An interesting checklist of why a site could be dropped from google’ index posted in webmasterworld.com

An interesting post in webmasterworld.com describes how sites were dropped from google’s index, whether it is because of a penalty or because of google’s own problem, this checklist describes well,

One of the most common themes of posting here in WW starts something like:
“Last night, my site disappeared…”
“Losing” a site can be a painful and
frustrating experience. To help ease the pain, perhaps a starting list of
potential issues might help. I’ll probably miss more than I’m catching with this
list, but at least it’s a start.
Do a site search at the SE in question to
determine if all of some of your pages are gone. Some think that their site has
vanished, when in fact an algo update or tweak has occured causing their pages
to drop. Or, individual pages have been filtered or penalized, but not entire
sites:
If *all* of your pages are gone (search on URL’s to check that), then
perhaps: • your server was down at an inopportune time. • you have a robots.txt
problem. • you’ve been removed from the index based on a perception of bad
behavior (not good).
If only some pages are gone, or if your pages have
simply dropped badly in the SERP’s, then perhaps: • you have some other
technical issue not noted above (e.g., badly executed redirects), • the algo
changed, • you’ve done something recently that the SE did not like, or, • the
algo changed and something that was previously “OK” is now being filtered or
penalized.
Here are some specific things to look at:
Start with the
basics: Was your server down recently? Server failure is always a good item to
check off your list when searching for problems. No need to start remaking your
site if all that happened was a temporary problem.
Are you using a
robots.txt file, and if so, has it changed. , Is the syntax correct? There are a
variety of potential problems that can be caused by improper code in robots.txt
files, or placement of the robots.txt file in the wrong location. Search WW on
this topic if you’re not sure what you’re doing. Use the WW Server Header
Checker. At worst, a robots.txt file can tell a SE to go away, and you really
don’t want that. 😉
Have you more aggressively optimized recently? Internal
changes that can lead to potential problems include: • More aggressive kw
optimization, e.g., changes to Titles, META’s, tags, placement and
density of kw’s, etc. • Link structure changes, and especially link text
changes. Updates to link text or structure, if done for optimization reasons,
can push a site into filter/penalty territory. Look in particular for overuse of
kw’s.
Have you added redirects? The SE’s *can* sometimes become confused by
redirects. Assuming that the changes are intended to be permanent, use 301’s,
not 302’s. Be especially careful about large scale changes. If done properly,
redirects are important tools. Done without proper knowledge, they can lead to
short term pain, often on the order of 1-6 months.
webmasterworld.com/forum3/8706.htm
Do you have a significant number of
interlinking sites? If ever there was a strategy that might be summed up as:
“Here today, gone tomorrow…” interlinking is it. You can succeed with this
strategy. But if you add too many sites or links to the mini-net you’re
creating, or interlink too aggressively, it can catch up to you. Penalties can
range from soft filters to complete manual removal in rare cases. Even with no
recent changes to your sites, the SE algo’s can change, making something that
squeaked by yesterday illegal today. webmasterworld.com/forum3/4618.htm
Are
you linking to sites in “bad” neighborhoods? If ever there was a strategy that
might be summed up as: “Gone today…” linking to “bad” sites is it. If you
think that you might be linking to the dark-side, lose that link instantly, if
not sooner.
webmasterworld.com/forum3/8053.htm
Could you be suffering from a
duplicate content penalty? Some practices or occurances that can cause problems
in this regard include: • Use of a single, site-wide template • Use of one
template across multiple sites • Competitors stealing or mirroring your content
• Redirects from an old domain to a new one • Over reliance on robots.txt files
to exclude bots from content areas you don’t want exposed. WebmasterWorld
Thread: webmasterworld.com/forum3/22494.htm
Are you cloaking? Some cloak merely to deliver “accurate” pictures of
sites/pages to the SE’s. Examples of this are sites with lots of graphics and
little text. But if you’re a mainly text based site that is delivering one set
of content to the SE’s while users are seeing something
less…umm…optimized…then there’s always the risk that you’ve been caught.
Are you using AdWords? This is pure speculation on the part of some seniors
here, but some do seem to firmly believe that if you place highly with an
Adwords listing, it might actually hurt your position in the SERP’s. Don’t shoot
me. I’m just the messenger.
IF OTOH, the only issue is that you’re not as
high in the rankings as you’d like, then a better place to start would be
Brett’s 26 Steps to 15K a Day.

