66 sites de-indexed - What would you do?

[Rita012]

Yesterday I experienced a sudden drop in traffic and income. Upon further research, I found that a good chunk of my portfolio ( 66 sites ) were suddenly de-indexed. They were spread across different registrars and hosts, but the adsense ID probably linked them together.

If you were in this situation, what would you do? I'm thinking about using 301 redirects and either pointing them to new sites, or affiliate links. ( Although I'm not sure how effective it would be on an affiliate link).

I'm not going to be interested in building 66 new sites. I may build a mega site with all kinds of different content on it ( like ehow ) and send the domain 301s to individual related pages on the new mega site. I may put my old content onto the new mega site.

Love to hear thoughts on how you would handle that. They were good sites, had good solid backlinks from a variety of sources, and the domains are all 2-10 years old. Hate to let all that hard work go to waste.

[lolmoney]

wow, this makes me think about removing adsense from my websites. I really don't make much from it anyway....

This sounds like Googles abuse of power...

[yukon]

I would pick one of the sites & hammer the $hit out of it with high PR authority links.

If that doesn't bring it back, nothing will.

[Rita012]

This sounds like Googles abuse of power...

yeah... they sort of have a monopoly going. One of the sites had a 6200 word article on it that people actually read. People spent a lot of time on the site. Another has been a 'go-to' site for years that students probably used as a resource for homework. Go figure....

[iAmNameLess]

Are you 100% sure you are no longer indexed?

[Chris Sweeney]

AHHHHH, I hate reading threads like this because it reminds me of how fragile one's IM business can be...it can just disappear overnight. I'd hate to have that happen to me. Though I don't think there's anything wrong with my sites (and I'm sure you didn't either), it still scares me to the point of where I even seriously debate selling all of my sites before they get de-indexed for no reason!

Sorry for your loss, Rita. It's gotta hurt. Definitely keep the thread posted on any updates you may discover, i.e. why your sites were deindexed, etc.

[Rita012]

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

Are you 100% sure you are no longer indexed?

Yes... 100% sure. And it happened to all these sites at the same time.

Sorry for your loss, Rita. It's gotta hurt. Definitely keep the thread posted on any updates you may discover, i.e. why your sites were deindexed, etc.

Thanks. I'll update once I have a plan.

I still have a lot of sites that are still indexed. I'm really thinking about selling my indexed sites just to get the money out of them. But... a valuation of 10 months revenue in this market just doesn't make sense.

[Ian Varnava]

I'm sorry if you already answered this, but you're saying that none of the 66 sites show in Google with the site: command??

[Rita012]

I would pick one of the sites & hammer the out of it with high PR authority links.

If that doesn't bring it back, nothing will.

Not sure if more backlinks would take a site out of being de-indexed. It would probably move it up the SERPS if it were still indexed. But...

I'm sorry if you already answered this, but you're saying that none of the 66 sites show in Google with the site: command??

Correct. That's the first thing I checked when I noticed the drop across the board.

[Mohamed Ali]

When you check site:yoursite.com do you see any results .
Also , are you by any chance located in UK ? and are you using google UK to check your rankings ? Because the Panda update began in UK this weekend . so if you sites show up after checking the site: command , you are experiencing the Google Panda update

[Rita012]

Originally Posted by Mohamed Ali

When you check site:yoursite.com do you see any results .
Also , are you by any chance located in UK ? and are you using google UK to check your rankings ? Because the Panda update began in UK this weekend . so if you sites show up after checking the site: command , you are experiencing the Google Panda update

No results. That's how I know they are de-indexed. Also checked using Is My Domain Indexed - The easiest way to check if your domain is indexed by Google! . I'm in the US.

[Ian Varnava]

I guess the only common element amongst them all is your AdSense ID as you said. I would try removing AdSense from a few (or all) of them completely, leaving no common element among them, and see if that does anything.

If it helps, then find a different way to monetize that traffic instead of AdSense.

Also, I wouldn't necessarily build one mega website combining topics from all of them... but maybe group similar niches together and build more than one authority sites.

If I was in your position, I would get some more high PR links to some of them and give it time, before doing anything.

[GeorgR.]

If you were in this situation, what would you do?

