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Have You Been Banned From Google?

troubleshoot why you are not getting indexed in google

One Client Not Showing Up in Google

Last year I had difficulty getting a client of mine to show up in the Google search engine. 

This puzzled me because all my other clients were showing up in Google without any problem and I had used the same above-board, non-spamming, "white hat" coding techniques for them with good results.

What was different?

Not a New Domain Name.  One thing that was different was that this was not a brand new domain name.  It had some history.  My client had gotten it from someone else. 

Who knows what spamming, "black-hat" techniques were used by the Web site that owned it before.  I knew my work was cut out for me.

What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

Trying a "clever idea" you found on the Internet to increase your page rank can be dangerous if you don't know the difference between good and bad practices -- in the eyes of the search engines. 

What seems like a clever idea to someone not trained in Internet Marketing, like hiding keywords on a web page by making the text the same color as the background, can actually have some very negative unintentional results -- like getting you banned from Google.

I had no idea what the previous Web site might have done, but there was nothing I could do about that.  I had to work with the problem at hand.  Something was not right and my client was counting on me to find the problem.

Troubleshooting Steps

I ran all sorts of tests, I checked to see if the Web site:

• Passed W3C compliance -- thinking that if there were ANY coding irregularies that this might play a factor (use this free valid code checker )
• Had any broken links (use this free link checker)
• Was banned from Google (learn how to check if you are banned from Google)

These were all very important to check, and I did find small things, but not the smoking gun.   It was time to regroup. 

The Smoking Gun

As it turned out, I was looking in the wrong spot.  I started questioning my client and found that there were other domain names that he owned and, because he was comfortable somewhat with technology and the Internet, he had changed the DNS servers to point to the new Web site also.

I removed the DNS pointers from the extra domain names and this made all the difference in the world.

Lesson Learned.  Google does not like two domains pointing to the same Web site.

Here's How to check if you are banned from google

Often times people think they've been banned, when in reality they've just dropped in ranking and can't find their website.

There are a couple of things you can do.

• Check Google's search results
• View the Google toolbar

Check Google's search results

Go to Google and enter your entire URL into Google's search box.  In this example I will use a fake web site name. (www.jkhljkhkjh.com).

Go to Google and enter the entire URL and click "search"
http://www.jkhljkhkjh.com

Notice that Google says there is no information available for this URL? This means that the URL is no longer in Google's database.

If you enter a brand new website into Google, you'll always get this message until the website has been indexed. But, in this case, our website had been banned by Google for some reason.

View the Google Toolbar

Viewing the Google Toolbar is another way you can quickly see if your website has been banned.

Downloading the Google Toolbar here: http://toolbar.google.com.  It is free and easy to install.  Do it now.  You will find it useful in the future for other things.

Once it's installed, simply visit the website in question.  If the Google toolbar is completely gray, this means you have been banned by Google.

Banned:

Not Banned:

Ok, so now we know how to tell if our website has been banned.

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Web It Up to the Next Level

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Expect to spend some quality time so I can learn a little about your business goals.  Then we can talk about what solutions make sense for your business. 

You'll be excited to know that there are new and innovative technologies to get you where you want to go.  Together, we can make it happen.