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Did Google De-index My Site? What?! Why?!

by TPaulBuzan
19 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello Warriors,

About a year ago I started a travel site. At the time I knew nothing about IM or SEO. Here in the last five or six weeks, however, I've gotten into the IM game.

I've been using my travel site as an SEO laboratory of sorts: on-page SEO optimization, back linking to article directories, setting up a couple of Web 2.0 sites, etc.

I was pleasantly surprised to see an uptick in traffic for my efforts.

Then about two weeks ago my traffic tanked. I went from about 100 visitors a day to maybe 10 or 20.

I couldn't figure out what was going on. I was having issues with page load times and I thought maybe that was it. But I got that problem (mostly) solved and my site still wasn't attracting visitors.

Then last night I checked my site through the free version of Traffic Travis and it tells me that NONE of my pages are indexed. I know for a fact they were before.

If I search one of my keywords on Google my pages/posts still show up, but if I try to click through to my site nothing shows up. Just a blank screen.

So I guess I've got three questions:

1) Does it sound like Google de-indexed my site?

2) If so, what could I have possibly done to get on Google's bad side?

3) What can I do to remedy this situation?

Needless to say, I'm bummed out. This isn't a spammy site AT ALL, and I really don't know what I could have possibly done wrong.

If anyone can help with this I'd be grateful. The site name is www[dot]koreaconnection[dot]net Thanks.

Paul
#deindex #google #site
  • Profile picture of the author lovboa
    Banned
    Your site is still indexed. I just found you on Google and clicked through successfully.
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  • Profile picture of the author gottalovegoogle
    Another Google algorithm change! sorry man welcome to the new world where quality sites with quality links going to them will be at the top of the hill.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO4hire
    Definitely looks deindexed on my end. I did a search on Google using site:your URL and nothing came up. I would have to assume that you used some sort of link building package or technique that Google saw as black or gray hat. I would use a tool that shows your backlinks and try to assess which links Google might have a problem with and delete them, and then resubmit your site for inclusion.
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  • Profile picture of the author silyavski
    your site is ok, sits on first place from a search from Spain with kor... connect...
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  • Profile picture of the author TPaulBuzan
    It's disappointing to spend many hours creating a site that -- I think -- provides some value to the web only to have it de-indexed.

    I'm not sure what I could have done that's black or gray hat. I submitted a couple of articles to E-Zine Articles, set up a Tumblr blog that linked back to my site, and placed a couple of meaningful comments on various blogs.

    Also, I've steered clear of keyword stuffing and that sort of thing.

    How disappointing. Any advice on what I need to do in order to have my site re-indexed by Google?
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO4hire
    I would:
    - check out your backlink quality
    - check out your anchor text ratio (Is it mostly the main keywords you are targeting?)
    - analyze your on-site SEO (Does your site seem thin? Is it overoptimized?)

    Assume that Google is going to pick apart your website and backlinks. Will they think it is shady or white hat? That is the mentality you will have to have. Once everything seems legit, submit it for reinclusion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sillysoft
    Actually I have the same problem, if I go to your site directly the front page works just fine, however any sub pages I go to its just a blank screen. Same when I go to google and do the site:Korea Connection

    It shows your pages indexed, but when I click any of the links it goes to a blank page. Most likely why your losing visitors/rankings. Perhaps you should check if wordpress is logging any php errors.
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  • Profile picture of the author TPaulBuzan
    Hello all,

    To everyone who has commented, thanks for the advice.

    I'm not sure what to do. I don't think this is a WordPress issue i.e. a php error as my site is working fine, if a bit slowly.

    The problem is accessing my site through Google US. Traffic Travis is showing that my site has zero pages indexed. Plus, whenever I try to access one of my posts through Google I only get a blank page.

    Frustrating.

    I probably don't know enough about SEO to thoroughly analyze the situation, but I can't begin to imagine what I've done wrong. My site isn't the least bit spammy: a single Amazon widget, content written for people not search engines, loads of photos, social media interaction, etc.

    So who knows? From what I can tell half of the battle with IM (at least if you depend on SEO) is trying to auger what the geniuses at Google what from sites.

    Can anyone clue me in on how to go about resubmitting my site to be indexed? Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO4hire
    https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration
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  • Profile picture of the author retsek
    There was actually a Panda Update today that targeted only Japanese and Korean languages. https://twitter.com/google/status/225371441816805376

    You've probably been hit.

    Your site currently is loading a blank page.

    I checked out cached copies of your site and your content looks fine.

    But you have tags indexed. You should "noindex,follow" those, since they don't add much value to your search engine presence, but may still be valuable for user experience.

