Why Did My Site Disappear from Google?

by Eric Transue on June 7, 2009

So you finally take action. You do your research, purchase your domain, buy your hosting and get your site up. You are feeling great.

A couple days down the road you decide to do a search in Google for one of your long tail keywords. First page! What a great feeling.

Two days later you repeat the search to see if you have moved up any. Hmm…that’s interesting nothing to be found on page one. So you check page two. Nothing. Three and four the same thing. Your site disappeared from Google and immediately you wonder why and if it will ever return.

Don’t worry if your site disappears from Google, you are not alone. Your site has not dropped off of Google’s radar.

This search engine phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “everflux”.

Let me try to clear it up.

In order to discover websites on the web Google sends out “spiders”. These spiders crawl the web looking for content. Once the spiders crawl over the content they update King Google aka the main Google database.

King Google

King Google

There is a ton of data about each site stored in this main database such as links to the site, the type of sites linking to it, the last update, etc. All of this info plays an important role in what position your site will rank in Google’s eyes.

There is also another group of spiders. They have acquired a different taste and only like fresh content.

When they come across a page that hasn’t been updated in a while, they just move on.

“Let’s go, nothing to see here folks.”

However, when they find some fresh content, they eat it up! They don’t report it back to the King, but instead they report it to Prince Google.

When a search is done, The King and the Prince get together and compare notes. Their results are posted and contain new content from the Prince along with older content from the King.

In order to make sure some of the newer stuff is seen, the content the Prince knows about is scattered in towards the top of the results. This is the reason your new site might show up towards the top soon after you put it up.

The problem is, as soon as the spiders tell the Prince about newer content than yours, you become old content. The Prince needs room in his database so he moves you off his list and onto the waiting list for the King’s spiders.

This is why your site may appear towards the top for a short time and then disappear.

Although it looks like your website disappeared from Google, have no fear! The King promises to get around to your site soon and once he does you will be entered in the main database and begin to appear higher up in searches once again.

My advice to you is don’t sit around waiting for the King and the Prince to do their work. Build backlinks to your site and continue to optimize your site for the search engines.

I will show you how to better optimize offpage and onpage factors of your site in future posts.

Something that has been working really well for me on getting my sites indexed and ranked by Google is SeoLinkVine and it may be something you want to look into.

SeoLinkVine allows you to distribute your blog posts that contain up to 3 of your links throughout their network.  This explodes the number of incoming links you have pointing to your site and has been doing wonders to increase rankings on some of my sites that had really fallen out of favor with Google.

==>  Click here to check out SeoLinkVine

  • Sara
    Thanks Eric for this great post.
    I just launched my software website 2 weeks ago, I can see my website in first 2 pages when tried to search "iPad file Explorer" last week, but now I can't find my website in the result list. anything wrong with my website? The url is http://www.ipadfileexplorer.com
  • Sara your site is still pretty new if you launched it 2 weeks ago. Don't worry...I'm sure this is just the Google dance and you will return.

    In fact when I search Google for your keywords I am seeing your support page come up on page 2, position 18 overall in Google.

    Work on building quality backlinks and you'll be fine. I have been using Seo Link Vine and seeing great results. However, you can do it without a paid service like that...it's just a little more time consuming. Good luck to you!
  • Dorrine Conrad
    I can see my site on the Internet, but when I go to my google account I can't access it. Also, most of my blog postings are missing as well. I'm not very computer savy and have written to Google numerous times without help...please help!
  • Dorrine, when you say you can't access it do you mean it is not showing up in Google search results, or the site isn't showing up when you type they address in your address bar?
  • hi Eric,

    I have some doubt... My problem is, If I search my keyword in google then my site was shown up in page 1 for a while (maybe one or two months) and then it disappear for now. This is google dance?
  • It's hard to say with 100% certainty if it is the Google dance or not. The fact that you were on page 1 for some time is a good sign.

