Dropped Pages From Google - Factors and Commentary

Discussion in 'Google' started by moleculeman, Jun 2, 2006.

  1. #1
    I have had my indexed pages drop from 8000 pages indexed to 600 back to 4000 and now at 6000, and these are not machine generated.

    I have two whole sections which are unique directories/databases which have the main page but every page below that is not on the index, they were but now are dropped.

    I know thousands if not millions of sites have the same threat and problem. And most of us are white hat / non-spam.

    I have heard everything from:

    1) Google lacking server space

    2) Page depth

    3) Deep linking is poor

    4) Linking to "bad neighbourhoods"

    5) Low PR of pages


    Fact is I am really tired of working on sites LEGIT only to have pages dropped, while other guys with really poor quality sites (ie 6 years old or more) are still doing well (ie ranking #1).

    Why are we coming up with excuses for a billion dollar search engine company that is screwing up/playing political economical games?

    Is this the end of free speech? Is this when the rich become richer or the link rich become richer? Isnt the point of search engines to INDEX sites? Lack of space should not be a concern for a multibillion dollar company, and neither should non-spam sites/pages be dropped from any search engine index.

    If this continues, goverments of the world or some public non-profit organization should be created to keep the internet a free speech environment. This company crap is getting out of hand...

    Not sure what to think.:confused:
     
    moleculeman, Jun 2, 2006 IP
  2. nddb

    nddb Peon

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    #2
    Well... we sure as hell don't what the government in it... and you see how a non-profit publicly run org works out -- dmoz 'nuff said.

    But, yea.. I am interested to know why my site has dropped from 800,000 to about 300. I mean, it's very similar content because of the template, but that shouldn't be a problem because of the nature of the site. I'd be interested if ANYONE could shed ANY light on this situation. It's really quite annoying when google just throws you out for no apparent reason.
     
    nddb, Jun 3, 2006 IP
  3. w3bmistress

    w3bmistress Well-Known Member

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    #3
    they had one of my sites at 12000 pages indexed.. then dropped me to 28... not sure why, but it is irritating.. I would also like a detailed explanation... I don't see why they cant use the google sitemaps data as a way to tell you why.
     
    w3bmistress, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  4. mirainfo

    mirainfo Active Member

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    #4
    hey guys give it some time and see. sometimes this is because of a database update.

    Check back in 7-10 days and you may be back to normal ;)
     
    mirainfo, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  5. SandisV

    SandisV Active Member

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    #5
    It's been for like 1-2 months ;) 7-10 days wont help too much ;)
     
    SandisV, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  6. SandisV

    SandisV Active Member

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    #6
    Ah. and one of my first concerns was lack of unique information per page. Say, I have very serious page navigation, could be even 50-100 links as side menu, but now just the main categories (30+) are listed; almost 99% of the rest pages are not to be found;
     
    SandisV, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  7. Big_Rob

    Big_Rob Peon

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    #7
    So, did the indexed pages drop after you cut back on the navigational list, or did you cut it back after it the pages dropped off the face of google?
    Recently I'm hearing more and more people complain about thier pages dropping, lets hope it doesn't become a new trend
     
    Big_Rob, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  8. mirainfo

    mirainfo Active Member

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    #8
    Hey is it since march-april? Google changed its algorithm then. I think your site lacked points by their algoithm :(

    Best would be to contact them (they hardly respond but there is no loss in making an attempt). Also try to find out any code errors or improper validation or wrong linking on your website.
     
    mirainfo, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  9. Rasputin

    Rasputin Peon

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    #9
    I'll save you the trouble.
    After 2 days you will receive the response starting:

    Thank you for your note. This is an automated reply to your inquiry about your site's inclusion in the Google search results. We're always working hard to provide comprehensive online assistance, and you'll likely find an answer to your question at the following links...

    Then you will respond saying you didn't find an answer etc. A week later they will tell you:

    Thank you for your reply. We understand your concern; however, these changes are consistent with the normal fluctuations outlined in our previous email. As we add new pages and incorporate updates to existing pages, you may see changes in the ranking and inclusion of sites in our index. Because our index changes regularly, it's possible your site will regain its ranking. In the meantime, we hope that you will review the helpful tips posted on our site. We're sorry we can't be of further assistance in this matter.

