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Banned From Google – How I Finally Got Listed

November 21st, 2007

Internet and Technology

I have had several frustrating months in getting my website listed in the Google index. For the first 9 months, this blog was not listed anywhere on Google. I had several quality links in, was writing good content, following all the guidelines – but still no Google listing. I was providing a Google Sitemap, used Google Analytics and utilized the Google Webmaster Tools, and worked on SEO-friendly post titles but was still nowhere to be found on Google.

I went through several steps including 301 redirects for www.ckwebb.com, a revamped robots.txt, and an optimized Google sitemap, but the thing that finally got this site listed in Google is one you might not think of. I finally came to the conclusion that the problem with my blog was not that Google couldn’t find it – it was getting crawled. The problem was that my website was banned from Google – blackballed, shut out, ignored – non-existent as far as the majority of web searchers were concerned.

I racked my brains trying to figure out what I had done – what had I written to cause the Google Gods to shun me? It finally dawned on me that it might not be something I had done. I started thinking that perhaps my domain name was on the ban list at Google.

I purchased ckwebb.com in February 2007. A quick lesson here – don’t assume that just because a domain name is available that it has never been used before. In my case, ckwebb.com has had a varied past. According the Internet Archive, ckwebb.com has a history dating back to 1998 when it was a portfolio site for photographer Charles K. Webb. But it was the activity on ckwebb.com from 2000-2002, a weird spammy landing site and doorway page that likely caused Google to shut the door.

I resubmitted my site for reconsideration via Google Webmaster Tools, and in about 48 hours ckwebb.com emerged as a legitimate website in the Google index.

So the takeaway here is to be sure and check the history of your domain before you buy it and to be aware of it possibly seedy past.

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Posted on 21 November 2007

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  • Really an interesting article...Informative and very well written, One would get to know about how to indexed a banned domain in Google again....
  • how do i submit site for reconsideration via Google Webmaster Tools
  • It was really an interesting article.
    But I want to know something about URL submission, removing URL from search engine and resubmitting after editing the site.
    Is it possible to remove a submitted URL from search engine, and after proper edition, resubmitting to search engine?

    Then, I have committed a mistake. I have submitted my URL 4 times with in a week.
    But it's still in the google search results. Is there any problem? Will it be considered as spamming?

    Please help...
  • Interesting stuff, I wondered if someone bought a banned domain if it could be undone. What if Google isn't the only engine you're banned from? Would you have to look up all the engines and resubmit and ask for reconsideration?
  • It amazes me how many spam landing pages exist out there. I recently purchased a new domain and, like you, went to the Internet Archive to check its history. It was a spam site, but I thought I'd take my chances. So far, indexing and ranking have not been a problem.

    Bottom line... if your "great idea" for a domain name is available, take the time to check its history. Surprises are sometimes only a few clicks away.
  • when http://officialpartner.in was searched in google ,at first it was listed but after addding some metatags and title the site not at all listed when my url is searched , canu tell me wahat actually happened to my site,why is it poped out from search list
  • the same promeblem with my web site, thank you for sharing
  • In case you are unable to 'get' the history of the domain name. It's a good idea to contact Google a couple of weeks after your site is up.
    Plat Technologies
  • Yeah its not good getting banned. I got my site http://www.pcrepairhertfordshire.co.uk banned and I dont know why.

    -Britec-http://www.britec.co.uk
  • I have over 30 domains and each of them was indexed by google in less then 48 hours.

    Ok next time do what I do:

    go to www.submitexpress.com submit your domain. After that if its wordpress blog get plugin google xml sitemap. Register your blog with google webmasters tools and submit your sitemap. There is not one time I waited more then 2 days!

    Try it :)
  • Google watches people very closely. It has a human evaluation team for its web searching-- Google Quality Raters. It spends a lot of time tracking what people do. Much more so than Yahoo. They try and personalize their searching as much as possible. I think they track your ip by location and customize peoples searches based on their previous search history. You will get different search results for the same search in different cities.

    I got a warning from google when I first started playing with my blog. Apparently, I posted too much in newsgroups. Also, be very careful when you post on blogs, don't just introduce yourself and put in a url. Google will consider it spam if you don't respond to the specifics in blog post. It is called dropping when you go from one blog to the next and put in a one sentence response and a url. They take reports of blog spamming seriously and will blacklist you.
  • Wow, they sure keep a long history of blacklisted domains. Thinking of this the other way around... what if a domain had a history of all good links, high PR links, high authority and all good stuff. Long time expired and you buy it again. Sounds like a golden domain.
  • Thank You !!
  • I never thought of thought one. I am sure that it will become an even bigger problem as more and more people abandon their domain name.
  • I just realized that one of my domains is banned from Google. I have tries searching for it and nothing comes up. I have been working on the website using that domain and now I am getting good traffic from Yahoo and MSN and nothing from Google. I know there is a form that google has that anyone can submit to have their domain to be reconsidered. It would be great if some one knows and posts it on this blog.
  • JR: In my case it took about 48 hours.

