June 11, 2008
You read it right… Google has delisted one of my BANS sites that was showing Google adsense!
Photo courtesy of: ahomeinrichmond.com
The really weird part of the delisting is that the site in question, more than 9 months old, was NOT just a replica of hundreds of other BANS sites, and was rather popular and unique, with more than 400 unique visitors a day! I won’t link it in this post, to avoid bringing further attention to the matter.
In addition to the BANS site, a different site not using BANS was also brought to my attention in a separate email, with the exact same reasons. Thus I do not think this was specific to Build a Niche Store, but may be related to being a weak affiliate site, or what is called a MFA (Made for Adsense) site.
Then again, maybe this is just a knee jerk reaction to a very common email…
At this point, most would say… well Mark, just eliminate the adsense from all of your sites so you don’t have to worry about it with others. Sure, eliminating the ads is one way to avoid the emails and future issues with adsense itself, but what about the underlying issue of the reason the site may have been delisted?
The guidance in the email they sent was anything but specific and simply suggested I check the “Google Quality Guidelines” for possible reasons. In the email, they did list the two areas I should focus on, Quality Guidelines - Basic, and Quality Guidelines - Specific. To say the least, I jumped over to see what may have triggered the issue!
Under the Guidelines - Basic Principles:
Under the Guidelines - Specific Principles:
OK… so the reality of this, is that there are SEVERAL sections of these guidelines that truly affect ALL of our BANS sites or any type of site that lists syndicated content. (RSS Feeds) I checked the BANS forum this morning and see that I am not alone in getting this email and it seems there were quite a few sent out! While I am glad to see I’m not alone, it raises quite a deep question about Googles perception of the value of content on BANS sites…
What can Be Done? Is BANS Doomed?
The first thing I did was to pick through every page of the site and look for blaring violations of the guidelines which are under my control. I removed any unrelated links on the site that led to other sites of my own… as well as checking my awstats for errors that could be generated by a cloaked link (302’s).
After I removed anything under my control that I thought may even be close to violating the guidelines, I submitted the site back to Google, along with an explanation of what I had done, and a request to let me know if the remaining content was still outside the guidelines.
Along with this specific incident, the results I found during my duplicate content research truly made me question the future of BANS and how it fits into the guidelines from Google. We all know that without search results from Google, the success or failure of our plans are meaningless! Sure, I wil still have a significant flow of traffic from other engines during this inclusion process, but with Google receiving almost 60% of all search traffic, we need to find the best way to stay in the index.
I have been hard at work on a related project that includes BANS as a small part of a highly focused Niche Content site… it may be the way we need to refocus our direction in order to avoid future issues?! The methodology behind the new type of site was derived from an article I read (I will link to it in a future post) in which the author, a self-employed marketing coach for large businesses, says that instead of spreading your efforts across markets you can only give 10% to… refocus all of your energies into filling one specific need, and filling that need completely and effectively!
I will post more about that project within the next day or two, to let all of you know the methods. The site is already 80% completed…
Stay Tuned… and please post if you find your sites have been delisted in the google index!
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33 Responses to “One of my BANS Sites Slapped by Google - Now What?”
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Just for clarification, the email you’re referring to - was this an email you received from Google telling you you’ve been delisted, or was this an email from Google responding to your inquiry about the delisting?
I ask because I can tell you from personal experience and from feedback from other Internet marketing that delisting happens from time to time on some sites with no clear explanation and relisting usually follows with equally no explanation. I’ve seen it take a couple of weeks or a couple of months.
A year ago my very deep content site (url in signature) was inexplicably delisted. I had some skilled Internet marketers look at the site and while folks had wild guesses no one really knew why.
I just kept my head down and plowed ahead with the same strategy and three months later the SERPS popped back and have been solid ever since. (#1 for western saddles)
I wouldn’t jump to too many conclusions based on the delisting of one site. It falls into the category of “stuff happens.”
