just dropped out of google

why between updates?

[stavs]

Hi

One of our main sites has vanished in the last week. During the last few days, its been there one minute but gone the next, now it really seems to have vanished. This could not have come at a worse time, its like a nightmare...

What I'm confused about is the timing. Normally sites get dropped (for whatever reason) during an update - so why now? Any ideas?

[caine]

the crawl/update process is constant for the bigger sites on the web, you may find G is playing with spam triggers, and your site flipped one. Don't know but if your content is clean, may be worth checking all your backlinks and where they backlink and make sure that you've not gained some heavy association to a linkfarm or a banned site for what ever reason

[Kareem]

Did you look for the site in all of the data centers individually? Has the site completely vanished from the index? If the site is nowhere to be found then perhaps it's a case of (manual) penalty (not saying you deserved one)?
It'd be interesting to see what others have to say.

Kareem

[stavs]

thanks caine.

the site is clean - no tricks used.

Page Rank still shows as 6 and still shows the same amount of back links.

By virtue of the fact that PR is still showing, would that not imply that this is something other than a spam issue?

[stavs]

Hi Kareem - nowhere to be found on any of the nine datacenters. (but as I said, PR and backlinks are still intact).

[caine]

The PR is associated to the site on the perverbial monthly updates, but between the updates, the PR would show but the site can be in and out of Google as much as they want, it strike's me that its something manual or that there is serious data being shifted around the main index, and your site is part of the shift, hence it could be temporary. Hard one to call!

[stavs]

thanks for your ideas caine. I probably should know this but what do you mean by 'manual'?

[stavs]

just checked with my host company to check if there have been any server or IP changes - nothing's changed there.

[jaman]

My site was dropped also for no apparent reason? I contacted google about this complaining that my site has MUCH more relevant information on the topic,than most sites.

They replied . They said that it's all done automatically and that it's all done by the computer and that google was in no way targeting me .

Then they referred me to a page that basically tells you how to possibly get your site to be recognized.
(It's a generalization ;not pertaining to my individual web site)

I'm a newbe at all this,but one of the first things they mentioned was that you need a SITE MAP.

I didn't realize a site map was that inportant.I didn't have one on my site.

I got all the KEY WORD and DESCRIPTION stuff down pat, my site is listed in the 5th to 50th position on most engines, but google dropped me like I was MUD. wa wa wa

[planbeta]

I've had a similar thing, my main index page got listed a few weeks back. None of my other pages got listed, just my home page. Yesterday googlebot came by and crawled most of my site. After it stopped crawling, I checked Google the index page has disappeared from the listings entirely, even from all the datacenters.

Anyone else have this or know why the index page has disappeared? I'm hoping that it will re-appear along the with recently crawled pages, and is just part of the dance.

Cheers

Chris

[mfishy]

Jaman,

You do NOT need a site map. Just links that googlebot can crawl to access your pages.

Actually, all you really need is a link pointing to your site to be in the index.

If you have alarge site, however, a sitemap may benefit your users.

SERPS have been in a constant state of flux for a while now and I would not be surprised if you show back up soon.

[stavs]

a development: my site is now showing up in 3 out of 9 data centers (zu, ab & cw).

it was only showing up on one on Friday (cw) - is this a promising indication?

[stavs]

hmm, now only showing in one data center (cw).

really don't know what's going on here - this is killing me.

[planbeta]

I think that's why it's called the google dance - dancing around in the data centers.

Mine is nowhere to be seen in any of the data centers!

Chris

[jaman]

what is a data center guy's (sorry I'm a newby) is it another term for search engine?

[casperkor]

Can someone please tell me when the last update was? I have had my site up since late April and only one page can be found.

I would appreciate any help.

[mfishy]

The last update was April 11th. So, you would have had to have had the pages online by late feb/early march to have been included in that update. Of course, frshbot may hav epicked your pages up along the way for temporary listings.

You can view a chart of all the Google update's here [webmasterworld.com...]

[Stefan]

what is a data center guy's (sorry I'm a newby) is it another term for search engine?

Google doesn't hold the index in just one giant computer, it has a number of different banks of machines in various geographical locations. These are the different datacentres. When you do a search, you will hit one or another of them and because they don't all have the exact same copies of the database, the search can give slightly different results depending on which datacentre you're referred to.

