How Do I Know If My Web Site Has Been Banned By Google
You might ask yourself has your web site been banned by Google, because you might have read or heard that various actions and methods might make that happen. For example creating multiple web sites with duplicate content or generating web pages with no original content with affiliate ads might get a web site banned by Google. Some people have for example created fake directory pages using DMOZ and Google AdSense ads or other affiliate program ads just to get money when people click the links and some have used computer programs to create large amounts of computer generated link pages, etc.
Contact Google?
Contacting Google might not help, because Google employees don’t have time to give feedback for the exact reason why a site that has been banned, because Google uses computer programs called “search engine spiders” (or bots) to crawl through sites from a link on one page to another page. That’s why you might have to check at least four things about your site yourself: 1) is your site banned, 2) is any web page cached by Google linking to your site, 3) is your site accessible to search engine spiders, and 4) are you using spamming techniques. This article offers do it yourself (DIY) instructions. It doesn’t give definite answers, because every site is a unique case and you might not easily find every spamming technique yourself. This article gives hints about where the problem might be and how you can find out possible reasons.
1) Is your site really banned?
If you can find one or more pages cached by Google using the site search [site:your.site] (for example site:google.com), then you are not banned. If you can’t find any web pages from your site cached by Google, it doesn’t mean you are necessarily banned by Google (see 2).
2) Is any web page indexed by Google linking to your site?
If your site is new, one reason for not been indexed by Google might be that no page indexed by Google is linking to your site. If your site was indexed by Google for years, but it isn’t anymore, then your site might be banned by Google or you might have made changes on your site so that it isn’t accessible by search engine spiders anymore (see 3).
3) Is your site accessible to search engine spiders?
Another problem can be that your site is not accessible to search engine spiders. For example search engine spiders don’t usually (if ever) follow JavaScript redirects. If you have a start page that is only used to redirect to the main page using incorrect redirect, search engine spiders might not understand your start page and that way not to index your main page and not be able to go to other pages. You can check yourself if your site is accessible for search engine spiders by using a web browser called Lynx (or Amaya) and try go to the main page. If you can’t see anything on your main page with Lynx and can’t go to other pages on your site, then probably search engine spiders can’t do that either. If for some reason you can’t download or install Lynx or Amaya to your computer, then you can at least disable JavaScript and cookies (if your browser supports them) in your browser to try to emulate search engine bots.
4) How to tell if a site is banned?
Google uses algorithms to find out if someone tries to spam search engine results. For example some people make duplicate sites, because they think that way they might be found more easily with search engines.
Google says it gives relevant search results: “You’ll see only pages that are relevant to the terms you type” http://www.google.com/technology/whyuse.html Duplicate content is not relevant content, so Google removes that kind of content from its index. Other spamming methods or actions that can have your site banned are mentioned in Google’s webmaster quality guidelines on page http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769#quality and they are for example: - hidden text and hidden links - keyword stuffing - link schemes meant to rank you higher in search results - linking to bad neighborhood - sneaky redirects - cloaking - doorway pages created just for search enginesWhat if I’m probably banned by Google?
If you think you have been banned by Google, clean every section of every web page on your web site and when you have made the possible changes, send a re-inclusion request to Google by going to http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843 More info: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/ http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34443&topic=8523 It can take from 2 weeks to a month or even longer to get re-included by Google. Make a site search [site:your.site] every day to find out when/if you are indexed by Google.
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