Hi Mark
As you know all my .info sites were delisted a while back but now 3 of my other BANS sites have also suffered. One is a .com, one a .co.uk and one a .biz. They are still indexed but nowhere to be found in SERPS. The .com site is around 6 months old and has been #1 for a particular search word for the last 4 months. That keyword and any others I try are now nowhere in the top 100 results. I’ve worked hard on that site with content, targeted keywords and design and I share your pain that Google can just chuck over all that work. There is a 2 month old BANS site now at #1 with a domain name almost the same as mine (but with hyphens) no content, no contact info, no privacy policy. I used Free Relative Links on the site (which I’ve now removed) and I’m wondering if that is the problem. I was getting around 150 visitors a day, now Yahoo is sending me about 20. Google 0. I suppose I should be relieved that it isn’t completely deindexed like your site but I share your feeling that BANS has probably had its day. What was the other site that was hit using - I hope not WordPress as I’m building with Wordpress and the WordBay plugin now, at least that way the sites aren’t so obviously affiliate sites.
Recently a marketer came to the same conclusion, Advertisers are cracking down on Privacy Policies. Adding the page improved rankings in 2 weeks for him. Including contact emails is a good policy also.
Mark-
Thanks for bringing this up. I am off to finish putting privacy policies up!
Yup, happened to me, too. My site (with Privacy Policy already in place) vanished from Google and no email warning, either. I
‘m strictly ‘white hat’ and the only reason I could think of was some 301 permenant redirects for redundant links. I read the guidelines and double-checked everything and asked for reconsideration (twice) but my site is still in nowhereland.
Trouble is, there’s no way to find out what actually offended Big G so I can put it right. :-(
Another noob that uses adsense with BANS. lol
How do I know if a site has been delisted?
I have a site that was averaging around 70 visitors per day in May into the first few days of June but over the last 6 days have only average 6.5 visitors per day. I noticed this because my clicks for this site has been zero for the last 6 days and was steadily received clicks before.
What do I need to research to determine the cause of this?
Thanks,
Jamie
Keep in mind - this is information taken from the webmaster tool guidelines at google:
“In general, sites that directly profit from traffic (e.g. search engine optimizers, affiliate programs, etc.) may need to provide more evidence of good faith before a site will be reconsidered.”
Maybe you should turn it into a blog, then see if you can get it readded. I was able to get a domain added as a blog readded a few months ago after the domain was dropped when I purchased it from TDAM.
I had a site that was getting Google and Yahoo traffic at about 50/50. This month almost all Google traffic tailed off.
@ All -
The site itself is gone from only G serp’s right now, still listed and delivering well from several others. The email was received stating that the site didnt meet the quality guidelines and ads were being shut off… after checking serps… about 75-80 pages are gone, including cached pages. There has only been one email per site thus far.
When I search G for a site, I usually throw a term in front of my search, just to narrow the field a bit, for example: “grills site:http://lowes.com” will return a specific string, you know is found on the site.
@ Janet -
The other site was actually just parked, sort of… with mashup feed content on a specific subject. Not at all BANS…
I do have a few bans/blog sites already that seem to be fine… I also write my own content for them and use very unique templates as well.
@ Peter -
Thank you for the feedback… very helpful and informative!
Mark
Mark, thanks for the tip off! Have added a privacy policy in line with the article you refer to. Hopefully this will keep the Big G happy.
Mark is the sand box the same thing as being delisted?. Never heard of a email warning.
So many Web Masters forget or never read the G’s pages in Web Master Tools. Its a huge community.
When I first started this marketing thing I had advice from some very young friends. Kids who hung around my kids then went to Umass. One thing they all said is that users there age know what all these ads and little ways to get people to click are taught to them in school so they know to avoid them. When I had them proof a couple sites they said they would close the page in a second, because they know its affiliates. They all said they want information, NOT Ads! So I started filling the front pages with content. It worked.
Most of what I read on the net for advice is to have products on the front page above the fold. I present to you guys that this is a mistake (not always). The Internet is ruled by these new graduates and they will blow by MFA sites.
I have gotten use to a honeymoon period were I can at least recoup some of the expenses of a site. I usually try to have a site developed as much as possible before launch, then after it gets sent to page 1 million go back and work on it some more.
