GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http:// www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Search">"robosapien review"</a> are still in Google however.
Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google with no change in status.
Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our PageRank and pages.
On a site like yours, the most likely suspects are the ads. Based on the symptoms, it seems likely that Google believes you're selling ads for search engine ranking purposes. You should add the attribute rel="nofollow" to all of the text link ads (or remove them entirely) and affiliate advertising links on your site. Wait a week, and then file another reinclusion request. Good luck!
> GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > with no change in status.
> Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > PageRank and pages.
Thanks for the feedback! The only text link ads on the site are Google Adsense ads. We do have a "Cool Sites" section which is basically just a blogroll - would you recommend adding the nofollow attribute to the sites listed in our blogroll as well?
> On a site like yours, the most likely suspects are the ads. Based on > the symptoms, it seems likely that Google believes you're selling ads > for search engine ranking purposes. You should add the attribute > rel="nofollow" to all of the text link ads (or remove them entirely) > and affiliate advertising links on your site. Wait a week, and then > file another reinclusion request. Good luck!
> On Aug 9, 10:13 am, lunacy8m wrote:
> > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > with no change in status.
> > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > PageRank and pages.
You have some bad neighborhood issues that might be causing this. Put your URL in this site. It takes a while to run, but when it is done, look at the bottom of the list.
> GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > with no change in status.
> Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > PageRank and pages.
These sites are listed under my Cool Sites section, and except for a few each has a decent pagerank. The only site listed here that doesn't have us listed in their blogroll is Gizmodo, and that's because they don't have a blogroll anymore (but they do link to our stories from time to time). Back when they DID have a blogroll, we were the first on their list:
So based on the fact that these are organic links in our blogroll, and are sites that are (mostly) related in content, and have decent PageRank I'm hesitant to think that linking to them in our blogroll has caused Google to drop our PageRank and individual pages altogether just because they have a couple of text links that may or may not be questionable. I'm thinking it really has to be something else but as I mentioned we've spent the last six months trying to get this sorted out to no avail, and Google has not responded to any of our reinclusion requests. If we knew what we were doing wrong we'd certainly like to fix it, so please keep the suggestions coming!
I do appreciate the suggestions, every little bit helps and we're obviously not able to figure it out without your help.
> You have some bad neighborhood issues that might be causing this. Put > your URL in this site. It takes a while to run, but when it is done, > look at the bottom of the list.
> > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > with no change in status.
> > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > PageRank and pages.
I see nothing of major consequence. Just lots of minor stuff. Run "gadgetmadness.com" through this DNS Report http://www.dnsstuff.com/ and fix the errors. Although they are not www errors, it couldn't hurt to correct those.
You also have 171 xhtml errors when running your site through the W3C Validator. You can fix most of those up using Tiday HTML
Since you do not know exactly what is wrong. I would correct the bad neighborhood issues.
> These sites are listed under my Cool Sites section, and except for a > few each has a decent pagerank. The only site listed here that doesn't > have us listed in their blogroll is Gizmodo, and that's because they > don't have a blogroll anymore (but they do link to our stories from > time to time). Back when they DID have a blogroll, we were the first > on their list:
> So based on the fact that these are organic links in our blogroll, and > are sites that are (mostly) related in content, and have decent > PageRank I'm hesitant to think that linking to them in our blogroll > has caused Google to drop our PageRank and individual pages altogether > just because they have a couple of text links that may or may not be > questionable. I'm thinking it really has to be something else but as I > mentioned we've spent the last six months trying to get this sorted > out to no avail, and Google has not responded to any of our > reinclusion requests. If we knew what we were doing wrong we'd > certainly like to fix it, so please keep the suggestions coming!
> I do appreciate the suggestions, every little bit helps and we're > obviously not able to figure it out without your help.
> On Aug 9, 12:26 pm, burchman519 wrote:
> > You have some bad neighborhood issues that might be causing this. Put > > your URL in this site. It takes a while to run, but when it is done, > > look at the bottom of the list.
> > > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > > with no change in status.
> > > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > > PageRank and pages.- Hide quoted text -
> GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > with no change in status.
> Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > PageRank and pages.
> did it start on 03-Apr-2007 when you changed registrars?
> On Aug 9, 10:13 am, lunacy8m wrote:
> > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > with no change in status.
> > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > PageRank and pages.
> So everything we've posted in December of 2006 and all of 2007 does > not show up in serps.
> On Sep 12, 3:53 pm, JLH wrote:
> > did it start on 03-Apr-2007 when you changed registrars?
> > On Aug 9, 10:13 am, lunacy8m wrote:
> > > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > > with no change in status.
> > > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > > PageRank and pages.