Start new. If they're deindexed it basically means they are dead. You will get 10% of the traffic you once had, from bing and yahoo.

And think over why they got de-indexed...there must be a reason.

[Mohamed Ali]

Originally Posted by Rita012

No results.

It is weird how aged domain with quality content get suddenly de-indexed .
As for what you can do , well you can submit a revaluation request through google webmaster tools . ( Total waste of time IMO)

OR
you can buy a news domains ( different registrars , different IPs)
301 Redirest from the old ones to the new ones
Build backlinks to the OLD ones
You will see your new sites ranking for your keywords and this time , monetize with CPA or anything else instead of adsense .

[GeorgR.]

It is weird...

No its really not. There must be significant reason WHY..and the reason must be even worse than "duplicate content". (Dupe content usually doesnt get you de-indexed) A site gets de-indexed if someone complains about spamming, for example. Or some other, significant violations of Google etc. TOS.

[Mohamed Ali]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

No its really not. There must be significant reason WHY..and the reason must be even worse than "duplicate content". (Dupe content usually doesnt get you de-indexed) A site gets de-indexed if someone complains about spamming, for example. Or some other, significant violations of Google etc. TOS.

The operator never mentioned the backlink strategies used for those sites .
My guess would be irrelevant backlinks to those sites have been founded , but again that will need a manual review to get you deindexed . Also that will get you banned from Adsense as well....

[Rita012]

@Ian - good point. Maybe a some niched megasites.

@GeorgeR - I think it may be because I had adsense on the privacy policy page. Still trying to find a common thread on the sites that did get indexed vs. the ones that didn't. Like I said, they are across different hosting accounts and registrars.

@ mohamed - I wish I could find something that converted as well as adsense. I just have no success with cpa offers. Are there certain offers that convert well for you?

@mohamed and George - I have no messages on my adsense account saying there is an issue. My backlinking methods were pretty tame. No profile links, as that just screams spam to me.

[Ian Varnava]

Originally Posted by Rita012

@ mohamed - I wish I could find something that converted as well as adsense. I just have no success with cpa offers. Are there certain offers that convert well for you?

Have you tried physical products relating to the niche? Look on CJ, Google Affiliate Network, ShareASale, PepperJam... just on CJ you can find thousands of vendors with millions of products.

[GeorgR.]

Well it is *likely* that Google got tougher recently, but de-indexing because of Adsense on Privacy doesnt make sense.

They would either disable your adsense account, OR, if you are lucky, warn you and give you a chance to fix the problem(s) on your site. But not DEINDEX.

Reasons could be:

You used twitter, facebook etc. to spam links, ONE SINGLE PERSON complaining would be enough.
You spammed a blog/forum....again..it takes one single person filing a spaim complaint..byebye
You interlinked the blogs?
The sites were really, really crappy with multiple violations like copyright violations, dupe content, bad ad placement, bad navigation...so bad they didnt even bother to disable your account but rather deindexed? (not that likely...but who knows...)

Unlikely IMO that Adsense violations would de-index your site...is your adsense account still active?

[Rita012]

Reasons could be:

You used twitter, facebook etc. to spam links, ONE SINGLE PERSON complaining would be enough.
You spammed a blog/forum....again..it takes one single person filing a spaim complaint..byebye

I actually don't use Twitter or Facebook for marketing. Also don't do any forum marketing. Just do good onsite SEO, and generally send about 20 new links to each site per month. Tame. My sites have enjoyed good website rankings for a long time prior to this.

[Rita012]

Have you tried physical products relating to the niche? Look on CJ, Google Affiliate Network, ShareASale, PepperJam... just on CJ you can find thousands of vendors with millions of products

I've tried. Guess I just don't have the knack for it. Do you place banners on your site for CPA offers? eBay converts relatively well, but I can't figure out their QCP. Wish I'd just get paid on sales with them.

[Ian Varnava]

Originally Posted by Rita012

I've tried. Guess I just don't have the knack for it. Do you place banners on your site for CPA offers? eBay converts relatively well, but I can't figure out their QCP. Wish I'd just get paid on sales with them.

