Help All of my sites are dropping off of all of the search engines Like CRAZY Why?

[Christian Fox]

I have approximately 24 affiliate websites have been working on. Out of these I have converted 16 of them over to WordPress format Within the last two weeks. Many of the 16 were in the first search page on Google and MSN for my targeted keywords.

Within the last week, these 16 websites have been dropping, if not disappearing completely from Google, Yahoo and MSN results.

I am at a complete loss as to why this is happening but I have a theory.

The remaining eight websites. I have not yet converted and as of right now the directories are empty. I did not bother to remove these now empty websites from my site information in my Google Webmaster tools panel.

As of right now, these a sites are showing errors because the site maps are unable to find anything because I removed the files.

Is it possible that my other sites are being penalized because of the errors found by Google and the other eight sites that I have the deleted?

I use a host gator reseller account and all of my domains have the same IP address. A few of them have the very last digit as different.


Below is a site map from one of my sites. Not sure it will help with anything. I don't have robot.txt as is not part of the standard WordPress installation. In using the platinum SEO plug-in, which is basically the all-in-one SEO plug-in with some additional features. I haven't made any changes or made anything else no follow the last two weeks since I've been starting to have this problem.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://federal-firearms-license.net/wp-content/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/sitemap.xsl"?><!-- generator="wordpress/2.7.1" --><!-- sitemap-generator-url="http://www.arnebrachhold.de" sitemap-generator-version="3.1.2" --><!-- generated-on="May 3, 2009 4:41 pm" --><urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd" xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"> <url>
<loc>http://federal-firearms-license.net/</loc>
<lastmod>2009-05-03T21:40:46+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://federal-firearms-license.net/federal-firearms-license/</loc>
<lastmod>2009-05-03T21:40:46+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.2</priority>
</url>
</urlset>


Here are a few images of the relevant SEO data from the platinum SEO plug-in. I can't see any issues.

Image 1

Image 2

This particular site has only one post and it is un categorized.

Any input would be appreciated greatly. I need to figure out whats going on and fast...

[reapr]

Ok my sites most of them got deindexed over the last few weeks. Most of them are wordpress and they appeared to be functioning until click through on a link.

I went and took a look (ftped in) and it appears they were hacked. I have since resolved the issues and updated all scripts and changed all passwords and since all but 2 sites are back to where they were as far as traffic. I got them back in the SE by submitting to multiple rss directories/agregators. I have several accounts with this host so not sure if it was an issue on their end but when I contacted support they really seemed quite busy.

FTP into your site and look closely at the files anything that has .php extension and see if it has been modified.

[SteveJohnson]

When you converted them to WordPress, did you keep the exact same URL structure or if not, did you set up 301 redirects to the new URLs?

Are the new URLs actually in the Google index? (search "site:http://yourURL.com")

[Christian Fox]

UG Strangely enough I have noticed an ip from dallas TX that has been directly typing in my url's (all of them) as if they went to the who is and went down the list.

Can you give me any particular files that were hacked for you and how can I avoid this? I do not think I have my file permissions set incorrectly...

This could be ugly to figure out...

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by SteveJohnson

When you converted them to WordPress, did you keep the exact same URL structure or if not, did you set up 301 redirects to the new URLs?

Are the new URLs actually in the Google index? (search "site:http://yourURL.com")

I am using /%postname%/ many were ranking much better as blogs initially before I began to have problems.

If you look at the first image in the first post (the link) you will see the platinum plug in automatically recreated 301 redirects. I am also not getting any craw errors on these sites converted. A 301 error would show up in Google webmaster tools would it not?

They are indexed, but some have dropped 300 places, all have dropped VERY significantly. Might as well be out completely...

[entry]

Originally Posted by Christian Fox

I have approximately 24 affiliate websites have been working on. Out of these I have converted 16 of them over to WordPress format Within the last two weeks. Many of the 16 were in the first search page on Google and MSN for my targeted keywords.

Within the last week, these 16 websites have been dropping, if not disappearing completely from Google, Yahoo and MSN results.

I am at a complete loss as to why this is happening but I have a theory.

The remaining eight websites. I have not yet converted and as of right now the directories are empty. I did not bother to remove these now empty websites from my site information in my Google Webmaster tools panel.

As of right now, these a sites are showing errors because the site maps are unable to find anything because I removed the files.

Is it possible that my other sites are being penalized because of the errors found by Google and the other eight sites that I have the deleted?

I use a host gator reseller account and all of my domains have the same IP address. A few of them have the very last digit as different.