Is see that you do have ~3600 pages indexed. As there seems to be a direct relation of the number of pages in the index and PagrRank maybe you need more PageRank to support the remaining pages.
PageRank is determined by your inbound links. Maybe re-examine your current inbound links and try seeking others besides just those sites.
Also look at your internal linking structure and maybe add links from your "Stronger" pages to some of those not indexed to help the PR distribution.
btw - Just poking around I noticed your robots.txt is formatted incorrectly.
Also the disallow for mediabot is not doing anything. If it is supposed to block something then it needs to be corrected otherwise consider removing it.
Not that I see the robots.txt causing your specific problem but I'd correct it anyway.
> > Actually it started after December 11th, 2006. That's the last > > individual page that's indexed - all entries after that are not in the > > index:
> > So everything we've posted in December of 2006 and all of 2007 does > > not show up in serps.
> > On Sep 12, 3:53 pm, JLH wrote:
> > > did it start on 03-Apr-2007 when you changed registrars?
> > > On Aug 9, 10:13 am, lunacy8m wrote:
> > > > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > > > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > > > with no change in status.
> > > > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > > > PageRank and pages.- Hide quoted text -
Hi - I took burchman519's advice and ran a DNSSTUFF report. I got the results but really don't understand them. Can anyone give me a brief overview of what they mean and what to do about them? I am pretty much a novice...
FAIL Missing (stealth) nameservers FAIL: You have one or more missing (stealth) nameservers. The following nameserver(s) are listed (at your nameservers) as nameservers for your domain, but are not listed at the parent nameservers (therefore, they may or may not get used, depending on whether your DNS servers return them in the authority section for other requests, per RFC2181 5.4.1). You need to make sure that these stealth nameservers are working; if they are not responding, you may have serious problems! The DNSreport will not query these servers, so you need to be very careful that they are working properly.
ns.xxxx.com. This is listed as an ERROR because there are some cases where nasty problems can occur (if the TTLs vary from the NS records at the root servers and the NS records point to your own domain, for example). FAIL Missing nameservers 2 ERROR: One or more of the nameservers listed at the parent servers are not listed as NS records at your nameservers. The problem NS records are: ns.xxxx.com. ns2.xxxx.com. FAIL Stealth NS record leakage Your DNS servers leak stealth information in non-NS requests:
Stealth nameservers are leaked [ ]!
This can cause some serious problems (especially if there is a TTL discrepancy). If you must have stealth NS records (NS records listed at the authoritative DNS servers, but not the parent DNS servers), you should make sure that your DNS server does not leak the stealth NS records in response to other queries.
WARN SOA MNAME Check WARNING: Your SOA (Start of Authority) record states that your master (primary) name server is: ns.xxxx.com.. However, that server is not listed at the parent servers as one of your NS records! This is legal, but you should be sure that you know what you are doing.
WARN SPF record Your domain does not have an SPF record. This means that spammers can easily send out E-mail that looks like it came from your domain, which can make your domain look bad (if the recipient thinks you really sent it), and can cost you money (when people complain to you, rather than the spammer). You may want to add an SPF record ASAP, as 01 Oct 2004 was the target date for domains to have SPF records in place (Hotmail, for example, started checking SPF records on 01 Oct 2004).
I removed the name of the site because I am not trying to spam the board.
> You have some bad neighborhood issues that might be causing this. Put > your URL in this site. It takes a while to run, but when it is done, > look at the bottom of the list.
> > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > with no change in status.
> > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > PageRank and pages.- Hide quoted text -
First off, if you have legitimate questions regarding a site, which you do, you do not have to worry about posting a link to your site as being considered spam.
In fact, posting a link to a site about which one has questions is recommended.
> WARN SPF record Your domain does not have an SPF record. This means > that spammers can easily send out E-mail that looks like it came from > your domain, which can make your domain look bad (if the recipient > thinks you really sent it), and can cost you money (when people > complain to you, rather than the spammer). You may want to add an SPF > record ASAP, as 01 Oct 2004 was the target date for domains to have > SPF records in place (Hotmail, for example, started checking SPF > records on 01 Oct 2004).
I can't answer the other questions but this one, I can address.
An SPF record basically lists the IPs, mail servers, from which mail should be accepted for a given Domain name.
Without an SPF record, someone could send mail from their own personal IP address but use your domain name as the sender to try to make it look like the mail/spam is coming from your server.
But, if your server has an SPF record, a mail server receiving mail from somewhere that has your domain name as the sender can then check your server to see if the IP addess it received mail from is allowed to send mail for your domain.
One might think a simple reverse DNS would suffice, which in many cases it does but there are times when a given domain may have numerous mail servers and so a given piece of mail from a given domain could possibly come from one of possibly numerous IPs. The SPF record for a domain like that would then contain a list of the various mail servers acting on its behalf.
