We are a small family business and we have just been dropped from the
serps due to a proxy hijack (I think that's the term). We have blocked
the IP for now while I look at ways of preventing this happening again
in the future. (Not techy at all)
When you searched on Google for a bunch of text on our page, his site
appeared and upon clicking on the link, it forwarded us to our site,
through a proxy site.
It seems that the proxy version of our page was re-crawled last night,
and, due to the IP ban, was de-indexed. Unfortunately, our ranking is
still stuck between the 40 - 60 mark for all keywords, phrases and
even our domain name. We used to rank really well and now we are at
the bottom of the pond. We have (what we think) is a good site which
we worked on for hours and hours every night to get just the way we
wanted it.
I have filed a re-inclusion form and a spam report when it first
dropped us from serps.
We have had the penalty for over 11 days now and it is really
affecting our business. We just can't afford to miss out on the
beginning of the spring season here in the UK. This is our only source
of income and as such this is causing my wife and me great stress and
sleepless nights. This is extremely serious for us, but we feel as if
Google has let us down as we have not even had an automated response
to say they are looking into it. We feel helpless and distraught. Why
does it take so long for Google to act on these people who literally
ruin honest people's lives? Why is there no-one to talk to even via
email?
Does anyone have any advice on this? The SEO guy we used for advice
ran out of ideas.
How do you know it was due to the proxy hijack and not the five pages
of links exchanges that you had and now deleted? Why did you not tell
us about them when posting here asking for help?
> We are a small family business and we have just been dropped from the
> serps due to a proxy hijack (I think that's the term). We have blocked
> the IP for now while I look at ways of preventing this happening again
> in the future. (Not techy at all)
> When you searched on Google for a bunch of text on our page, his site
> appeared and upon clicking on the link, it forwarded us to our site,
> through a proxy site.
> It seems that the proxy version of our page was re-crawled last night,
> and, due to the IP ban, was de-indexed. Unfortunately, our ranking is
> still stuck between the 40 - 60 mark for all keywords, phrases and
> even our domain name. We used to rank really well and now we are at
> the bottom of the pond. We have (what we think) is a good site which
> we worked on for hours and hours every night to get just the way we
> wanted it.
> I have filed a re-inclusion form and a spam report when it first
> dropped us from serps.
> We have had the penalty for over 11 days now and it is really
> affecting our business. We just can't afford to miss out on the
> beginning of the spring season here in the UK. This is our only source
> of income and as such this is causing my wife and me great stress and
> sleepless nights. This is extremely serious for us, but we feel as if
> Google has let us down as we have not even had an automated response
> to say they are looking into it. We feel helpless and distraught. Why
> does it take so long for Google to act on these people who literally
> ruin honest people's lives? Why is there no-one to talk to even via
> email?
> Does anyone have any advice on this? The SEO guy we used for advice
> ran out of ideas.
I had no idea what the cause is so removed everything that might have
caused the problem. After the drop, I sat down myself to read the
webmaster guidelines and decided that the links could also cause the
drop. I never thought reciprocal links were a problem as pretty much
all of our competitors have them. Much larger then ours at that.
Why would our site drop while all the rest still be up there? Some
competitors have over 100 pages of links. Thus, I discounted the idea
that it is the cause of my problem but removed just in case. Nothing
was done in bad faith as you seem to suggest. Thanks for your help.
> How do you know it was due to the proxy hijack and not the five pages
> of links exchanges that you had and now deleted? Why did you not tell
> us about them when posting here asking for help?
> > We are a small family business and we have just been dropped from the
> > serps due to a proxy hijack (I think that's the term). We have blocked
> > the IP for now while I look at ways of preventing this happening again
> > in the future. (Not techy at all)
> > When you searched on Google for a bunch of text on our page, his site
> > appeared and upon clicking on the link, it forwarded us to our site,
> > through a proxy site.
> > It seems that the proxy version of our page was re-crawled last night,
> > and, due to the IP ban, was de-indexed. Unfortunately, our ranking is
> > still stuck between the 40 - 60 mark for all keywords, phrases and
> > even our domain name. We used to rank really well and now we are at
> > the bottom of the pond. We have (what we think) is a good site which
> > we worked on for hours and hours every night to get just the way we
> > wanted it.
> > I have filed a re-inclusion form and a spam report when it first
> > dropped us from serps.
> > We have had the penalty for over 11 days now and it is really
> > affecting our business. We just can't afford to miss out on the
> > beginning of the spring season here in the UK. This is our only source
> > of income and as such this is causing my wife and me great stress and
> > sleepless nights. This is extremely serious for us, but we feel as if
> > Google has let us down as we have not even had an automated response
> > to say they are looking into it. We feel helpless and distraught. Why
> > does it take so long for Google to act on these people who literally
> > ruin honest people's lives? Why is there no-one to talk to even via
> > email?
