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Has your web site been dropped from Google and you don't know why? There are a number of factors that can get your web site banned on Google. In this article, we'll tell you why your web site can be banned from Google and what you can do to get listed on Google.

Reasons why Google drops web sites from its index

The most common reason why web sites are removed from Google's index is that these web sites use shady tricks to get higher search engine rankings.

If you use cloaking, hidden text, doorway pages or any other technique that's only for tricking search engines then you can be sure that your web site will be banned as soon as Google finds out. Don't try to cheat Google, it will backfire on you.

Even if you don't use shady tricks to optimize your web site, your site might be removed from Google's index if your web site was down when Google tried to index it.

If you have a new web site, or if you have made major changes on your site, your web site might be put into Google's sandbox. You then just have to wait until it comes out of the sandbox.

How to get listed in Google

1. Optimize your web page content

Google can only rank your web site highly for your keyword if it can find out what your web site is all about. To tell Google what your web site is about, you have to optimize your web pages for Google.

2. Get good incoming links

Google heavily relies on links to determine the ranking of web pages. The more web sites link to your site, the better your rankings. Make sure that the web sites that link to your site are related to your web site and that the links to your web site contain text that is related to your site.

You can use tools like ARELIS and IBP's Link Popularity Improver to get more links to your web site.

3. Avoid dirty tricks

Only use ethical search engine optimization methods to optimize your web pages. Using shady tricks will get you banned sooner or later.

If you used cloaking, doorway pages or hidden text on your web pages before, rebuild your web pages with the ethical methods described above and send a re-inclusion request to help@google.com. Tell Google that you have cleaned up your page and that you don't use these unethical tricks anymore.

Getting listed on Google is possible. Just play by the rules and make it easy for Google to index your site by optimizing your web page content and by getting good incoming links.

60 day sandbox for Google and AskJeeves. MSN quickest, Yahoo next

"The bottom line is that we've discovered all engines seem to delay indexing of new domain names for at least thirty days. Google so far has delayed indexing THIS new domain for 60 days since first crawling it.

AskJeeves has crawled thousands of pages, while indexing none of them. MSN indexes faster than all engines but requires robots.txt file. Yahoo's Slurp crawls on again off again for 60 days, but indexes only six of total 15,000 or more pages crawled to date."

Ask Jeeves improves its search engine

"Search engine Ask Jeeves UK has introduced a new search feature to the site which it says increases relevance and guides is faster to use. [...] This new feature takes advantage of, and builds on, the clustering ability of the company's Teoma search technology, which breaks the Web into topic communities."

Yahoo rebrands European divisions

"Yahoo has merged all its European search products under one common business brandname, Yahoo Europe."

Yahoo Germany offers a translation feature for Search

Yahoo's German version can now automatically translate English search results to German.

Microsoft officially enters the comparison shopping space

"MSN Shopping BETA officially launched today increasing the number of stores by 60x, the number of items by 5x, and the number of offers by millions and millions."

Search engine newslets

• Pixsy is a new image search engine.
• Yahoo Video Search has released a major update.
• MSN Search toolbar rolls out more international versions.
• You now can buy Google license plates.

Security fears strike Google

"Although many Internet users eagerly await each new technology from Google Inc., its rapid expansion is also prompting concerns that the company may know too much: what you read, where you surf and travel, whom you write. [...] Google is becoming one of the largest privacy risks on the Internet."

Editor's note: Take a look at our article "What Google knows about you".

Search engine snaps at Google, Yahoo

"As Snap gears up to shift out of test phase, the search engine's parent company - Pasadena-based Perfect Market Technologies Inc. - has raised $US10 million ($A13.29 million) in a venture capital round led by Mayfield, a Menlo Park firm."

Perspectives on the information industry

"Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google in Redwood City, California discusses the information industry and Google's approach to innovation."

IBP 8.1 beta version is available

We have just released a beta version of IBP 8.1. The new version offers several improvements:

• IBP can now delete search engine cookies to make sure that your search results are not influenced by your cookies. This feature is optional and can be turned on in the "General Settings" window.
  
• The ranking reports now tell you how many listings
  you have on the first search engine result page, the second
  page and the third page. The listings are displayed
  individually for your URLs, keywords and search engines.
  
• The Web Site Optimization Editor now displays the
  last Top 10 Optimizer report. This allows you to quickly
  adjust your web page to the suggestions of the Top 10
  Optimizer.
  
• You can now copy the links of the Link Popularity
  Improver to the clipboard. This allows you to import these
  links into ARELIS.
  
• The Link Popularity Improver now finds much
  better results and it is faster than before.

All known bugs have been fixed in IBP 8.1. If you want to test the beta version, click here.

"My web site now ranks #1"

"WineDirectory.org was launched in late May 2005. Using IBP and ARELIS, WineDirectory.org now ranks #1 in MSN for the term wine directory, outranking similar websites that have been online for years.

Using the Top 10 Optimizer of IBP, I was able to compare the current top ranked websites for multiple keywords and optimized WineDirectory.org using IBP's advice and recommendations.

After submitting the site to all major search engines and directories, I switched to ARELIS to find thousands of potential link partners to exchange links with. I began to receive replies from wineries all over the world willing to exchange links.

I was very careful to have them link back using Wine Directory as the link title. Currently, my stats show that over 60% of the traffic comes from reciprocal links rather than natural search results, but I'm confidant that over time, that will increase, as well.

There are well over 100 wineries and wine related websites linking back to WineDirectory.org. I credit the high rankings and increasing traffic that WineDirectory.org has achieved solely to IBP and ARELIS. They are my two secret weapons that I'll use to optimize and promote all of my future websites."
William S., www.winedirectory.org

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