Funny thing my best performing sites are ones I didnt really follow the rules of site building. My best site is for one phone. I threw it up last Christmas and it has made at least one sale every couple days ever since. Why? Who Knows!
We need to be in Google but I gave up chasing it. One thing I will say is there is lots of info right there for the taking. Google provides all we need. We just need to find it.
It is difficult to tell why this happens. Big G really doesn’t care about you, and change their mind about the nuances of how to calculate rankings constantly. I registered all of my domains with privacy in case this happened; I don’t want any risk of this affecting my other sites.
Well,
I was wondering if anyone has contacted the authors of the BANS proggy and asked them what they think of all of this delisting mumbojumbo, because in the end it could spell the end of BANS, It is just a terrible thing that Google should be akin to BIG BROTHER out there and decide who lives and who dies. It is just about ridiculous to think the net has become this way. All of us out there on the net using BANS or not to make a living have to scurry around like rats trying eat at the cheese of Big G and then G gets to play God! It is ridiculous and as far as I am concerned a violation of one of the major tenets of the United States and that is the pursuit of happiness thru the pursuit of capitalism? Does anyone feel me on this one? and has anyone contacted the writers of BANS to get the view from there side of the world?
Thanks!
@ Bill -
No, the sandbox, or age filter… is just an (unconfirmed by google) algorithym that will put your site deeper into the supplimental index until it proves it is here to stay.
Most commonly, a site will launch and do well for 2-3 months, then it will literally DROP in search rankings, drop = deep drop into the hidden basement of the serp’s!
Being delisted… means that no matter what I do, none of my site pages are in ANY of the Google index datacenters. The pages still have PR for now, but even the cached views of pages are gone… poof!
@ Jason -
I actually spent a few hours the other night reading about different companies (Including BMW) who have been dropped from Googles index for not meeting their very broad guidelines.
No explaination, no guideance, no reason… just dropped!
On the same token… Google are a privately held company that can do ANYTHING they want. In there own words… if you dont like how we deliver serp results, you are welcome to use another service!
As I stated above, I dont think this is a BANS issue… or there would many thousands of people saying the same thing.
Mark
WOW!
I wish you goodluck claiming back your site on to Google’s index.
I’m getting worried too…
I have internet safety, privacy policy, disclaimer, press kit (about me) and contact me tabs on my main sites. See http://www.toolboxhero.com for an example. I’m using one of Mark’s free templates for the site (thanks Mark!!!)
I do not have google adsense because I want my visitors to leave through ebay or one of my performics ads.
I build my backlinks slowly (1-2 per week) I only link to a few sites and NO link farms. So far I have had no problems with google sandbox or being delisted.
I run google alerts for each site and if I don’t see an alert at least once a week write a comment with that website listed on either Mark’s, Rochelle’s or JTPratt’s Blogs. I also take one of my blog posts once a week, change it a little and post it to Qassia.
I have Google analytics running on all my sites.
I am in the process of just learning and researching the BANS proggy and I have been getting email alerts for new comments that have been added since my first and only ad. I am reading/hearing terms that I am not familiar with and observing things on some BANS sites that I really like and yet do not know how to accomplish if I were to buy the software and get going. I am interested in this proggy because it seems like it would be a great “other” income stream to add to my plan. But as I said I have some questions and I hope that you here can help me. So here it goes.
1. what is “performics” and is it taught in the BANS manual and if not where can I learn it?
2. I know what links are, but what are “backlinks” and does the manual teach this marketing strategy or where can I get info on how to create these “backlinks”?
3. I noticed on Toolbox Hero’s website that he had adds from Sears! Is that Performics or how does one get ads on his/her BANS site? is this taught in the manual?
I am sorry for being borish about this, but in my research I really dont find info on how complete this marketing software is and how complete the training manual can be.
Also I would like to sell the software as an affiliate if I buy and like it and I was wondering if that can be done thru this software package or is it just better to get a template site built someplace
else and SEO it? (kinda like the “nichestoreninja” site?
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
Joe
Joe:
We’ve all been there. Starting a new area on the web to make money from can be very overwheming.
