Recently a partner of mine had 3 of his content websites delisted from Google search results and he asked for my advice. As a result, I did an extensive study into the possible scenarios where Google will delist a website from its search.
Instead of keeping my findings in my memory, I think it’s better to pen them down in this article so that you and I can refer to it in the future.
Here are some of the ‘proven’ reasons why a website is delisted from Google:
1) Repeated spelling and syntactical errors
It has been confirmed by Google spokesman that a website can be delisted from its search engine due to repeated spelling and syntactical errors.
Here’s what Google spokesman, Artie Su, said “When our systems syntactically analyze the words on a page, it’s very easy to determine whether correct grammar is being followed. When it isn’t, particularly if the errors are consistently repeated over a period of time, the site gets downgraded. That’s because most spammers and creators of junk commercial sites don’t do any kind of quality control. Grammar check is an easy way to spot them.”
If your website repeatedly contains a particular misspelled word, or it’s primarily made up of junk content (such as those computer generated content), you are at a high risk of being delisted from Google search.
2) Adding a large number of external links in a short time
If you, for whatever reason, add a lot of external links to your website, you can be delisted from Google search.
One possible scenario is where your server is hacked and spammers add lots of links to your website without you knowing. Most of these links are hidden. You won’t see them unless you study the source code.
Another possible scenario is when you are too active in link exchange. Let’s take link directories for example, most link directories will have an option for you to link back to them. If you spend one whole day exchanging links with 200 link directories, your website is at risk. (Note that I’m talking about external links from your website to other websites, not incoming links from other websites to your website.)
3) Sitemap error
This is a rare problem but it can happen. Your server may block Google bot from crawling your site. If you realize that all your websites in the same server are delisted from Google, this may be the reason. To solve the problem, you’ll have to inform your server about it.
This is a technical problem. If you want for info, it’s better to read this article: http://beecherbowers.com/2009/02/03/google-sitemap-timeout-errors/
4) Hidden links
Hidden links can get your website delisted from Google.
A typical trick to hide your links by making the color of your link same color as the background, so that your visitor cannot see them but the search bot can.
Another common trick is by putting the links in an invisible <div> tag.
5) Doorway pages
The idea of a doorway page is to present one version of the page to the search engines while showing another version to the visitors. This is against Google’s principle, which is “Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users.”
I’ve just started to explore the issue of being delisted from Google. In the next few weeks (or even months), I’ll be doing several things to see if I can get the 3 websites listed in Google search again. As usual, I’ll keep you updated on any interesting discoveries.
Last but not least, I’ll end this article with 2 useful links from Google:
What to do if your site isn’t doing well in search
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34444
How to ask Google to reconsider your site
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35843
Hey Kenneth, well it’s interesting that Google de-lists site from grammar mistake.
I think they just play trick on you. How does a machine determine what is good grammar? Machine can spot on spelling mistake but grammar??? Crap. Just look at your MS word for example, can they really determine what is good grammar????
It’s very hard. Anyway thanks for your tips.
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I had the same thinking too. But one thing for sure… Google can easily check for spelling errors and keyword relevancy (through its LSI technology). So if you churn out junk, keyword focused but irrelevant content, they can easily detect it.
I just clicked on the link (containing my i/d – r=bronwen) to this article when I am supposed to see my advert at the top LH of the page, it is not there! and I wondered why?
Bronwen,
I tried. It’s there. Your ad is – You Can Beat Depression
http://www.leadsleap.com/blog/delisted-from-google-why/?r=bronwen
Maybe you forgot to add ‘?’ before r=
Anyway, if you still have question, send it to support. Keep blog comments for comments for this article.
Thanks.
Thanks again Kenneth for another great post! I am sorry for your partner and hope for better times ahead in the quest for Google ranking. A friend of mine was “googleslapped” over a year ago on adsense because of a spammer and no amount of explaining or begging helped get the account back. After a year though, another account was set up with no problems. I hope it won’t take you that long to figure out how to get these domains relisted. Any chance you could share the domains in question so we can follow your success in relisting? Hey, it might even be a whole new business outlet for you.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
David
Regarding Google Adsense. To stop your Google account been closed by spammers clicking on your ads i.e. click fraud. It is possible to get software which sets a limit on the number of adsense ads a visitor can click on. The software is called “Adsense Click Lock”.
Thanks Kenneth. I work primarily with offline businesses and this is a question that I get asked sometimes. I’ve never had a good answer other than “put up good content that is informative and useful to the visitor and you should be O.K.” Now, I have some really good info to answer back with. In fact, one of these is something that an offline business was using to try to rank higher in search engines. I knew that what he was doing was a little bit “underhanded” and now I understand why. Thanks for a great article and keep us posted.