Below is a site map from one of my sites. Not sure it will help with anything. I don't have robot.txt as is not part of the standard WordPress installation. In using the platinum SEO plug-in, which is basically the all-in-one SEO plug-in with some additional features. I haven't made any changes or made anything else no follow the last two weeks since I've been starting to have this problem.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://federal-firearms-license.net/wp-content/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/sitemap.xsl"?><!-- generator="wordpress/2.7.1" --><!-- sitemap-generator-url="http://www.arnebrachhold.de" sitemap-generator-version="3.1.2" --><!-- generated-on="May 3, 2009 4:41 pm" --><urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd" xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"> <url>
<loc>http://federal-firearms-license.net/</loc>
<lastmod>2009-05-03T21:40:46+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://federal-firearms-license.net/federal-firearms-license/</loc>
<lastmod>2009-05-03T21:40:46+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.2</priority>
</url>
</urlset>


Here are a few images of the relevant SEO data from the platinum SEO plug-in. I can't see any issues.

Image 1

Image 2

This particular site has only one post and it is un categorized.

Any input would be appreciated greatly. I need to figure out whats going on and fast...

How do you manage 24 websites? How do you do time distrubution and organization of them all of then?

[petevamp]

I had the same problem from changing my permalinks to a discriptive structure which cost me a ton of traffic. However all I did to get a few relisted again was go down my list of post. Scroll down to the all in one seo tool on the edit post section and edit the keywords and maybe the discription/title . Since I have my wp set up to ping google and yahoo directly after an update I was able to get most of my pages relisted the same day with the new link structure.

I did take it a little step further too and went to a few pinging sites and sent out a wave of pings to my blog. So I now have about 50% of my post relisted for thier keywords. Also the ones I resubmited I was able to use a string of keywords for all of them instead of changing for the post. So I would say just go and edit you meta tags and then ping google. Remember to not ping so much as to get blacklisted.

[petevamp]

Originally Posted by entry

How do you manage 24 websites? How do you do time distrubution and organization of them all of then?

He is probally out sourcing most of the work jmho

[Christian Fox]

I have a lot of work to do on all of them yet. I wanted to get them up and ranked. and will be adding a lot of different posts/content and improving looks all of them very soon.

I lost my job at the beginning of the year. I've known for year and a half this time was coming, so I've been preparing myself and learning everything I could about IM. Right now I am trying to scrape by living on un employment. I was starting to make some decent income until this happened.

I've been working 10 to 14 hours a day trying to get to the point where I can at least match the income I was making prayer prior to losing my job.

[Randy Bheites]

Originally Posted by entry

How do you manage 24 websites? How do you do time distrubution and organization of them all of then?

That's not so hard if you have everything set up right out of the gate and most of your grunt stuff is automated and pre-scheduled.

I use a good automation macro/scheduler program to take care of most stuff, then just read reports and tweak as needed. Some of my affiliate sites I don't touch for months and months...

[reapr]

Originally Posted by Christian Fox

UG Strangely enough I have noticed an ip from dallas TX that has been directly typing in my url's (all of them) as if they went to the who is and went down the list.

Can you give me any particular files that were hacked for you and how can I avoid this? I do not think I have my file permissions set incorrectly...

This could be ugly to figure out...

Sounds like you have converted over to WP much like I did. I use /%postname%/ which did rather well. I also used 'all in one SEO'. Great combination!

Well you will notice that most files hacked are index.php. you will also notice that the inserted code is in the form of <script> or should I say a java script type of addon.

I would contact your host and ask them to see if they have a backup going back prior to the problem. Most om ny problems and loss of affiliate earnings began around 4/15.

Once they backup I would suggest updating WP and updating all plugins and changing all passwords.

Im not pluging a product but I think they may have got my login off my comp but not sure but 2 major virus scanner product missed problems on my computer that spyware doctor picked up and we are talking some pretty nasty stuff.

So not sure if it was on my host end or mine but as I type this I am also looking at a backup solution for WP.

Your welcome to pm me.

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by petevamp

I had the same problem from changing my permalinks to a discriptive structure which cost me a ton of traffic. However all I did to get a few relisted again was go down my list of post. Scroll down to the all in one seo tool on the edit post section and edit the keywords and maybe the discription/title . Since I have my wp set up to ping google and yahoo directly after an update I was able to get most of my pages relisted the same day with the new link structure.

I did take it a little step further too and went to a few pinging sites and sent out a wave of pings to my blog. So I now have about 50% of my post relisted for thier keywords. Also the ones I resubmited I was able to use a string of keywords for all of them instead of changing for the post. So I would say just go and edit you meta tags and then ping google. Remember to not ping so much as to get blacklisted.

