Google Bans www.Auto-Insurance.TV From Their Index
My first--and hopefully last--Google banned website!
Any auto insurance related website that has decent traffic can generate some very nice revenue. I'm into domains, so some months ago I decided to give the auto insurance thing a try. My plan was to build a simple website with lots of unique and useful content; anything that an insured motorist would find useful. I did some research in both the online and offline world, and eventually put up a site (writing all the content myself) that I thought was pretty cool.
The Auto-Insurance.TV website had Google AdSense ads on it. However, the AdSense ads being displayed were either off topic or few and far between (i.e. a 728x90 ad unit would often only display one ad, when optimally it should have been displaying 4 ads.) I was quite confident that my site had enough content which the AdSense genie could use to display relevant ads all the time. But since that wasn't happening, I emailed the Google AdSense Team to see if they could help me (I had emailed them before about problems with AdSense ads on other sites in my empire, and each time they were able to fix the problem.) The Google AdSense Team responded with a standard email letting me know that they were working on the problem and would get back to me soon. I was sure--based on past experience with them--that they would take my case seriously, so I waited.
After about 3 weeks of waiting, I decided to email them again, just to see if they had made any progress with my case. They again replied with a standard email letting me know that they would get back to me soon. I didn't mind waiting, but it was taking them longer than usual to get back to me with a fix, so I was starting to wonder if they had launched some sort of special investigation into my case.
Well, a few more weeks passed and I still hadn't received a reply from The AdSense Team, so at this point I knew (well, assumed is more accurate) that my site had somehow triggered a special investigation. At this point in time, Google's datacenters had just completed a PageRankTM update, and it is my habit to sample a few sites within my collection after a Page Rank update, to see if their rank has improved, gotten worse or stayed the same. When I checked my Auto-Insurance.TV site, I was shocked to find that every page within that site had no PageRankTM. This was very peculiar, because the site had quite a few inbounds links from some well ranked sites. I investigated further, checking the PageRankTM of a very large sampling of my sites, and I found that all my other sites had some PageRankTM, which is what I expected. So what happened to my precious Auto-Insurance.TV? Could it really be a site ban?
Well, the best way to see if a site has been banned from the Google index is by utilizing the [site:] command, i.e.
If a site has been banned from a search engine's index, then the [site:] command will result in zero hits. Of course, the [site:] command will also return zero hits if a site is very new and hasn't been indexed by a search engine's spider yet. But I knew that it was a ban: the site had been up for a while, and other websites that I had established at the same time that I took Auto-Insurance.TV live were in the Google index.
So I guess Google had a problem with the website and banned it. A fair ban? I don't think so. I had written every single word in that site; no cheesy (and illegal!) copying and pasting from other sites. And more than one person had let me know that they found the site very useful. Not just useful, very useful! However, the ban may have been put in place because someone @ Google thought that the site simply didn't offer any real value to the Internet community; the most likely scenario, in my opinion, because I'm sure that others have tried to make a few dollars by setting up sites that had similar content to my Auto-Insurance.TV. Perhaps the folks over at Google thought, "Bah! Just another car insurance site with tips, tricks and stats that are available at some of the larger insurance websites. No copyright violations, but no real value either." Maybe. Who knows.
I could do a ton more research and spend much time developing the site further; after getting the site all fat and pretty, I could email Google and ask them to remove their ban. But that's not an option for me right now, as I have to concentrate on the development of some other sites in my portfolio. For now, Auto-Insurance.TV will stay parked on AfterNIC, where I hope it can earn enough cover the registration fee for the domain.
Have any of your websites been banned from the Google or Yahoo! indexes? Feel free to post a comment if you have anything to share. Thanks!
Any auto insurance related website that has decent traffic can generate some very nice revenue. I'm into domains, so some months ago I decided to give the auto insurance thing a try. My plan was to build a simple website with lots of unique and useful content; anything that an insured motorist would find useful. I did some research in both the online and offline world, and eventually put up a site (writing all the content myself) that I thought was pretty cool.