For various reasons, it is good to have an SPF record on your server for each domain that mail can be sent from.
Although it gets a bit "deep" in the explanation department, you can find out more about SPF records, including generating one for your site(s) at http://www.openspf.org/
As for your other errors listed, I hope someone can help you with those because I'm lucky that my servers all pass because if they didn't, I wouldn't have a clue as to what to do either. :-()
Being a "server jockey" is easy in comparison to setting up full DNS. That said, I think Webado knows her way around DNS pretty well so maybe she can chime in with some answers both you and I could benefit from! :-)
> GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > with no change in status.
> Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > PageRank and pages.
Ignoring the attempt to hijack this thread - thanks for the help with the robots.txt formatting errors Abra, I will get those sorted out immediately. As far as backlinks go we've got a zillion of them and almost all of them are organic. The dozen or so backlinks that aren't organic are reciprocal from the blogs listed in my blogroll. GadgetMadness has been around for several years and we've managed to pick up quite a few backlinks:
Red, Google picking up our recent individual pages is something totally new! Perhaps someone here is actually listening? To illustrate I changed the time period in your link from 24 hours to the Past Year:
Out of several hundred pages from December 2006 - September 2007, only 9 recent pages are indexed. As I said this is a new thing, before yesterday there weren't any listed.
I've been all over the Webmaster Console, and there is no mention of a penalty whatsoever, and neither me nor the SEO firm can figure out with certainty (yet) why we went from a PR6 to a PR0.
So if someone was trying to sabotage the site by link us up on junk pages, how in the world would we be able to fight that and why would we be penalized for it?
> Last 24 hours Google picked up 3 pages from your site.
> Have you set up a Google Webmaster Console a/c to see if you have any > meesages from Google concerning a penalty?
> Rgds > Richard
> On Aug 9, 4:13 pm, lunacy8m wrote:
> > GadgetMadness.com used to have a PageRank of 6 and was well indexed on > > Google. Today we're PageRank of nothing and individual pages beyond > > mid 2005 or 2006 don't show up at all - even on the local Google > > search above. Just try searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/ > > custom?domains=GadgetMadness.com&sitesearch=GadgetMadness.com&q=pink > > +taser&x=0&y=0">"pink taser"</a> or any keywords from our recent > > postings. The index page shows up, but not the individual entry page. > > The individual entry pages for older posts like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=robosapien+review&btnG=Google+Se...">"robosapien > > review"</a> are still in Google however.
> > Since the beginning of 2007 we've been trying to sort this one out. > > We've changed site settings, uploaded sitemaps, moved our storefront > > to a subdomain, and submitted several reinclusion requests to Google > > with no change in status.
> > Please help, we've been trying to resolve this for the better part of > > 6 months and can't figure out what is causing Google to drop our > > PageRank and pages.
> So if someone was trying to sabotage the site by link us up on junk > pages, how in the world would we be able to fight that and why would > we be penalized for it?
Forget that - it doesn't happen.
Someone posted an article on Wikipedia a couple of years ago with a live link to my site in it.
Someone else scraped the article and used it as a text fragment in a few thousand spam domains - overnight I acquired a couple of thousand new inbound links, mostly from porn sites.
> Ignoring the attempt to hijack this thread - thanks for the help with > the robots.txt formatting errors Abra, I will get those sorted out > immediately. As far as backlinks go we've got a zillion of them and > almost all of them are organic. The dozen or so backlinks that aren't > organic are reciprocal from the blogs listed in my blogroll.
Is that a bad thing? Please pardon my ignorance, but I didn't realize that it was, I've got it on other sites we manage and there's never been anything negative about it. However I'll drop it from the contact page, I'm up for trying any and all suggestions to get this problem fixed!!
> > Ignoring the attempt to hijack this thread - thanks for the help with > > the robots.txt formatting errors Abra, I will get those sorted out > > immediately. As far as backlinks go we've got a zillion of them and > > almost all of them are organic. The dozen or so backlinks that aren't > > organic are reciprocal from the blogs listed in my blogroll.
> Is that a bad thing? Please pardon my ignorance, but I didn't realize > that it was, I've got it on other sites we manage and there's never > been anything negative about it. However I'll drop it from the > contact page, I'm up for trying any and all suggestions to get this > problem fixed!!
> On Sep 13, 9:38 am, Phil Payne wrote:
> > > Ignoring the attempt to hijack this thread - thanks for the help with > > > the robots.txt formatting errors Abra, I will get those sorted out > > > immediately. As far as backlinks go we've got a zillion of them and > > > almost all of them are organic. The dozen or so backlinks that aren't > > > organic are reciprocal from the blogs listed in my blogroll.