    Have you continued to build quality links to your site? If you haven't I suggest you do. If you have...that's great, continue doing it.

    f you want to make your link building easier you can use a service like Seo Link Vine or one of the other great link building services that are out there.
  • Madelaine
    I forgot to say that the site shows up fine when I do a site:www.example.com
  • Madelaine, go ahead and send me an email with your site URL and a keyword you were ranking for, when you get a chance.
  • Madelaine
    Great info Eric.
    I am trying to find out this kind of info these days. I have about 15 of my sites totally disappear from google ranking these last few days. They all show up in Yahoo, but not Google. Some I have had for about 1 year, some are really new. They have all showed up on the first page of Google at one point, sometimes staying there fora a along time, but now there is nothing. The only thing that i have done different is that I have added contact us, disclaimer, terms of service and privacy police pages to all of them because that is what I heard Google wants @@ I have to admit that they all have the same content on them since it is privacy matters ans stuff like that, it is hard to write original content for that. Can that have anything to do with it? How would i know if I got sandboxed by Google. It is not like they would send a mail letting me know, right? @@
    Any thoughts about why all my sites all of a sudden are gone?
    Madelaine
  • Madelaine, I need a little more info from you. Are all of these sites hosted on the same IP address?

    I wouldn't worry about having the same contact, disclaimer and terms of service pages on each site. The only time you will see problems with duplicate content is when you have duplicate content on the same site. Others may tell you different, but I'd have to disagree with them.

    I don't see why adding those pages would take your sites out of the rankings. Your sites may just be doing the "Google Dance" because you have added new content to them.

    Let me know about the IP question above and/or send me an email (top of the page, contact tab) and I'll try to help you out.
  • Madelaine
    Also,
    How many domains can I have under the same ip?
  • Madelaine
    Yes, they are all hosed on the same ip...
    I know that could be a problem
    How do i get around that?
    (some of them are actually starting to come back a little, so the google dance might be right)
  • Madelaine, I'm glad to hear your domains are starting to come back. There is no set rule on how many you should be hosting on the same IP, but I personally like to keep the number low.

    You can use a Hosting company such as Hostnine which allows you to choose a region your site is hosted in each time you create a new one. This helps to not only spread your sites out geographically, but they also get different IPs.
  • I have a website and when I type it in the search bar - the front page comes up & then it goes away & it looks like it's being searched for. What would cause this?
  • Cleta can you give me a little more info about your issue? I'm not sure I quite understand. Is this happening after clicking on your page in the search results or after typing it into the address bar?
  • Great post thanks a lot. And I have a question. I have a website with 3 years domain and my website not showing in main search terms for 10 days. When my website back? How many times to take this process? will I wait more? :(
  • Wait it out and be patient. Just keep building links from quality sites that relate to the site you are trying to rank.

    I can't tell you exactly how long it will take to return to the rankings but don't stress about it to much. Just keep creating content and building links to that content.
  • Eric Thanks so much for answering this question. My site was in the top 10 and then nothing, gone, way to the back of the line. The manor in with you explained this was great, very easy to understand. Thanks again
  • Tracy, I'm glad my post was easy to understand.

    Don't stress over the "Google Dance", just keep building quality links and you'll be fine.
  • Joe
    Hi I registered a site and put go wordpress on it about 10 days ago checked the domain name today and it appeared no 1 in google and then re checked it 2 min later and now its totaly disapperaed even when the name is in " "
    any idea what happened
  • Joe, your site is really new and it is common to see it jump around in the Google rankings like this. It is known as the "Google Dance". I'd give it a while to stop "dancing" and settle into a more consistent position. Go ahead and send me an email on my content page with your site name and I'll take a look at it.
  • Great Post Eric... I've always thought of it as a good thing when one of my niche sites vanishes. It sometimes happens after i post new content, a lot of new content.. than when the site comes back it always ranks higher in the search engines.. Eric your right, you just have to keep building back links and doing your normal seo..
  • Thanks Darius! I hope you are getting some good results with your niche sites.
  • Atul
    Oh, I just placed a comment here and it is not appearing. Clicked "Post" and then the popup appeared for like 30 minutes.