I'm not sure that's the issue I'm having here I had good traffic after changing my perma link structure. None of my sites are actually de indexed, but many have dropped below the first hundred results.

Basically what I'm trying to say is initially when I converted my sites. I did it with the correct permalink structure and have not changed its sense. like I said many of my sites were top ranked but all of them have begun to fall in the last week or two.

[digitalproductreporter]

check your raw log files and see if your site is throwing any 404's. that's a sure fire way to have your site dropped if google chews on too many 404's

also common when changing platforms

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by reapr

Sounds like you have converted over to WP much like I did. I use /%postname%/ which did rather well. I also used 'all in one SEO'. Great combination!

Well you will notice that most files hacked are index.php. you will also notice that the inserted code is in the form of <script> or should I say a java script type of addon.

I would contact your host and ask them to see if they have a backup going back prior to the problem. Most om ny problems and loss of affiliate earnings began around 4/15.

Once they backup I would suggest updating WP and updating all plugins and changing all passwords.

Im not pluging a product but I think they may have got my login off my comp but not sure but 2 major virus scanner product missed problems on my computer that spyware doctor picked up and we are talking some pretty nasty stuff.

So not sure if it was on my host end or mine but as I type this I am also looking at a backup solution for WP.

Your welcome to pm me.

I used all in one initially but prefer platinum seo as it does 301 redirects automatically and has still more features.

I am going to run and grab some food and hopefully see if I have been hacked...

[GeorgeO7]

301 is not an error code... it is a redirect. Basically you needed to map your old URLs to the corresponding WordPress pages. If this were not done properly... any juice the old links had is down the tube. 301 check your .htaccess file.

[Jeff Henshaw]

How do you manage 24 websites? How do you do time distrubution and organization of them all of then?

This is somewhat irrelevant to and distracting of this important thread, in my opinion.

I think that it is more suited to be the subject of a new thread on the forum.

Just my thoughts.

Regards,
Jeff.

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by digitalproductreporter

check your raw log files and see if your site is throwing any 404's. that's a sure fire way to have your site dropped if google chews on too many 404's

also common when changing platforms

I did have some issues with 401 or 404 erros (cant remember) I resubmitted the sitemaps and installed a broken link plug in to fix the issue. Right now I am waiting for the sitemaps to be downloaded after resubmitting them on the ones that had the errors.

The sites that dropped were not just the ones with the 40x errors....

I have already removed the 'dead' sites from my webmaster tools, so those are a non issue now also.

[SteveJohnson]

You haven't been hacked.

I think what you're seeing is what people are beginning to call the 'rank and tank', and it's common with blogs. Lynn Terry has a little bit of an explanation at “Rank and Tank” - The Definition | ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog .

Bottom line is that there is no reason your index page should be ranking anywhere near the front page of the big G for much of anything. It's short, there's little info on it, and no incoming links to it (at least as far as I can tell from Yahoo). Why should Google think it's important? Basically all you have is a keyword phrase or two built in to some sentences.

Not being short with you here, btw. If you want front-page ranking, you generally have to do something to get it.

Now's when the work starts. Do the SEO stuff - keep adding content, build backlinks, build out your internal link structure.

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by GeorgeO7

301 is not an error code... it is a redirect. Basically you needed to map your old URLs to the corresponding WordPress pages. If this were not done properly... any juice the old links had is down the tube. 301 check your .htaccess file.

I can not seem to find my .htaccess hmmm I can see it using the search in my control panel but when I click on it it says file not found. It is not visible in the directory tree...

I wonder if they were deleted somehow or corrupted? As I understand it the below is the correct .htaccess file for a wordpress directory in the root directory
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>


# END WordPress


Should I just add the file?

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by SteveJohnson

You haven't been hacked.

I think what you're seeing is what people are beginning to call the 'rank and tank', and it's common with blogs. Lynn Terry has a little bit of an explanation at “Rank and Tank” - The Definition | ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog .

Bottom line is that there is no reason your index page should be ranking anywhere near the front page of the big G for much of anything. It's short, there's little info on it, and no incoming links to it (at least as far as I can tell from Yahoo). Why should Google think it's important? Basically all you have is a keyword phrase or two built in to some sentences.

Not being short with you here, btw. If you want front-page ranking, you generally have to do something to get it.

Now's when the work starts. Do the SEO stuff - keep adding content, build backlinks, build out your internal link structure.

I have backlinks in Google, lots of them

Find link details for: Get Your Federal Firearms License: Now Free Bonus Software
Page External links All pages (total links) 716


And Yahoo....

