134 Website de-indexed with Adsense

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Hi All,

On the 4 Aug I had 134 out of 234 websites de-indexed by Google. My websites did not have privacy policy on and I used EVO2 and Senukex for link building. I had a monthly income of $1500pm. 100 websites with no adsense on are still indexed.

I registered 4 websites on webmaster tools after 4 Aug and submitted site map and robot.txt. I added privacy policy, disclosure and site map pages. The websites are about 14 months old.

Google replied to say: follow the webmaster guide again. Then I realized that the only other thing that I did was link building. And that is almost impossible to reverse.

My Adsense account is still active and making money from people going back to some of my websites, but other wise it is gone.

The way Google found all my websites in one go (I think), was that I listed in Adsense all the websites I want to earn money from under the 'account settings/access and authorization' section. My websites that I forgot to add to adsense access and authorization section was not de-indexed although I have custom adsense channels for them.

I want to warn you that please don't let this happen to you. Do not use link building strategies that put your business at risk and don't make for adsense websites. Google can easily spot them.

I need to start all over again. 18 months of adsense work is gone, but better now than later.

The only 'safe' link building seems to be the following:

1. Guest blogging and article syndication
2. Directory submissions
3. Very moderate social bookmarking
4. Handful of profiles that are actual contributing in forums
5. blog commenting
6. Please let me know of more ways...

And rather make good quality websites. With Google +1 and reporting of spammy websites to Google, Google is going to clean the index fast.

Now that I look at all the offers on WF, I am worried for all the people using these link building packages. It is very high risk and you cannot build a online business like that. Google will shoot you down in one go if they find you.

I would like to know what your thoughts are on link building penalties by Google and how you are building links the real white hat way?
#search engine optimization #134 #adsense #deindexed #google penalty #link building #website
  • Scary Stuff, Really!
    • [1] reply
    • And many people are promoting link building as being ok!

      Any link building is not allowed by Google. I was gaming the system with link building (white hat I was told) and paid the price.
      • [1] reply
  • Are you sure your sites just aren't very low quality MFA-type sites with 3 pages each? I doubt link-building in and of itself, even shady stuff, is going to get your sites deindexed, otherwise there'd be no sites left on the net! The lack of a privacy policy can't have helped. As for finding your sites, you don't need to list them in your account settings! If your site has Adsense code on it then it has your unique publisher code in and I'd wager the big G can VERY easily group them all together.

    But anyway, as a "white hat" method I would add creating decent web 2.0 properties to backlink to your site. Not SENUke-style crummy spun stuff, decent blogs related to your main site, that have value of their own, or even just one-page Squidoo lens, that sort of thing, that are related to your site and have had some effort put into them. That is something Google is not going to slap you for.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Yes, most were 4-5 pages (very low quality) and build for adsense, but many were not. I was doing referrals for loan company and cell phone contracts.

      My other remaining websites look the same, about 100 of them (with no adsense), but still indexed? I don't think google did a deep search. they just looked at my 'access and authorized' sites. I should never added them there!

      Thank you for your tip on squidoo nd other web 2.0 websites, that is a good link.

      Yes, more than half the websites on the internet could disappear. I don't know why Google picked me. Maybe I was first! More people to follow?
      • [1] reply
    • I've see couple of occurrences like this in other forums, which the sites got de-indexed but the adsense account is still open.

      Looks like a manual review was triggered somehow.

      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    Oh my God that is sure a big loss...
  • Just because you did link building before they were taken down doesn't mean link building was the culprit. People need to learn that correlation=/=causation. It could have been any number of things.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I agree, but do you think Google will give me a list? They only point you to webmaster guidelines. I even asked Adwords (my quality score went down to 1/10 after de-listing) for the problem, but they pointed me to the webmaster guidelines as well.
  • Most probably the sites have less quality content and aiming for adsense only.That is you don't have any good content.And also those sites might be using same ipaddress.
    Actually many things are needed to be tested.You have to redefine all sites content and submit for reconsideration.
    • [1] reply
    • On one of my websites where I was promoting 'debt consolidation' for client, Adsense sent me an email to advise me to add more adsense. This was not a made for adsense website. I was ranking no 2 in South Africa for 'debt consolidation'.

      So many was made for adsense, but not all. The only factor that was the same with all my websites, was that I had adsense on (some only had one adsense block) and I did link building with Evo2 and later Senukex. I also uses UAW and BMR. Some of these websites were 14 month old. So google took a while to de-index them.

      Re: IP addresses. yes I only had 2 ip address. One in SA and one from hostgator, but I don't think this is the issue. Google should pick up all my adsense websites with my adsense code.
  • [DELETED]
  • Ouch sorry to hear that Czb, thanks for the heads up though. I also read a post last week about someones website getting de-indexed because of a link building fiverr service.

