My blog's disappeared from Google and other search engines!

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[rolanstein]

This is weird. Wondering if anyone can offer an explanation.

I've had my blog hosted as a sub-web of my other website for quite a while, and for months now it has appeared at the top of the page when the blog name (The Boomtown Rap) is typed into Google and other search engines.  Until today! It's disappeared!  Not only from top spot, but it is now not listed as a site anywhere!

There are sites listed that have linked to my blog, and here are extracts from various posts of mine that, when clicked, open on that particular post - but not the home page!  The home page no longer comes up anywhere (I've checked multiple pages deep).

If anyone can offer some sort of explanation for what is going on and how I can restore the listing to number one when the blog name is typed into a search engine, I would be relieved and most appreciative. 

Thanks.

[swollenpickles]

Hi
Similar thing happened to me last year (lasted 4 months or so).

All the info I have is here:
How I got out of the Google dog house

Swollen Pickles biatch slapped by Google

[Snoskred]

This is one reason why I am having zero to do with Google these days. No Google search, no gmail accounts, no Google nothing.

I said goodbye to google on the 16th of November, and I don't regret it. 

[goatlady]

There's a few reasons why your blog could have disappeared - here's another story (Simone sometimes pops into these forums):
http://simone.pascalsimone.com/2007/12/techcrunched-and-hacked-october-2007/

[rolanstein]

Thanks a lot for your responses, folks. So, it does happen!  Thing is, I have no idea why it's happened to me. I have no monetising of any sort on the blog, so that discounts any sort of penalising motive on Google's part. Also, I don't appear on the other engines like Yahoo or MSN, either. Just yesterday, all was fine.

My hits have dropped dramatically to just 1 overnight - usually I wake up to 20 or 30 from overseas sites during the Aust night, all via Google. I'm really pissed off and bewildered. I was starting to build a nice little readership and had my first podcast planned for a few days time.

I notice in one of the links provided the person emailed Google. I can't identify an appropriate email address for this sort of situation. Does anyone happen to know it?

I also have no idea how to check whether I've been hacked. My SPAM has been increasing exponentially in the last few weeks, so I suspect this could be the key to the problem. Perhaps I should follow Simone's lead and upgrade from my current WP 2.1 to the latest version.

Woe!

[Meg]

Some questions:

Do you have Google Webmaster tools?
Have you made any changes to your theme lately?

I'm still seeing you on Google though...

[rolanstein]

PS: Overnight traffic is dramatically down, as mentioned, AND SO IS THE SPAM! This has to be significant, doesn't it?

[rolanstein]

Hi Meg,

I don't have Google Webmaster Tools. When you say you're "still seeing me on Google", I assume you're referring to links to the blog and to various posts...but evidently, the home page is no longer being indexed at all.  When you type "Boomtown Rap" into Google, the first entry to appear is an early reference from Christine at Semfire to my blog, then other external links and random (it seems) posts from my blog.

I have had zero traffic today - that's unheard of.

I suspect goatlady's techcrunch link holds the key, but I am not tech-savvy enough to identify any spam hacker or hidden spam that could be the cause of Google's airbrushing me from the blogosphere.

[Meg]

I had a little look at the source code but couldn't see anything untoward jumping out.

I found your home page on Google this way.

Google webmaster might be a good idea to set up. I see you have analytics already, so it wouldn't take long & might provide you with some insight. This guide might help.

Sometimes websites do disappear for certain terms, only to re-appear a couple of days later with no rhyme nor reason, but if you do a site search, apparently there are 112 results showing up from your blog.

No recent theme change?

[Snoskred]

It might be this in your footer -

Code:

<!--
This template is free to use but you have to leave this footer as it is.
All you can do with that is to add your copyright information.
But remember not to delete anything! -->
<div id="footer">
<p id="legal">Copyright &copy;  The Boomtown Rap</p>
<p id="link">Design by <a href="http://www.robbiewilliams.pl/" title="Robbie Williams" class="white">Robbie Williams</a> <a href="http://www.robbiewilliams.pl/wordpress" class="white" title="WP Themes">WP Themes</a> & <a href="http://www.nightday83.art.pl" title="Webdesign & Seo Warsaw" class="white">ND83</a></p>

</div>

</body>
</html>

And when you search for the nightday83 url, you find -

http://www.nightday83.art.pl/seo/

I would say that might be the reason.

[rolanstein]

Snoskred, why do you think that code is the possible culprit, please? 

As far as I know, it has always been there. I think it was there from the time I changed to this theme (some months ago now).

Does anyone have any idea what would happen if I did remove it? Because it warns specifically against doing so, I haven't. I thought it was something to do with the copyright of the guy ("Robbie Williams" - heh heh) who created the theme.

[ChristineParfitt]

Hi,

I'm seeing you at number three. Meg's right that the search engine results fluctuate quite a bit for numerous reasons. I'm seeing more fluctuation than normal at the moment and had a similar problem with my blog a few days ago.

I'll see what else I can find and email you.

[Snoskred]

Basically the SEO page there states quite specifically -

I am positioning a lot of websites on Internet

This means he is putting those links there to get a better page rank rather than as credit.

I heard it rumored that Google was going to start penalizing people for this and perhaps this is the first round, but who knows.

I would contact Google and ask what is going on. Not that you're likely to hear back.

[rolanstein]

Thanks a lot, Christine.