    Eric, can I send you an email about my problem? If yes, where do I send the email to?
  • Atul, I'm not sure what the issue was with the comment posting, but I'll take a look.

    I just sent you a message with my personal email address. I look forward to hearing from you.
  • ok thanks for the insight hope every thing goes the way you say and it comes back did you say i should still work on my seo, while it is down
  • Jason, don't worry it will come back. You can go ahead and still work on your SEO.

    Concentrate on building quality links from relevant sites. Go ahead and shoot me an email if your site doesn't return and I'll take a look and help you out.
  • Heather
    Hi Eric,
    My situation is a bit strange. My site had shown up on google once i googled my name (which is the title of my home page) and once i googled my url. But, yesterday i noticed if i google myself nothing comes up. If i google my url nothing comes up. These seem like really direct searches. I'm not working with keywords. Some people who live in other states/country can google my name and get my website. Or even google my URL and get my website. But I can not google my name from my own computer and laptop. Is this and SEO prob? Seems like somehow I'm hidden from myself! Or hidden from local searches. Any feedback would be great.
  • Heather, don't worry this doesn't sound like a problem at all...yet. Do me a favor and type this into google without the quotes "site:yoursitename.com". Of course put your site in there. Does anything come up?

    You are most likely hitting a different Google datacenter or search server than those in other states/countries. Your site may be in the middle of the "google dance" on the server you are hitting. If you don't mind go ahead and reply with your url so I can take a look at what is going on. If you aren't comfortable go ahead and send it to me via my contact page at the top of my site or a DM on twitter Eric's Twitter
  • Heather
    Eric, thanks for the speedy response! I tried your suggestion of typing "site:mysitename.com" in google and nothing came up. Here is my URL.

    www.hj2design.com

    Thanks !
  • Heather the good news is, it is showing up for me. I also used this multiple Google data center search tool and it is showing up in the different locations I tried.

    Do you have a Google account? If you do and are signed in, try going to Google.com again and clicking "sign out" in the top right before doing your search. If you don't have an account, do you have any toolbars installed? Also what browser are you using, IE, FIrefox, Safari?
  • Heather
    Eric,
    I do have a google/gmail account. I am not signed in. I signed in and then signed out just to be sure. I am unable to see my site via google on my home computer, lap top, or office computer. I have been checking google analytics on all three computers could this have done something?

    I have been using IE and Firefox 3.6. I am not using any toolbars other than the navigation tool bar, menu, bar.
    Could someone have blocked my site from being seen locally? Is that even possible?

    if i enter my address in the navigation toolbar it goes directly to my site. Just not in the google search. Tried typin my website and my name in the multiple google search site link you provided and no luck....
  • Heather, I just tried your site again and I am no longer seeing it in the search results.

    Your site is new so sit tight. This is normal. Keep building quality backlinks and it will return.
  • Heather
    Thanks so much Eric. :)
  • You're welcome Heather. Thanks for visiting my blog. Best of luck with your site and business.
  • Wow awesome post
    My site just dissapeared 2 days ago and i was worried google might have sand-boxed it, marked it as spam or penalized, but i feel better now thanks to your post, i hadn't build many backlinks to it so i got worried. Thanks you just gave me a sign of relief,
    its only been 2 days since my site dissapeared, its only a 1 month old page and lots of people are battling for this keyword actively, could you give me an stimate on how long it would take for my site to be back? or does that just happen unkowingly when the king wants?
    thanks for the exelent post!
  • Luis, I'm glad you found this post helpful.

    Don't worry, I doubt your site has been sandboxed by Google. Keep building quality backlinks. Since your site is so new, don't overdue it. Just keep a nice steady pace going.

