Not showing up in the index

Was indexed but not now

[darrell]

My site was indexed a month ago but now Google shows no information available for this site. I used websposition for this site and did not know any better. Now I know after discovering this forum. Can any one help?

[darrell]

So now that we have determined that 302 redirects and 200 redirects can cause problems with pages/sites listed on Google. Does everyone agreee that when looking for a hosting company, that we should look for one that uses a 301? Am I correct to assume that? I know there are webmasters far more qualified to discuss this so I am going to leave it up to someone else. The new web host that I was going to transfer my sites to has the following after checking using the header tool:

Status: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 14:53:00 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) (Red-Hat/Linux) mod_ssl/2.8.12 OpenSSL/0.9.6b PHP/4.1.2 FrontPage/5.0.2.2510
Last-Modified: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 00:03:11 GMT
ETag: "64c2d5-1b5e-3f552fbf"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 7006
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

Does this: "Status: HTTP/1.1 200 OK" indicate a 200 status?

[dirkz]

200 doesn't mean redirect. It means "ok", so the page requested was delivered allright.

Redirects come into play when you have several URLs pointing to the same content, e.g. example.com and www.example.com. Then you have to redirect one to the other using 301 (permanent redirect). If your hoster sets up a 302 (temporary) you lose, Google often chokes on it.

I don't know whether this was your problem. I've also heard of web hosters blocking crawlers for their customer's sites, which is even worse for your ranking.

Good luck with your new host!

[darrell]

Thanks for your reply! I am sure this is all going to help us in the longrun.

[Silicon]

I have MULTIPLE sites that are now gone from the Google Index that were hosted at GoDaddy. This hosting company seems to be the big issue here. Whats wrong? I have no idea and don't think anyones gonna find out...I just know I'm leaving their servers ASAP! In fact I haven't seen googlebot hits around any of the sites in weeks! Is it possible to find a Googlebot emulator anywhere?

[BlueSky]

So now that we have determined that 302 redirects and 200 redirects can cause problems with pages/sites listed on Google. Does everyone agreee that when looking for a hosting company, that we should look for one that uses a 301?

Google doesn't have problems with 200 or 302. As for 301's, did you guys set up the directive properly to tell the server to return that code?

If your sites are brand new, then you ought to do a search here because Google has been known to drop out new sites a few times before they permanently stay.

[Zapatista]

Nevertheless, I am playing it safe and dumping godaddy.com like my 10th grade girlfriend that cheated on me.

[Chef_Brian]

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to post this:

CCowboy posted this in another thread:
==========================================

I have my on dedicated server and I too am missing about 70% of pages over more than 60 sites over 20 I.P.s
I have a high PR6 Domz site that has lost 95% of it's links.

I think Google goofed!
==========================================

So this rules out godaddy to blame ... while they might be doing something that google does not like it would seam that other hosting companies are doing the same?

I don't think it is a godaddy issue -

Of course I just ordered my dedicated server!

Cheers,

Brian

[Zapatista]

Maybe. But the situation can't get any worse then it already is with this site. Changing hosts is a cheap and easy. If it works, great. If it doesn't, then the situation isn't any worse then it was before.

[Chef_Brian]

Hey Zap,

I am with you and upgrading my hosting situation buy renting my own server (dedicated) which I will have more control and probibly be able to host more sites on for the same or less money.

I tend to agree with you that it can not hurt, my gut tells me though that google dropped the ball on us and godaddy did not have anything to do with it.

Brian

[darrell]

Yes. We don't know if the issue is actually with their servers... if they are using redirects, or whatever. To be honest, I have had great customer service with them so far. They have always answered my questions and tried to help wherever possible. I just need to know that they are not using redirects or any such thing that would cause adverse affects directly or indirectly on the SERPS. We really can't say that the problem is directly caused by them... after all (in all fairness) it could be SERP related! We all have to use our own better judgment before making a hasty decision. It might be prudent to at least consult with them before changing host. What happens if it turns out one month from now that the problem was with the big ‘G”. Should you decide to change over now, is it possible that you could make matters worse? Perhaps, run into issues with your new NS(name server)?

[Chef_Brian]

Update:

Just noticed the 250 page site I built for halloween in July just got the ax about 12 hours ago. Over the last month over 200 pages were indexed in google. Right now there are two pages listed and the listings (serp's) look very funny?

Dam ... this is getting scary... the more I check ... the worse it gets!

Opppps ... there goes my 100 page poster site as well ;-(

Another site that weeks ago had lots of pages indexed?/

Google ... anyone?

I have nevered had a site banned... I do link between my sites but never cross link. I also trade links with about half of my sites?

Gasping for breath ....

I wonder if my fairy tail affiliate lifestyle is coming to an end?

Brian

[darrell]

Have you read through this entire thread? There are some things to look for contained in the thread. What is going on could be temporary. I would not make any major changes to your site but wait it out. The same thing just happened to two of my sites. My DSL site vanished with the exception of 8 or so percent of the pages remaining with no title and description. Interlinking could be a potential problem. I would really be careful on those grounds. I believe the dance this moth is a little different than the previous months. I have a hunch that the big “G” is introducing something new into their algorithms. Too many people are reporting lost or vanished sites with all things being equal (no spam, quality backlinks with PR 4 or better, good keyword density and so-forth).

