I'm writing because I'm concerned about my site, http://www.theelitephysique.com
It had been listed as a PageRank 4 for quite sometime, then jumped up
to a 5 back to a 4 and now it is a 3.  Also, when I type the addy into
search on Google it won't show- will only show if I type site:myaddy. 
 I'm concerned if somehow my site is penalized if not, then any
suggestions to improve would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Hi, MsFit ~

I searched Google for your domain, www.theelitephysique.com, and got
the following results,

     "Sorry, no information is available for the URL
        www.theelitephysique.com

    * If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by
      clicking on the following link: www.theelitephysique.com
    * Find web pages that contain the term "www.theelitephysique.com" 

Google search link -
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=www.theelitephysique.com&btnG=Google+Search



So at the moment, with or without any PageRank, your site isn't in Google's index.

There are several reasons your site could be absent, and Google lists
them in its "My web pages used to be listed and now they aren't",

     "*  Your site may not have been reachable when we tried
         to crawl it because of network or hosting problems.
         When this happens, we retry multiple times, but if
         the site cannot be crawled, it will not be listed
         in our current index. If it was a transient problem,
         your site will likely show up in the next index,
         which will be completed in a few weeks.

      * A technical glitch on our side may have caused us to
        'miss' your site. In crawling more than 4 billion
        pages, our system experiences hiccups from time to
        time. Again, this is a transient problem, and your
        site will likely show up in the next index. Please
        be patient with us during this period, as we are not
        able to modify our index by hand to add sites missed
        in this way.

      * The contents of your page or the links pointing to
        your page changed significantly and you no longer
        have a sufficiently high PageRank, or your page had
        low PageRank to begin with and a small change caused
        you to be dropped from the Google index.

      * 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. 
   - ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html


Only Google knows if and why your site might have been removed or if
this is just a temporary glitch, and they won't necessarily tell you.
You can try writing Google at help@google.com, but there is no
guarantee they'll tell you anything.


On the other hand, in investigating this question, I did come across
this Click Bank site, which has substantially the same information you
have on your own site.
   - http://www.no1marketplace.com/products/msfit.html


Google WILL remove sites with substantially the same information,
seeing it as an attempt at 'spamming'. This could also be the reason
your site no longer shows.

If you have other sites which have substantially the same content as
www.theelitephysique.com, now is the time to get rid of them or change
their content, and I would strongly suggest you do that before writing
Google for their comments.

I'd also suggest you do something about that Click Bank site, which is
so identical to your own that it can only hurt and not help you.


If you want to maintain copy on a lot of sites, it's best not to have
the same copy on them all. While it may not be your intention, it is
nonetheless viewed as an attempt to "spam" or "game" the system, and
you will be penalized for that.

If you think your site may have been dropped because of the duplicate
content, you can, according to Google,

     "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


============
Summary
============

There are technical reasons listed above why your site might not be
listed or included in Google's index at this time. Only Google can
tell you if or why your site may have been dropped.

It is a fact that they will penalize sites with duplicate content, and
I discovered at least one instance of that happening (The Click Bank
site). I would recommend dropping the Click Bank content or
substantially changing it so it does not appear to be a duplicate
site. I would also suggest removing other duplicate content from any
other similar sites you might be listed on.

After that, I would write to Google as stated above, list the changes
you have made and ask for reinstatement.


==========================================
Important Google Links For Your Reference
==========================================

I am including 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).

It is incumbent upon you, the webmaster or the website owner, to
ensure your site meets these basics if you want your site listed.
Webmasters who do 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

   * Remove Content from Google's Index (just in case you feel
     a burning need to start all over again)
     - ://www.google.com/remove.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 the 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.


Search terms ~
================

Besides the specific searches listed above, I relied on reliable
resources I use in my daily business as a designer and SEO consultant.

I hope this helps,

Serenata
Google Answers Researcher

---

Request for Answer Clarification by msfit-ga on 03 Jun 2004 08:04 PDT

Hello,

Thank you for your prompt reply.  *sigh* I had wrote Google awhile
back because someone had done something similar to my site.  I had
asked if they could help because I didn't want to be penalized for
someone else mirroring my site. (that is when my site seemed to
disappear from their index)  I hadn't heard a response from them
however I was able to resolve the problem with the sites copying mine.
 It turns out that the people that are doing this are affiliates.  The
link you provided is an affiliate link.  If I'm to understand, am I to
write every single person to ask them to change the content?  I'm not
even sure how many people are doing this or how to find them all- I
had put in a code framebreaker so people couldn't frame my site as
there had been several that started doing this and using their own
URL.  I didn't want this to happen and I suppose that is why some
affiliates are now copying and pasting the site content.  So in your
opinion the affiliate sites that are doing this is what could be
hurting me, because I have no other sites and know better than to use
same wording etc
Thank you,
Karen

---

Request for Answer Clarification by msfit-ga on 03 Jun 2004 08:14 PDT

PS
I meant to include that if I enter site:theelitephysique.com into
google search my site then comes up and list my pages

---

Clarification of Answer by serenata-ga on 03 Jun 2004 11:06 PDT

As I said, this could be some "glitch" and you don't need to worry
about it, the site will come back.

Google also understands about affiliate links. That Clickbank link is
really the one I worry about. The way to fix that might be to rename
the present page that gets copied by everyone to a different name and
add an instruction for that particular page not to be indexed.

Then rewrite your original page, and make sure your affiliate pages go
to the page that isn't indexed.

You can direct the search engine crawlers NOT to index that page using
the robots.txt file. Here's some information about robots.txt,
   - http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/faq.html

A lot of people who offer affiliates info will put information for
their affiliates to in an area where it doesn't get indexed and
penalize the main site or others for using that material.

That might be the easiest way to handle the problem, and then if
direct your affiliates to that special area of your site.

Hope that helps,
Serenata

Thank you!  I totally appreciate your suggestions you have been wonderful!

Hello again, MsFit ...

Thank you for the kind comments and the gracious ratings.

Serenata