1. Pages (1)
2. Inlinks (374)

[Christian Fox]

I am thinking this must have something with the missing .htaccess file I'll dig further when I get back from with food. I know once I changed to pretty permalinks it is supposed to create the file but that did not happen apparently.....

[petevamp]

did you check to see if there might be someone new in the niche. If so they may just be overpowering you with there marketing scheme. Read the newest post on my blog. I talk about a similar case where a group of us where able to over power a heavily populated set of keywords.

I would hit up most of your key words on a search write down the top 3-4 indexed for each keyword. Then do some research on those sites see how long they have been around, how many backlinks, how much traffic it is currently getting. I would then go to a few articles linking back to the site to see when they where wrote.

This could be the case but I am no expert. Sorry to hear about your current employment status. I know just what you mean though. I too was laid of back in late 07 from a land surveying firm. Thinking ah it will be a cake walk to get onto another firm before employment was done. Then the housing market crashed go figure. So now I do this and work part time since unemployment ran dry back around july of last year.

So much like you I started studying as much as I could and around feb I launched a series of adsense pages, as well as a few other affiliated things.

[reapr]

Originally Posted by Christian Fox

I can not seem to find my .htaccess hmmm I can see it using the search in my control panel but when I click on it it says file not found. It is not visible in the directory tree...

I wonder if they were deleted somehow or corrupted? As I understand it the below is the correct .htaccess file for a wordpress directory in the root directory
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>


# END WordPress


Should I just add the file?

Well it did exist?

Anyhow when I was researching my situation part of the hack included a change in the .htaccess file date but the file seemed in tact.

If your interested pm me and I can see if i have some code left over form cleaning out my sites.

You will likely notice when you click on an affiliate link that there are sites loading in the browser that should not be there and you end up with either a white page or 500.

[SteveJohnson]

OBVIOUSLY I made an error somewhere when I did the backlink search. I admit I didn't spend a lot of time investigating it.

If your .htaccess file were missing, your permalink structure wouldn't work - you'd be getting 404s for the URLs - so that's not the issue.

[reapr]

I forgot to mention .... depending on your host and how you ftp the file may not appear to exist. I use cuteftp pro.

One of my hosts you can not see that file unless you use thier ftp client which is thought he control panel.

Oh ...yes protect your second amendment rights!!! Noticed your sig.

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by reapr

I forgot to mention .... depending on your host and how you ftp the file may not appear to exist. I use cuteftp pro.

One of my hosts you can not see that file unless you use thier ftp client which is thought he control panel.

Oh ...yes protect your second amendment rights!!! Noticed your sig

Right, it was a hidden file. It is intact see below;

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress
reapr pm sent....

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by SteveJohnson

OBVIOUSLY I made an error somewhere when I did the backlink search. I admit I didn't spend a lot of time investigating it.

If your .htaccess file were missing, your permalink structure wouldn't work - you'd be getting 404s for the URLs - so that's not the issue.

NP I did my homework.... Good call on the 404's the .htaccess is fine...

[Christian Fox]

You will likely notice when you click on an affiliate link that there are sites loading in the browser that should not be there and you end up with either a white page or 500.

Not getting any of that behavior on any pages...

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by digitalproductreporter

check your raw log files and see if your site is throwing any 404's. that's a sure fire way to have your site dropped if google chews on too many 404's

also common when changing platforms

Log file on this site was empty... and it's one that has dropped Get Your Federal Firearms License: Now Free Bonus Software

Checked several others as well, empty also...

[reapr]

Forgot to mention even my error files had been altered.

[Christian Fox]

I am beginning to think it was the fact that I left 8 'dead' sites in my google webmaster stsats...Meaning these sites had a sitemap saved in webmaster tools but no data whatsoever. Every time these sites got crawled they loaded up with 404 errors.

Given that I have a hostgator resellr accound and the IP address is the same for all domains I bet it was punishing all of my domains.

I don't know what else to think...I dropped in all 3 engines Google Yahoo and MSN and not delisted by amy of them. I can not find anything else wrong at this point. I guess I will have to wait until I get crawled again.....

I'll throw some pings and see if I can speed it up.

[Christian Fox]

Url / Keyword(s)GoogleYahooMsnbuild-wind-generator
"build wind generator"# 12# 1# 4
WOW fixed all of that threw some pings out and within 2 minutes I am back.......

this site was #27 >100 #4 just a few minutes ago.....

A few more came up a bit also


Nice



Made my night....

[reapr]

Pings and a mass submit to rss aggregators will help ... usually same day.