[nixon60]

Darrell,
We need a bigger boat. A huge site with Go Daddy that's been performing phenomenally, completely legit, and has disappeared over the last three or four days. And it gets worse everytime I check. I agree with you that Go Daddy has been good so I'll probably watch the site and this thread over the next few days and see if this is just a collective nightmare that we'll all wake up from. Grrrrr.

[coosblues]

I've written to google and they have confirmed there is no penalty on my website. Many forums are stating a problem with Godaddy. I've never asked for your personal help, but WE ALL need an answer to this question. Do we jump ship and find new servers or wait it out?

[sparrow]

I have a question about the 301 issue?

About 1 1/2 years ago I set all the redirects to 301, due to the rebuild of a site which we took over from another webmaster. From what I gather in this thread 301 is not a problem, but I wonder because when I checked the site yesterday it was fine. Today it's dropped down to number 8.

In August the site was no 2, then we had the September update, it fell to no 4 and showed NO PR rating under domain.com, but under www.domain.com it should as PR 4. This scenario still holds true today. I don't get it, if google sees www.domain.com and domain.com as one in the same.

What's even more interesting, is that site with no PR are appearing above our site.

So do you really think that 301 is not an issue? Do you also think that since it has been a while we could go ahead and delete the 301's

Thanks for you help.

[lawboy]

I'm thinking of adding hyperlinks at the very bottom of my homepage to every single internal page that I optimized. Maybe Google will spider them then.

Actually it won't matter since Google isn't ranking my pages anymoe. I've lost pages from the SERPs. I . . . am . . . almost. . . ready . . . to . . give . . . up.

Regards,
Weak Noob

[Zapatista]

godaddy.com does have good customer service. I agree. But their customer service department doesn't bring me traffic. The website does. I moved it and now await the results.

GoogleGuy speaking on this would be nice as I bet godaddy has lots of clients.

[coosblues]

I just did an allinurl search for Godaddy and found something which looked most odd. There were over 800 pages listed, but 99% of them have the title "OOPS", (pages 11 on) and if you follow the page it just says "sorry, this page no longer exists". Some of the page extensions are very strange for a webhost - something like godaddy **dot *com* *backslash" food *backlslash" snacks. These are all results looking at the "omitted results" I need to add. I know a brighter mind than my own can tell me what the heck is going on here.

[Zapatista]

Smart move darrell. Go with the one I suggested. Good customer service too.

Godaddy.com won't take fast and decisive measures until other webmasters leave them in droves for this reason we are discussing here.

Once you cancel with them, send them a link to this and other discussion threads.

Maybe they'll get the idea.

[darrell]

I have found a great hosting company which can accommodate my needs. I am moving my sites today. They have great plans which allow for multiple domain hosting. After speaking to the owner, he assured me that they don’t use redirects or any such practices that would cause adverse affects on ranking at the SERP’s. I was recommended to them by a friend of mine who has ten sites with them, and not one of his sites experience any problems. If you email me I will tell you where to go.

[lawboy]

Alright! Google just spidered all my new pages! Finally. I hope they appear in the SERPs.

[darrell]

Did you change hosting companies or what?

[dirkz]

So do you really think that 301 is not an issue?

What are you doing exactly with your 301? If you redirect example.tld to www.example.tld it can take several weeks to transfer the PR.

In the meantime, both URLs could even drop completely out of the index (except maybe for the index page).

[coosblues]

Anyone else with a godaddy account having problems connecting to their site? Godaddy seems to be down right now - 2:08pm PST. Hmm, what next? Lets hope they are fixing whatever the heck is wrong.

I'm going down for the count...............

[lawboy]

We didn't change hosting companies. We don't use godaddy anyway.

[sparrow]

dirkz

The 301's are for pages that do not exist anymore, and it's been about
1 1/2 since I set the 301 redirects.

[Zapatista]

GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS! GOOD NEWS!

36 hours after dumping godaddy and going with another host, my website is back in.

I repeat, the website that was lost in Google when godaddy.com was the host is now back in after switching to another host.

godaddy.com is definetely the problem.

Not Google!

Hope my news helps others.

Zap

[nixon60]

Well, that's the end of that marriage. Go Daddy is Gone Daddy. I tested about a dozen of my sites and the Go Daddy ones were the only ones that had fallen out of Google. I'm dropping them a note telling them they've lost my business and why, and that others are fleeing, too. Thanks to all for your input and ideas. Great news from Zapatista--here's wishing us all a speedy recovery from this mess. If there are still any Go Daddy holdovers, pack up and run, before it's too late!

[coosblues]

I just moved my account from Godaddy after falling completely out of the serps today. Well, I have pages so-called indexed but they are nearly a year old cached pages and I can't even find them in the serps. I had top 10 for all my keywords and now I can't even find them. I hope I have positive results with this change.

[kpaul]

I recently (last few days) have had a site I work on drop completely out of the index. Sent more details about it to the mods for possible posting. Something weird seems to be happening with it, though.