What happens when you discover that your site is banned from search engines like Google and Yahoo? It may have been dropped from the index for legitimate reasons (server issues, link spamming, hidden text, and other reasons outside of webmaster guidelines) or for previously unknown reasons (Google Bowled, duplicate content, etc).
Banning can occur with each algorithmic update and can also be a result of manual reviews. In high traffic keywords, it’s likely that human editors review these sites and hand-ban them if violations of their terms of service and guidelines are found. Their aim is to deliver quality results and spammy ones don’t count. An algorithm’s effectiveness can never match that of the human eye.
So, what if you have been penalized or banned?
You can file a reinclusion request to Google and ask to remove any potential spam penalty imposed. Depending on the severity and complexity of the infraction, it could be fast or it could take several months.
If it was simply a matter of someone creating duplicate content off your site, you can send them a warning letter to cease and desist. At the same time, you can cc the email to Google and/or Yahoo to have them take note of it. Make sure to follow up with Google/Yahoo to get it fixed quickly.
If, however, the issue lies within your site, you’ll have to clean up your act. Here are some thoughts that can weigh in your favor when submitting a reinclusion request:
Matt Cutts offers up the following advice for Google:
Now where should you send a reinclusion request? This has changed in the last few months from an email address to a web form. The best location to go is http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py. You can select “I’m a webmaster inquiring about my website” and then select “Why my site disappeared from the search results or dropped in ranking.” Click Continue, and on the page that shows up, make sure to type “Reinclusion Request” in the Subject: line of the resulting form. Upper- or lower-case doesn’t matter, but make sure you use the words “reinclusion request” in the subject line so it gets routed to the right place.
For more details on Google site reinclusion, see Matt Cutt’s site reinclusion post.
For Yahoo reinclusion, send an email to ystfeedback@yahoo.com or use their online support form.
There may also be times when you should cut your losses and move on. In such cases, it could be much more fruitful to begin building up another site while waiting for any reversal in the penalty or banning of your previous site. That way, you would still be able to continue business a couple months down the road as compared to being set back an additional few months when you find out that there’s not hope left in the original site. If there is inherent value in your original site (e.g. valuable domain name), you’ll want to fight hard for it. After all, a good domain name by itself could be worth (tens of) thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands.
It is our firm belief as SEOs and business consultants to never lay all your eggs in one basket. Therefore, have multiple sources of traffic besides natural rankings for any site you own. Having multiple sites to establish a strong foothold in the search results for your brick-and-mortar business is another way to dominate the online scene. At least if one gets hit with penalties, you still have the others to support your business and all hell doesn’t break loose.