Chris Webb's Publishing Blog » SEO

Banned From Google – How I Finally Got Listed

Chris — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:03:52 +0000

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.

Reader Poll – A Little Help Here?

Chris — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:35:46 +0000

ckwebb.com recently underwent a redesign, and I’m still tweaking it a bit. Although most of you read ckwebb.com via the RSS feed, many do click through. So some of questions for you, dear readers:

On the main page I currently have excerpts from the 10 most recent posts. Do you prefer the full text on the main page, just want to click through to posts that interest you?
What’s missing on ckwebb.com? Why do you read? How can I make this space a real resource for like-minded readers?
And finally, can anyone tell me why the hell this site still isn’t listed in Google’s index?

SEO Tips for Author Blogs

Chris — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:43:48 +0000

Tom Masters of the Future Perfect Publishing Blog has an interview with Wiley authors Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin who give some great SEO tips for bloggers.

Every author should be blogging, and the interview includes several great tips every blogger should take advantage of.

One tasty morsel includes a link to some great SEO plugins for WordPress Ill be trying out later this week, and of particular interest was their thoughts on the social web as it pertains to SEO:

If you’re successful at building truly buzzworthy content, then you can try to use the social web to your advantage. It helps to know what you want to get out of the social web before you put a lot of effort into it: Are you going for pure branding? If so, set up a branded MySpace page or upload your logo-stamped videos to YouTube. Are you trying to be recognized as an expert on an techie topic? If so, seed your content into Digg. Are you trying to sell refurbished drill bits to manufacturing clients? Yeah… Web 2.0 probably shouldn’t be your highest priority.