Removed from Google

[Toon]

Google has removed me from their site because of hidden text. I've took the text off and resubmitted the link as advised but anyone know how long it takes to be reindexed and whether everything will be the same as it was before or if I won't be listed as highly as before? About 80% of my traffic comes from Google so as you can guess my site is pretty quiet atm and I'm not making much money.

[Rob Holmes]

Might take 8 weeks - you maybe banned for life.

Unfortunately google won't tell you.

Rob

[Toon]

I sincerely hope not as my business would rapidly go downhill as I do rely on huge amounts of traffic from Google. They said just to remove it and email them when I have done so and they would reindex me. Probably just a standard email though.

[creospace]

How did you find out that this had happened?

[Rob Holmes]

I sincerely hope not as my business would rapidly go downhill as I do rely on huge amounts of traffic from Google. They said just to remove it and email them when I have done so and they would reindex me. Probably just a standard email though.

I imagine around 8 weeks then - but who knows.

Surely you knew that hidden text could result in a ban from Google?

I take it the hidden text was for SEO ? If so you will find yourself ranked differently anyway when/if they decide to index you again as the content will have changed.

Rob

[Toon]

How did you find out that this had happened?They emailed me.

[mattk]

Did Google tell you it was due to hidden text?

[Toon]

Did Google tell you it was due to hidden text?

Yep

[Rob Holmes]

Hmm really ??? - I genuinely didn't know they did that. You sure it was from them ?

I guess it's encouraging if they are trying to help you rather than just delete your site from the servers and blacklist you.

Rob

[Toon]

Yes definitely from them because I'm no longer on Google! I've deleted the email now.

[Toon]

On a similar topic I have began to build numerous websites for my customers where the product feed is fed directly from my site. There could eventually be hundreds of these sites. I know that Google also punishes you for this because the info will be the same so I need to find out a way of getting around this if/when I get back on Google. I mean, when affiliates use a product feed then surely the merchant doesn't get penalised for this?

[mattk]

You;re right - it's called duplicate content. To get around this you need to have your sites hosted on separate servers, different domain names, basically totally different.

Affiliates get aorund this as the affiliate content tends to make up only a small percentage of the total site. If you are effectively replicating your entire site over and over again then you could well have problems.

[Toon]

You;re right - it's called duplicate content. To get around this you need to have your sites hosted on separate servers, different domain names, basically totally different.

Affiliates get aorund this as the affiliate content tends to make up only a small percentage of the total site. If you are effectively replicating your entire site over and over again then you could well have problems.

They're all going to be on the same server. They all have their own unique domain name. The product info will be identical as it comes direct from my main store. If I change my main store then it changes all of the substores.

[DuaneJackson]

If you have a large amount of text on each of the pages that is unique to that page along with the syndicated content then you should be fine.

There is a generally accpeted figure as to how much variation there shouldbe in page content (Either in % or kb) to void getting done for dupliaction, but I can'r remember what it is.

I'm not aware that the fact they are on the same server is an issue with dupe content, it's only an issue with linking.

[Toon]

If you have a large amount of text on each of the pages that is unique to that page along with the syndicated content then you should be fine.

Thats not too bad then. Could I just change the meta tags for each one? I use oscommerce which consists of 1000's of pages so would need to add something to the header or footer to make each page display it.

[Toon]

Anyone any advice on how to get reindexed ASAP? I sent them the email they required saying that I had taken away the hidden text and I also resubmitted my url but in the meantime my sales are coming through but not as much as normal.

[DuaneJackson]

I don't think there is anything you can do really, you're at their mercy.

One option is to find a domain that's been in indexed and in use for a while (1 year +) and put all your content there instead.

[Toon]

Yeah thought about moving (or copying) my content to my other site www.bargain-sunglasses.co.uk

[CarlF]

... Google have also recently started a 'sandbox' (i've no idea why it's called that). Many new sites are being held in the sandbox for several months before being shown.

we have a couple of new sites that are top ratings in msn & yahoo, yet nowhere on Google. if you type the URL directly into Google, it has the site, yet the pages don't show up in their index.