I don't do banners. I believe in strategically placing products within actual posts, with images and text links. You will see a way, way higher conversions. Same for CPA offers.

I'm not sure what kind of niches your websites are about... but using a plugin like Datafeedr you can build an entire store with tightly targeted products and push traffic to your 'store' throughout your website.

Building a list and sending offers via e-mail has a higher conversion rate than just selling them on your website also, due to the repeat contact and relationship building aspect.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

Reasons could be:

You used twitter, facebook etc. to spam links, ONE SINGLE PERSON complaining would be enough.
You spammed a blog/forum....again..it takes one single person filing a spaim complaint..byebye
You interlinked the blogs?
The sites were really, really crappy with multiple violations like copyright violations, dupe content, bad ad placement, bad navigation...so bad they didnt even bother to disable your account but rather deindexed? (not that likely...but who knows...)

Absolutely no way the first two things are culprits. First, the spam complaints are meant to tweak the algo not affect individual site change. That is even if the spam complaint is lucky enough to be read by a human. Second, we are talking about "off page" stuff, and we all know that isn't the issue here. I've got tons of sites i would be happy for you to throw links at and then "report." Better yet, try it against your competitors and see where that gets you.

Possible on the last two.

[terryd]

Could you post one of your sites so we can see what the probably problem was?

[Oranges]

They were all using the same Google Analytics account or Google Webmaster tools? Perhaps that could be the reason!

[arttse]

They must've received a manual review and google determined they were MFA sites is the only thing I can think of.

[0b1]

are these Made For Adsense Sites? with auto content plugins?

Been reading alot on the article directory sites getting pushed down the rankings, or worst DE-indexed

-Brandon

[iAmNameLess]

Okay, 66 sites, different niches, different servers, this makes no sense. There has to be something you have done...

Can you provide links to these sites? I really don't believe that 66 of your own sites are entirely deindexed.

Can you please post a couple links, or PM them to me? I think you're confusing deindexed with losing rank!

[alco]

Hey Rita.

You should put the URL of one of your sites, there could be something in your sites that you overlooked.

[alco]

Has the Panda updates in the UK finished now or is it still ongoing?

Originally Posted by Mohamed Ali

When you check site:yoursite.com do you see any results .
Also , are you by any chance located in UK ? and are you using google UK to check your rankings ? Because the Panda update began in UK this weekend . so if you sites show up after checking the site: command , you are experiencing the Google Panda update

[GeraldGigerl]

If you got so many sites de indexed that MUST Have a specific reason. I definitely would figure out why that happened and how you can get back on track. Google has continues Algorithm changes and this might have to to with the quality of backlinks and also how you build them.

I saw there a good suggestion with getting high PR authority backlinks. This can be the solution, but you have to know why it happened first.

[Chris Sweeney]

Were they all auto-blogs?

[MatthewBass]

Rita, It could be what I call the Cupid Shuffle, although I've never had it happen to that many sites at once.

In the past, I've had sites that were in the top 3 drop off the map and were no where to be found in the index, yet a few days later they appeared right back where they were or a spot higher in the rankings.

I hope that's the case for your sites and that all you're going through is the Cupid Shuffle and are just getting a little Google lovin' before they come back even higher.

With what you've mentioned here - there aren't any obvious reasons why this has happened to your sites.

[Chucky]

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

Absolutely no way the first two things are culprits. First, the spam complaints are meant to tweak the algo not affect individual site change. That is even if the spam complaint is lucky enough to be read by a human. Second, we are talking about "off page" stuff, and we all know that isn't the issue here. I've got tons of sites i would be happy for you to throw links at and then "report." Better yet, try it against your competitors and see where that gets you.

Possible on the last two.

Agreed!

If it was possible, I would make a spam comment to my competitors and make complaint to Google. That would be fun

[Rita012]

@Ian - Great tips. Will try that. Thanks!
@Tom - Agreed. Don't think it was off page stuff.
@Terry - I don't want to post these niches, because I'll likely still use them
@Oranges - I don't use Google analytics, as it has always made me paranoid
@arttse - You could be right. They were meant to be income properties from adsense, although I don't think there was anything wrong with the content.

Ob1 - Some sites used WPRobot to bring in ebay listings ( kind of like using phpbay ). Other sites were pure original good content.

