Dropped from Google - a checklist to find out why.

Let all the sites dropped fill this checklist so we can narrow it down.

[HostingDirectory]

We all know a lot of sites have been dropped from Google but we don't know why. Perhaps this update has a long way to go, perhaps it has not. If it is finished we need to find out why we got dropped from the index.
I have assembled a check list that i feel covers all the angles. If sites dropped could fill in the checklist we might see a pattern occur. Then we can work out what we might need to change to get back in.
My checklist is below, some of the points are explained why it might be a factor.

1) Site size
It is reasonable to believe that a homepage that size is too large, will have too many people click away so may loose relevancy to show in the top results.
2) Outbound links
How many do you have on your homepage?
3) Inbound links
How many does your site have?
4) Adsense
Since it may connect innocent sites with scraper sites.. do you use it?
5) Content updated regular?
Some sites do not have content updated too much because they offer tools over info, but Google may consider sites with rare content updates to be poor quality and drop positions for them.
6) Adwords
Do you use paid advertising like adwords, maybe loosing some places will make you pay more or perhaps Google protects their paying clients?
7) Age of site?
How old is your site, perhaps older sites are likely to be better because they survived... so Google keeps them listed high?
8) Use of no follow tags on forums?
If you offer forums or blogs, do you use the no follow tag? Maybe we need to stop bad sites linking inside our sites?
9) Location of host sever
Maybe our host location plays a part in how high we rank to certain users?
10) Dedicated or shared hosts?
Are we being punished for what other sites do in a shared hosting enviroment?
11) Redirects?
Do you use any kind of redirects that Google may be having trouble with?
12) Scrapper sites linking to you / content theft?
Do you have lots of scrapper sites suddently linking to you or using parts of your content.
13) Are you listed in dmoz?
Perhaps Google pays more respect to dmoz listed sites?
14) Listed in Yahoo directory?
Perhaps Google doesnt want Yahoo directory pages to be listed high or maybe it does prefer them linking high?
15) RSS feeds on site?
Using rss feeds might be causing some kind of duplicate content penalty?
16) Pagerank ( before it dissapeared )
What was your pagerank.. maybe a high pagerank gets immune to any penalisations?
17) Extra domains pointing to main domain?
Do you have other domains pointing to your main domain that might be causing problems in Googles eyes?
18) Search engine friendly archives producing same content on different urls inside site?
Some forums like vbulletin have a search engine archive that produces the same content with a static html url.. maybe this might be picked up as duplicate content?
19) Did you bother taking LSI into consideration with onpage content?
Basically it seems Goolge is now using Latent Semantic Indexing in search results - so a search for zoo trips may look at page content and realise that zoo , wildlife and trips are related. So search results could give you wildlife trips for the term zoo trips.

It's a long list but if we all fill it in, we could then put the results in excel and compare them.. maybe see a pattern that all sites dropped might have. Then we can test that pattern aganst sites will did not get dropped.

Might be useful.

[Natashka]

My one and only big revenue generating site (by selling actual things, not some geek reseller stuff) went down from 6 to 15 on my main keyword.

you know, me too, one of my sites went from 4 to 17. Inner pages went even lower, some below 100. And just like you, I am also selling my own actual stuff. I am still #2 in Yahoo.

But there was one interesting thing I noticed - though traffic dropped, but my sales remained almost the same! This confirms my suspicions that Google's traffic is actually "empty". It's crucial for those who make their living from traffic itself (like sponsor ads, AdSense, etc.. I have such sites too, and those didn't drop thank God), but not for those who are actually selling their own stuff. Ppl probably just use Google to look around, shop around, and those who are into freebies ;)

Lets say they want something they have no idea about (yet!). They go to Google, enter "widget". You are #1. Ok, they go there. But since they've just started their research, they don't buy it from you, coz they don't know prices yet, or maybe they can even get the same for free? So they go further, and further... and when they actually make their mind to buy, they buy it from somebody else, somebody who may not even be in Google, through affiliate link, banner, whatever.

I gotta confess that I do the same thing when I shop for something. I've also noticed that from better conversions in Overture over AdWords. maybe, Google knows that too, that's why they came up with Froogle, or whatever it is?

[danny]

Bourbon sent me to page 20+ for the hundreds of extremely non-competitive keywords which I target.

Same here, though I'm only "targetting" those keywords through my choice of reading material and the lexical choice in my reviews.

[WhoopsAccident]

My search terms came back to the top today, hopefully to stay.

I understand nothing and have learnt nothing. Just a lot of anguish and life-shortening stress!

[Richie0x]

My site only got 1 referal from Google yesterday. Hard to believe when I used to get hundreds per day.

Got 10 referals from them today though. Maybe it'll be ok after all...

[oldpro]

natashka,

But there was one interesting thing I noticed - though traffic dropped, but my sales remained almost the same! This confirms my suspicions that Google's traffic is actually "empty".

I have been selling my own stuff online for 12 years. Track conversion rates very closely. At least for us google has by far the lowest conversion of any search engine. My only assumption is that google is a "surfer" engine and their market share tends to be a much younger crowd.

Real merchants care about how they rank on Yahoo and MSN. "Made for google" websites live or die every three months at algo tweeking time. It's a another universe with too much drama for me.

No offense intended for all the google people here.

[edited by: oldpro at 12:58 am (utc) on June 17, 2005]

[linkjack]

Isn't it logical that as soon as you find out why the sites were dropped and then go on to spill the beans Google will change their method to protect their private property?

What is the reasoning behind this discussion? I think none.

[mcneely]

1) Site size
800 pages, homepage 67kb.

2) Outbound links (3 from home page)
200 from links directory

3) Inbound links
How many does your site have?
1800 -- Yahoo, AllTheWeb, MSN, Wanadoo, *combined

4) Adsense
No

5) Content updated regular?
Every Day

6) Adwords
No

7) Age of site?
4 years

8) Use of no follow tags on forums?
No forum

9) Location of host sever
New Jersey

10) Dedicated or shared hosts?
Shared

11) Redirects?
No

12) Scrapper sites linking to you / content theft?
Roughly 10% of all 1800 incoming links

13) Are you listed in dmoz?
No

14) Listed in Yahoo directory?
No

15) RSS feeds on site?
No

16) Pagerank ( before it dissapeared )
4/10

17) Extra domains pointing to main domain?
No

18) Search engine friendly archives producing same content on different urls inside site?
No

19) Did you bother taking LSI into consideration with onpage content?
No

20) Do you use any of the following words on your homepage - under construction, updating, re-design, upgrading, etc.
No

21) Do you use more than 1 way to link back to your homepage from every other page in your site?
One text link on each page directs back to home page