Clarification of Answer by
serenata-ga
on
15 Aug 2003 15:02 PDT
Hello again Souravxponse ~
Please remember that Google Answers Researchers are independent
contractors. We are not privy to inside information about Google. We
do not have access to any information about Google's closely-guarded
search engine algorithms, nor to information on which sites, if any,
Google may have penalized or banned from its index.
Checking Google this morning, it does indeed seem as if your index
page has been dropped from Google. Google explains why this may happen
in its information for webmasters, "My web pages used to be listed and
now they aren't."
"Each time we update our database of web page (about once a month),
our index shifts: we find new sites, we lose some sites, and site
rankings change. If your site was dropped from Google and you have not
made major changes to it in the last month, we will likely pick it up
again in our next index. It's possible your site was simply
inaccessible when our robots tried to crawl it."
and
"It's also possible your rank decreased because other sites were found
and assigned a higher rank. You can be assured that no one at Google
has hand adjusted the results to boost the ranking of a site. Google's
order of results is automatically determined by several factors,
including our PageRank algorithm. Please check out our "Why Use
Google" page for more information on how this works."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#B1
Other reasons can be something such as a technical glitch. Your site
wasn't available when Google tried to index it, or there was a glitch
on Google's part, or the links to your page have changed significantly
so that your page rank has dropped.
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#B3
================
Linking Schemes
& Hidden Links
================
In Google's "Quality Guidelines - Basic principles", there are
specific warnings about links.
"Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings" and "Don't
participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking
or PageRank."
In the "Quality Guidelines - Specific recommendations", Google
specifically warns, "Avoid hidden text or hidden links."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
As you noted, searching for "www.xponsewebs.com" on Google returns the
following results:
"Sorry, no information is available for the
URL www.xsponsewebs.com"
"* Find web pages that contain the term
"www.xsponsewebs.com"
Clicking on the pages that contain the term "www.xsponsewebs.com"
returns over 1500 results, so it would be worthwhile to take a look on
why your index page may not be appearing.
When checking some of those pages that contain the term, such as:
* The Ark Enterprises
* Barter for Success
* Domain Icons
* KPC Resumes
* MWP Shop
* sportsworkout.com
* mywholesalesource.com
and counteless others, one repeatedly finds a one-pixel hidden link
such as the one below:
<img border="0" src="http://www.xponsewebs.com/images/blank_img.gif"
width="1" height="1" alt="http://www.xponsewebs.com"></a>
One could wonder if your index page has disappeared from Google's
index because of those hidden links, which Google *specifically*
mentions in its "Quality Guidelines - Specific recommendations" as
"deceptive or manipulative" behavior
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
In "Other Reasons" your site may have disappeared from Google's index,
Google says:
"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. ..."
and recommends "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
Is this the reason your site no longer appears?
I can't say - only Google knows, and they may not tell you, either.
"We will not comment on the individual reasons a page was removed ..."
A question to ask yourself, though, is whether or not taking a chance
with those hidden links is worth getting permanently banned from
Google.
You may want to rethink the practice of inserting hidden links and
remove the links that currently exist.
After you have done so, you may want to contact "help@google.com" and
explain that you have removed them and ask for reinstatement. Google
says there is no guarantee you will be reinstated, but it is always
worth a try.
Lastly, Google recommends listing your site in The Open Direct Project
- www.dmoz.org - A search of DMOZ returns no listings for
xponsewebs.com; so after you've taken care of the hidden links, you
may want to submit your site to them as well.
Good luck,
Serenata