    You also have very few backlinks. It's a small niche, you probably don't need alot. But of the few linking to you, many are also korean sites. It's possible they might have been it in this korean/jap update and so you just lost some link value flowing to you. Either way, get more links.
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    • Profile picture of the author TPaulBuzan
      Originally Posted by retsek View Post

      There was actually a Panda Update today that targeted only Japanese and Korean languages. https://twitter.com/google/status/225371441816805376

      You've probably been hit.

      Your site currently is loading a blank page.

      I checked out cached copies of your site and your content looks fine.

      But you have tags indexed. You should "noindex,follow" those, since they don't add much value to your search engine presence, but may still be valuable for user experience.

      You also have very few backlinks. It's a small niche, you probably don't need alot. But of the few linking to you, many are also korean sites. It's possible they might have been it in this korean/jap update and so you just lost some link value flowing to you. Either way, get more links.
      I appreciate you taking a look at my site, Retsek.

      A couple of questions:

      1) What software (if any) did you use to check links on my site? I've been playing around with Traffic Travis and the results have been...okay. I've heard Market Samurai is quite good.

      Not asking you to plug something, but I'm all ears for recommendations.

      2) Complete newbie here, so could you expound a bit upon tags and "noindex, follow" options? Is that something I change through WordPress? (Can't check as I'm currently at work...shhhh)

      Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author retsek
        Originally Posted by TPaulBuzan View Post

        I appreciate you taking a look at my site, Retsek.

        A couple of questions:

        1) What software (if any) did you use to check links on my site? I've been playing around with Traffic Travis and the results have been...okay. I've heard Market Samurai is quite good.

        Not asking you to plug something, but I'm all ears for recommendations.

        2) Complete newbie here, so could you expound a bit upon tags and "noindex, follow" options? Is that something I change through WordPress? (Can't check as I'm currently at work...shhhh)

        Thanks!
        I mainly use OpenSiteExplorer to check sites I don't own. Also use Majesticseo and ahrefs from time to time.

        Both Google and Bing's Webmaster Tools will give you a better picture of incoming sites for sites that you own/verify. You should sign-up with them if you haven't already.

        It looks like you're running the All-in-One SEO plugin. There's an option inside that plugin, to set noindex to Tags. I haven't used it in a while, so I can't remember.
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  • Profile picture of the author RedClickSeo
    I just did a "site:" function check with your website and it shows 52 results, then searched it in quotes and it came up in the index which means it's not deindexed. I even clicked through and didn't get a blank page.... I don't really know what you're talking about.

    However, a huge decrease in traffic if probably a result of a google penalty. It could be a manual 3 month penalty or a generic penalty. Keep building quality links and it should begin to rise back up.

    -red
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    • Profile picture of the author zonkow
      Originally Posted by RedClickSeo View Post

      I just did a "site:" function check with your website and it shows 52 results, then searched it in quotes and it came up in the index which means it's not deindexed. I even clicked through and didn't get a blank page.... I don't really know what you're talking about.

      However, a huge decrease in traffic if probably a result of a google penalty. It could be a manual 3 month penalty or a generic penalty. Keep building quality links and it should begin to rise back up.

      -red
      Is there a such thing as 3 month penalty?
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      • Profile picture of the author indiana jones
        Is it possible not to get message in webmaster tools when penalised?
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      • Profile picture of the author JeanneLynn
        Originally Posted by zonkow View Post

        Is there a such thing as 3 month penalty?
        I was hoping my site was just given a 3 month penalty. but it's been 3 months and 4 days since it dropped out of Google. I think it's gone forever. A lot of work for nothing.

        I only used BMR for a few weeks for backinking. I deleted all of the BMR links, but it didn't help get my rankings back.

        I'm done with Google. I've been writing Kindle books now.
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        • Profile picture of the author TPaulBuzan
          HUGE thanks to everyone who has commented on this situation.

          Okay. So it looks like -- despite what Traffic Travis tells me -- my site is still indexed. I didn't know about the "site:<yoursitename>" trick. Thanks to everyone who mentioned it.

          However, I'm getting mixed feedback: Some folks are able to access my site via Google; others -- myself included -- get nothing but a blank page. This is strange and leads me to believe that it must be something on the WordPress side of things (a wonky theme, perhaps?) and not an SEO issue.

          Probably. It does seem odd that I've seen such a nosedive in traffic. Forgive the ignorant question, but how does one go about checking whether or not they've been penalized by Google?

          Again, many thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author GeraldNitram
    It could be that your site has been hacked, because I got a blank page on my end. You're still indexed, by the way. I searched for you using site:<your site here>, and your site was listed down.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Your site is loading blank pages. This has NOTHING to do with Google. There is something wrong with your site or your hosting. No Google penalty in the world can make your site load blank pages.

    If you site has been doing this for awhile, you will see a drop in rankings. Search engine spiders will be finding the same blank pages. Also your bounce rate will be through the roof. Both of those things will cause a drop in rankings that has nothing to do with Penguin or any other Google algorithm tweak.
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