    They will not bother looking at your sites, or respond to your pleas that there is nothing wrong with your site; yes you have submitted a sitemap; no you don't have links to viagra sites; and you will have wasted your time and effort.

    Either they know there is a problem, and are 'secretly' trying to fix it, or they are in denial and think all is well when the likes of Yahoo lose 95% of their pages from the index, not to mention all us small guys.

    Whatever, I don't reckon anything we can do makes a jot of difference.
     
    Rasputin, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  10. Cyclops

    Cyclops sensei

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    #10
    I have a quite a few sites, all different styles of sites, some with Databases, some PHP, some HTML etc.....nothing really in common with most of them however the larger ones with lots of pages have all had the same thing happen, a huge drop in pages indexed by Google.
    This is obviously happening right across the whole spectrum of websites. We read about it happening on the forums but only a very small percentage of webmasters post on forums.

    Just to show how stuffed up Google is, one site I have that hasn't been touched since it was built around two years ago....and only has an Amazon database on it, has 14 backlinks, 1 PR5, 3PR4 the rest all small PR, all the links come from two sister sites with the same C class IP address, no pages according to Google went from PR0 to PR6 recently. I have double checked with every tool I know to make sure it's right, even waited two weeks and it's still PR6. That is crazy, the site is crap.
     
    Cyclops, Jun 4, 2006 IP
  11. Beginer

    Beginer Guest

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    #11
    DOnt try google base youl get a virus !
     
    Beginer, Jun 5, 2006 IP
  12. noniman

    noniman Guest

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    #12
    Watching all this discussions for a while and thought I post details of one of my sites (out of 6 sites which all dropped) which took a massive hit. Not that it will change anything but makes me feel a little bit better letting out steam.

    It’s a directory site which had 500K pages indexed and dropped to 120 pages. This week it recovered to 37K showing many pages from beginning of February this year which don’t exist anymore – very frustrating!

    I was reading on a post that Google is a free service and we shouldn't complain. I think since Google is happily taking my advertising money every day they own me at least an explanation on what happened. I am still paying my AdWords money but income from AdSense doped dramatically.

    MSN just went offline for several hours and they apologised saying they had a problem and working on a fix – even admitting they don't know what’s gone wrong. I can accept this – things do go wrong, the world isn’t perfect.
    Google tries to give us the impression their world is perfect even so we can see it’s crumbling at the moment. The way they are handing this is pissing off many site owners.
    Google should keep in mind - people have the power, specially with search engines. If you loose the trust of your customers they will start looking somewhere else.
    Thanks for listening guys - feel a bit better now!
     
    noniman, Jun 6, 2006 IP
  13. sGroup

    sGroup Peon

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    #13
    you are not alone.... pages are getting dropped like crazy.
     
    sGroup, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  14. mobilebay

    mobilebay Active Member

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    #14
    too true, not to mention supplemental pages being dredged up.
     
    mobilebay, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  15. Keone

    Keone Peon

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    #15
    Keone, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  16. SandisV

    SandisV Active Member

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    #16
    Great article, really gives some thoughts on the subject
     
    SandisV, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  17. Julia-IT-Inventors

    Julia-IT-Inventors Active Member

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    #17
    guys, do all these dropped pages have different metatags - namely page title, keywords, and description? I had the same problem for one of my sites but when I fixed it making different metatags it went back to normal.
     
    Julia-IT-Inventors, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  18. SandisV

    SandisV Active Member

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    #18
    Titles and Descriptions are quite unique, yes.

    Probably problem could be 100's of link exchanges and low quality links (like from forums) pointing back to various pages;

    do you use keywords as well?
     
    SandisV, Jun 8, 2006 IP
  19. Julia-IT-Inventors

    Julia-IT-Inventors Active Member

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    #19
    yes, unique keywords for each page, just some minor difference at least, so not 100% duplicated. Especially for links pages.

    maybe this is out of theme a little but my website was #800 2 weeks ago, I removed all unrelated links and today it's #44-46 for very competitive keyword. That's about outgoing links quality...However I can't control incoming links as I see many sites link to my one even without asking recip and some of them can be considered as spammy at the strtict considerataion.
     
    Julia-IT-Inventors, Jun 8, 2006 IP
  20. mobilebay

    mobilebay Active Member

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    #20
    my meta data is unique also, only good quality relative links mostly ;)

    ah when will this even out.
     
    mobilebay, Jun 8, 2006 IP