Please help! Why did Google dump me???

Please help! I am so freaked out. Never thought I would be writing this but I've been dropped too. I'm not banned because my pages show up when I do a site: domain.com search, but all my #1 rankings are gone and I had a ton! I can't be found anywhere now. Even a search in quotes in Google for "5 Star Affiliate Programs" does not show my main site. My blog and forums which are in different subdomains are getting more traffic and rankings than ever, it's just my main site that's disappeared.

I had a site re-design in Sept. The designer put the dev pages on my server, plus made a back up folder of my site. I've gone in there to check things and of course use the Google toolbar. Could it be a dup penalty? I also display my recent blog and forum headlines on several pages of site. But don't think that should cause a dup penalty. The designer did some stuff with CSS that I questioned and he said it was OK, but I wonder if it could be that.

How do I know if I'm being penalized for something or if it's just a temporary Google oops. I have never been dropped before and don't do any black hat stuff at all. Could someone bad have linked to me? How do I find out what happened and correct it? (Sorry for babbling, but I am totally freaked out.)

 

Do you have a no follow rule on the dup folder?

 

Hi E10,

AFTER I had been going in there a lot - shortly after the new site went live I wondered if that would be a problem and told him to put one there. He said he did. I better double check.

 

I am sure this a dumb question but did all your filenames stay the same? Could you have lost back links through reorganising the site structure / page names?

 

i assume you are referring to the:
www.5staraffiliateprograms.com domain?

You aren't banned. You show up with a site search currently, which is good.

On your homepage, you have 2 sets of h1 tags. I'd remove one set. I think my site got punished for that a few months ago. I removed one of my sets, and I came back a week or so later.

It could also be that all those outgoing affiliate links makes google think your site is just an affiliate site, so is just suppressing it in the results.

Those are my 2 quick thoughts. I'm not sure. I was in the same boat since july and came out of it in september.

 

Hi E10,

Yes I made sure page names stayed the same. I used to do SEO for a living so the basic stuff I paid attention to.

lorien1973,

Yes it's http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.com and I have 300+ pages coming up when you search for site:www.5staraffiliateprograms.com so I'm not banned. I just dont come up for any of my top keywords - not even my own site name.

Bill Hartzer on another forum just told be it could be because I have my other main site linked to this one and they share the same Class C block??? They have been linked together forever and for good reason - not just balck link purposes. But he said Google is cracking down on that.

I still think it may be the dup files or something weird the designer did in my CSS. He did something I questioned him about G having a problem with and he said no problem - but I need to go back and research that part.

Please, I am desparate if anyone has any other ideas, please let me know.

 

Are you still in this datacentre?

http://216.239.59.99/

There are 2 or more distinct sets of Google Data being served now. I rank very well in one for most sites (better than last week) and poorly in the other.

 

I must say that nothing stands out as being amiss.
The home page is supposed to be xhtml but doesn't validate - I've yet to see that cause major problems though.
I'm seeing you as wallowing around the high 800's. It looks to me like you've been penalized for something, but I can't see what.

 

hmm i rank really well with that data center.

 

I highly doubt this, but it is possible.

Are you currently experiencing any high rates of scraper sites? Do you have any redirects implemented, redirects in themselves can cause huge damage via google if not done properly, usually though they are only temporarily, other domains pointed to this domain?

Possibly linking to a bad neighborhood in googles eyes, just brain storming here but don't see anything from the bit I checked your page out to see a penalty in the design itself.

 

Hey Linda, I see you on page 1 for "affiliate marketing forums" here:

http://216.239.59.99/search?hl=en&lr=&q=affiliate+marketing+forums&btnG=Search

So I say just be patient and sit tight and see what G does with these datacentres. You can probably see that your traffic isn't down that much since the results are still being served somewhere.

 

Yea I love that datacentre and these others.... they are giving enough traffic to make up for the DCs that have dropped.

64.233.167.99
64.233.167.104
64.233.167.147

etc etc

 

I'm not even seeing the site on page 1 from this data center. Sit tight is a good bit of advice, somtimes google does some very odd things, but is also wise to brain storm on what might cause it

I do see it in number 2 for sponsored results, not standard results though.

Doing a bit more study of your site and url structure I wonder if you could possibly be getting a penalty for overly seo friendly file names?

I did see the site now after a refresh in position number 6 which does show google is juggling the results a bit at the moment.

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THanks all,

VB - no I don't show up there either. Even my site name in quote. "5 Star Affiliate Programs". My blog shows up #1 but not my main site (root domain).

VB - YES My Forum and My Blog are fine! They are each on different subdomains and still have LOTS of G traffic and rankings. It's just my main site that is affected.

I don't know of any scraper sites but never checked.

I do have a couple other domains that re-direct to this one. ANd some subdomains that link out elsewhere for legit - not SEO reasons. Hmmmm.

 

Maby you should think about a link-out script for your affiliate links. The links to the websites might be considered as bad-neighberhood, you'll protect your website by using the link-out script. (http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Redirection/Link_Based/index.html) I've found some duplicate content from your pages but not really consurning imo. On some pages there are hidden links to affiliatetip.com, maby causing a problem. And you're using a lot of H3 tags.

 

How do you have the domains redirected?

 

For the last couple of months my main site comes and goes in the keyword tracker once or twice a week. I assumed it was a data center issue since I can't really see any change in traffic. I got excited at first.

 

I have an authority site on the topic of affiliate marketing and do advertising for the top VERY honest programs. None of those are affiliate links so nothing to hide. They are all straight links going to great neighborhoods. But if G is down on affiliate sites in general they could be targeting my site. But I dont think thats it. All the affiliate sites I link to are super honest and above board. The only thing would be if G is targeting the word affiliate which IS all over my site. But I don't think it's that.

I think it's something in my new site design. Just need to figure out what. Or maybe the Chost IP thing.

 

Linda, I didn't mean to offend you. You are a well respected webmaster and your programs are great!

I found an interseting article about google code: http://www.wwwcoder.com/main/parentid/285/site/5033/266/default.aspx

 

Oh sorry did not take offence at what you said. That's a good article too. I am so confused and depressed I don't know what to do.

I do have a TON of links from other sites of mine going to different pages on 5 star. www.catalystemarketing.com is sort of my corporate site, I guess you could say. It is on the same C block. Same with www.5starwebtools.com. Tons of links on seach site go to different pages on 5 star affiliate programs. Maybe I over did it?

Got this from Bill Hartzer at SEW. Does anyone know anything about this.