In my previous response I was actually listing what I am doing that seems to work to keep most of my sites from being delisted.
That said, here is answers to some of your questions.
Marks’ blog, Rochelle’s blog, the bans website blog, (use Mark’s link to purchase BANS to gain access to this) are the three best resources for beginning BANS users. Read through all the posts on all the blogs with the thought that you will be using BANS 3.0 so discussions of mods to 2.0 and 1.0 versions of the software do not apply to you.
If you are new to affliliate marketing I strongly suggest you sign up to http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com. WA has an eight week course and a top-notch forum.
Performics is DoubleClick Performics and provides profit-driving solutions to leading multi-channel marketers. They have companies like Target, Northern Tool, Gurney’s, and Sears as partners.
For us affiliate marketers it is like Commission Junction, Clickbank and Ebay Partner Network. You can make a commision off of people that click through from your site and purchase and item off of one of their partner sites.
With Perfomics you do need a high quality, established site with documented traffic. The content of the site has to match the program you are applying for in most cases. (For example, JC Whitney will not approve you UNLESS you are automotive related.)’
You can sign up at http://www.performics.com
Backlinks have been covered in great detail on the blogs I mentioned. Feel free to go to previous posts and read about backlinks there. If they are still unclear, many of us will be glad to help.
Joe, For some reason I answered you yesterday and my response went to data heaven. So I’ll answer the performics question you had here.
In my previous response I was just trying to explain what I was doing that seemed to work. So far I have not had any sandboxing or deindexing problems.
http://www.performics.com: DoubleClick Performics,provides online marketing services and technologies for leading multi-channel marketers like Target, Sears, Gurney’s, Orvis and bunch of great brand names. Perfomics to affiliate marketers is just like ClickBank, CJ and ebay Partner Network. We can apply to be affiliates and partner with these sites.
The only thing I noticed is you need a well established reputation of quality sites before you are approved by most of the perfomics partners. The application process asks for examples of your sites. For example it took me over a year to get approved by Sears.
For other partners like JC Whitney the content on your site HAS to match their product line.
If you have a good original content site by all means apply to performics. The percentages are good, the name brand recognition is great and some of the cookies have up to a 120 duration.
Good Luck
@Paul,
Paul, thanks for the good info I am in the process of reading all of the blogs and getting familiar with the product and then I will make my decision. I am also reseaching Wealthy Affiliate too! I might just start with BANS and learn some of the basics and more advacned stuff from the blogs and then move on to WA I will get back to you on it and let you know. By the way I cant seem to find Mark’s link to purchase BANS can you give it to me please!
Joe
@ Paul…..again!
Paul,
I have been taking your advice today and reading blogs all day and man I need a beer!, the reason I am writing you again is once again to say thanks for your advice and to ask some more advice if you dont mind. I am looking at all of these blogs and I am getting somewhat overwhelmed by the info overload. I have had an Ecommerce site planned for 2009 and knew nothing about marketing it. I was reading a home business blog a couple of weeks ago and it mentioned BANS as a great extra income stream to have and build upon. So I sought out the software and I have been reading reviews and I have been reading the blogs and I am dizzy. I figured out that BANS would be a great place to learn the marketing tools and tips to develop my ecommerce site in 09. I am beginning to wonder tho! with all the blogs by Mark I am feeling as if I am up against a pretty steep learning curve. (By the way Mark is a really smart guy and should be commended for his devotion in wanting to help others suceed at BANS) I want to succeed, but I am feeling fried for the blogs and info and well I guess I need some advice on this subject because all this info on how to work and do these sites is making get an image in my head of being old and gray by the time I get this thing running in a successful manner. I appreciate any insight that you or Mark could offer at this point or any person that was “naked” and “newbie” when they started this venture.
Regards from a total newbie,
Joe
Yes, it is a lot to absorb. I took two months from the time I heard about BANS to feel I knew enough to actually purchase it and begin to use it.
