I have a web store which I sell auto body parts. I started with my
business last year and trying to make some honest living.

Until 2 weeks ago everything was just fine, I was able to be found as
number 5 or 6 when search by keywords as "auto body parts".

Suddenly I just disappeared from the Google's index and my PageRank
turned grey which I understand stands for not been ranked yet, before
it disappeared I had PageRank of 5.

I am having a link exchange page which I try to link to auto related
sites to benefit each other in the "market".

My question is why did it disappear from the index? And did I do
anything I am not supposed to have, I am clueless, I hope you guys can
give me some understanding.

My web site's URL is http://www.autopartsonline.us/ 

Thanks and best regards

Hi there,

You appear to have made a common innocent mistake. Google has
published guidelines which mention several techniques which they frown
upon, and unless you had searched through Google's site, you mightn't
have heard of them.


Exchanging Links
----------------

Google penalizes sites which try to artificially increase link
popularity by using link exchange schemes or participating in
reciprocal linking.

"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's
ranking or PageRank."
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

Fiction: Joining a link exchange or "free-for-all" link program will
boost my rankings.

Fact: Linking schemes do not increase a given site's PageRank, and
will often do a site more harm than good.
://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html

I don't how Google does it, but they are very good at determining that
pages like your link page are involved in reciprocal linking:
http://www.autopartsonline.us/addlink.htm


Duplicate Content
-----------------

"Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
substantially duplicate content. "
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

http://www.autopartsonline.us/
http://www.greatparts.us/
http://www.auto-body-parts-online-smart.com/
http://www.auto-body-parts-smart-online.com/

Google will have noticed that pages like these are substantially the
same:
http://www.autopartsonline.us/contact.htm
http://www.greatparts.us/contact.htm

If you want to have multiple sites, with the almost same content, you
really need to:
 
1) Avoid linking them to each other 
2) Use different contact details within each site 
3) Use different web hosts 
4) Register the domain under different names

My recommendation is to just have one site. 


How to get back in
------------------

"Your page was manually removed from our index, because it did not
conform with the quality standards necessary to assign accurate
PageRank. We will not comment on the individual reasons a page was
removed and we do not offer an exhaustive list of practices that can
cause removal. However, certain actions such as cloaking, writing text
that can be seen by search engines but not by users, or setting up
pages/links with the sole purpose of fooling search engines may result
in permanent removal from our index. If you think your site may fall
into this category, you might try 'cleaning up' the page and sending a
re-inclusion request to help@google.com. We do not make any guarantees
about if or when we will re-include your site."
://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html


Something Else
--------------

I noticed that if I enter your URL without the www, it doesn't work:
http://autopartsonline.us

I liked very much how your sites say:

"We are very sorry that you are in need of our services...."

and

"if you pass by LOS ANGELES please stop by and have a tea or coffee
with us."

I'm sure your friendliness helps you get a lots of sales.



Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

Thanks for explaining, I will follow your recommendations. About our
friendliness I am 100% behind it. Thanks.