How long until Indexed, after violation / ban removed?

[Ma2T]

Hello,

On the 12th (or so) of January my hits dropped to 20%. My site was removed from google, nothing returned for site:domain.com.

After going to Webmaster tools, I see the dreaded red banner saying "Violation".

It took me three reconsideration requests until I finally worked out what the problem was. (They weren't happy with my titles / urls, over optimized). (problem url structure of some pages, now perm redirected)

January 29th I get an email saying they have processed the site. I log in, and the violation banner is removed, hurray!

But, I'm still not indexed. It's coming up to a month now, and while I have been waiting patiently, I'm worried.

Should I keep on waiting? How long does it normally take?

I have run the site for about four years, no problems. I run it on the .net, but also own the .com, I snapped it up when it became available.

Should I wait? or redirect to the .com?

Many thanks for your help guys.
Matt

[macas]

Well honestly ... You are not only one who wait Google support to do something , there a quite a lot requests, they become very-very slow on resolving or responding on user problem/requests.

You will have to wait till they put your website again on SE. That's progress and it's takes a time .

[HuskyPup]

Should I keep on waiting? How long does it normally take?

From an OOP could be anywhere from 1-3 months. If your site is ok now it could come back much stronger than before...obviously this depends on many factors therefore keep your fingers crossed.

No point in redirecting to the .com since G knows whose and where it is. Is the .com pointing at the .net?

[Ma2T]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.

I assume the violation has been lifted, as the red violation banner has now gone. I wasn't expecting to have to wait for Google to manually have to do something else :/.

Sorry, but what is an OOP?

Thanks for the estimated time window, coming up to the 1 month mark now (since violation removed).

I will hold off of the redirection to .com for now. I hoping a 301 perm redirect to .com might get it indexed okay.

Yes, currently the .com simply perm redirects to the .net (has done now for about 2 years, since I acquired it).

Thanks again for the input, I will keep on waiting with fingers crossed.

[HuskyPup]

Sorry, but what is an OOP?

Over Optimisation Penalty:-)

[Ma2T]

ah okay thanks :)

[MrSavage]

I can only speak from my experience with Google penalties and that after a while the penalty flag in your webmaster tools does disappear. In my case, the flag was gone, but my sites had not had the penalty lifted. I can't say for sure how long it was after my sites were removed ala penalty that they removed the flag in my account. I must say though, I was disappointed when that flag was gone because it caused me even more confusion. Just letting you know what happened to me. In the past, I found I was indexed immediately after penalty removal, although the vets here have heard situations where you don't get indexed after removal of the penalty.

In closing, just because the penalty flag in your account is gone doesn't mean the penalty is lifted. That is my personal experience on the matter. It's fact.

[Erku]

Where do you see a penalty flag in webmaster tools?

[Ma2T]

MrSavage, thanks a lot for your reply. It's nice to hear some inside knowledge as such.

Now that's just annoying and confusing to users.

I was hoping (and assuming) that the removal of the flag was an indication that the penalty has been removed.

Surely they shouldn't just randomly remove it, as how would we know if we "passed" to reconsideration review? As there email is generic and doesn't say either way.

I had been checking the webmaster tool area for the flag every few days. After the first two emails back from the reconsideration team, i immediately checked to see if the flag was lifted. It wasn't, so I did a third one, after making massive changes, checked most days during the week or so review, received the email, logged in and it was gone.

I'm hoping it was from the reconsideration review, but knowing it could just be chance it very annoying.

Webmaster area says in the sitemap area 23 index, out of 700 or so. Strange, it's been like this for a few weeks.

I have noticed two large spikes in the "number of pages crawled" recently, I'm hoping this is a good sign.

In my stats log today, I noticed a number of hits from [url removed - it did not resolve]

Could this be some google work? Anyone seen it before?

Thanks for the information and your help MrSavage, it's much appreciated!

@Erku, I saw it under my main dashboard area for the site, in the google webmaster tools area.

[edited by: tedster at 6:59 pm (utc) on Mar 20, 2010]

[Ma2T]

Just to clarify in my above message:

Webmaster area says in the sitemap area, 23 indexed, out of 700 or so. But none are really indexed...

[crobb305]

Ma2T,

How long was it from the time you submitted your first reconsideration request until you got a notice that it had been reviewed?

[MrSavage]

In my personal experience, if you google search site:yoursitename and nothing is found, then it's still under penalty. If you are not penalized you should see information (top search inquires, links) in the dashboard for that domain.

People will tell you other things, but for me, in my mind, my penalty will be lifted if I've done what I need to do. When I get that message from Google saying they have evaluated your reconsideration request, if my site is not indexed immediately at that point, then I haven't done enough. If I did enough my penalty should be gone right? Again, other people have experience where penalties can be timed. I need to see that to believe that.

In closing, google site:youdomainname and if it's showing as a result you're good to go. And yes, it can be depressing when it keeps on not showing up after reconsideration requests.

[Ma2T]

crobb305,

First time it was 3 days, second, 8 days, third 3 days. After which the banner was removed, assuming it passed...

The "reviewed" email doesn't give indication of which way it went.

I think I checked the webmaster tools area ever day up to the final email, and the banner was still showing. After the email, I checked and it was gone.

I'm hoping it's not a coincidence, but the timing would indicate it was removed after the third request was processed, but it seems as if I can't be sure now.