Source: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum5/4584.htm

Search Google Ads – searching google’s sponsored links

it seems we can search google’s ad database, for example if we do any query in this URL;

www.google.com/sponsoredlinks it shows ads which google shows for adwords are adsense, seems like a good feature to know who are the advertisers for a particular keyword phrase and how many ads are displayed for a given keyword,

Google Adwords displaying all the ads

we can adjust the number of results displayed per page Inorder to display all the ads on one screen, Lately there was a discussion in webmasterworld where a user reported he say almost 60 ads, some say it is a common phenomenon when google results are set to 50 results or 100 results per page,

Discussion here, www.webmasterworld.com/forum81/4107.htm

Google fixes their desktop search tool flaw,

there was a report that hackers can get access to users’ local searches if people are using the desktop search tool, it was reported by some rich university scientists ( news here news.com.com/Flaw+found+in+Googles+new+desktop+search/2100-1032_3-5497244.html )

Now google seem to have fixed the issue, news here,

news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-12/21/content_2360777.htm

An unrelated thread turning into a Google Bashing thread in webmasterworld.com

Recently when i was browsing through the webmasterworld.com thread I came across the thread where the integration of search in MSN messenger was discussed, This thread completely went in a wrong direction and turned into a google bashing thread, It is so weird to see the number of webmasters who hate google these days, Are they just webmasters or SEOs, I feel most of them are professional search engine optimizers frustrated on seeing their new sites and new links sandboxed and many of their quality optimized sites not ranking,

This seem to be a common hatred among SEOs these days towards google, I personally use google for all my needs and am happy with what google does for me,

Check that thread here,

www.webmasterworld.com/forum97/278-2-10.htm

Is it right that SEOs hate google, Is this what google want to achieve from their new mission of sandboxing sites, Please feel free to comment on this,

Google launches google suggest beta- A great google addon feature

Google is testing beta version of their new wonderful product google suggest, google suggest helps people find relevant queries through a suggested search engine friendly drop down,

For example if you type google it will bring down relevant list of deep queries, for example words like google search, google suggest a site, google toolbar, google scholar etc,

it is a great product you can reach it here, google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1

Screen shot of the new google product google suggest

new gaggle of Groups (update)

Official Google Blog reports on the new google groups beta, Please check what they have to say about their new google blog,

Whether your interests run to knitting or brain surgery, chances are good

other people out there share them. The new Google Groups not only helps you find

information on millions of topics; now you can actively share ideas and opinions

with others about each and every obsession of yours. And if you don’t find a

group already focused on your passion, by all means start one. Invite others to

join your group so that all interested parties can read and respond to messages,

share opinions and ideas via email or your own group’s web page. If you’re

looking for a group to join, we could definitely use some thoughtful insight (or

idle speculation) over at my space elevator group. Shannon Bauman Associate

Product Manager, Google Groups

More here ( google.com/googleblog/2004/12/new-gaggle-of-groups-update.html )

Google Toolbar pagerank Not accurate – A reply possibly from google,

Recently One Guy posted saying that he got a reply from google regarding his site loosing page rank, Dont know whether it is true or not but worth a read,

“The PageRank that is displayed in the Google Toolbar is for

entertainment purposes only. Due to repeated attempts by hackers to

access this data, Google updates the PageRank data very infrequently

because is it not secure. On average, the PR that is displayed in the

Google Toolbar is several months old. If the toolbar is showing a PR of

zero, this is because the user is visiting a new URL that hasn’t been

updated in the last update. The PR that is displayed by the Google

Toolbar is not the same PR that is used to rank the webpage results so

there is no need to be concerned if your PR is displayed as zero. If a

site is showing up in the search results, it doesn’t not have a real PR

of zero, the Toolbar is just out of date”

Source: forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3054

Google Downloads, Google introduces all download softwares in one page

Check this page out,

You will see

the following softwares provided by google in one single place,

Picase photo editing software,

Google Toolbar

Google deskbar,

Google Desktop Search

Google Gmail Notifier ( an add on for the google toolbar )

Remember it is for Windows softwares only, No Linux version available yet,

Download it here, www.google.com/downloads

Thanksgiving logos Google Yahoo Askjeeves logo changed for thanksgiving day

Google yahoo askjeeves changed their logos on the thanksgiving day to pay tribute to everyone celebrating it,

There are the following logos displayed on the thanksgiving day,