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Reinclusion in Google
Even if you are not looking for trouble and do not violate
any known SEO rule (but only half of them), you still might
have to experience the ultimate SEO nightmare - being
excluded from Google's index. Although Google is a kind of a
monopolist among search engines, it is not a bully company
that excludes innocent victims for pure pleasure. Google
keeps rigorously to SEO best practices and excludes sites
that misbehave.
Not Present in Google's Index
First, it is necessary to clarify that the fact your site is
missing from Google's index can mean two things:
a. You have not been included yet, though yo u have submitted
an inclusion request. As described in the Google Sandbox
article, it is normal to have to wait some time before being
indexed for the first time. You can't to anything to speed
the process but wait.
b. You have been excluded from Google's index because of
violation on your site. As said, this is a real nightmare
for any SEO and you will need to take some steps to correct
this most unfavorable situation. The rest of the article
explains how.
Why Does Google Exclude Sites?
There are many reasons that can make Google exclude your
site(s) and all these reasons are related to a violation of
some kind. For instance, your sites are over-optimized and
this makes them very suspicious. Over-optimization has many
faces and you can have a look at the Optimization,
Over-Optimization or SEO Overkill? Article to get some ideas
of practices that you should avoid.
Besides over-optimizing the onsite content, some of the
other reasons for being excluded from Google are SE
spamming, hidden text, hosting illegal content, linking to
bad neighbors, inter-linking, etc. There is no an exhaustive
list of SEO sins that Google does not tolerate, nor you'll
get a letter from Google to inform you that you have been a
bad boy and that's why you have been kicked out of its index
but if you resort to any forms of SEO manipulation and you
attempt to mislead search engines, you might expect that
sooner or later you will have to deal with reinclusion.
Reinclusion Steps
After you discover that you have been excluded from Google,
the first step is to analyze why. You need to know what made
them angry with you and correct your mistakes. Check for
links to link farms and bed neighbors, for doorway pages and
keyword stuffing. It is unlikely that you don't know your
own sins.
Next, you have to contact Google with a reinclusion request.
Go to Google Sitemaps and from the Tools menu on the right,
select Submit a Reinclusion Request. On the next screen,
read carefully the instructions and explanations, fill in
the required data (you may want to have a look at the next
section - Reinclusion Tips for ideas what to write) and
submit your request.
After you submit your inclusion request, there is nothing
more you can do than fix your errors (if you have not
already done it) and wait patiently for the answer.
Though the process of submitting a reinclusion request is
pretty straightforward, there is some general advice, which
can help you. The following tips can improve your chances of
success.
Reinclusion Tips
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Admit your errors and fix them
This has already been said but it is a big mistake to write
to Google and play innocent. You can lie to yourself but
this way you will not convince them that you are a martyr
who has been suffering because of their cruelty. And above
all - fix your mistakes before you submit the reinclusion
request. It is a very stupid situation to have your errors
unfixed and wait for reinclusion because you will simply
never get reincluded this way. What is more, you are
undermining your chances for success in the future as well.
*
Be polite.
The worst mistake you can make in your reinclusion request
is to be rude. Threatening Google with lawsuits or hinting
that you might boycott their AdWords program in revenge for
being excluded from their index is a deadly mistake. Anyway,
Google are not obliged to provide you with free traffic, so
being included in their index is not a special privilege
they had granted you for your AdWords money.
*
Look at their Webmasters Guidelines.
It is unlikely that they have changed them recently and you
do not comply with them anymore but it does not hurt to
double check that you have done what Google recommends to
do.
*
Don't spam them.
Google receives heaps of e-mails and it is not possible to
answer each incoming e-mail an hour or so after it had been
submitted. Bombarding Google with tons of e-mails (even
polite ones) could only make your situation worse.
*
Is it your first time?
Google may not keep statistics of its recidivists but if it
just happens that your site gets bans several times a year,
this gets very suspicious. If you are banned for the first
time, you can account on amnesty. But if you have been
banned many times, you can be out of luck with reinclusion
requests about the same site.
*
Reaasure them that it is not going to happen again.
This is also very important because if Google get the
impression that you violate their rules very often, they
might be reluctant to reinclude you. In some cases, when it
was not your personal fault - e.g. webmaster you hired sent
many spam letters or your site got hacked, you can explain
what happened, giving a detailed timeframe of the events.
*
Consider AdWords
If you really rely heavily on traffic from Google, consider
buying AdWords. This is not a blackmail (we ban you, you pay
for AdWords) because many sites just do not pay for AdWords
but rely on other traffic-generating schemes instead.
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