> > Does anyone have any advice on this? The SEO guy we used for advice
> > ran out of ideas.
> > Sorry for the rant,
> > Shai- Hide quoted text -
Are there any results in google showing any of your URLS preceded by
'tylerschnaidt' in the url name ? If not I think seo101 is correct
that it was probably due to links or other problems on your site.
Google are pretty quick at removing proxy duplicates of a URL. If a
302 redirect is used the tendenacy is to index the destination URL in
preference to the source URL.
Hi silverstall. Yes, when you did a search for a chunk of text on my
front page, the tylerschnaidt showed up in the results instead of
farawayfurniture. This changed overnight last night after I blocked
his IP 3 days ago. I was hoping the serps will return after that
happened but it has not.
Actions taken so far:
1. Blocked IP of the proxy site as detailed above
2. Removed reciprocal link pages (they had a global nofollow on them
btw)
3. Added nofollow to the only two external links on my front page (one
was Unite Nations Env Program and the other was the website designers)
4. Files a re-inclusion and Spam report from WBT (done 10 days ago)
Is there anything else I can do? Seriously, I am not just saying this,
but this is a massive problem for us. Without exaggerating, this could
cost us our home if it carries on for more then a week or two.
This whole episode has taught me two valuable lessons. One is to never
trust someone else with your source of income without continually
checking up on them and checking for yourself that what they are doing
is 100% ok, and the other is that no business should be reliant so
much on one source of visitors. But, as it's a new business (3 years
old), we could not afford any other type of advertising.
Anyone else have any suggestions on what I can do next? Any idea on
how long if at all the site will come back into the search results?
> Are there any results in google showing any of your URLS preceded by
> 'tylerschnaidt' in the url name ? If not I think seo101 is correct
> that it was probably due to links or other problems on your site.
> Google are pretty quick at removing proxy duplicates of a URL. If a
> 302 redirect is used the tendenacy is to index the destination URL in
> preference to the source URL.
There is no mention of "wood", "wooden", "garden", "outdoor",
"furniture".
Phrases like "it is sure to become a topic of conversation amongst
your friends and family" may read well as marketing blurb but they are
irrelevant for search engine indexing of page content related to what
people might actually be searching for.
"benches" are used in all sorts of places indoors and outdoors;
churches, homes, offices; public spaces (eg parks, shopping centres/
malls, etc). Benches can be upholstered or not. Benches can be made
of wood, cast/wrought iron, aluminium, plastic/PVS, etc. The word
"bench" is used in other contexts too: work bench, tool bench, court/
jury bench, etc.
That "Bali bench" you are selling is, I think, specifically for
domestic use, outside in the back garden. Take away the words "bench"
and "teak" and the page leaves a great mystery: what are you selling!
On a minor note, even the product dimensions are presented in a way
that creates an obstacle: "Size: L150cm x W73cm x H86cm". Are you
sure that your product will be found if I search for [teak garden
bench 150 cm] ?
Finally, I see that you have a "Forum". Do you moderate all posts?
Are you confident that you have ways of preventing spam, obscenities,
and substantially irrelevant material from getting published and
indexed thus potentially damaging your site's profile?
> We are a small family business and we have just been dropped from the
> serps due to a proxy hijack (I think that's the term). We have blocked
> the IP for now while I look at ways of preventing this happening again
> in the future. (Not techy at all)
> When you searched on Google for a bunch of text on our page, his site
> appeared and upon clicking on the link, it forwarded us to our site,
> through a proxy site.
> It seems that the proxy version of our page was re-crawled last night,
> and, due to the IP ban, was de-indexed. Unfortunately, our ranking is
> still stuck between the 40 - 60 mark for all keywords, phrases and
> even our domain name. We used to rank really well and now we are at
> the bottom of the pond. We have (what we think) is a good site which
> we worked on for hours and hours every night to get just the way we
> wanted it.
> I have filed a re-inclusion form and a spam report when it first
> dropped us from serps.
> We have had the penalty for over 11 days now and it is really
> affecting our business. We just can't afford to miss out on the
> beginning of the spring season here in the UK. This is our only source
> of income and as such this is causing my wife and me great stress and
> sleepless nights. This is extremely serious for us, but we feel as if
> Google has let us down as we have not even had an automated response
> to say they are looking into it. We feel helpless and distraught. Why
> does it take so long for Google to act on these people who literally
> ruin honest people's lives? Why is there no-one to talk to even via
> email?
> Does anyone have any advice on this? The SEO guy we used for advice
> ran out of ideas.
Thanks Robbo. As mentioned, we are not great at SEO but I am
learning.
The problems you mentioned are noted, but the fact of the matter is
that we ranked extremely well as is for the important keywords we were
concerned with. At the moment, I am spending my time investigating the
problem and trying to come to some sort of solution. I will however
look into these issues once the main problem is solved.