    Unfortunately, I can't give you an estimate of how long it will take for Google to start listing you again. It really varies from site to site. The King has his way of doing things and likes to keep them secret. :)

    Luis, is the site you are referring to the predator one you used in the url field for this comment? If so I am seeing it listed in Google.
  • yes Eric that is the site that dissapeared for me
    But i guess it never dissapeared like you said, what i meant to say is that it was ranking in the top 10 for my keyword, and all of a sudden it went down to ranking in the 180's( in a matter of hours)...so that's why i think i got penalized or something, but it is back in the top 10 as of yesterday, i did build a couple of high page rank backlinks.
    Either way thanks man, i appreciate the help
  • Luis, that's great that it is back in the top 10!

    Keep building those links buddy....expand your keywords and dominate those as well :)
  • Working on the main site right now (virtualitystudio.com) and after that one is where I need it to be I will start working on a few of the inner pages and the blog. First things first though :)

    Just going about it the slow and safe route and it seems to be working so far. I'm on page 21 now for the main keyword so I just need to keep working until I get to page one.

    Thanks for emailing us about the video marketing - I am going to give that one a try!!!
    .-= Melissa´s last blog ..NEW SPIRITUAL FORUM! =-.
  • WOW what wonderful information in this article. I did a search on Google to find out why my site went away from the first page and I found your Blog this is some really good information I will opt in and get what ever you have to offer me.

    Thanks :)
    .-= Dave Mackinson´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
  • Dave, I'm glad you found what you were looking for!

    Thank you for subscribing as well. I'm in the process of revamping all of my emails that are sent to my subscribers. I have some really great stuff planed!

    I'll send out an update when they are done and make sure that you and all my current subscribers get exactly what the "future" new subscribers receive.

    In the meantime if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask...either as a comment or sending me an email.
  • Hi Eric!

    The site has been up since august in one form or another... seems to be creeping back up in the ranks again though. It is back on the first page locally, just not at the top of the page quite yet [insert sigh of relief here] so I am working on building more links. Links are coming from directories, articles and more recently some blogs as well [on topic where possible]. How long does it typically take to get to a pr4 from a pr1... or does that just depend on when google does its update? Thanks for the link to your book, I will check that out!

    Melissa
    .-= Melissa´s last blog ..MANIFESTATION CRASH COURSE =-.
  • Melissa, I'm glad t hear your site is moving back up the rankings!

    For PR, there are many factors that play a role in bumping up your PR ranking. Is your blog the site you are trying to get a PR bump for? If it isn't let me know the site you are talking about and I'll take a look at it and give you my feedback as far as link analysis goes.
  • This just happened to me yesterday... already have around 2k(yahoo) links built up though, how many do you think I will need to get mr king to notice?

    Thanks for posting this, I was searching the web to figure out what i did wrong and found this... much less panic now :)

    By the way, the link to your book shows up as a 404.
    .-= Melissa´s last blog ..PATIENCE =-.
  • Melissa, how long has your site been up and what type of sites are the links coming from? Are the coming from sites that are relevant to the topic of your site?

    Also, how long had your site been listed before it disappeared from Google's listing?

    Try this link for the book, not sure if the digital version is still available. SeoLies
  • haha eric i think i am a long way off been in the top 10 but then again i rank fourth now for keywork -free england chat- on yahoo so... things are looking mighty fine.
  • Keep going James...I'm sure you aren't as far off as you think! :)
  • tried to sign up for your info in the name and email box and got a 404

    I am using firefox
    .-= paul mall´s last blog ..How to fix .dll Missing Error =-.
  • Thanks for the heads up Paul. I'll take a look and see if I can figure out what is going wrong.

    You should have been directed to a "Thank Your For Subscribing" page....so since you didn't see it, Thank You For Subscribing :)
  • did not know where to shoot you an email so was wondering what tools you use for article submition? I just started writing some on squido and articlebase but if what you said is true about duplicate content only being frowned apon on the same site I would like to use some article submition tools.

    any tools you use you could share would be greatly appreciated

    thanks

    ps... I loved your article... oh that was supposed to be at the top haha

    Paul Mall
    .-= paul mall´s last blog ..How to fix .dll Missing Error =-.
  • Thanks Paul, I'm glad you liked the post.

