Indexing problem? - pages gone from rankings

[James_WV]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question which may seem really basic to everyone but I'd really appreciate the help. I need some help telling if some of my pages are indexed or not. Basically I have a few pages that had really good positions for the last 6 months - I haven't changed anything on them at all and their positions were still good one month ago, I've just checked them today and the positions have completely disappeared.

If I copy and past the url into Google (i.e. www.companyname.com/location/sublocationwidgets) there are no results for this URL. If I search for info:www.companyname.com/location/sublocationwidgets then the page is there. What does this mean? Is the page indexed or not? If not I don't know why they've sudenly been de-indexed as I haven't changed them for a long time and I can't see any reason for them being so (I also use them as landing pages for some of my Adwords, sending a couple of thousand people through to them each month at least)

Thanks in advance for any advice

[tedster]

If the url shows up on the info: operator query, then it is in the index. But it's absence when you place it in the search box directly is certainly strange.

In the past week or so I've been seeing and hearing about more of this kind of anomaly, and that leads me to think that some structural changes are going on in the Google back-end. I'm thinking of the kind of data partitions [webmasterworld.com] that gave us the original "supplemental index". Often changes in this area result in at least temporary oddities.

Do your server logs show any traffic to that url from Google Search? That would be a definitive and positive answer. You might also try searching for some extended phrases from the title element or the page content.

[James_WV]

Hi Tedster,

Thanks for coming back to me. More strangeness on this one:

1. hard to tell with the google traffic, we have a lot of ppc traffic going through to that page and not much organic traffic (it was second page for a couple of terms and had nothing done to it, it was a target to start optimising this week as I think it should have done well)

2. it's not showing for any extended search phrases

3. when I search for the URL it isn't there

4. site: operator query = not there

5. info: operator query = there

6. cache: operator query = there

7. webmaster tools shows that there are 37 urls in the sitemap for that particular location and all 37 are indexed - and that url is one of the 37

The Google changes you were describing certainly sound like they could be the cause as I really can't figure out how it can't be found for the URL but is in the cache: and info: operator queries and webmaster tools shows it as being indexed. Anyone else experienced these problems too? Any advice Tedster or is it just a case of waiting it out?

On a related topic I have had one more page go, but that has been completely de-indexed in the last month, doesn't show on any queries and in that location some of the pages aren't being indexed according to WMT. This page was on the first page of results for its major phrases, hovering around 7 / 8. We have recently started work with a link building company and I believe they put their first link into this page (I've asked them to stop for the moment) - it was just one link - do you think this could be the reason for de-indexing?

[James_WV]

Hi Everyone,

I posted a question a few days ago as it looked like one of my pages had been de-indexed and I had no idea why. Tedster replied that he thought Google may have been doing something at the back end which may be causing flux. This is now happening to a few of my pages, here's what I've observed so far:

1) positions are changing on pretty much an hourly basis for phrases which had good positions for quite a while before that

2) searching for the site url returns no results

3) site: url - not there

4) info: url - sometimes there

5) cache: url - sometimes there

6) site: url intitle: Page Title - sometimes there

7) some of the pages which went down completely yesterday (i.e. didn't show up for anything) are back again today, but with reduced positions and still not showing for site: etc...

8) I put some pages up about a month ago and they're not affected - only older pages so far

9) We're a .com, hosted in the uk, all the searches have been done on google.co.uk

Anyone else noticing anything strange going on?

[edited by: tedster at 6:59 pm (utc) on Mar. 20, 2009]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]

[raj1094]

Hi, the same problem I observed with my website. I faced this problem for 1 week, but now the problem has been solved, keywords are ranking well in Google SERP results.For this to happen I did nothing, So what Tedster said is write according to my experience.

The reason may be the changes in the Google Back End.

[raj1094]

I have a question will changes in my system IP address also effects the Google SERP results ?

[JS_Harris]

no it won't raj1094, the IP address is of little concern to Google. If the new IP address also hosts sites that have adult or illegal content then you've got a problem.

It's not the IP address, it's what else is on it.