Apparantly the sandbox is to stop people from spamming the google index. every article i've read says there's nothing you can do, other than to wait (and pay for adwords) in the process

Carl

[DuaneJackson]

... Google have also recently started a 'sandbox'

It's not really very recent, it's been around for a long time.

It's exactly why I suggested he use a domain that's been around for a while though : )

[Tin]

Nov 16th 2003 was the start of what we now know as the Google sandbox so it's been around for quite a while. Google re-indexed BMW's site when they were found to be using underhand tactics in order to manipulate Google but re-indexing did not take more than a few days. Ricoh, the Japanese giant fell foul in a similar way through using code deliberately designed to manipulate Google but they too were re-indexed very quickly. I'd be surprised if you were re-indexed at all, if you are, I'd be surprised if it was within the next 2 years.

Basically, Google makes it's guidelines very clear and if you adopt tactics which contravene these guidelines then there's a price to pay.

[Toon]

If that's the case then why would they send me an email asking me to fix the problem and then click on a link when I've done it? Surely they wouldn't do this is they had no intention of re-indexing me.

[Eagle]

How much hidden text is permissible? :shock:

I've got a crappy old web counter (black on black).

:)

[Rob Holmes]

How much hidden text is permissible? :shock:

I've got a crappy old web counter (black on black).

:)

I would say be safe and have none.

Rob

[Tin]

Toon said:Surely they wouldn't do this if they had no intention of re-indexing me.

Google has adopted a policy of informing webmasters why their site has been dropped from the index (previously no warning or communication was given) but because they provided a mechanism whereby you can let them know you've cleaned up your act, that's one less spam site in it's index but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be re-indexed.

I said I'd be surprised if they did re-index you as I'm aware of a handful of site owners still waiting to be re-indexed after being reported to Google by their competitors for spamming. The newest site has been waiting 18 months according to the web designer concerned with the others waiting longer.

It appears to be a self propelling problem for search engines in particular Google. The more aggressive their attack on spam sites the more workload they create as re-indexing seems to place your site into a 'manual' area awaiting approval.

[Toon]

If you were impressed that Google sent me an email to say they had banned me then you will soil your pants with this:

I sent them a letter on Monday just asking when I will be reindexed but not really expecting a response. They phoned me today and explained that it will take 3-4 weeks!

Although I greatly appreciated the unexpected call, the woman could not wait to get off the phone and I literally never said a word apart from answering yes to "am I speaking to Mr ....". I guess she did not want to be subjected with questions about Google as a company, it's practises, and many of the other questions people want to know about Google. So instead she phoned me, told me the score and hung up. Fair enough I guess.

[DuaneJackson]

Wow. Are you sure you don't live in some alternate reality? Or is Larry Page your dad and you've just forgotten to tell us? : )

Google are in my good books too now, they've finally started listing KashFlow on page 1 of their results for various relevant terms. They ignored us for a year!

[Toon]

Or is Larry Page your dad and you've just forgotten to tell us? : )


Yeah cos Larrys offspring all own small clothing businesses ;)

[Sharon]

Not really understanding, but if I have a couple of website addresses, which point/bounce to the same site, is that duplicate content or anything, and will Google allow it? Have 3 different addresses, only 1 of which will be advertised, but the other 2 are similar, so people could guess at it if they forget what exactly ours was... e.g. sweatshop.co.uk, sweat-shop.co.uk and sweatshop.com (these are examples, it's nothing like what I'm doing, just feel like I'm in one at the moment!)

Thank you!
Sharon

[DuaneJackson]

It depends how you get people to your main site if they type in one of your other names.

If you use a 301 (permanent redirect) then you'll be fine. a 302 (temporary redirect) is questionable - a straight forward "display the same content without redirecting" is a big no-no andf will get you penalised

[DuaneJackson]

If you've no idea what I am talking about feel free to PM me the addresses and I'll let you know what's going on and whether you are OK or not.