Nothing is returned for site:exanple.com.

But, after the third processed email, the banner was gone, and it did say "Pages are included in our index" but they aren't.

Now it says, Top search queries: No data available.

But I'm seeing Links to your site. It's showing many links to my pages, along with keyword info, and 23 pages indexed form the sitemap, which is strange.

Thanks again for your help and info MrSavage.

I too expected it to show in site: after, but like you say, many people say you need to wait.

Also, I honestly feel as if I have done more than enough on my site, I have gone way beyond what I needed to do.

[edited by: tedster at 2:47 am (utc) on Mar 5, 2010]
[edit reason] no email quotes, please [/edit]

[Ma2T]

Well, it's been over two month now since the ban, and a month and a half since I assume the ban was lifed, or not as it may be.

Unfortunately nothing has changed.

For years I have been 301'ing the .com to the .net (as I acquired the .com later).

Last week I removed this redirect, and am very close to moving my content over to the .com, and 301'ing from the .net.

I feel this is all I can do, after working daily on the site for 4 years, and honestly feeling that it is no longer in violation, I need to get my site back.

I think I will go ahead and do this, or .. is this a stupid thing to do?

Thanks for your help!

[crobb305]

Ma2T,

I am curious to know, on your redirected domains, do they show the backlink profile of your canonical? I have noticed on some of my domains that have been 302'd for years to the canonical (at the registrar level), that they show the exact same backlink profile.

For example, I have a .com redirected to the canonical .org. Both .com and .org show the same backlink profile, so my assumption is that both have the same PageRank. I wonder what effect removing the redirect would have (and redirecting the current canonical .org back to .com or one of my other domains that show the same backlinks).

This backlink profile display on redirected domains may be a normal part of Google. However, I don't see it happening on all redirected domains. For example, I have a competitor who has been redirecting some domains to his canonical for years, and those redirected domains do not show his backlink profile. In the end, I am not sure why it happens for some and not others. I am in your boat so I may have to consider redirecting my primary domain to one of my others.

[1script]

Guys, I don't mean to hijack the thread but since when this:

(They weren't happy with my titles / urls, over optimized). (problem url structure of some pages, now perm redirected)

has become an actual violation? A reason to lower your rankings perhaps but an outright violation that's even reported in WMT?

Ma2T, were there other details of this story you've omitted? I'm not judging, I would not feel comfortable elaborating on the actual reasons myself. But since you've started providing details anyways, would you care to provide one more? A binary Y or N would do just fine :)

[1script]

@Ma2T

And now on the actual topic of the post :)

I never had a privilege of actually knowing that my site is in violation of something. You think it's a bad thing but I tell you, it's much better than being hit and not knowing what hit you.

Anyways, a few years ago I had been hit really bad with the infamous -50 and (I suspect) -900 (or whatever the semi-official name for that one was). The only way to salvage the actual content of the site was to 301 it to a new one. It then came up in rankings quicker than a brand new site would. So, you maybe onto something with your .net to .com move. Besides, I think it will help tremendously with your marketing efforts. No matter how you're trying to stress that your site is on .net TLD, people will keep posting links to .com and you loose a bit on that extra redirect (as we are learning of recently)

That was the end of my 2c.

Good luck!

[Alex_TJ]

We had an OOP 2 years ago and the symptoms were different (though it took us just over 3 months to see the first signs of recovery). In my opinion there's a deeper problem that's still to be fixed.

[crobb305]

The only way to salvage the actual content of the site was to 301 it to a new one.

1script,

It is interesting that I keep hearing a 301 to a new domain may be the answer to a minus 50. How long did it take you your new domain to achieve the rankings? Did those rankings match the rankings of the old domain prior to the filter? Also, did you start with a new domain or use an existing one (an aged domain that you had owned for a while)?

[1script]

@crobb305:

Since we are talking about late 2006 developments, please don't hold it against me if I get some details wrong. Also what was true then may not necessarily be true now. but it basically went like this:

Original domain hit with -50 in Oct. 2006. New domain has been purchased around same time. Domain has been around for couple of years before that - it could be a factor here. One large part of the original site moved (a whole directory 301-ed) to the new domain in December 2006. Around May-June 2007 it started ranking approx. where the original site was before penalty. Original site came out of penalty around December 2008 (2+ years later!).

I would have to add that the original site has been completely devastated by the time in the penalty box. It no longer has penlaty and ranks for some things here and there but it's a mere shadow of what it once was. Having not much revenue from it we could not afford to continue developing it. The content became stale, some of the valuable services we provided before have been discontinued. New links accrual has basically stopped because not too many people came by. Many old links dropped or just washed away with time.

Having a penalty laid upon your site is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you were Google and just though that the site is not worthy, just penalize it. Couple of years later it will not be worthy for sure.

So, yeah, pretty bleak picture. Could have been even worse had we not developed that part of the original site into a new site of its own.

By the way, it's not a "happily ever after" type of story - the new (relatively new at this point) site has itself been hit with some sort of penalty a week ago. I post about that debacle here [webmasterworld.com]

[dailypress]

I would say wait 2-3 months then contact them again.

[abacuss]

Ma2T : Some suggestions from my side.

1. Submit the sitemap.xml
2. Get some new links
3. Update part of your content

I believe you will get your pages indexed quickly.