How do you know if you are banned from Google?
Many web site owners are under the false impression that if they can’t get their web site listed on a search engine then they must be restricted from that engine.
Banned from Google? How will my site ever get seen? Google, the world’s most popular search engine, retains over 60 percent of all search engine results. To lose that level of exposure is life threatening for a web site. There are many indicators for web site owners to be aware of in order to trouble shoot the position of their site. For instance, I have submitted hundreds of sites and after two or three weeks the home page will usually show up on the search engine listing. Some sites can take twice as long. A rule of thumb that I go by is, if you can’t find your home page on a search engine a month after the original submission date, then something may be wrong with your site.
If you think your site might be banned, then you have to ask yourself some fundamental questions.
Is your domain newly purchased with NO previous owners? If the site is new, then there should be no reason to worry about the issue. If after a month your site is still not listed on the engine, I would consider having a web site optimization company optimize your home page.
Are you employing any TRICKS? Did you do anything that could have resulted in your site being banned? In other words, are you trying to trick the engine into falsely indexing your site higher than it should actually be? Are you link farming, are you using doorway pages unwisely, using hidden text, cloaked pages, redirects, plagiarized content etc.? Please see my article on Spamming the Engine and The Ultimate Cost (http://www.kosmoscentral.com/resource_articles/spammingEngines.html ) for more detailed information. If so, these tricks need to be corrected before resubmitting the site to a search engine.
Did you purchase this domain from a previous owner and is it possible that the previous owner may have gotten the domain banned from the engine? The previous owner may have tried to trick the engine into falsely indexing your domain and subsequently has gotten your domain banned. If this is a possibility then you need to trouble shoot further.
Are there a large number of broken links from your home page and throughout your web site? If so, these would definitely have to be fixed before an engine or directory will include the site into their system. If you are not sure about broken links, you can purchase software that will scan your site or have a search engine promotion company check your web site for broken links.
Is your site optimized for loading? Is your web site full of graphics and taking quite a long time to load? If dial up users are not waiting for your pages to load then neither will the search engine spiders. An industry consensus and a good rule of thumb is to try to optimize your pages for loading to about 30KB.
Are you using your robots.txt file properly, if at all? Try inputting your site into your web browser like this; http://www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt, if a 404 error i.e., “The page cannot be found” is displayed, then you’re not using one. If content comes up be sure you understand what you’re looking at and that you are not blocking your home page from any spiders even reaching it.
If you think there is a good possibility your site is actually banned due to unethical marketing and promotion practices then you need to do the following below to verify.
If a couple of months have passed since first submission of your home page and you find zero results in a Search Engines Results Page (SERP), then that is a very good indication that your domain has been cleaned out of the index.
You may also use the Google toolbar (http://www.toolbar.google.com) to check the “page rank” or PR value of your site. A zero page rank or PR0 doesn’t necessarily mean your banned either, but it is another possible indication and further trouble shooting will be required.
Try to get a couple of web sites to link to yours and re-submit those pages your links are on to Google. Wait a few weeks and do a search for the site that is linking to yours with your keywords and domain together. If you can locate those submitted pages and your domain still doesn’t come up then there is a good chance your site may be banned.
Another alternative is to look for your listing in the Google version of the Open Directory Project (http://www.directory.google.com). Verify that your site is even listed in the ODP. If the search is coming up blank, there is a chance you may have been banned or penalized.
After you have corrected all possible errors and your site is still not listed on Google you can try writing to Google at search-quality@google.com. Be sure to ask about the specific domains. Also, don’t expect a quick response and try to wait at least a couple of weeks before asking for an update. Google is very busy with hundreds of these types of requests and you wouldn’t want them to put you on the bottom of the pile for being too annoying. By all means don’t try to sneak any tricks past the engineering team at Google, they’ve seen them all and you’ll definitely risk your chances of ever getting indexed again. If you do not have the time to do the leg work, by all means hire a reputable search engine optimization company and let them handle your domains predicament.
I am a developer, designer, dmoz volunteer editor and consultant. I have been working in the computer networking industry since 1991, providing training, technical support, project management and consulting services. After working for 4 years for a major online company providing web development technical support services, I was offered a directors position in a large real estate corporation utilizing my web development and management skills. A few years later I decided to start a side business for myself and created Kosmos Central LLC a web promotion consulting company. Currently I provide my consulting services for the same company and a few more.
I’ve lived in the Portland Oregon Area the majority of my existence on this planet and occasionally Ill take time off to enjoy life
