Sites "out" but found through search

Some sites are now showing but majority of others not

[nvision]

(apologies if the title/description are weak but I really don't know what to call this thread, moderators please edit where you see fit)

I'm somewhat befuddled about some sites we're managing - a good deal of them disappeared during the September update and lost inbound link record in October update (I'm past wondering why right now). What I've found recently is that I can now find one set of domains through their usual keywords/phrases in Google search, but not any of the others. They still don't appear in a search for url though. This behaviour has been steady for at least a week now.

The first set of domains are all closely related (same company, domains specific to regions they operate in and separate services they provide).

All affected sites are back in their respective G Directory pages but way down at the bottom with no PR bar of sorts.

I'm not sure what to make of this - anyone have any similar examples or ideas? Please and thanks.

[Brett_Tabke]

I'd say you got dropped by the main index, and then readded by the fresh bot. This next update should tell the tale.

[nvision]

hope so! thanks Brett.

*crossing fingers*

[glengara]

I'd try to ID the possible reason for being dropped.
A site of mine dropped out of the SERPS for a month due to a server outage, but retained its position in the directory.

[nvision]

Well, most of those other sites were on a server that was down for a couple days in September (and yet not all sites on that server were dropped by Google). The ones that are "back" were on a different one but they all got dropped at the same time... it just seems wierd from that point of view.

I've actually tired of wondering why it's all happened but we've worked on some issues that might have caused some glitches.