We have had our web site for nearly 7 years and have never seen a PR.
Why is it we can't get our domain listed in Google ?

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Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 25 Jun 2004 09:54 PDT

Greetings, mikey!

Since the Googlebot evaluates each individual site based on that
site's contents, it would be difficult to give you specific
information about your site without knowing the URL.

If you post the URL of your website here in a Clarification, it may be
possible to offer you some helpful solutions to improve the way that
the Googlebot sees your site.

Regards,

aceresearcher

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Clarification of Question by mikey805-ga on 25 Jun 2004 09:58 PDT

http://1stcom.com

Most Search Engines, especially Google, are quite secretive about
their inner workings, so it is not possible for anyone to say for
*sure* why your site is not being indexed by the Googlebot.

However, I have identified at least one big reason why Google may be
refusing to index your site.

In addition to the domain
www. 1stcom.com
with a few minutes' searching I found 2 other nearly identical sites you also own:
www. 1stcom.biz 
www. 1stcom-web-hosting.com 

I'm guessing that there may be some other sites as well.

According to "Google Information for Webmasters - Webmaster Guidelines":
" - Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
substantially duplicate content."
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html 

We've seen a fair number of Questions posted by people who own
numerous "mirror" sites (sites all having nearly identical content)
who have been dropped from Google's index, and I feel pretty safe in
saying that the indexing algorithm has been programmed to recognize
such identical sites and penalize them.

Note that pages just having different visual appearances is not enough
to fool the Googlebot. It doesn't see how pages look to humans; it
sees only content. And it probably sees that all your sites are the
same.

Your best bet at this point would be to choose only ONE of your domain
names on which to concentrate. Set up simple, straightforward
redirects from the other domains to the one you select. E-mail the
webmasters of any sites where the secondary domain names are
referenced, asking them to change the link to refer to the main site
you select.

Then, write to Google at help@google.com , admit your mistake, beg
forgiveness, and ask them to please reinstate your site. Here's a
sample groveling letter you can use if you wish:
----------------------------------------------------  
Dear Google,  
  
I am the owner of
www. 1stcom.com
www. 1stcom.biz 
www. 1stcom-web-hosting.com 
etc etc etc
  
I did not realize that creating duplicate sites was a bad thing that
would get me banned from Google.
  
I have now seen the error of my ways, and I apologize profusely. I
have removed my duplicate sites, and I promise not to make this
mistake again.
  
I am asking you to Please Consider reinstating my website,
http://www.xxxxxxxxx.xxx , into Google's Index.
  
Sincerely,  
  
 
----------------------------------------------------  
 
Please bear in mind that there is NO guarantee that you will be
reinstated, or how long it will take for you to be reinstated.
 
 
Before Rating my Answer, if you have any Questions about the above
information, please post a Request for Clarification, and I will see
what I can do for you.
  
Best Wishes on a speedy reinstatement to the Google Index, and
increased traffic to your website!
  
aceresearcher

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Clarification of Answer by aceresearcher-ga on 14 Jul 2004 10:57 PDT

<< I was always under the impression redirecting was what penalized you. >>

Not if the redirect is done properly.

Do *NOT* use an html refresh meta tag redirect -- that could indeed be
penalized by the Googlebot.

Instead, use a 301 redirect:

Google Information for Webmasters
"Once your new site is live, you may wish to place a permanent
redirect (using a "301" code in HTTP headers) on your old site to
inform visitors and search engines that your site has moved."
://www.google.com/webmasters/3.html

Michael Bloch has created an excellent tutorial on
"Giving search engine spiders direction with a 301 redirect":
"A 301 redirect is the most efficient and spider/visitor friendly
strategy around for web sites that are hosted on servers running
Apache (check with your hosting service if you aren't sure). It's not
that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine
rankings for that particular page. If you *have* to change file names
or move pages around, it's the safest option.

A 301 redirect is implemented in your .htaccess file."

Detailed instructions on how to implement a 301 redirect can be found
under the heading "How do I implement a 301 redirect?" on this page:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm

Best wishes,

ace

Thank's I was always under the impression redirecting was what penalized you.

what is your domain?