@ iAmNameLess - I still have a lot of other sites that were not impacted. Don't want to post links, because I still plan on using those niches in some way. My goal here is to figure out how to move forward and see if there can be a good 301 redirect strategy I can implement somehow.

@gerryzehner Yep... sucks


@GeraldGigerl - I don't really believe that links can get you deindexed, or competitors will do it. My link building has always been tame. I don't even do article spinning.

@ Chris Sweeny - No- most of these were not autoblogs. The autoblogs I did have were seudo-autoblogs, as I was kind of anal about the content and each page, and whether or not it offered value to the end user. Plus, any of the sites that were autoblogs, had plenty of unique content on the front end.

@MatthewBass - Haven't heard of that. Boy... that would nice!

[Chris Sweeney]

Well Rita, it seems like you're doing everything right from what you're telling us. Perhaps you could post your situation in the Google Webmaster Help Forum and see what they have to say about your site(s). They're usually pretty helpful over there, and in many cases you'll even get a Google employee chiming in on your situation. Keep us posted!

[Rita012]

A few people at the WPGM forum thought that maybe it could be site speed, as they have heard of de-indexing for that reason.

The sites load super fast for me, but when I used this tool: loads.in - test how fast a webpage loads in a real browser from over 50 locations worldwide ,
most of my sites were timing out ( taking longer than 20 seconds to load the entire site ).

Don't know if that's because some sites have lots of pages on it, or whether or not this could really be the reason.

[seolearner09]

For the 66 sites affected, were they on 'shared hosting packages' (even across different hosts/servers) or were some 'reseller' sites affected too?

[Diane S]

Originally Posted by Rita012

eBay converts relatively well, but I can't figure out their QCP. Wish I'd just get paid on sales with them.

Nobody can figure out epn these days. Your sites are dot com? For me, having epn on dot info was a one way ticket to google deindexing.

[Rita012]

@2seolearner09 - Most are on shared, but on different hostgator accounts as well as Total Choice Hosting accounts. I think some may even be on a VPS I have, but I'd have to check to make sure. I really diversified my hosting.

@Diane S - Are you sure that it was the .info and EPN? Strange. None of the sites effected however were .infos

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Rita012

Ob1 - Some sites used WPRobot to bring in ebay listings ( kind of like using phpbay ). Other sites were pure original good content.

In the past few/several months there are quite a few horror stories of people's sites getting whacked that used WPRobot (and i'm sure similar programs). Pretty much anything related to auto-generated/pulled content is in a pretty precarious position, even if the entire site is not based on such content.

It also seems like Google has been lumping sites together that they are pretty sure are owned by the same person (via whois data, adsense code, webmaster tools hookup,etc.), and if a good number of sites are "bad" for google, they just go ahead and zap all of the sites owned by that person. They certainly don't go site by site and keep "good" sites.

IMHO, stay as far away from the auto-generation/pulling scripts as possible.

[Chris Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Rita012

A few people at the WPGM forum thought that maybe it could be site speed, as they have heard of de-indexing for that reason.

The sites load super fast for me, but when I used this tool: loads.in - test how fast a webpage loads in a real browser from over 50 locations worldwide ,
most of my sites were timing out ( taking longer than 20 seconds to load the entire site ).

Don't know if that's because some sites have lots of pages on it, or whether or not this could really be the reason.

That's definitely a possibility if they're timing out. But I assume they'd have to be timing out for days or weeks for Google to decide to de-index a site (as opposed to, say, a couple hours, in which Googlebot would assume it's just temporary downtime), let alone 66 at once, and let alone 66 on several different hosting accounts. So, I could be wrong, but I doubt it's load time. One could conclude that if they were de-indexed because of slow load time, you would've noticed a decrease in your traffic before they were even de-indexed. To clear it up a bit, your site would start loading slowly or not at all for a week, so you'd notice a drop in traffic, and finally Google's bot says "Okay, every time I've come to this site in the past week, it wouldn't load for me, so I'm just going to take it out of the index because it's not working". But you say your traffic suddenly dropped, so I don't think it would be the load time. I hope I'm wrong though! I dunno, I'm still stumped . Definitely check the Google forum and see what they say.