Great, I had no idea this was frowned upon. I really appreciate the information, I've removed it from our contact page and am now removing it from our other sites.
> With anything as dynamic as web ranking, what worked yesterday can > become a penalty today.
> On Sep 13, 10:43 am, lunacy8m wrote:
> > Is that a bad thing? Please pardon my ignorance, but I didn't realize > > that it was, I've got it on other sites we manage and there's never > > been anything negative about it. However I'll drop it from the > > contact page, I'm up for trying any and all suggestions to get this > > problem fixed!!
> > On Sep 13, 9:38 am, Phil Payne wrote:
> > > > Ignoring the attempt to hijack this thread - thanks for the help with > > > > the robots.txt formatting errors Abra, I will get those sorted out > > > > immediately. As far as backlinks go we've got a zillion of them and > > > > almost all of them are organic. The dozen or so backlinks that aren't > > > > organic are reciprocal from the blogs listed in my blogroll.
> Great, I had no idea this was frowned upon. I really appreciate the > information, I've removed it from our contact page and am now removing > it from our other sites.
Wot 'e said.
Yup - the word "surfing" is used too freely and incorrectly. We are all riding Google's waves, and they shift and change direction all the time. Staying on the board is tricky. What worked yesterday - or even today - might not work this evening or tomorrow.
It really all boils down to Google's strictures to build pages for people, not search engines. If you spend time and resource on optimizing a page for search engines, the best that will happen is that it at some time will stop working. The worst is that it will be detected as a trick and cause a (perhaps gentle) penalty.
> It really all boils down to Google's strictures to build pages for > people, not search engines. If you spend time and resource on > optimizing a page for search engines, the best that will happen is > that it at some time will stop working. The worst is that it will be > detected as a trick and cause a (perhaps gentle) penalty.
Anyone who spends time at the GadgetMadness.com knows we spend our time on finding the latest gadgets before all the other gadget blogs do and coming up with original reviews for them. I wouldn't call completely losing your PageRank and having a year's worth of work gone from their index a "gentle penalty," I'd call it a open-handed strike right in the face. I never spent any of my time doing SEO work until this happened, and I really appreciate all the helpful suggestions and feedback.
I wouldn't waste too much time concentrating on loosing your visible PageRank. The interface is wonky at best and broke often, they don't spend too many resources updating and maintaining it so either should we. It's not always an indicator of much. Loosing traffic, that's another story and should be the only ruler used to grade a site.
> > It really all boils down to Google's strictures to build pages for > > people, not search engines. If you spend time and resource on > > optimizing a page for search engines, the best that will happen is > > that it at some time will stop working. The worst is that it will be > > detected as a trick and cause a (perhaps gentle) penalty.
> Anyone who spends time at the GadgetMadness.com knows we spend our > time on finding the latest gadgets before all the other gadget blogs > do and coming up with original reviews for them. I wouldn't call > completely losing your PageRank and having a year's worth of work gone > from their index a "gentle penalty," I'd call it a open-handed strike > right in the face. I never spent any of my time doing SEO work until > this happened, and I really appreciate all the helpful suggestions and > feedback.
Loss of traffic is the main reason why I'm here, at one point we had around 6000 uniques per day, and now we're down to barely 600. The recent inclusion of individual pages is interesting however, as I mentioned earlier prior to yesterday absolutely no individual pages from 2007 was indexed. I'm going to keep an eye on this and hope for the best, although I'm always open for more suggestions on things to try. If my SEO firm manages to figure out what the heck caused/is causing this I will certainly share with the group.
> I wouldn't waste too much time concentrating on loosing your visible > PageRank. The interface is wonky at best and broke often, they don't > spend too many resources updating and maintaining it so either should > we. It's not always an indicator of much. Loosing traffic, that's > another story and should be the only ruler used to grade a site.
> On Sep 13, 12:06 pm, lunacy8m wrote:
> > > It really all boils down to Google's strictures to build pages for > > > people, not search engines. If you spend time and resource on > > > optimizing a page for search engines, the best that will happen is > > > that it at some time will stop working. The worst is that it will be > > > detected as a trick and cause a (perhaps gentle) penalty.
> > Anyone who spends time at the GadgetMadness.com knows we spend our > > time on finding the latest gadgets before all the other gadget blogs > > do and coming up with original reviews for them. I wouldn't call > > completely losing your PageRank and having a year's worth of work gone > > from their index a "gentle penalty," I'd call it a open-handed strike > > right in the face. I never spent any of my time doing SEO work until > > this happened, and I really appreciate all the helpful suggestions and > > feedback.