The Auto-Insurance.TV website had Google AdSense ads on it. However, the AdSense ads being displayed were either off topic or few and far between (i.e. a 728x90 ad unit would often only display one ad, when optimally it should have been displaying 4 ads.) I was quite confident that my site had enough content which the AdSense genie could use to display relevant ads all the time. But since that wasn't happening, I emailed the Google AdSense Team to see if they could help me (I had emailed them before about problems with AdSense ads on other sites in my empire, and each time they were able to fix the problem.) The Google AdSense Team responded with a standard email letting me know that they were working on the problem and would get back to me soon. I was sure--based on past experience with them--that they would take my case seriously, so I waited.
After about 3 weeks of waiting, I decided to email them again, just to see if they had made any progress with my case. They again replied with a standard email letting me know that they would get back to me soon. I didn't mind waiting, but it was taking them longer than usual to get back to me with a fix, so I was starting to wonder if they had launched some sort of special investigation into my case.
Well, a few more weeks passed and I still hadn't received a reply from The AdSense Team, so at this point I knew (well, assumed is more accurate) that my site had somehow triggered a special investigation. At this point in time, Google's datacenters had just completed a PageRankTM update, and it is my habit to sample a few sites within my collection after a Page Rank update, to see if their rank has improved, gotten worse or stayed the same. When I checked my Auto-Insurance.TV site, I was shocked to find that every page within that site had no PageRankTM. This was very peculiar, because the site had quite a few inbounds links from some well ranked sites. I investigated further, checking the PageRankTM of a very large sampling of my sites, and I found that all my other sites had some PageRankTM, which is what I expected. So what happened to my precious Auto-Insurance.TV? Could it really be a site ban?
Well, the best way to see if a site has been banned from the Google index is by utilizing the [site:] command, i.e.
site:Auto-Insurance.TV (works with Yahoo! & MSN as well)
If a site has been banned from a search engine's index, then the [site:] command will result in zero hits. Of course, the [site:] command will also return zero hits if a site is very new and hasn't been indexed by a search engine's spider yet. But I knew that it was a ban: the site had been up for a while, and other websites that I had established at the same time that I took Auto-Insurance.TV live were in the Google index.
So I guess Google had a problem with the website and banned it. A fair ban? I don't think so. I had written every single word in that site; no cheesy (and illegal!) copying and pasting from other sites. And more than one person had let me know that they found the site very useful. Not just useful, very useful! However, the ban may have been put in place because someone @ Google thought that the site simply didn't offer any real value to the Internet community; the most likely scenario, in my opinion, because I'm sure that others have tried to make a few dollars by setting up sites that had similar content to my Auto-Insurance.TV. Perhaps the folks over at Google thought, "Bah! Just another car insurance site with tips, tricks and stats that are available at some of the larger insurance websites. No copyright violations, but no real value either." Maybe. Who knows.
I could do a ton more research and spend much time developing the site further; after getting the site all fat and pretty, I could email Google and ask them to remove their ban. But that's not an option for me right now, as I have to concentrate on the development of some other sites in my portfolio. For now, Auto-Insurance.TV will stay parked on AfterNIC, where I hope it can earn enough cover the registration fee for the domain.
Have any of your websites been banned from the Google or Yahoo! indexes? Feel free to post a comment if you have anything to share. Thanks!
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posted by Steve Brown | Wednesday, August 31, 2005
2 Comments:
http://www.clickherefree.com was recently banned from the Google index for no apparent reason.
It was one of the most popular free-webhosting directories on the internet, used by many people to find good, reliable, free webhosting, and warn people away from bad hosts.
The admins have been working away, yet as yet have not discovered a reason for the ban.
> http://www.clickherefree.com...
I am sorry to read about your site being de-indexed.
Have you tried emailing Google about it? You may want to try this form:
http://www.google.com/quality_form
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