unlisted :-(

Will my ranking be the same?

[Laurel]

My server was down (I guess) during the time of the last crawl.
so my site which used to be #5 with many links scattered on other google pages is now down to 1 listing on page 2.

Assuming I do get added again, when they re-index, will I still have my same very cool ranking?

or will I have to claw my way up?

[tommyleef]

Hello Laurel I would not worry too much...Googlebots do many crawls over the course of a few days and only if you truly were down during a full deep crawling would I fret. :)

[jdMorgan]

Laurel,

If you have seen the ranking change during the past few days, your site has dropped due to FreshBot activity, not deepcrawler activity - You won't see any ranking changes due to deepcrawl activity until the update at the end of the month.

It is more likely that your site was down when the FreshBot came by, not the deepcrawler. And FreshBot results are temporary, usually lasting only three days at the most.

This still leaves open two questions: Why was your site down, and why don't you *know* that the deepcrawler missed you? If your host is unreliable, you ought to looking for another one, and if you don't have access to access log files showing deepcrawler actvity, the answer is the same. Acceptable downtime is measured in minutes - not hours - per year, and access to stats is vital in today's competitive environment.

Best,
Jim

[Laurel]

Thanks for getting back to me on this.

I should have said that this happened in early January.
It was right after the crawl that I was dropped.
(as best as I can tell)
My sever was up and down all weekend (for the 1st time in 2 years) I forgot now why they were down at the time it seemed reasonable.
It just seems weird that after a year of being in the #5 spot, most all my pages have disappeared and the one that stayed is on page 2. and this all happened around the time they would have crawled through.

Does this sound right?

and if I am re-indexed will I still get my #5 spot back?

[Laurel]

there is an echo in here :-)
the above was posted twice and I can't find a delete botton.

[tommyleef]

Hey Again Laurel :)

That is hard to say about taking back you #5 spot because if they tried and found dead pages/domain this may take resubmitting and waiting. That is a worst case senerio however.

More than likely you will have a good ranking, but maybe not #5 all at once again.

It depends on how competitive the chosen term.

Regardless of the good reason for a server being down, this was perhaps costly timing :(

I'm hopeful for you that this is just a bleep in the radar and you will be restored prompty.

Fingers crossed for you...IT WILL NOT HURT TO DO SOME DEEP SUBMITTING ALL OVER AGAIN TO GOOGLE...Google themselves say in their webmaster tips it doesn't hurt to resubmit as often as you think needed.

Sincerely,

Tommy Lee

[Laurel]

Hello! :-)

As soon as I noticed what had happened I submitted like crazy to every SE and directory I could get my hands on.

With Google what is it that determines our ranking?

is it keywords, link hits, page title, outside links or all of the above?

Googlebot has been all over my site that last few weeks, is this a good sign?
*please say it is!* :-)

Thanks for all your help by the way I had no idea there was so much involved.

[jdMorgan]

Laurel,

In simplest terms, with Google it's incoming links from relevant high-quality sites and good on-page contents.

If Googlebot is all over your site, that's good.

The links at the top of the Google Forum page will be very useful to you (Google KnowledgeBase, etc.)
Also, use the site search feature and look for "12 months to success in Google alone."

"Submit Your Site" is pretty much dead. One good link in the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org) and one in Zeal or LookSmart will get you into (and keep you in) most important (USA) search engines.

Best,
Jim