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.

Collegaue Ellen Gerstein, who had been managing the Dummies Man Facebook profile, was recently alerted that Dummies Man was banned from using the social networking site and all evidence of him had been purged.

Your account was disabled because you violated Facebook’s Terms of Use, to which you agreed when you first registered for an account on the site. Accounts can either be disabled for repeat offenses or for one, particularly egregious violation.

Facebook does not allow users to register with fake names, to impersonate any person or entity, or to falsely state or otherwise misrepresent themselves or their affiliations.

I think this is the beginning of a very intersting discussion. We didn’t impersonate anyone – we are Dummies Man, and he was only on Facebook as a goodwill ambassador for the brand. As Ellen says,

Over the months since, Dummies Man has been friending people, commenting on profiles and fan pages, and benignly exploring the site. It wasn’t a huge organized marketing campaign, more a way for us to dip a toe of the brand into the social networking waters.

Perhaps the profile could be considered as advertising a product, which may be the rub. I wonder if this precludes other well-known brand ambassadors from having identities on Facebook? I see that the Michelin Man has a page. I wonder if Disney approached Zuckerberg about a Mickey Mouse profile what the response would be.

What do you think? Should brands be allowed to have Facebook profiles?