    The most important thing is that you are not going to quit.
    Failure is only failing if you give up.
  • that sucks . this is why u need to have multiple adsense accounts and hosting in case something like this was to happen
    • [1] reply
    • Totally!

      I am still in limbo on how to start over again. You cannot build a business around adsense if all is in hands of Google.

      And I got an email today from google webmaster tools that there is another 500 changes to be made to Google this year alone.

      But if you do make a business from adsense, you should not take any chances. Build websites 100% according to webmaster tool guidelines.

      I can do this again in less than 18 months with my new knowledge, but is adsense a business model I should follow?
      • [2] replies
  • Banned
    OP, you have to be kidding me, you didn't have any privacy policy on your sites? Why?

    Sounds like Google didn't do anything except cover their own arse, considering Google isn't going to be held acountable for you not following their rules/TOS. Do you not think that Google pays big $$ for lawyers to create things like TOS contracts for a reason?

    You created your own problem by not having a privacy policy.
  • I would like to sympathise but your sites didn't have privacy policies, come on! That is really basic stuff.
  • Well... when you start with creating sites for adsense, first thing to do is make sure you follow google TOS. One of the main parts is icluding Privacy Policy page.

    So like guys before me, i would like to say that this is what you were doing wrong!

    Linkbuilding is not responsible for this!
  • There are so many things that Google has on their information Guidelines page. Some other things you may want to look for are links to other sites that don't really go with your page (and might be low quality sites), another ad close to your Google ads that looks too much like it, taking copy from the Google site off or changing it, hiding pages, etc.

    If you are not sure what is wrong, you might try contacting them again, and letting them know you are trying to fix what is wrong. Also try looking at your site inside your hosting provider. Check your code. Your site may have been hacked. Make sure all the pages you have are ones you yourself made. And check to make sure somebody didn't insert malicious code in there with a widget.
  • Obviously there are other issues other than "link building".

    If you think Google arbitrarily de-indexes sites, think again.

    If you had no privacy policy on them and were running adsense, you've violated their TOS (you may get banned).
  • To All plugin creators - an opportunity for the 1st person to develop a Wordpress plugin that can rank the installed blog against the Google ADSENSE criteria.

    In the same way that we have SEO plugins that check the content - can someone develop a plugin that checks the sites for compliance against adsense?

    Just another thought - but this would be a WSO worth having.

    What do other adsensers think?
    • [1] reply
  • I have seen this happen before it has nothing to do with privacy policy, it starts from google seeing dodgy back link building, thats it.
    • [1] reply
    • According to me, all link building is doggy, because G does not like it. The link building that I did a lot was Senukex type link building plus Article syndication or marketing.

      But, I don't think it is just link building. The privacy policy played a role, but it could also me my competition that reported me. As soon as you are reported, G is 'forced' to look at all the problems on the website and cannot release until all is fixed.

      To fix the link building is going to take to long, so it is better to start over.

      But what is shocking is the fact that people are building online businesses doing these tabo things like link building know they can be de-indexed any day.

      I was doing because every one else is doing it and it looked ok. Specially when you read the Warrior Forum.

      Google is employing people right now to fight spam websites in a big way.

      Be warned!
      • [1] reply
  • Great Article it's realized me. it happened to me but DE-indexed 1 of my 10 blogs which is high traffic conversion am still using back linking between these.

    also using ad sense and Adbrite networks

    Adbrite slapped me. i am using it since 4 years. they mail me yesterday your not allow to with our exchange due to insufficient page views. but am increased page visitors and my earning level. Ad sense ads disabled one of my blog due to copyrighted content. Right now I am waiting to see when will ad sense disable account?

    why it happens to me!
  • You have been panda effected that's why your sites had been de-indexed. Post some quality original proper SEO optimized contents on your site and have some authority backlinks and your site will be indexed again. Also remove scammy contents from your site. Hope it will help.

    Jawad
    • [1] reply
    • I agree with you Jawad, but it takes more than just good content. You can have good content, but if G thinks your site is made for adsense they will deindex you.

      The problem is that as soon as your website is flagged, G can find any reason to de-index you. What i mean is, if you are reported by your competition that your don't have a privacy policy while using adsense on your website will be de-index. But fixing this problem and asking to be indexed does not fix the it. The reason is that now your website will be manually reviewed. G is forced to check everything now, because even if you have added privacy policy and they see other problems like link building, they cannot index your website again. If they do, they will basiclly tell the world, it is ok to do link building!

      And that is why I am stuck with 134 de-indexed websites. I still have 120 website, but they did not have adsense on. I still have my adsense account as well. I am rebuilding.

