alwaysthinking - 7:13 pm on Jul 31, 2005 (gmt 0)

Okay, here is what worked for me & I was a directory site that was completely deleted on 27/28, and now completely reinstated back into Google's SERPs as far as I can determine.

MY THEORY: Google was saving up all user reported TOS violations, and then purged them all on 27/28. That is why many types of sites have been complaining, not just Directory type sites.

NEXT - Google waited for the complaints to flow in from web masters that think they were unjustly deleted, and then Google Reps manually review each site for evaluation & "worthiness."

Google figures that the vast majority of sites that were reported for TOS violation, were in fact web masters that were stretching the limites of TOS... if not gone far beyond, and knowing their own malintent, would not bother contacting Google to try to get their site back in Google's SERPs. They flat out got busted and they know it.

Then a "relatively speaking" few remaining web sites with lessor or no real TOS violations are left, and Google can concentrate on restoring the sites that do have "worthiness" by passing Google's Evaluation Team's "smell test" upon manual review.

HERE"S WHAT WORKING (still in progress - but my site is in Google and getting normal traffic).

I observed what all the Google Evaluation Rep looked at during his/her several visits over 2 day period. On the second day, they accessed my site from what appeared to be a cached link from a time period of several weeks ago, that stated that it was a "snap shot" of how that page appeared on that date.

So I think that when users reported a page that they felt was a TOS violation, Google's reporting system automatically made a "snap shot" of the page the user was complaining about as evidence.

In my particualr case, it was a page from my Reciprocal Link Directory which was "empty" except for 2 blocks of AdSense and 1 set of AdLinks, BECAUSE nobody had submitted their link for inclusion in that particular category yet. I use an automated template system and made various categories for submittal suggestion when I initially installed the script.

The Google Evaluation Rep saw the empty category, BUT made "the right call" and scheduled my site for reintatement that evening because it was an UNintentional infraction caused by the nature of the script I was using. I did NOT create the directory with the SOLE intention of just feeding up ads on pages lacking content... like we all have witmnessed some people doing. The Google Rep could tell this by checking out all the effort that I have put into my primary content, and I am greatful that he/she recognized it and rewarded me justly by reinstating my site into Google.

FOLLOW-UP... Initially I just rashly deleted the entire Reciprocal Link Directory because I identified it as the probable cause of my site's trouble, other web masters may have different problems with their web sites. However, I have reinstated the script because I was worried about all my link partners dumping their links to my site, because I wasn't providing links to them anymore.

KEY POINT: I am going through and placing "seed Links" in the empty Categories that I have (maybe 10% of all categories were empty), so I won't be in violation. However it takes TIME as I am only one person - my site is ALWAYS a "work in progress."

My site is rather vast and I usual focus my attantion on my primary content, this Reciprocal Links Directory was an afterthought to handle all the Link requests i was getting from people - before I'd just ignore "you all" when you wanted a link from my site. However now I devoting my full attention to this Reciprocal Link Directory to make it in full compliance with Google's TOS. It's just that this is NOT a "money amking" area of my site, like some may think it would be. Mostly visited by web masters looking for FREE links for their sites!

DMOZ _ I do run a ODP script in a section of my site as an aid to my visitors who might not have found what they were looking for in my "primary content," or as complimentery informaton to their initial search interest. I do NOT use it as a primary feature of my site. The Google Rep also saw this, only looked at one page, and apparently saw no problem with how I was implementing DMOZ in my site - as an "add-on" not THE entire site, like some web designers do.

Hope these thoughts and observations help some of you.. because it IS POSSIBLE to get your site back into Google after being deleted during the most recent purge. I know for a FACT because my site is now back in Google after being completely deleted.

[edited by: alwaysthinking at 7:15 pm (utc) on July 31, 2005]