Google is Deindexing Micro niche site?

Can you elaborate with any more details about what exactly happened, or any circumstances around you geting de-indexed please?

Grizzly is at war with Google.

Though build the sites right and you can avoid a Google slaughter.

Still I much prefer to go the complete opposite of micro niche sites and go mega niche sites.

Adsense is a great introduction to Internet Marketing but its a poor long term strategy.

Google clearly says no to 'Made for Adsense', they want sites where the users concentrate on something else other then adsense.

To make serious money from Adsense, its about Adsense being the focus of attention and nothing else, making the site look dull with adsense the highlight, etc etc.

Without really optimising it, its going to be hard to get a click though rate of a few percent and that is not going to make any money (unless a site receives like 100,000 visitors a day or something).

Its no point making it part of long term plan where its the main 'bread winner'.

Wrong.

Most deindexings occur based on a 30 second visual inspection by someone for whom English is typically a second or third language. No content is examined, only the design of the site in question. If it looks MFA it could have content that would rival Shakespeare and Stephen King combined and still get deindexed.

Conversely, you can have a site with extremely thin scraped content and, as long as you've done the right things behind the scenes, never risk deindexing (examples: thefind.com, nextag.com and bizrate.com)

Here we go again!

Obviously google is not deindexing micro niche sites, as most websites on the web are micro niche sites.

So what do we know? Not much. Google doesn't like MFA sites. So what is a MFA site? I would hazard a guess that it is something that is a combination of the following factors:

1. Sparse content, lots of ads - a page where the content itself is "mostly adsense"

2. Posting scraped and duplicate content, plastered with adsense ads

3. Providing no real value for the user

4. Content that is unreadable "gibberish"

5. Poor site navigation, and adsense ads made to look like navigation

6. No other links on the page - the back button or adsense ad is the only way to exit the site

Many of the above points are subjetive. So how can we make a site that avoids the MFA label?

1. Have pages with content. If you have adsense on a page, it is probably a good idea to have at least 500 words of content on the page. Think about it, if your page has a small 50 word paragraph, and the rest of the page is covered with 6 different adsense blocks, its safe to say that the majority of the content is the adsense itself.

2. Post original unique content.

3. How to provide value? Its difficult to say, but writing something actually related to the keyword that will be useful to some visitors helps. For product sites, this could be reviews, rewritten product descriptions, information on manufacturers, and retailers.

4. Write legible content that makes sense.

5. Stick to classic site navigation - i.e a sidebar or horizontal bar below the header. Avoid having only adsense ads in the sidebar.

6. Have other outbound links on your page. For product sites, this could be affiliate links such as amazon, or other links to where you can buy the product.

These points are just off the top of my head using common sense, but I would be very surprised if your sites abided by these 6 points and were still deindexed.

So why are all these people getting deindexed? I would imagine its because they were falling foul of these 6 points. Just because someone says they are writing quality content, it does not make it true. What is quality content? It completely subjective. Google is not looking for shakespeare, its looking for legible, content rich sites that dont trick or force the visitor to click ads.

I would also imagine that most people get deindexed for dodgy practices, including:

1. clicking their own ads, or other invalid click practices.

2. interlinking all of their sites ( I have seen this many times)

3. Achieving a poor ROI for advertisters through poor quality traffic. Search engine traffic is likely to give the best ROI, so if your site is solely relying on search engine traffic, I can't see how you would be deindexed for providing a poor ROI. If i were an advertiser, I would happily advertise on a 1 page micro site about yellow rain boots as long as the visitors who clicked through the ads provided me a positive ROI.

4. A whole host of other blackhat and shady practices.

Most people insist that its because of poor quality content. Let us look at probably the most famous example of making money from adsense with micro sites - Mr John Xfactor.

I have read his ebook, and his method for writing content for product sites is "always" (quote) rewritten product descriptions and reviews. Is that really quality content? When you search for yellow widgets, are you looking for a site that has rewritten product descriptions, rewritten amazon reviews, and no outbound links? Probably not. I would imagine that you are looking for a site which sells yellow widgets. If you wanted reviews you would have searched or "yellow widget reviews".

He is making a lot of money, so I'm sure his account has been manually reviewed, yet he is still here making lots of cash. How can this be? Well I would say this is for the following reasons:

1. His sites are readable and on topic.

2. They have content which is not thin (over 500 words per page) and not dominated by adsense - he has one block above the fold, and one sidebar.

3. His content is unique.

4. He has clear site navigation.

In addition to this, he also follows 100% white hat methods.

1. link building only through article marketing

2. no site interlinking

3. no other dodgy shady methods.

And probably most important of all:

4. His site relies solely on search engine traffic, and as such he most probably provides a very decent ROI for advertisers who's adverts appear on his sites. He makes money, the advertiser makes money, google makes money.

I think he would agree with me - his content doesn't set the world alight with its quality and interesting insight. But it is factual, unique, readable, and on topic.

By the way, this is in no way an attack on John, I think the man is a genius and his ebook assisted me in countless ways. I just used him as an example to show that you dont need designer websites or poetic content to build sites that rank well and are safe from deindexing.

Phew, post/rant over

To be crystal clear; Ben's issue was not Micro Sites; that term was misstated by the OP. His issue was building a slew of MFA Sites and bodaciously announcing his feats to the MMO community. In addition, (and his most egregious oversight) he didn't bother reading the Google Adsense TOS. Had he did that, he wouldn't have had to write a 4000 word missive about receiving a left uppercut from Google.

Adsense Publishers who are not attempting to beat the system using nefarious strategies and BH tactics shouldn't loose a second of sleep over what happened to Ben. The bottom line; he rolled the dice with MFAs and lost.

Spot on. Look at the web - 90% of the websites are junk.

Most sites have less than 10 pages.

Most sites just have rehashed content.

Most sites look like c*ap.

You will be deindexed if you are being a naughty boy. If your just making rubbish websites, you will be left alone.

Hi Folks - figured I'd chime in here since a few people emailed me
and asked me to comment on my personal work update.

(PLEASE READ CAREFULLY)

... As I cannot make it here to answer questions all of the time.

For starters, I never speculate anything that Google may or may not
do.

Such threads are (and always have been) a draining and mentally
defeating growth amongst marketing forums.

Second, I have a Google rep that contacts me bi-yearly. I expect my
next conversation in July.

In January, my rep asked about any input I wanted to make, as well
as if I needed any tips on monetization.

My Portfolio:

This is probably the most key element here, because the difference
between someone that churns out hundreds of 1-page websites in
record time and me is:

1) I have nearly 13,000 pages of unique content, spread over 100+
websites, with many pages that have been growing since 2008.

2) 2,000 pages of that is on 1 health website.

3) In about 2 weeks all of my micro niche sites will reach 100
pages of content.

4) They all started at 1-5 pages.

Note: I work with micro niches, not micro sites. Yes,
very site needs to start out small, but if I had a site making $5.00 per
day, why would I not want to add dozens or hundreds of long-tail keyword
focused article to: a) get more earnings and, b) contribute more information
to the niche?

5) I love my award-converting template, but due to so many people
using it, I enjoy changing things around. I urge everyone to use their
own creativity - just using my layout as a guide. Do I make less
money? Yes, that's ok with me.

6) Having been a black hat spammer from late 2005 until 2007, I
have purposefully avoided any and all backlink promotions that would
appear not to contribute something to the search engines.

I know what short-term riches feel like, as I did it. But at the end of
2007 I made a very clear and bold commitment to only work long-term.

Hope this little update helps.

P.S. Yes, I have a new book coming detailing my experience with growing
these sites and all out better action plans and such (Free to all customers).

- John