Where's the Google Luv?

2 updates and she still doesn't even know I'm alive

[AkanDian rain]

I have recently taken over SEO duties for a client who's last SEO service provider left me with no love from Google.

I've spent the last three months trying to get indexed and nothing is working. We are listed in DMOZ and Yahoo directories, have plenty of backward links, manually submitted to Google. I’m left with the eerie feeling that the previous SEO provider has done something to upset Google. My feeling has only been supported by the fact that we are listed in Google Directory with no PR. I’ve tried sending requests for help to two different Google emails and have yet to hear back. I have no way of knowing if we’ve been dropped, and if so, WHY? This is getting real ugly. My client has a lot invested in his online business, and without Google we are both suffering. Maybe it's time for me to find a bridge to jump off?

[WebGuerrilla]

All you can do is hurry up and wait. If it's been over 3 months, and you are not seeing rebular crawling behavior then it's probably about time to consider starting over with a new domain.

Non-penalty related drops tend to take care of themselves in a relatively short period of time. Penalties can linger on forever.

[AkanDian rain]

I don’t think my client with accept a new domain as a reasonable option. This is already causing him to loose a lot of business, and a new domain would only make things worse. Maybe you know of a good bridge :)

[Knowles]

Its been hinted that you can block google for a few updates then allow them back in. This might help, but I am not sure there is much supporting this.

[AkanDian rain]

What’s upsetting is that I can’t even figure out what the problem is so I can fix it. I’m afraid that even if I blocked her and let her back in… she would still smell something she didn’t like.

[Knowles]

Has the site ever been indexed? Is it showing PR0 or Grey?

If its something you have done then you should run through the site and remove anything you see as questionable.

[WebGuerrilla]

>>Maybe you know of a good bridge

I know the feeling. I've been through the same thing recently. A client site got canned at the end of December, and didn't return until April.

During that time, we never got a single response from Google.

Starting from scratch should be a last resort because you end up giving up all the established links. IF you have been given a penalty that expires with time, the best course is to simply wait it out. But even if you do that, there is no guarantee the site will return to where it once was.

Are approach was as follows:

1. Went through the site with a fine-tooth comb in order to fix anything that might have caused a penalty.

2. Established the newly cleaned up site on a new domain/IP with a robots.txt file that disallowed all spiders.

3. Sat down with the client and came up with a specific "time to abandon the ship" date.

Luckily for us, the site returned in the final update. But if it hadn't we would have disallowed the old site, removed the robots.txt on the new site, and then embarked on the painful mission of trying to get all imnportant inbound links updated so they pointed to the new site.

Certainly not an overnight process, but in the long run, you will get back.

[korkus2000]

Get a new domain that is an alias to the site. You won't get hit for duplicate content because the site isn't in the index. Make that your google domain. Get good links to it. If the other domain suddenly pops into google then drop the alias.

[AkanDian rain]

The site has been indexed in Google before (as evidence by their site metrics) however, by the time I took over they were no longer indexed. I personally have made no modifications to the site, and therefore have no idea what could have been the straw that broke the camels back.

The PR is grey.

[edited by: AkanDian_rain at 4:58 pm (utc) on Sep. 6, 2002]

[TWhalen]

Found something on your website in your bio:
"your guidance and expertise turned our ideas into a realty."
(shouldn't that be "reality"?)

As for your Google problem, why not try manually submitting (to Google) some of the sites that link back to you?

Find all your backlinks, and submit 5 of them a day.
It won't hurt them, and it can only (hopefully) help you get spidered.

[korkus2000]

AkanDian rain check out your site at archive.org. You had a lot of SEO no-nos. Archive.org can be a great help finding sins of the past.

[EliteWeb]

Sometimes the girls too busy at someone elses place to give you any visits ;P In anycase the site seems fine, when you took over was there any mod_rewrite stuff setup or htaccess setup that could confuse or make the bot hate you? If not then give it time. Check yer logs even for that one hit, identify the last visit and see if you can find out the changes that were made. Check your links to other sites making sure if you have any those links would effect you or not.

Download the all your base belongs to us movie and watch 20 times over and over while you wait for google to revisit. :P

[nipear]

I just looked at your site and index.htm has some hidden text etc... That looks like your problem. I found it by clicking on the home link on one of your sub pages. Looks like it's an old version...

[rfgdxm1]

>During that time, we never got a single response from Google.