Hope that helps

[jaman]

ya, thank you!

[Awilliamson]

I am knew to this forum, so excuse me for being a n00b. How does one check each data center individually or even tell where the data centers are?

[planbeta]

there's a couple of sites where you can check all centers in one go 'cept it won't let me post urls here

[micahb37]

I am knew to this forum, so excuse me for being a n00b. How does one check each data center individually or even tell where the data centers are?

There are many tools online to check the various datacenters. Do a search for "google dance" on the Big G.

www-sj.google.com
www-fi.google.com
www-cw.google.com
www-dc.google.com
www-va.google.com
www-ab.google.com
www-ex.google.com
www-in.google.com

Are the eight data centers. When Google is updating its index, the results on each will be different (hence the reference to Google dancing).

Welcome!

micah

[jaman]

this is a response that the Google people sent me .

Thank you for your note. Results in our index change regularly based on
ongoing, automated processes aimed at improving the quality and content
of
our search results. Changes you may observe include, but are not
limited
to, addition of new sites, changes in the ranking of existing sites,
sites
falling out of the index or getting dropped and site's content
fluctuating
between old and new content.

We realize these changes can be confusing. However, as stated above,
these
processes are completely automated and not indicative of wrong-doing or
penalization of individual sites. Inclusion and ranking in Google is a
free service. We currently include over 3 billion pages in our index
and
it is certainly our intent to represent the content of the Internet
fairly
and accurately. The ongoing changes you have observed are part of this
effort.

While there are no guarantees that your page will consistently appear
in
our index or appear with a particular rank, we do offer guidelines on
our
website for building a "crawler-friendly" site. You can find these
guidelines at [google.com...] .
Following
these guidelines may increase the likelihood that your site will show
up
consistently in Google search results.

Please note that we will not drop your site from our index if you
submit
your site multiple times.

We hope the information we have provided above is helpful to you. Due
to
the tremendous volume of information and help requests we receive, we
are
not always able to provide personal attention to questions pertaining
to
individual websites. If this response did not adequately resolve your
question, we hope that you will visit the webmaster section of our site
at
[google.com...] . In an effort to better address
your
needs, we've dedicated this entire section of our website to answering
common webmaster questions, listing Google's quality requirements and
recommendations, and much more.

Of course, we cannot anticipate and answer everyone's questions on our
website. Realizing this, we have also created a Google discussion group
on
Google Groups where Google users and webmasters can connect to share
their
vast knowledge and experience. You can access this group at
[groups.google.com...] If you
have already checked the webmaster section of our website and haven't
found an answer, we encourage you to post your question to the Google
Support group.

Regards,
The Google Team

[stavs]

but surely the 'dance' occurs during the update cycle - as far as I know, Google is not updating at the moment.

[pgkooijman]

Hi All,

I am new to this forum but used to be on many others related to being a webmaster and surviving Google Dances.

I have 4 sites that are highly ranked in Google and thought I knew Google. I just started some new sites however and now I am having the same problems as planbeta: I submitted the first site about 5 weeks ago. Pretty soon the homepage was indexed, but only the homepage. I had no inlinks. Then yesterday I checked and the site has disappeared from Google. No inlinks, no site to be found at all. Which is weird as I have been able to establish some class A in links. I have also been added to DMOZ recently. Is Google going through some weird spells? Why remove my site when it is finally getting all the things that Google loves?

I know SEO is a waiting game but I have been playing the game for many years now and knew how to play... I feel like a n00b again....

[Jon_King]

Since an appreciable amout of time has passed, and only my own sites to compare, I would like to survey broad ranking results among us.

In general would you say your post-Dominic sites rank:

a) Much higher
b) Higher
c) About the same
d) Lower
e) Much lower

Overall I have had no gainers. About half have held the same and half lower. So, for the sites I manage...

d) Lower

[IanTurner]

c) about the same

[mrguy]

I experienced a roll back to Feb ranks on some, a gain on others that I made changes to during dominic to try and make up for what what I lost in the roll back.

[whiterabbit]

unfortunately:

e)

but i'm hoping the fat lady is just warming up

[tigger]

New Sites

E

6/12 mth old sites

D

12mths +

C