    Steve: I suggest you start with Google Webmaster Tools

    Izad: Not sure, but I suspect they treat them like all other sites. Although blogspot is a favorite home for splogs, so maybe Webmaster Tools would be a good start.
  • Hi,
    actually one of my domains has dissapeared from the index not that there was much there.

    But when i use a tool to check if its banned it says it is or could be?

    but when i check the server stats i see google bot comming. and google ads do run on the site still.

    so maybe it just dropped for a while?

    steve
  • How long does it take to get reindexed by google after resubmitting?
  • Hurm..what if your blog using blogger blogspot suddenly lost from google index?Why?
  • cant we all just move to another search engine
    http://www.spiralteck.com
  • i know a method to get listed in the Google top results if you blog regularly ,

    i cannot put it publicly, email me if you want to know that.

    Search for "daily trick" in google and you will see http://trickofmind.com in the first five results. the website i started just few months back.

    Rajesh
  • Best of luck for your days ahead Chris.
  • Teejay, just run a simple check in Google using the command:

    site:YourDomain.com

    without adding any "http" or "www."

    If your domain is new, naturally it won't show any results. But if your domain has been around for some time, and the search yields zero results, that is one major sign of a domain ban.
  • This is interesting. Fortunately I haven't bought any domain that had a bad background. Next time, I'd better do a background check on the domain name I buy.

    Any tips on how to know about a domain being penalized?
  • Eesh man, glad this didn't happen to any of my domains!
  • PAULA NEAL MOONEY: Google Unpenalized my PaulaMooney.BlogSpot.com Blog... and Google is still punishing John Chow - but he's gonna be in Entrepreneur magazine!
  • Maybe you can use Google's webmaster tools to reevaluate your site?..

    Good post
  • Very useful post. An important point and one that is easily overlooked. I'm making a list of such points and that will definitely be going on it.
  • how is the proximity to get back into google index ? My blog(http://healthtreatments.blogspot.com) got delisted from google, is there any chance of getting back to google index ? how is the chance ?

    Eliena ANdrews
  • It was not simply resubmitting the site to Google to crawl - they already knew it existed. It was banned from the index so no matter how many times I submitted the URL to Google it was never going to be included.

    The key was asking Google to reconsider the site for inclusion. It's a completely different process than submitting your URL to Google. See http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/an...

    The main point was that my URL had been used for spammy purposes prior to my buying it and that was something I had not (naively) considered until I checked the Internet Archive for past usage of my URL.
  • Q:How to Get Your Domain Indexed by Google After Being Banned?
    A:Resubmit your domain to Google by using Google Webmaster Tool.

    Is this what you meant?? so, you submitted your domain to Google twice?
    Thanks,
  • Seems easy enough. What happened to you isn't really all that uncommon. Thanks for sharing. It's definitely something to look out for.
  • I did something similar with my blog. I had some paid links on it. I removed it just before the text-link-ads penalty came in play. I let Google know about removing the links from Webmasters tools.
  • What did you do differently via Google Webmaster Tools that you hadn't done previously? It seems as though you had already submitted the website via that same path.
  • Yeah that was the first thing I checked when I just recently bought Live Crunch. It had some backlinks and some traffic already, but all i cared is about the domain name.

    Great post Chris I guess we could do guest posts ?
  • My domains were actually blacklisted by Spamhaus while in use. My service provider leases a net range from another service provider who had one or two addresses reported to Spamhaus for abuse earlier this year or sometime last year.

    Because Spamhaus was nonresponsive to inquiries from both service providers, the report was escalated to the point where the entire net range consisting of 60,000 addresses, including the leased subnet, was blacklisted. An extreme measure.

    Oddly enough, WHOIS reported that our domains were blacklisted, but the domains were not adversely affected in terms of search engine results. E-mails sent from anywhere in the net range would be rejected by certain e-mail servers though.

    I sent Spamhaus an e-mail requesting that they, essentially, do their jobs. A month later, I received a response from a representative who apologized for the delay and stated that the issue was just resolved.

    Being the registrant of a domain name is like being the owner of a vehicle. You don't actually have to do anything to be a victim. You can look into the history of the vehicle prior to purchase, but a clean record is not a guarantee of safety from other drivers.
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