'Unauthorised Access' for my SERP Title

[Gemini23]

During Google SERPS... One of my 'inner web pages' shows "Unauthorised Access" as a page title... and then "Your connection to this server has been blocked in the firewall. You need to contact your hosting provider for further information." as the 'description...

I am not aware of any problems with the website or web page.. and when the link is clicked it goes to the current live page..

any ideas as to why this "Unauthorised Access has happened?

the cache shows the web page as it is in its normal live state.

[tedster]

Most likely your firewall did block googlebot. The situation should clear up the next time googlebot gets a clean access.

[Gemini23]

This has now happened on my homepage which is number one on Google for a very good search term.... no idea what has happened here. I have contacted by hosting provider in the event that it is their server that has caused the error. It will be 'interesting' to see what my daily traffic is like on a web page titled "UNAUTHORISED ACCESS"

[Gemini23]

This is included in the reply from my Hosting company...
"I have checked the firewall and it appears an entire Class C range of IP addresses was blocked, which included the Google Spider IP. I have removed the range from the firewall and am investigating as to why it was blocked."

Great... meanwhile... would you click on a page that has a title of "Unauthorised Access"

I will compare traffic with other days and let you know...
BUT I cannot help feeling that traffic and sales will be down...

[Samizdata]

We all make mistakes, but I would be looking at other hosting companies.

If your host made two gross mistakes I would say ''run away quickly".

Others would be gone already.

...

[Gemini23]

my traffic as at 14:50 hours local time is 106... (the same as it was 2 hours agao) I usually have 1000+ unique visitors each day... this is gonna hurt!

assuming they have resolved the issue on the hosting server... is there a fast way to get re-spidered by Google and the "Unauthorised Access" updated and removed...

[edited by: Gemini23 at 3:08 pm (utc) on Feb. 14, 2009]

[phranque]

my traffic as at 14:50 hours local time is 106... (the same as it was 2 hours agao) I usually have 1000+ unique visitors each day...

Gemini23:
if you are referring to G Analytics, read this:
Are everyone's stats really lagged right now? [webmasterworld.com]

[Gemini23]

Does this sound 'right' as to the reason why my hosting company server BLOCKED Google Spider from accessing my website..
"Yes - because you have multiple (3+) ways to access each page without a good robots.txt or XML crawl file, and the bot spins off in so many directions that it eventually turns into the equivalent of a DOS attack."

[jdMorgan]

A good thread to search for here on WebmasterWorld is "Duplicate Content -- Get it right or die"

Each unique page on your site should be accessible by one and only one URL. This is called the "canonical URL," and there are many threads here on the subject. Any attempt to access a page or object on your site using a non-canonical URL should result in a 301-redirect to the equivalent canonical URL.

So, if you have the same page available at
http://example.com/index.php
and at
http://www.example.com/
or
http://example.com/?any-junk-here

then you have a canonicalization problem, and the reason given by your host is quite reasonable.

We have a front-page thread running right now on a new "canonical" tag recently adopted by the big three search engines. It is not a proper 301 redirect and won't help with any but those search engines, but can be used as a "Band-aid" until you get your server problems properly sorted.

Jim

[edited by: tedster at 1:18 am (utc) on Feb. 16, 2009]
[edit reason] fix typo [/edit]

[Gemini23]

Thanks Jim... I have emailed the host to get more details as I am not exacyly sure of the problem... or also how to resolve it.. ... Am I right in thinking that the problem is NOT that I have a navigation menu on each page and therefore all pages can be reached from more than one other page.. the website DOES show the same page with either http:// or [www...] but how do I resolve that?
I will check out the threads you mention... Thanks for your input.

[edited by: Gemini23 at 5:37 pm (utc) on Feb. 15, 2009]

[Samizdata]

Does this sound 'right' as to the reason why my hosting company server BLOCKED Google Spider

While Jim's advice on canonicalization is good, your hosting company should not block Googlebot IPs from accessing their customers' sites, and their second response (that it is your lack of a robots or sitemap file that is causing them a massive problem) would be enough for me to pack my bags and run away immediately.

Do they by any chance offer "unlimited bandwidth"?

...

[Gemini23]

Hi Samizdata, I am not at all happy with the situation and having spent many hours last night and today I have 'relocated' to another host today (although still waiting for IP and nameservers etc). This has already cost me several hunded pounds. IF the hosting company have such a problem with www or not, then why allow it within ther control panel. Also why not inform a customer of the problem... like I have said before... no. 1 spot on Google (how long will that hold out) and a page title of Unauthorised Access and description saying server blocked... no wonder very few click on it...

ps I do have a Google xml sitemap and Google doesn't 'seem' to have a problem with my website at all...

[edited by: Gemini23 at 8:26 pm (utc) on Feb. 15, 2009]

[phranque]

have you checked to see how many pages google has indexed from your site?

site:example.com

[Gemini23]

There are 486 pages indexed... most of them seem ok as normal... but they are not high yielding traffic... as is the homepage. The 'disaster' seems to have hit on Friday 13th..as pages cached on the 12th are ok.. and I am still waiting for Google to re-index (or re-cache)the homepage.. not sure which one makes the serps.. and am not sure how to get Google to re-index fast.

[edited by: Gemini23 at 1:50 am (utc) on Feb. 16, 2009]

[Gemini23]

A final update on this as my homepage has been indexed by Google and has its usual Title and Description and NOT the "Unauthorised ACCESS" caused by my hosting server. An expensive weekend. I have moved host and am now just waiting for an IP update on a sub-domain. The curious things is, that IF a "canonicalization problem" exists, then I am not sure that Google knows about it.

This bit is quite funny in a black humour way. In Google Analytics Sitemaps I have ONE OLD page that has a duplicate meta description (this page no longer exists and will be gone soon in the content section of sitemaps). This 'ONE' has been the case for several weeks. So I don't think Google had a problem thinking I had 'duplicate' content. However, I NOW have THREE more pages that have a DUPLICATE Title... and the 'titles' are.. "Unauthorised Access" which Google has picked up from my hosting company. Thank you web hosting company for that (okay they shouldn't stay long but...

[edited by: Gemini23 at 11:13 am (utc) on Feb. 16, 2009]

[Gemini23]

for information - reply from hosting provider... "count up how many pages you have on your site, or that can be generated. Then multiply it by how many ways you can reach it. If it's way over 300, and there are multiple parked domains, subdomains. and if they link back to one another, the site can cause a problem for the server and the Google bot, at least here. On your own server or VPS, it would be up to you. But our hard limit is 300 simultaneous connections to keep the server running smoothly."
So it would appear that it wasn't a duplicate content issue at all, BUT is what is said about number of connections a problem that I should endeavour to do something about? (not sure how)

[edited by: Gemini23 at 7:06 pm (utc) on Feb. 16, 2009]