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Why Has My Site Disappeared From Google?
By Edward Clarke, Sat Dec 10th
strong>Why has my site disappeared from Google? This is a very common question and it happens to the very bestof websites. If you're sure your website was previously listedin Google and had some value, then has suddenly disappeared,you'll need to start investigating the reasons why and how youcan resolve the problem. We'll take a step by step approach and be methodical about thisas it's the only way to truly determine the blame and hopefullyresolve the problem.
Step 1 - How do I check if my website is listed withGoogle? First of all, visit www.google.com and type yourwebsite address into the search box, then press search. If youget a result, you're in Google. Move on to Step 3. If not, thenchances are you've either mispelled your domain name, so checkcarefully, otherwise, you're banned. In this case, move on toStep 2. Step 2 - Help, my site has been banned fromGoogle The very first thing you have to do is clean up your website. Ifyou have any of the following issues, remove or deal with themimmediately. >> Was your website down during Googlebots visit? If so,consider another hosting provider. >> Duplicate websites arealso dismissed. Check for your content on other peopleswebsites. Google may have favoured them over you. >> Check andremove any hidden tricks or spam. White text on white backgroundis common. This is likely to be the main reason for being bannedor dropped. Check for hidden elements, doorway pages, clientsniffers sending different content to different users etc. >>Although you can't ulmimately control your inbound links, avoidbad neighbourhoods such as massive link farms, spammydirectories full of adverts etc when seeking links. Once you're sure your website is clean, write an email to Googleexplaining your circumstances. Tell them your website is nowtidy and full of important information, there are no hiddentricks employed and that you have learnt your lesson. Alsoprovide full contact information. If you have relied on a searchengine optimisation company to promote your website, it isrecommended to provide Google with their information too and ithelps them get a better understanding of the tricks employed andhow to provide a better service. If done correctly, Google should respond and start to includeyour website within a few weeks, however, be prepared to wait. Step 3 - Why has my Google rank be dropped? First of all, is your site new? If so, you could be trapped inthe highly controversial and theoretical "Google sandbox".Whether this really exists or not is unimportant as the symptomsmost certainly do. The sandbox is like a probationary period fornew sites. It can take months to climb out but if your site isunder 6 months old then use this time to publish content richinformation, articles and the like as well as getting somequality links from other relevant sources and directories. Bepatient and
keep watching results. If your site is well established, been around a while andsuddenly disappeared, then you'll need to check your inboundlinks. You do this by running a character check and entering"+www.yourdomain.com" into Google, then notingthe results. This isn't the number of links Google associateswith your PageRank, but the actual number of website pages thathas your domain listed either by hyperlink or plain text. Writedown the number of results. Next run a link check. Enterlink:www.yourdomain.com into Google and writedown the results. This lists the number of sites offering valueto your site that Google knows of so is very important to get asmany as possible. Analyse the results Now, analyse the numbers. If you have no character checkresults, you must start getting inbound links to your website.Read up on my SEO article on how to start a marketing campaign. If you have character check results but no link check results,then the links you are getting are the wrong ones. Download the Google Toolbar and monitor PR of the pages yourlinks appear. There are many ways of linking to websites andthose that link to you must do so properly. Rule: Your link must be a proper hyperlink and not aredirect through an ID. No JavaScript, Flash or other such linkseither. Proper hyperlink or nothing at all. Another thing to note is make sure you see the location of wherethe link will be placed. It must have a PageRank value. Rememberthe Google Toolbar. Quality and quantity equals results. If you have character check results and link check results thenbasically you need more of them. Remember, quality and quantity. OK, so you have tons of links, both character check and linkcheck. It's not your marketing that's the problem, it's the SEOside of the coin. Search engine optimisation consists ofdocument structure and correct keyphrase placement. I'll refer you back to my SEO article to get started there. Google, as do many othersearch engines, constantly shift the posts as to what they deema relevant website which is why results and positions constantlymove about. This makes things extremely difficult to keep up with but it'simportant to stick to certain rules to be as consistent aspossible. Google will take time to display the changes you have made so bepatient. It could well be that the competition have simplysqueezed you out which does happen, however you'll know ifyou've suddenly taken a hit in the listings as it can be veryimmediate. Ultimately, follow the steps laid out above, bemethodical and be patient. About the author:Author of Optimising Your Website, and an IT Consultant forlocal UK Government and various European Union initiatives,Edward Clarke specialises in website accessibility, css, webstandards and search engine optimisation. Visit Edward's consultancy website and his blog for more information.
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