Just to reitirate, we ranked in the top 5 for phrases such as 'garden
furniture' 'teak garden furniture' 'teak sets' 'dining furniture' etc
for over a year and a half now. Solidly.
I understand that some descriptions are less than adequate from a seo
point of view, but we designed the site with the user/buyer in mind. I
will look into this further when the penalty is lifted.
p.s thanks for the compliment about the pictures. Cheered me up a
bit. :-)
> There is no mention of "wood", "wooden", "garden", "outdoor",
> "furniture".
> Phrases like "it is sure to become a topic of conversation amongst
> your friends and family" may read well as marketing blurb but they are
> irrelevant for search engine indexing of page content related to what
> people might actually be searching for.
> "benches" are used in all sorts of places indoors and outdoors;
> churches, homes, offices; public spaces (eg parks, shopping centres/
> malls, etc). Benches can be upholstered or not. Benches can be made
> of wood, cast/wrought iron, aluminium, plastic/PVS, etc. The word
> "bench" is used in other contexts too: work bench, tool bench, court/
> jury bench, etc.
> That "Bali bench" you are selling is, I think, specifically for
> domestic use, outside in the back garden. Take away the words "bench"
> and "teak" and the page leaves a great mystery: what are you selling!
> On a minor note, even the product dimensions are presented in a way
> that creates an obstacle: "Size: L150cm x W73cm x H86cm". Are you
> sure that your product will be found if I search for [teak garden
> bench 150 cm] ?
> Finally, I see that you have a "Forum". Do you moderate all posts?
> Are you confident that you have ways of preventing spam, obscenities,
> and substantially irrelevant material from getting published and
> indexed thus potentially damaging your site's profile?
> Robbo
> On Feb 22, 7:36 am, ShyBoy wrote:
> > We are a small family business and we have just been dropped from the
> > serps due to a proxy hijack (I think that's the term). We have blocked
> > the IP for now while I look at ways of preventing this happening again
> > in the future. (Not techy at all)
> > When you searched on Google for a bunch of text on our page, his site
> > appeared and upon clicking on the link, it forwarded us to our site,
> > through a proxy site.
> > It seems that the proxy version of our page was re-crawled last night,
> > and, due to the IP ban, was de-indexed. Unfortunately, our ranking is
> > still stuck between the 40 - 60 mark for all keywords, phrases and
> > even our domain name. We used to rank really well and now we are at
> > the bottom of the pond. We have (what we think) is a good site which
> > we worked on for hours and hours every night to get just the way we
> > wanted it.
> > I have filed a re-inclusion form and a spam report when it first
> > dropped us from serps.
> > We have had the penalty for over 11 days now and it is really
> > affecting our business. We just can't afford to miss out on the
> > beginning of the spring season here in the UK. This is our only source
> > of income and as such this is causing my wife and me great stress and
> > sleepless nights. This is extremely serious for us, but we feel as if
> > Google has let us down as we have not even had an automated response
> > to say they are looking into it. We feel helpless and distraught. Why
> > does it take so long for Google to act on these people who literally
> > ruin honest people's lives? Why is there no-one to talk to even via
> > email?
> > Does anyone have any advice on this? The SEO guy we used for advice
> > ran out of ideas.
> > Sorry for the rant,
> > Shai- Hide quoted text -
Sorry Robbo, yes, the forum is moderated and all users have to be
approved first. We delete all spam on a daily basis if/when it
happens.
Thanks again.
On Feb 22, 12:30 pm, ShyBoy wrote:
> Thanks Robbo. As mentioned, we are not great at SEO but I am
> learning.
> The problems you mentioned are noted, but the fact of the matter is
> that we ranked extremely well as is for the important keywords we were
> concerned with. At the moment, I am spending my time investigating the
> problem and trying to come to some sort of solution. I will however
> look into these issues once the main problem is solved.
> Just to reitirate, we ranked in the top 5 for phrases such as 'garden
> furniture' 'teak garden furniture' 'teak sets' 'dining furniture' etc
> for over a year and a half now. Solidly.
> I understand that some descriptions are less than adequate from a seo
> point of view, but we designed the site with the user/buyer in mind. I
> will look into this further when the penalty is lifted.
> p.s thanks for the compliment about the pictures. Cheered me up a
> bit. :-)
> On Feb 22, 12:03 pm, Robbo wrote:
> > Shai
> > I cannot add anything useful about dealing with proxy hijacks, but I
> > can see some issues on your site itself.
> > There is no mention of "wood", "wooden", "garden", "outdoor",
> > "furniture".
> > Phrases like "it is sure to become a topic of conversation amongst
> > your friends and family" may read well as marketing blurb but they are
> > irrelevant for search engine indexing of page content related to what
> > people might actually be searching for.