Another Google problem you can run into has to do with AdSense. You may have them show Google ads on your blog or some of your web sites for a while and you may be earning money from it … so you are hoping to receive your first $100 payment from them soon. Instead you may find the your Google are no longer showing up on your web site or your blog and Google has suspended your AdSense account …. guess what? You will never get a clear answer from them why! They can do this to anyone … and it quite often looks like because they simply don’t want to pay you. Naturally, they will never say so and instead talk about your site being suspect of having received false clicks … but if your page is part of one of your affiliate sites any one of your affiliates can sent traffic to, you’d be better off not adding AdSense to it right at the beginning. Any quick change in traffic to that page, and any big changes in the number of clicks of any AdSense ads on that site can get your AdSense account suspended and any money owing will not be paid out to you, ever!
EAL is a much better alternative …
Thanks Kenneth for this type of explanation, not so easy to find.
Now I will pay more attention to the 5 factors.
I think for english mother tongue the first point is not so important, but fore foreign people it’s simply fundamental.
I always thought that excessive linking out was not responsible of a google kick-out.
Thanks again and se you at 3 Aces ;)
Goodbye.
Alessandro Zamboni
I have yet to learn enough about seo or any type of other
related subjects to be considered even an early bird or
newbie, trouble is that I have read so much that I tend to
be like the people on the search site ad who go into
some sort of over information mode. I just want to be able
to communicate with some of you like Kenneth, who have enough
of a grasp of overall uses of websites and pop ups and all
the other tech stuff. I studied html in the 90’s but that was
a lot of miles ago.Thanks Kenneth for the programs and services
you provide, as well as your willingness to share with others.
Richard Viers
PoorRichard’s Enterprises Inc.
wow thanks for the explaination. thank God i am not delisted by google :p
Very enlightening!! I haven’t been delisted-but my ranking disappeared!! What causes that??
I have always been disappointed with Google, AddSense, PayPerClicks. Maybe I have never trusted them, but I did lose a lot of money and nothing to show for. I by far prefer advertising, and building a rapport and trust by helping others solve their problems, and became very good at it. By far cheaper and rewarding.
Thanks Kenneth for your excellent topics, there is always something to learn with you.
John
Thanks once again for the great information. Your stuff is very useful, especially the Spelling and Syntax info about Google. I hadn’t heard this before.
Looking forward to more.
Thanks for taking the time to do this research that benefits all of us. You’re the best, Kenneth!
It seems I have to give a useful input in relate to “Grammar spelling and syntactical errors”.
I have a program for you to sell together.Maybe this is a good chance for helping people and earn some pocket money during this time of economy downturns.
I love to use this grammar for improving my grammatical errors while learning.
You can check at my Google profile at http://www.google.com/profiles/wealthycreators
Have an outstanding day!
Interesting topic. There’s much conjecture as to why site get delisted by Google. Having looked into this, it seems they sometimes have very good reasons for delisting sites that are spammy. Other times, they delist perfectly good sites and destroy peoples incomes and livelyhoods.
Recently, google has been delisting a whole bunch of peoples sites. The story is they find one site and then check google analytics and google adsense, and they wipe out a persons entire ‘network’ of sites.
Scary Stuff! Do No Evil? I think not Google!
Thanks for information.Your stuff is very useful, especially the Spelling and Syntax info about Google. I hadn’t heard this before.
Looking forward to more.
Content that will proof uniqueness and quality approval which can lead remarks towards is known as best worthy text.
Thank you so much for SEO tips. Its really worked.Great Information,it has lot for stuff which is informative.I will share the post with my friends.
I am really impressed by this post. Thanks Kenneth for the good work that you are doing. I love your posts.
Though I wasn’t aware of this much reasons which could have resulted in delisting by Google. It is very thoughtful of you to pen down the reasons for delisting websites from Google. I had the same issue last year and rectified it with my friends help.
I was very impressed by this post, this site has always been pleasant news. Thank you very much for such an interesting post. Keep working, great job!
Google changes the algorithm frequently and they don’t even give a notification for that. Their security systems get updated along with that too. You may check the new guidelines set by Google. There must be some valid reason for your website getting delisted.
I think this information will be helpful to all those who are doing SEO or digital marketing for promoting their business. From this, I came to know about various factors that we shouldn’t do for improving the result. Thank you.
I don’t understand why the content websites are delisted from Google. I can’t find these when I search Google. Is there any error in these sites? This is a message to other websites and they should check these possibilities before publishing the articles.
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This article is very informative. I will ensure I avoid the enlisted five key points that would result my content from being dis-listed in google search. Thank you for sharing.
analysed like expert. thats cool information.
Nice work ,you put your 100% effort in this blog.Thanks for a great article and keep us posted.
I loved your article. These 5 things are priceless. Google has “a method to their madness” and knowing the rules is a great step to keeping them happy.
Keep sharing, knowledge is power.
I agree with you, google keeps on updating its algorithms to track the spam websites, that shares the same content on multiple websites, creates extensive backlinks and have lots of errors in theri content.
Thank you for this awesome SEO Tips, I will follow these and I will share with my friend, Loved this article.
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