[Diane S]

Originally Posted by Rita012

@Diane S - Are you sure that it was the .info and EPN? Strange. None of the sites effected however were .infos

I absolutely am sure. I have owned BANS sites on dot infos, run phpbay on dot infos, and phpbay on dot coms. All the dot infos got deindexed, whether BANS or phpbay, it mattered not. BANS was just first to get the ax. When epn started getting picky, I switched all my phpbay on dot com to epn snipplets on dot com. ebay feeds on dot com are the only epn feed sites of mine to stay indexed.

I use dot info for adsense and those are staying indexed. No other monetization on those, just adsense.

[Rita012]

IMHO, stay as far away from the auto-generation/pulling scripts as possible.

You need some kind of script to bring in current ebay listings. I happen to use wprobot on some sites. I think it would be just like using phpbay. Those ebay listings change from day to day, so you can't just paste in an auction.

I would think that it's a value ad for the user. If someone is looking for pink bunny slippers, and they come to a page with good information about pink bunny slippers, along with some ebay listings for pink bunny slippers, shouldn't that be a good thing?

[Rita012]

Do you think that this plugin might have been the culprit?

WordPress › SEO SearchTerms Tagging 2 « WordPress Plugins

[patrich]

Originally Posted by Rita012

Do you think that this plugin might have been the culprit?

WordPress › SEO SearchTerms Tagging 2 « WordPress Plugins

I have heard of some issues with "spamming" tags, that could be the problem. It would really be helpful if you would post a link to one of the deindexed sites so that we could take a look and see if a fresh pair of eyes catching anything that may be causing a problem.

If the site is already deindexed, posting a link to it isn't going to hurt anything.

[Rita012]

@patrich - I'd rather not, since I still plan on working these sites. Once out on the WF, you can literally say goodbye to that niche. I'm not ready for that, although I do appreciate your help in trying to figure it out. I'm looking more on how best to move forward with these domains that were strong, and had solid backlinks to them. I think they could be of value used in a different way. ( And probably in a way that is much less labor intensive than managing that many sites).

[markowe]

Originally Posted by Diane S

I absolutely am sure. I have owned BANS sites on dot infos, run phpbay on dot infos, and phpbay on dot coms. All the dot infos got deindexed, whether BANS or phpbay, it mattered not. BANS was just first to get the ax. When epn started getting picky, I switched all my phpbay on dot com to epn snipplets on dot com. ebay feeds on dot com are the only epn feed sites of mine to stay indexed.

I use dot info for adsense and those are staying indexed. No other monetization on those, just adsense.

I have a different experience - I went through a phase of creating .info EPN sites, but some .coms as well and of course they were all pretty thin and a lot got slapped to kingdom come (we're talking a couple of years ago now - never used BANS, just my own solution). But I still have a few both .info and .com and can't really see a pattern - I actually have lots of .infos doing fine even though they are still a little, hmm... slim! And conversely some .coms that are nowhere. Maybe those .infos have just managed to stay below the radar - ha! Or more likely, I was just lucky with the keyword research on those. Oh, wait, I hadn't even HEARD of keyword research back then! So just a bit of luck I guess...

But it's true to say, Google is NOT keen on pages and pages of eBay listings, and I always advise users of my plugin not to go crazy with it (but they usually do anyway ).

I would definitely be tempted to blame the eBay content here, though doesn't quite explain 66 sites getting slapped at once!

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by Rita012

Do you think that this plugin might have been the culprit?

WordPress › SEO SearchTerms Tagging 2 « WordPress Plugins

Possible. I used that one on one of my sites i think, but i changed all foot prints. If i use a plugin which only remotely looks "not kosher" i always change all footprints. So yes...there is a likelihood.

The same goes for autoblogs, wp-robot, spam CTR themes like clickbump, xfactor etc.

Ironically, every time there is a "i got deindexed" thread its often the same pattern, people using such themes, or "weird" plugins....wp-robot etc. Google got REALLY strict and people simply need to realize this.

[Playground Equipment]

Have you tried linking to your un-indexed sites from your indexed sites? That usually gets my sites indexed immediately.