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by reapr

Pings and a mass submit to rss aggregators will help ... usually same day.

Right I am only using rss on 2 sites for now but I am aware that helps even more...

That must have been the problem they are starting to come back....

[dannycapri]

Sorry to hear about your problem.

"Given that I have a hostgator resellr accound and the IP address is the same for all domains I bet it was punishing all of my domains."
Having the same IP address for many domains on a reseller account should not be an issue.

If you have already removed the sites from Google's index: Removing my own content from Google's index - Webmasters/Site owners Help , it could be that the sites are cached; these can be removed using the following:
Cached pages - Webmasters/Site owners Help

Also, if you are still having problems, you could ask Google to reconsider the site(s):
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...ideration.html

[danhughes]

I just read your other post about being hacked. I post over there is a second too... but I don't think the hacking is the whole of your problem...

Wordpress freaks the heck out if you do not have some kind of number in the URL. I know how ridiculous that sounds... but I am almost certain that's your problem.

Basically if the url starts with anything other than a number WP can / will screw with and or change all your permalinks... it can get really messy. Not to mention that if googlebot hits you up while this is going on, then the whole mess gets indexed. Here's the WP article on it: Using Permalinks WordPress Codex
I have seen it get so bad that your end up with canonical and non-canonical version of every post get indexed and none of them actually be the correct permalink.


The easiest way I have come across to optimize SEO / URL structure is Jeff Johnson "Traffic Getting Plugin" . The name is obviously total BS but... it's a very simple way to get *good-enough* onpage SEO. He'll make you opt-in, but you can get it free here: Jeff Johnson Underground Training Lab . One of the things it does is give your permalinks this structure... www.yourdomain.com/01/your-post-title . If you post (or update pages) more than 99 times you'll roll into 3 digits. That 2 digit number is going to make virtually no difference to how google will rank your site. In fact... most of those 99 digits are probably stop-words anyway.

If you want super-seo permalinks you going to need to stop WP from controlling your htaccess file and build one yourself. The easiest way to do that is with the redirection plugin. Just search redirection from within WP and you'll see it.... but unless you really want to tinker with it, I would leave it alone.

HTH, Dan

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by danhughes

I just read your other post about being hacked. I post over there is a second too... but I don't think the hacking is the whole of your problem...

Wordpress freaks the heck out if you do not have some kind of number in the URL. I know how ridiculous that sounds... but I am almost certain that's your problem.

Basically if the url starts with anything other than a number WP can / will screw with and or change all your permalinks... it can get really messy. Not to mention that if googlebot hits you up while this is going on, then the whole mess gets indexed. Here's the WP article on it: Using Permalinks WordPress Codex
I have seen it get so bad that your end up with canonical and non-canonical version of every post get indexed and none of them actually be the correct permalink.


The easiest way I have come across to optimize SEO / URL structure is Jeff Johnson "Traffic Getting Plugin" . The name is obviously total BS but... it's a very simple way to get *good-enough* onpage SEO. He'll make you opt-in, but you can get it free here: Jeff Johnson Underground Training Lab . One of the things it does is give your permalinks this structure... www.yourdomain.com/01/your-post-title . If you post (or update pages) more than 99 times you'll roll into 3 digits. That 2 digit number is going to make virtually no difference to how google will rank your site. In fact... most of those 99 digits are probably stop-words anyway.

If you want super-seo permalinks you going to need to stop WP from controlling your htaccess file and build one yourself. The easiest way to do that is with the redirection plugin. Just search redirection from within WP and you'll see it.... but unless you really want to tinker with it, I would leave it alone.

HTH, Dan

Well thanks much for the info.... I hate lose ends and having a number at the beginning of a url does not sound good to me at all. I'll look into the .htaccess option I think.

It may not make a big difference but it certainly won't help. I don't see any numbers in any of the urls near the top of Google where I need to be. At least not for the keywords I am after....

I hope you are right....I need to solve this.

[maco]

Originally Posted by reapr

Ok my sites most of them got deindexed over the last few weeks. Most of them are wordpress and they appeared to be functioning until click through on a link.

I went and took a look (ftped in) and it appears they were hacked. I have since resolved the issues and updated all scripts and changed all passwords and since all but 2 sites are back to where they were as far as traffic. I got them back in the SE by submitting to multiple rss directories/agregators. I have several accounts with this host so not sure if it was an issue on their end but when I contacted support they really seemed quite busy.

FTP into your site and look closely at the files anything that has .php extension and see if it has been modified.

I had the same thing and my sites have been deindexed. They are all .php
Is there anything special that the hackers modify to look for?