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7/7/02.. bang! I'm gone! Nowhwere to be seen. Not in the cache.. nowhere.
What happened? Well the SEO company I was using got banned. Since They had a link from my site to theirs....
This kills me. I was certain that no spam was being used on my site. It didn't matter! I was guilty by association.
Can I ever get back into the index?
Relax, wait a while, with an index of that size there will always be a few "burps".
If you think that is why then remove the link to their site and wait for the next index. I would also go through your site and just make sure nothing spam like is there.
Have you tried checking the links to you? Maybe they used spam type pages that link toy you. Have you asked them about this?
<added>and NFFC's right don't get nuts right away.
When this started I figured the index had just hiccuped. However, After some investigation I found the following:
1. I traced the links back from the SEO site. Every site that had a link to this SEO company is gone from the index... greyed out.
2. The SEO company is gone from the index.
3. On 7/9/02 I received an email from the SEO company telling me to remove a chunk of code from my website. They said the code was no longer "valid" with Google. After having the code reviewed it seems that the bulk of it was 6 pixel high links back to their website. Looks like they were using my PR to boost their rankings.
4. This SEO company had placed a small link back to themselves at the bottom of each of my pages.
Not good.
Anyway, I've removed every bit of code these guys put on my site.
So, any advice?
I get the impression you were just newly added to the Google index. If that's the case, don't panic. Wait for the next update, which ought to be in a week or 10 days. These in-between update additions to the index are very unreliable.
In the meantime, it's good that you removed all the "code" they installed. Be patient, let's see how it plays out with the next update. Good luck.
I have a very strong feeling that I know exactly who you are referring to (no names please). The dimension you mention is unique to a particular company and I believe you may need to send Google an email asking for help.
I'll bet you that the rest of the links led to other pages of your site, possibly gateway pages. In fact, those images measure 6x9 and are 52 bytes in size.
P.S. I just checked a few things from my end and the clients associated with this particular company do not appear to be affected just yet. The links are still there too. May not be the same company but sounds like the same technique.
Lesson learned.
(pageoneresults)
I don't think my site was reviewed and therefore am not sure if it was the code on my site or something else this company did. However, it's clear that if my site were reviewed the code would have most probably caused me severe issues with Google.
Thank you all for the advice.
Question #1:
Do you use shotty, misleading or "SPAM"-releated tatics to generate high results?
Remember, there are good SEO companies out there that do NOT operate this way!
Sorry for your misfortune, I wish you the best of luck.
I can only surmise that there are grey areas that fade to black. The problem may be that the rapidity of this change catches the SEO companies who ride the razors edge unaware, and ultimately leads to banning on a wide scale. The problem is that there are many sites who have hired these guys, thought everything was cool, and then were blasted out of the index without even knowing what happened. In the case I have presented, upward of 30 sites were taken out of the Index because of the actions of a single site. In the wilds of the web there may be very little justice.
Anyway... live and learn.
I've learned a valuble lesson or three. Perhaps others will read this and learn something as well.
Unfortunately, you as the consumer, will not know what questions to ask. Even if you did, if the company you are asking the questions to is not operating under best practices (whatever those may be), then you wouldn't know anyway.
Heck, if it were to happen to me, if I were in your shoes, I'd march right on down to the GooglePlex since I'm not far from them and fill them in. If you are not within driving distance, than I'd even go as far as a phone call to someone at Google. Who? I don't know, but if something disturbs me that much, I'd find out how to contact them directly through a little research.
Good luck!
That is when the legal letters can fly!!! And they will not be around any longer for certain.
Turns out that the index wasn't totally complete or just a glitch in the results. After about 3 days, the listing was there - consistently - for all of us to see. So it could be a "hang in there and wait" deal.
As for deceptive practices: agreed. Always talk to the SEO firm and ask what they do. Feel comforable with their answers. Make sure they supply progress reports. Make sure they aren't using "techniques" that could backfire, such as this weird link thing. Quite honestly, a link from their site would only be beneficial if the site itself was both well ranked and relative to your site's topic. If they are indeed out of business, great. There are an awful lot of hacks out there - the less the better.
If you've gotten rid of the offensive code, you will be re-spidered and with the right content (and a link in Yahoo and DMOZ) you should get listed. Don't get too hung up on page rank right now.
It may be worth contacting Google once the site is clean (help@google.com) but I don't think they are able to look into as many requests for help as they'd like.
However, I'm amazed at the power Google has. They are the "Roy Bean" of the wilds of cyberspace. One misstep, intentional or not, can get a person hanged, and if the circumstances are right, get you hung too.
Aside from sending an email to help@google.com, is there a formal process for review of situations like mine? Has anyone else had a similiar situation happen in which they were entered back into the index? I'd like to hear about how that process worked.