Does Google ever respond to anyone? Does Google even care about anyone else but themselves? After being due to some unknown glitch dropped from Google for one month, I sent Google a polite e-mail. Just got the "Keep on Googlin'" auto-ack, and totally ignored. As far as I can tell, Google has far less of a "personal touch" then you get from a lot of nameless, faceless government bureaucracies. Websites to Google are just data to be crunched. That there is people behind them is irrelevant; they mean nothing. I don't think it makes a difference in getting a response because of a problem due to a penalty being imposed, or the inquiry is about some computer bug somewhere, or anything else. E-mail is just something to be ignored. Only exception seems to be reporting spammers and such. Google cares about going after the bad guys, but not at all about anyone else.

[AkanDian rain]

Holly Hidden Text Batman… Archive.org has shown me some of the shady business going on from last year… I’m sure the current home page (index.html) has most of that fixed, but I’ll have to go through the site and bug-bust any old versions. But would hidden text be enough to get us dropped? It seems like such a harsh punishment.

[rfgdxm1]

And, there is hidden text on pages in hidden links on that index.htm page. This site is still very much "dirty".

[rfgdxm1]

Hidden text like this is enough to get the domain banished from eternity from Google. With the problem having gone on for this long, might be time to abandon this domain name totally and move on. The last SEO for this site may have got it the Google Death Penalty.

[nipear]

You still have 'live' spam on your site. For example click on cd dup. then click on the home link and logo at the top of the page. You go to index.htm and at the bottom is the hidden text and no no links. If you type in your url you get a different default home page that doesn't have the hidden text/links.

If I was you I'd remove the index.htm page from the server asap. And fix those pages that link to it. Googlebot should come by soon from all the inbound links you have and hopefully stick you back in the results.

[RedEyes]

Is it worthwhile to remove or re-size the tracking gif, and deleting the off white "old" text at the bottom of the home page?

Normally wouldn't warrant consideration but after all the trouble....

[PaulPaul]

Also, whem leaving so much blank space at the bottom of a page, it is a 99% probability that it is stuffed with hidden text.

Very Obvious. :)

[glengara]

As a last resort to consider , some members have had success in getting a penalty lifted by using robots.text to exclude G for a minimum of two updates.
Use the time to make driven snow look dirty.

[AkanDian rain]

I’ve found some gateway pages the previous SEO provider setup to my site.

<snip>

These have ten times more hidden text. Would that be influencing Google too? And if so, how do I get these gateway sites terminated?

[edited by: WebGuerrilla at 10:27 pm (utc) on Sep. 6, 2002]
[edit reason] No specific urls please [/edit]

[korkus2000]

I would document everything. I would make sure that your client/Boss knows what the other SEO has done. Its better to tell them now then to wait until they ask why they are not doing well in google.

[startup]

This thread should be renamed, What to do when a neighborhood goes bad.
All of those sites are not listed either, even the design company. Follow "korkus2000" and WG's advice.
I hope everyone who reads this thread will start to monitor any SEO or design company they are "linked" to. Even ask that your link be removed from companies that post their "client" lists.

[AkanDian rain]

I just met with my client... and needless to say they are not happy. I think I'm going to start a conference on how to get your but chewed out. It's days like this that paid crawling would make life soooo much easier.

[GoogleGuy]

AkanDian_rain, make sure that you educate your client about all the evil things that the previous SEO did, and try your best to get them all cleaned up pronto.

I hate to see when regular companies are hurt by deceptive SEO companies. Tricks like that lead to the clients of the SEO getting a permanent blacklist. Doing a re-check when a company has paid someone to spam for them is usually not at the top of the list of priorities--a company that associates itself with spam takes some serious risks and can be tainted by the tricks of the SEO.

[rfgdxm1]

And as that is coming from Googleguy himself AkanDian_rain, you probably should tell your client that they are in DEEP doo-doo with Google, and things are very, very bad. It may be so bad that starting over with a new URL might be something to seriously consider. If the intent is to stay with this URL, *slap up a robots.txt* file IMMEDIATELY to block Googlebot completely, and then meticulously clean up the site to make it squeaky clean. I'd say wait at least 4 months until when and if you can get those gateway pages off the net before allowing Googlebot to spider again. If this client wants to stay with this URL, he should probably expect not to be listed in Google for a minimum of half a year. :(

And, DO make sure the client knows the blame is all on the previous SEO company.

[Beachboy]

Good advice, rfgdxm1. I would like to add that, should they opt to stick with the current URL and put up the robots.txt you've recommended, that they also take advantage of Google's feature to immediately have all web pages associated with this URL removed from the index. That will speed up the process a bit.

[GoogleGuy]

I wouldn't go that far. If the domain is clean in a couple weeks, I wouldn't be surprised to see it make it into the next index. ;) But AkanDian_rain, please let the company know that using deceptive SEO can have dire consequences, as they've seen already.