> > "benches" are used in all sorts of places indoors and outdoors;
> > churches, homes, offices; public spaces (eg parks, shopping centres/
> > malls, etc). Benches can be upholstered or not. Benches can be made
> > of wood, cast/wrought iron, aluminium, plastic/PVS, etc. The word
> > "bench" is used in other contexts too: work bench, tool bench, court/
> > jury bench, etc.
> > That "Bali bench" you are selling is, I think, specifically for
> > domestic use, outside in the back garden. Take away the words "bench"
> > and "teak" and the page leaves a great mystery: what are you selling!
> > On a minor note, even the product dimensions are presented in a way
> > that creates an obstacle: "Size: L150cm x W73cm x H86cm". Are you
> > sure that your product will be found if I search for [teak garden
> > bench 150 cm] ?
> > Finally, I see that you have a "Forum". Do you moderate all posts?
> > Are you confident that you have ways of preventing spam, obscenities,
> > and substantially irrelevant material from getting published and
> > indexed thus potentially damaging your site's profile?
> > Robbo
> > On Feb 22, 7:36 am, ShyBoy wrote:
> > > We are a small family business and we have just been dropped from the
> > > serps due to a proxy hijack (I think that's the term). We have blocked
> > > the IP for now while I look at ways of preventing this happening again
> > > in the future. (Not techy at all)
> > > When you searched on Google for a bunch of text on our page, his site
> > > appeared and upon clicking on the link, it forwarded us to our site,
> > > through a proxy site.
> > > It seems that the proxy version of our page was re-crawled last night,
> > > and, due to the IP ban, was de-indexed. Unfortunately, our ranking is
> > > still stuck between the 40 - 60 mark for all keywords, phrases and
> > > even our domain name. We used to rank really well and now we are at
> > > the bottom of the pond. We have (what we think) is a good site which
> > > we worked on for hours and hours every night to get just the way we
> > > wanted it.
> > > I have filed a re-inclusion form and a spam report when it first
> > > dropped us from serps.
> > > We have had the penalty for over 11 days now and it is really
> > > affecting our business. We just can't afford to miss out on the
> > > beginning of the spring season here in the UK. This is our only source
> > > of income and as such this is causing my wife and me great stress and
> > > sleepless nights. This is extremely serious for us, but we feel as if
> > > Google has let us down as we have not even had an automated response
> > > to say they are looking into it. We feel helpless and distraught. Why
> > > does it take so long for Google to act on these people who literally
> > > ruin honest people's lives? Why is there no-one to talk to even via
> > > email?
> > > Does anyone have any advice on this? The SEO guy we used for advice
> > > ran out of ideas.
> > > Sorry for the rant,
> > > Shai- Hide quoted text -
I should have also noted that a search on my domain name
farawayfurniture does not bring up our site anymore so definitely
looks like a penalty. It was never a gradual drop. One day we received
1600 visits and the next 200. Its been like that ever since (11 days)
> Sorry Robbo, yes, the forum is moderated and all users have to be
> approved first. We delete all spam on a daily basis if/when it
> happens.
> Thanks again.
> On Feb 22, 12:30 pm, ShyBoy wrote:
> > Thanks Robbo. As mentioned, we are not great at SEO but I am
> > learning.
> > The problems you mentioned are noted, but the fact of the matter is
> > that we ranked extremely well as is for the important keywords we were
> > concerned with. At the moment, I am spending my time investigating the
> > problem and trying to come to some sort of solution. I will however
> > look into these issues once the main problem is solved.
> > Just to reitirate, we ranked in the top 5 for phrases such as 'garden
> > furniture' 'teak garden furniture' 'teak sets' 'dining furniture' etc
> > for over a year and a half now. Solidly.
> > I understand that some descriptions are less than adequate from a seo
> > point of view, but we designed the site with the user/buyer in mind. I
> > will look into this further when the penalty is lifted.
> > p.s thanks for the compliment about the pictures. Cheered me up a
> > bit. :-)
> > On Feb 22, 12:03 pm, Robbo wrote:
> > > Shai
> > > I cannot add anything useful about dealing with proxy hijacks, but I
> > > can see some issues on your site itself.
> > > There is no mention of "wood", "wooden", "garden", "outdoor",
> > > "furniture".
> > > Phrases like "it is sure to become a topic of conversation amongst
> > > your friends and family" may read well as marketing blurb but they are
> > > irrelevant for search engine indexing of page content related to what
> > > people might actually be searching for.
> > > "benches" are used in all sorts of places indoors and outdoors;
> > > churches, homes, offices; public spaces (eg parks, shopping centres/
> > > malls, etc). Benches can be upholstered or not. Benches can be made
> > > of wood, cast/wrought iron, aluminium, plastic/PVS, etc. The word
> > > "bench" is used in other contexts too: work bench, tool bench, court/
> > > jury bench, etc.
