine in Google for few keywords I tried.

The reason you may not be ranking now for 'vst plugins' is more from an update Google a has recently rolled out.

[BenG]

Thanks very much for all the posts - I really appreciate it.

You realize the way you are detecting flash and then redirecting to another page could be a issue? http://www.camelaudio.com/ has a PR of like 7 and then when it finishes loading in my browser I get redirected to this page:

I hadn't really thought about this. Its certainly not deliberate that you have to click a couple of times - I find it annoying myself. I just had the site done on a budget a while ago, and somehow this was a restriction on how they did it. I've asked my current web guy to try to fix it ASAP. If anyone has any tips on how to do it differently, I'll certainly pass them on.

I didn't look at your site. I think you have found the answer with your contest. Recently, I have seen a number of sites disappear and they were all doing some sort of a link scheme.

I see - thanks for the information.

you could be right, it now is seen as spam, do you feel it was spam?

I hadn't fully thought it through - I just thought the competition was a bit of fun, and it did indeed turn out to really popular with loads of entries. However, in retrospect, I regret doing it. I didn't feel that it violated the Google rules though - but I suppose it depends on how widely they're applied.

Your forum site is listed #1 in google
for vst plugins and your main site is #12. Not bad.
Not perfect. but not bad.

KvR Audio is totally unaffiliated with me. Its just a place where several companies have support forums, and is also a great resource for info on audio plugins (if any of you are into music!).

With regard to the good results you're seeing (these were indeed how it was ranking), isn't possible that the changes are just taking a little while to filter through? I suppose it will become clearer over the next day or so.

I don't do web stuff for a living - I'm an audio programmer - so I apologise for my I ignorance, and am very greatful for your help :)

Ben

[thepcman]

I had that happen to me i had my SE traffic from Google cut in half.
I rode it out for about 3 weeks and I bounced back stronger than before.
I found out later Google was having one of their adjustments. So if it just happened I would sit tight, if you change things to try to fix it you might screw things up in the long run.

[Papadoc]

Don't rule out moving your site as potentially causing a bit of confusion either. Technically, it shouldn't but I've seen several sites that have suffered severely for a short period when it was yanked and installed elsewhere. Seldom, but too often to be just a coincidence.

If this is the cause, it is likely to be back within a month or so.

For what it's worth, I too hate scripts that lock you into a site. When I get one, I WILL get out, but I will NEVER go back. I've never understood the theory here anyway. Is it that, "if I keep people here, they won't know what to do so they will give up an buy something?" Just curious - I've never been able to post that question to someone who does it so maybe there's something to it that I don't understand.