1. Mark’s (http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/the-foundation-of-building-a-niche-store-empire-in-12-weeks.htm) is the best place to start. Mark is also right in developing integrated, authority sites where you have a blog, original content, and a store. Ask Mark for his link.
2. Then purchase BANS and read the manuals, build a site or two, play with a template or two. Get used to the software and the terminology.
3. Rochelle at http://www.nichestorestrategies.com has an index of her postings and a checklist (http://www.nichestorestrategies.com/i-created-a-niche-store-checklist/) That works well for me when I set up a site.
4. http://www.jtpratt.com has a section on BANS for another viewpoint and is one of the best for Wordpress Blogs.
5. Affiliate marketing is simply full of landmines and you can easily lose massive amounts of money listening to every guru out there. Wealthy Affilliate is the best for the money and teaches you the basics without ripping you off for hundreds of dollars. Right now WA (Wealthy Affiliate) is the best place to learn the marketing tips and tools to develop your site. Bans is just a piece of software to accomplish your goals. YOU MUST LEARN THE BASICS OF AFFILIATE MARKETING FIRST, before you can be consistantly successful.
Go through WA’s training!!!
Stick with this for now. It is a lot of informationa and it will take you a month or two of learning, asking questions, and implementing what you have learned. But is is not impossible and ANYONE can do it if you follow a plan like WA. WA IS THE PLACE TO START.
Just to confirm that I have also had a well-performing site just drop out of the SERPS. I am using my own plugin (mentioned here somewhere), not BANS, so maybe this IS a eBay affiliate site issue in general? Thought I do have AdSense on my pages - no idea why really, I have some unique content too, so figured it would be OK.
Will be watching with concern - if other sites start bombing it might be time to rethink things…
Just checked my sites after reading your comment Markowe.
2 deindexed (wordpress .com using WordBay)
2 only 1 page indexed (both BANS and Wordpress)
Most of the other BANS and WordPress sites have very little product pages indexed. All of the sites have only about 6 pages indexed total (including content, site map etc pages)
I don’t have Adsense on any of them. Some I admit are a little thin on content, was getting around to adding more.
Hi Janet,
I see you wrote about this on your blog a while back. This is a real bummer - I can’t believe Google would blanket deindex eBay affiliate sites, but this is what seems to be happening. I have sites both with reasonable content on them, and on a .com domain, so I don’t think the .info plays that much of a role (I have some .info’s that are still doing fine).
It wouldn’t be hard for Google to figure out it’s dealing with an eBay affiliate site, from the plethora of Rover links - even with WordBay, where the link is masked, the image url is not (not possible, without caching of some sort). But it would be a real downer if Google decided it was going to stifle all eBay affiliates. I don’t own BANS, so I don’t know if there’s a debate about this over in the BANS member forums or are we just imagining things…? However, it might be time to get clever… Just when I’d started making a few bob too…
It’s very strange but I just repeated the site:xxx.com searches and both of the sites that had nothing earlier this morning now have some pages indexed, so maybe Google was having some kind of quirk! I wrote all the numbers down so I know I wasn’t imagining it! I hope they stay there now. I’ll check them again later today.
Hi Mark,
I got my BANS site deindex today. My second site within a month. Both sites are new but are doing fine in terms of traffic and sales. Could that also be the reason it got deindex?
Does anyone know what can I do to get my sites back to Google again? do I have to re-submit for reconsideration or just wait out for a few months?
I just had 9 out of my 10 stores delisted. In the same day, all poof. They are all less than 3 months old.
Guess I need to ride the wave.
Brian This sounds bad. Are they BANS sites? are they .com?Are they completely gone from the index (as in nothing comes up when you search site:mydomain.com) or are they at the bottom of SERPS?
I have one site that has been at the bottom of SERPS for about 2 months now. I’ve added more unique content, built backlinks, adjusted the keyword density, nothing is making any difference. The good news is that I’m getting quite a lot of hits from Yahoo and MSN. I’m not sure how much difference it would make (they both found my site without me doing anything) but you could use their equivalent of Google Webmaster to inform them about your site if you’re not already getting hits from these search engines. Yahoo Site Explorer and MSN Live Webmaster