Wonder why I'm at number 3 in your browser and not appearing at all in mine, though? Weeeeeeeeeeeeeirrrd.  :rshocked:

[rolanstein]

Basically the SEO page there states quite specifically -

I am positioning a lot of websites on Internet

This means he is putting those links there to get a better page rank rather than as credit.

Wouldn't this mean that Google would be singling him out for penalty, though, rather than people using his WP skins?

[ChristineParfitt]

Maybe you're getting results from a different data centre.

I really don't think there's any penalty.

[Snoskred]

Wouldn't this mean that Google would be singling him out for penalty, though, rather than people using his WP skins?

They penalised the people writing for pay per post, and not the actual pay per post site. So when it comes to this kind of thing you really can't be sure what Google will do.

[ChristineParfitt]

I think it's important to distinguish between a penalty that affects how Google indexes a website and ranks it, and the changes to toolbar page rank that happened with pay per post etc.

I know it's a complicated subject and feelings run high on it but even with the latest toolbar page rank debate, people were generally saying that they experienced no changes to search results or indexing. It affected their ability to charge for advertising and it affected the green bar which only a minority see anyway.

When search results fluctuate or even when a website disappears temporarily it's unlikely to be a penalty unless it's a spam site.

The whole topic is complicated and controversial!

[Snoskred]

I know it's a complicated subject and feelings run high on it but even with the latest toolbar page rank debate, people were generally saying that they experienced no changes to search results or indexing. It affected their ability to charge for advertising and it affected the green bar which only a minority see anyway.

I think that is more because the majority of people didn't know what where they were indexed before, or where they were in the search results. There was a lot of panic going on, too. It took some time to really see the effects of being penalized in my stat counters.

What I can say is that since they gave me the page rank back, I have noticed a huge increase in search engine hits from Google - traffic coming from google has doubled from what it was while I was penalized. I have also noticed I am ranking for terms I didn't rank for during the slap.

I suspect there was more to it than just the green bar. But honestly, who knows and who cares?  The damage is done as far as I am concerned, I'll never trust Google again.

[rolanstein]

When search results fluctuate or even when a website disappears temporarily it's unlikely to be a penalty unless it's a spam site.

Thing is, though, as the EnjoyPerth episode demonstrated, you can be unwittingly harbouring a hidden SPAM harvester on your site and be lopped by Google without explanation, and that's pretty poor IMO.

I suspect something like that has occurred with my blog, just because my SPAM has increased massively in recent weeks (and did so overnight; when it started there was no stopping it)...you'd have to suspect a harvester at work.

But I hope you're right, Christine - that the apparent disappearance of my blog from the Google index is just symptomatic of current search result fluctuations and that "it will all be fine in the morning"!

One measure I thought I would take is to upgrade from my current WordPress 2.1 to the latest version.. Been putting that off for a long time because I've heard it's a lengthy and sometimes problematic process, but looks like my time of reckoning has come.

[Leigh]

I also see you listed at #3.

As Meg said, have you signed up for Google Webmaster tools, and see if there are any messages in there?

What are some of the main keywords you used to rank for and where do you rank today..compared to last week.

I'd tend to agree with the other girls, it could be just a reshuffle..it might come back in a few days, it may not.

I suffered -60 penalty for 3mths last year, there is no hit and miss..you are wiped out everywhere for everything.

[Simone]

Hi Ross,

As I've said over at my blog, I feel your pain! 

But, unfortunately once again it seems like a different situation (well, this could be good, but it's bad in that we don't know what's wrong).

I can actually see your blog in google too (I google boomtown rap and it's the 3rd entry). And interesting that you yourself cant see it there or any other search engines. Mine was only taken out by google, I still got hits from live.com and other places (though that's only a very small % anyway).

Anyway, it does sound like that link in the footer could be an issue. I'd change your theme, and upgrade, just cos that seems sensible anyway...
And yeah, as Meg says, sign up for Google Webmaster tools. Not that that helped me, there wasn't a message there! But there should have/could have been! And yeah, that's annoyed me still. Someone else had to point out the issue to me. I was pretty embarrassed!

Oh, and regarding your increase in spam... Don't see this would necessarily be related. My levels of spam fluctuate immensly from day to day and week to week.

I'd just like to make clear once again (to other people reading this who pretty much have only read the Techcrunch article..) that the reason I was taken out of the index at Google was because I had spam links in my code (could see it when viewing source code).
When I removed that they put me back in straight away (not sure, but the quick action there could have been because of the Techcrunch post, heh!!).
It did go down in PR though, even though I've actually also removed the text links ads now. It went from PR 4 to 2. BUT, interestingly enough... it seems to be just as high, or higher in search engine results, and getting more hits than ever....!!


Hmm, I still think it's strange you can't see yourself in the search engines... I can't explain that at all!

good luck!!!
I finally upgraded to 2.3 the other night. Wasn't hard, just had to also install a new version of many plugins. But have a feeling you don't use that many anyway!

[rolanstein]

Hi Simone, and thanks for responding with your post.

I will certainly take your advice and Meg's about signing up for Google Webmaster tools. Thank you both.

When you say you can see The Boomtown Rap at Number 3, I suspect it's a past post link you can see - not the usual home page link that's been at top listing for months now. Could you verify, please?

And yep - I WILL upgrade to the recent version of WP. Gulp...

Cheers
Ross

[Simone]

For me there's two links. First leads to the music category. Second is the August archives
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=boomtown+rap&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=FlockInc.:en-US:official&client=firefox

Point is, you're still in google.    I wasn't in there at all. Nobody else could find me either.

Good luck