Hi Services ~
No one but Google can tell you for certain why www.indiatravelinfo.com
is no longer listed in the first 1000 results for your search terms.
Using Google search and All The Web (http://www.alltheweb.com) it
wasn't hard to find a lot of sites (only some of which are listed
below) by Services International, Inc., but a good guess is all these
are seen as "spam" by Google and have either been removed from
Google's index or filtered to a point where they do not show up in the
first 1000 results for their respective search terms.
Here are just some of the sites:
www.india-travel.com
www.nepaltravelinfo.com
www.photo-india.com
www.calcutta-hotels.com
www.ladakh-hotels.com
www.cochin-hotels.com
Google's November update, named "Florida", seems to have affected the
travel industry in particular.
"Google has seen their search engine results manipulated
by SEOs to a significant extent over the past few years.
Their reliance on PageRank? to grade the authority of
pages has led to the wholesale trading and buying of
links with the primary purpose of influencing rankings
on Google rather than for natural linking reasons. In some
instances, people would not link to sites unless they
thought it would not harm them or would benefit them
for Google."
- [From Search Engine Guide article by Barry Lloyd,
"Been Gazumped by Google? Trying to make Sense of the
"Florida" Update!" 2003-11-25]
http://www.searchengineguide.com/lloyd/2003/1125_bl1.html
You may also want to read Danny Sullivan's article, "Google Dance
Syndrome Strikes Again", December 1, 2003 on Search Engine Watch.
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3114531
Or "Prepare to be Monetized, Punk: Google Plays Sherriff with
Commercially-Oriented Search Listings" by Andrew Goodman - 12/1/2003.
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=152
Or any of the numerous posts about the Florida update on Webmaster
World's Google News discussion board:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
Interestingly enough, those who designed sites using Google's
Guidelines (included in the list of links for Google below) haven't
seen such drastic consequences. Those who did engage in linking
schemes and other tactics to game the system and get listed in the top
search engine results pages are nowhere to be seen now.
You asked, "Can you tell us what happened and what should we do to
correct the problem so we can get back on Google as soon as possible?"
As stated, only Google can tell you exactly what happened, and they
aren't likely to tell you.
"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."
- [Google's Reasons Your Site May Not Be Included]
://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#B3
Your best chances of being found in Google's index will be to change
your sites so they meet the recommendations contained in Google's
Guidelines, making sure you pay close attention to those prohibitions
in "Quality Guidelines - Specific recommendations". These pages have
been here for a years, although it didn't always seem that Google
penalized or removed sites for certain techniques used for no other
purpose than to game the system.
It appears that Google has now gotten down to presenting results based
on those guidelines.
==========================================
Important Google Links For Your Reference
==========================================
I have included important links from Google's site. This information
will help you understand Google's goals and responsibility to the web
searcher (and not the webmaster or site owner).
Webmasters who follow the guidelines and avoid Google's "Thou shalt
nots" usually have no problem getting listed and showing up under the
search terms they desire.
* Google Today (absolutely the best information you
can read about the "how and why" of Google's results
- ://www.google.com/corporate/today.html
* How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
* My Web Pages Are Not Currently Listed (a good 'primer'
on how and why Google works so well)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
* PageRank Information (covers both Google's PageRank and
SERPS)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
* Webmaster Guidelines (contains both the dos and don'ts)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
* Google Facts & Fiction (can you buy your way to a
high ranking in Google?)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
* Search Engine Optimizers (some good advice on what to look
for if you're going to hire a Search Engine Optimizer)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
* Frequently Asked Questions (pretty much what it says, but
definitely worth wading through)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
================================
Other Sources of Information
================================
There is also good information from many of the top search engine
optimization experts, such as
* Detlev Johnson, Search Engine Guide
- http://www.searchengineguide.com/detlev/
* Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
* Jill Whalen, High Rankings
- http://www.highrankings.com/
* Shari Thurow, Web Pro News (and quoted all over the Internet)
- www.webpronews.com/
who all have columns or newsletters to which you can subscribe and
keep abreast of the best way to use good content for better
positioning in search engine results.
In addition, Webmaster World - http://www.webmasterworld.com/ - has
discussion boards on most of the search engines. While some of the
discussions are anecdotal and/or questions for information, there is
usually enough discussion to keep abreast of what seems to be
happening.
There is an entire section devoted to Google at:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
It never hurts to keep track of these discussions, but remember,
trying to optimize for search engines only is like trying to hit a
moving target. You'll notice among the more experienced contributors
to the discussions - plus the SEO experts listed above - that there
really is no substitute for content, relevant links and good HTML.
==========================
Resubmitting Your Pages
==========================
After you have made changes to Google's Guidelines, you may want to
resubmit the pages and write to the editors to ask for reinclusion.
"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."
- [From Google's "Why Your Site May Not Be Included"]
://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#B3
Search strategies:
===================
This answer to your questions was prepared from the most current
information I could find to compose an authoritative answer. I used
bookmarked resources and resources I refer to on a day-to-day basis in
the course of professional web design and web marketing consulting.
Best of luck,
Serenata
Google Answers Researcher |
