Dear Robin,
We paid $795 last March to a SE optimization company. When our website was dropped from the Google index, we later found out that the techniques they employed violated ALL of Google’s guidelines. What’s worse, the
company that did this to us is refusing to refund our money even though their website promises “satisfaction guaranteed or your money back”.
My 1st Question:
How do we get our website off the Google blacklist? We contacted Google, explained to them what happened and that we did not know its policies were being violated. We removed all the crap (I think) that company put on our site.
Google says:
Thanks for your response. Your site has been forwarded along for reevaluation. We will let you know when a decision has been reached.
That was on Dec 5. I have not been contacted since then. I know they are re-indexing real soon. Has this occurred yet? What else can we do?
Dear Dwight:
They’ll be reindexing any day now — I subscribe to the “Google Dance,” which lets me know when Google’s index is in the updating phase, during which time the search results are rather unstable. Typically, it takes about a week, and though it usually starts toward the beginning of each month, this can vary considerably.
You may want to subscribe — it’s always interesting to learn when the “dance” occurs. This Web site gives some good info about the dance too:
Okay, back to your problem. I see that your PageRank is still grayed out. The way to tell if your site has been banned is if you refresh the page three times, if your PageRank bar is still grayed out, your site is banned.
Here is something that I want you to read:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
In fact, the entire “Webmasters” area is excellent and has recently been updated.
I’ve personally had the same problem that you are experiencing but for different reasons, so I understand the frustration. Like you, I’d done nothing wrong — but I had some domains banned. It’s horrible not knowing why, because you have no idea what to “correct,” if anything. It’s even worse not having anyone to listen to you when you write to them. But, looking at it from Google’s perspective — can you imagine the sheer quantity of email they get on an hourly basis — all from people begging to get back in the index??
So what can you do? In this case, believe me when I say that “patience is a virtue,” because it might take a while.
Here’s what I would do.
I would write to the following two Google email addresses below. I would be totally honest with Google. I would tell them that you used a particular SEO company (name the company), and that you trusted them to take care of your search engine optimization needs, not knowing that they were using strategies that could get a site banned. (This honesty *may* give you brownie points, since you’re actually reporting a spammer.)
Tell them that after you realized they were using unsavory Webmaster tactics, you “fired” the SEO firm and have reported them to the Federal Trade Commission, as stated on Google’s Web site (see below in answer to another one of your questions).
Tell them that you’ve cleaned up your pages, and to the best of your knowledge, you’re not doing anything wrong or anything that goes against Google’s Terms of Service (http://www.google.com/terms_of_service.html) or their Guidelines (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html).
Ask them to please let you know if there’s anything else you can do to get back in Google, and ask if they’ll consider adding your site back in during their next spider run. Obviously, give them your URL. 🙂
Be HUMBLE. Be HONEST. I would send the email to both of the email addresses below:
You can also write to the email address on the email that Google sent you, if it’s different than the above.
Again, this is going to take a while. My recommendation is to write to them now, and then wait until after the Google Dance the first of February, if you haven’t gotten back in the index by then. At that point, write to them again. Apologize for being so persistent, but explain that the mistakes made by your old SEO firm are costing your company a lot of money, and you want to do everything you can to rectify the situation and get listed once again in the Google index as soon as possible.
Something else to try — purchase some AdWords. When talking to your AdWord rep, explain the problem you’re having, and see if they have an insider’s view into what you can do to get back in the index. PAYING for keywords just might help. 😉
You can also try posting a notice on their forum:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=google.public.support.general
Google Guy (a rep from Google) posts at WebmasterWorld quite frequently, and you could also post there in the Google section:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/
I would use a subject line like: Help Needed from Google Guy — please!
Again, be nice, and be humble. I wouldn’t post the name of the SEO firm at the forum — but I would simply tell your story about having to fire your SEO firm. See if Google Guy answers. Listen to this part carefully: you won’t be able to put your URL in the post — this forum is very particular about rules, and you aren’t allowed to promote your business. So, just tell your story, writing it to Google Guy. Ask what you can do to get back in the index, referring to your user profile for your URL. Google Guy will be able to find your email address and URL by looking in your user profile that you’ll create when you join the forums.
Dwight:
I even purchased a new domain name and re-created a new website in straight html as a work around. However, according to your letter, any website linking to mine will be HURT because mine is banned, do I understand this correctly?
Robin:
A brand new domain name won’t have the link popularity that your “old” domain has. That’s the problem with starting over. I’d much rather try to get your site listed again than try to set up a new domain, especially since YOU have done nothing wrong. If YOU were the spammer, I would say to go with a new domain name. 🙂
Technically, you wouldn’t want to link to a banned site, because it would be considered a “bad” neighborhood. When I had my “banning” problems recently, however, none of the other domains that linked to the banned domains were hurt.
Robin Nobles conducts live SEO workshops
(http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) in locations across North
America. She also teaches online SEO training
(http://www.onlinewebtraining.com). Localized SEO training is now
being offered through the Search Engine Academy.
(http://www.searchengineacademy.com) Sign up for SEO tips of the
day at mailto:seo-tip@aweber.com.