[Sharon]

Thanks Duane, that's agreat help/weight off my mind! The site's still being developed, so I'll just casually drop this into conversation with the guys making it, and make sure it's a perm. thing... I'm sure it will be!

[DuaneJackson]

Good to hear. As it's also in development. As it's in development still there might be a few other common mistakes you can avoid.... will it be a database driven site? If so, ask them about querystrings (the bit after the '? in an address) - you want to avoid them at all costs for your various pages.

Also, make sure your main menu navigation links are text based, not images.

[multilingual]

Google has removed me from their site because of hidden text. I've took the text off and resubmitted the link as advised but anyone know how long it takes to be reindexed and whether everything will be the same as it was before or if I won't be listed as highly as before? About 80% of my traffic comes from Google so as you can guess my site is pretty quiet atm and I'm not making much money.

One of my sites was dropped last November, but they never told me why.

I asked Matrixx for an SEO report to see if there was anything glaringly wrong with the site, but nothing major turned up (It certainly wasn't intentional spam anyway)

I spent about 1 month changing the site around and building about 50 new pages and the site finally came back into the Google Listings in December (about 8 weeks later)

The problem is that in November is was on page 1 and now it is down on page 5 and seems intent on staying there.

Having said that, my Yahoo and MSN rankings went up onto page 1 on both.

I would say that you have left yourself very vulnerable by relying heavily on Google, especially as you were using hidden text to push up your rankings.

Eggs and baskets, etc

Hope it comes back soon :)

JB

[babybizsifu]

Changing meta tags without changing the content? There's no much different, because the point is... duplicating content (well, I'm not a pro)

[Toon]

Still not on Google but business is doing very well! I had the worst sales week ever immediately following my departure from Google but since then business has been stronger than ever! Would love to know what sales would have been like with Google!

[Toon]

Well well well! Exactly one month later and I'm back on! Just been searching google for one of my products and noticed I was top of the list ;) I checked two days ago and wasn't there. Do you think my rating will be the same or will I have to wait until Google crawls all of the other sites with my links on it?

[ibscom]

Hey toon

I'm new to the ecommerce business and have just launched my own site. I submitted to the search engines about two weeks ago. How long on average does it take to get indexed?:rolleyes:

[epiphany]

Get a couple of quality link backs to your site and you should be indexed in Google and the other search engines within a week. The idea being the sites find your site after following the link.

[ibscom]

What would you class as a quality link? Would this include getting another website to advertise mine?

[epiphany]

A link from a site that is regularly scanned by the bots of search engines.

[ibscom]

Cheers for that, I'll give it a try!

[mattk]

If you've recently launch a site then a well targetted press release will get you all the inbound links you need to get indexed by the major search engines. You should also, as a matter of course, register your site with the major online directories.

[ibscom]

Would a press release not be fairly costly

I am starting from fairly humble beginnings i.e. home based, limited funds, etc

Do you have any ideas how this can be done on a low budget?



For Skype and home office equipment.

www.ibscom.co.uk (http://www.ibscom.co.uk/)

[mattk]

You can write a press release yourself and contact local media, online IT news sites and anyone else you think might be interested. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get your mug in the local rag - even I managed it (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=14993). Don't listen to these PR types who make it sound difficult!

[epiphany]

Ibscom, if you are talking about a press release to get links then sure write it yourself and submit it to sites, a lot of people would say the quality doesn't really matter if no one is going to read it.... Personally I would say it will have almost zero positive effect for your business as well as (imo) being half arsed way of going about doing a press release.

Anyway you only need one link to get your site listed. If you don't have the time or a decent idea for a press release just do a link exchange with someone....

[ibscom]

Thanks for the advice I have a mate who has a web site so I think I will look at a link exchange first with a view to a press release when I'm more established.

cheers for all of you help

For Skype and home office equipment.

www.ibscom.co.uk (http://www.ibscom.co.uk/)

[epiphany]

Ah now you have enough posts to get your link on here you may just see yourself listed shortly :)

You know how to check your are on thier database ye? Just stick your domain name into the search box of Google, Yahoo, etc...