      Hope the above makes sense.
      • [1] reply
  • Yes, i just bought a website on flippa. and i had about 1800 pages indexed. and yesturday. i looked again it was only 750 post indexed. so the rest of the post was de-indexed.
  • 99% of all de-indexings are because of on-page factors, otherwise there wouldn't be an internet, we would have blasted each other out of google already.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi John,

      That is 100% true, but as soon as you are flagged or de-index and they review for re-indexing they will look at off-page as well.

      Colin
  • What part of: "AdSense publishers must have and abide by a privacy policy that discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users' browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website." Didn't you understand?
    • [1] reply
    • Yes, that was my wrong totally. I never read small print. But after 18 working with Adsense and never seeing any body hammer on it in ebooks I forgot about it and thought it was not important.

      Well, Adsense even emailed me a couple of times to say , 'place more ads' and 'change text ads to image and text'. I thought Adsense was helping me big time and we were getting on. With Adsense and me being buddies and helping me to place more ads I thought I must be doing something right. Wouldn't you?

      Then out of the blue G comes and says stop being friends with Adsense we de-indexing him. No warning, just bang! You are OUT! I though they will email me if they had a problem seeing that they were always emailing me first about making more money.

      If I was not doing link building, I am sure G would have let me in again after adding the privacy policy.

      G did not even come back to me after my last email to them about me link building. G being silent is an answer to me.


      PS. Did you see the $500mil fine G got for allowing pharma ads. Did the Gov close G down? No, just a fine and warning. So why does G not do that to its partners? Is G becoming to BIG?


      I have written it of anyway. I am starting over with privacy policy. lol!
  • It's always a good idea to find out where your links are going to be promoted, to prevent things like these happening
  • link building is dangerous. i have already stopped it ever since my sites were deindexed in May.
    • [1] reply
    • I agree, and I have a feeling the biggest slap yet is on its way. I am seeing emails from webmastertools that they are recruiting web spammer 'police in Dublin office and they are making it very very easy to report spammy websites. They are gearing up for a big show down.

      Spam and link building has got out of hand. The auto link building software has become to powerful and is taking over by manipulation of the rankings. I thing that is one of the reasons for +1. This is going to count big point in the future. maybe just as much as links.
  • Here's the problem with the lack of privacy notice theory: He wasn't banned from Adsense, he was banned from Google.

    He still has his Adsense account, therefore I think it's safe to assume it wasn't Adsense related. AFter all, if he was in trouble for breaking the Adsense TOS, wouldn't his punishment include getting his Adsense account banned?

    His sites are gone from the Google SERPs/index. There's plenty of sites on the web that don't have privacy policies and still rank well in Google. Google doesn't control the TOS for the Web, only for those that have an agreement with Google, such as Adsense.
    • [1] reply

    • That is right Kurt, but what connects this back to Adsense is that only site that I listed under 'access and authorization' in adsense was banned. At the time I have 5 other adsense sites that I for got to list and they were not banned.

      It could have been a mistake from G. Or there was a lazy admin ad G that looked at a couple, did see problems, like privacy and then just took my whole list and de-indexed them.

      I don't really know, because G is not telling me. I can understand why, because they are protecting themselves, but this keeps me guessing what was the trigger.
  • The first things that comes to mind when I read that you ranked #2 in South Africa for an ultra competitive term like "debt consolidation" are:

    1) you content better be darn good to pass a manual review, if not, well...

    2) a competitor could be behind it that provoked a closer look at you backlinks from google.
  • Suggesting his websites were de-indexed because of the lack of a privacy policy is nothing short of ludacris. If he had broken Adsense TOS there is no reason under the sun as to why he wouldn't be banned - I think it's pretty safe to say the de-indexing is definitely not related to a lack of privacy policy.
  • It all has to do with the quality of your websites.

    Why don't you list just one of the websites that got deindexed for us to see?
  • There is a saying, the simplest solution is usually the right one.

    Stop using SENuke and other spam oriented programs if you're using Adsense.

    I agree completely that a lack of a privacy policy is an udder joke, there is NO way that is even part of the conversation for deindexing a site.
  • I had the same issue with some of my site, my only adsense site that was save were not listed in “G” properties at all, but the site do have adsense code thou!


    I will advice everyone NOT to list all your site in AdSense, analytic/webmaster tools Acc.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • It is great loss . Sorry to hear this .
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    134 Website de-indexed with Adsense

    Hi All, On the 4 Aug I had 134 out of 234 websites de-indexed by Google. My websites did not have privacy policy on and I used EVO2 and Senukex for link building. I had a monthly income of $1500pm. 100 websites with no adsense on are still indexed.