Site suddenly disappeared from Google - Help!

[FutureConscience]

Hi everyone,

Trying to figure out why Future Conscience has suddenly disappeared from Google listings...

We come up through many people linking our articles through tweets and other means, but our actual pages are no longer coming up!

What could have caused this? Before you say it, nothing untoward has been attempted as far as SEO is concerned - at least not intentionally. We still seem to be listed on the index, but the only way to find us is to search for the URL itself (www.futureconscience.com) - if you search for 'future conscience' we used to display at the top only a few days ago, and now you will find many of the other places where we are referenced - but no sign of our site!

Any thoughts on how to fix this?

[Nathan]

Bad news.

I just looked you up using a PR Checker tool and you have been assigned a PR of zero. That is a special PR value which is used to penalize sites, and it means that you are unlikely to ever show up in search results as long as you have that PR.

Don't know why Google decided it hated you, but something is definitely bad. Do you use Google Webmaster Tools? If so you can submit your site for reconsideration if it has been penalized.

[FutureConscience]

I've just signed up for Webmaster Tools today, so will resubmit my site. I'm really not sure what happened...

The only thing I can think of is that for a while I was running an SEO plugin that was causing double meta tags to be created on the site, and it was also flooding the meta keywords tag with dozens of words...I've just removed this plugin and fixed everything, so hopefully the problem will rectify itself.

The other possible issue is I've been informed that there is a big Google update going on at the moment, and that this might have something to do with it?

I'm hoping that whatever it is, this is reversible in a short time!

[Nathan]

I was running an SEO plugin that was causing double meta tags to be created on the site, and it was also flooding the meta keywords tag with dozens of words

Not a good idea. SEO isn't worth messing up your sites ranking with things like that. Your only hope is to fix that and then submit your site for reconsideration.

The direct link for reconsideration is at:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration

You have to set up your site in Google Webmaster Tools first, though.

[FutureConscience]

Yeah I didn't even realise it was doing it until the other day...I have fixed it now and will resubmit - hopefully that will fix things.

Thanks for the help!

[Nathan]

I hope so. Definitely write a decent description of what was going on in the reconsideration box. Tell them what the plugin was doing and tell them about how you weren't aware of that. And make sure to tell them that you fixed it.

Best of luck.

[FutureConscience]

The weird thing I have noticed is that the rankings seem fine in the Google sandbox testing site...so I'm really hoping it is because of an incoming update.

But I've resubmitted now, so if it isn't that guess I just have to wait a few weeks and keep building up my content

[QuirkyJessi]

Best of luck!

[Michigal]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Bad news.

I just looked you up using a PR Checker tool and you have been assigned a PR of zero. That is a special PR value which is used to penalize sites, and it means that you are unlikely to ever show up in search results as long as you have that PR.

Don't know why Google decided it hated you, but something is definitely bad. Do you use Google Webmaster Tools? If so you can submit your site for reconsideration if it has been penalized.

Nathan, Search Engine Result Pages and Page Rank are two different things. If you're using keywords correctly, your site will show up. Page Rank 0 also often means the blog has been noticed, but there hasn't been an update lately.

I get so tired of people always assuming Page Rank and your SERP ranking are related. They are not.

Page Rank is how many incoming links you have. It is updated whenever Google feels like it (in your toolbar dsiplay). but according to Matt Cutts, it's an ongoing thing.

Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) is how you rank for keywords that people are searching for. If you're not using your keywords properly, you will not show up. It's also a well known fact that new blogs often disappear for a while then come back when they're out of the so-called sandbox.

Future Conscience, pay no mind to the "disappearance." It happens and given time and continued quality posting (and no selling text links ) it will come back. Google doesn't hate you.

A good place to learn about Search Engine Optimization is at Aaron Wall's SEO Book.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Michigal

Nathan, Search Engine Result Pages and Page Rank are two different things. If you're using keywords correctly, your site will show up. Page Rank 0 also often means the blog has been noticed, but there hasn't been an update lately.

I get so tired of people always assuming Page Rank and your SERP ranking are related. They are not.

Page Rank is how many incoming links you have. It is updated whenever Google feels like it (in your toolbar dsiplay). but according to Matt Cutts, it's an ongoing thing.

Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) is how you rank for keywords that people are searching for. If you're not using your keywords properly, you will not show up. It's also a well known fact that new blogs often disappear for a while then come back when they're out of the so-called sandbox.

Future Conscience, pay no mind to the "disappearance." It happens and given time and continued quality posting (and no selling text links ) it will come back. Google doesn't hate you.

A good place to learn about Search Engine Optimization is at Aaron Wall's SEO Book.

Actually, PR 0 is a special PR value that is assigned as a penalty.

There is a big difference between PR NA and PR 0. PR NA means that you haven't been assigned PR yet. PR 0 usually means that you are being penalized.

And in my experience the higher the PR, the higher the ranking on Google's search engine result pages.

Of course this may be different in other search engines.

In the case of Future Conscience, PR 0 is a bad sign especially if the site had PR before.

Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) is how you rank for keywords that people are searching for.

Uh....

...okay.

The SERP is what Google returns. Your ranking is not a SERP, it is an entry on the SERP. But that is just a technicality.

Anyway, most people tend to agree that there is a definite correlation between PR and your ranking on the SERP.