    Right now I am using Dominic Tay's "Article Submit Auto". You can check it out here.

    I like the product, I just wish it was a one time purchase and not a monthly fee. You login via the web to do all your submissions (no software to install) and it will submit to 30 article directories. Also, if you decide to start spinning the text of your articles in the future, to switch them up a bit, it allows you to use spun syntax.

    I have tried a couple other standalone products, but I couldn't get them to work correctly.

    I have outsourced a fair bit of article submissions in the past as well.
  • Just like to update you as to how i went on building my backlinks i rank top 20 in most of my main keywords things are looking very good indeed thank you so much for all your advise.
  • You are welcome James! I'm glad to hear that everything is working out.

    Don't stop. Now work on getting in the top 10...5....1! :)
  • Thank you for creating such a terrific site. this blog was not only knowledgeable but also very stimulating too. We find only few bloggers who can think to write technical content that creatively. All of us keep searching for content on a subject like this. We ourselves have gone in detail through many blogs to come across knowhow with regard to this.Keep me informed when you write more on the subject !!
  • Thanks for the kind comment!

    Be sure to subscribe above to stay updated on everything going on here.
  • I enjoy reading your blog . Excellent!!!
  • Thanks Paul! I'm glad you like it.
  • Great news! The King swung by last night while I was sleeping. He's only taken a look at the home page so far, but he seemed to like what he saw because he's put me in position #5. I expect this is probably a 'fresh site' boost, but hopefully I won't drop too far, and then I can work on pushing myself back to the top. All good fun!
  • That is great news Pete!
  • Aha! It all makes sense now! I'm new to IM, and have been reading about supplemental indexes and fresh indexes - it's enough to make your head spin! I prefer your King and Prince explanation. I think the Prince has just got bored of me, but hopefully the King will be along soon - better roll out the red carpet to impress him!
  • Get that red carpet ready Pete! As long as you keep promoting and building back links the King will make his return.
  • Ezu
    Hello,

    I have this problem with one of my site, and it's a little annoying thing
    .-= Ezu´s last blog ..Install Windows 7 over XP =-.
  • Ezu, the Google dance is really annoying, but something we have to live with. Just be patient and keep building backlinks to your site.

    If you haven't grabbed it yet, the free SEO book in my post above has some good tips about moving your site back up the rankings in Google.
  • Great post, this helps clarify a lot of things for me.
  • Glad you found the post helpful.
  • Remeber i lost my my back links i managed to get them all back by how i said i was going to, I am very happy indeed
  • Congrats James! Glad everything ended up working out for you.
  • Great article,i have had exactly the same problem as you wrote now i no why.Thanks
  • Glad I was able to help Craig.
  • You're welcome Craig. Let me know if I can help you with anything else.
  • Just came back to your blog and noticed you replied about the redirection thanks alot i will keep you posted as to how i get on.
  • James
    Hey Eric,

    I just had a question about the site disappearing thing. It happened to my site as well & I was wondering if it meant that when google's main bot actually crawls your website, it will put you in the same position?
  • James it's hard to say the position you will reappear in. I have had sites come back above and some below the spot they originally showed up in.

    My advice to you is to keep building relevant backlinks. If you stick with it you should definitely make your way back up to your original position or higher.
  • James
    Hi Eric, I have been doing some nice article marketing to get traffic to my blog. The google dance just happened to my article too. It was ranked first for the keyword & then it suddenly disappeared & is nowhere to be found even till the 63rd page. The article is about 2 days old. My question is this... when Google's main crawl visits my article (king), then will it rank in No.1 agian for the keyword? Atleast will it rank in the first 2 pages if I continue to build backlinks. Approximately, how long does it take?
  • James, keep going with your article marketing. Be sure to bookmark your articles on the sites that allow them as well as build up some backlinks to the articles. This will all help in pushing your main site higher up in the rankings.

    Also many articles sites will provide an RSS feed of the articles you have published. Submit that RSS feed to RSS submission sites.

    I wish I could give you a time frame for the "Google Dance", but nobody really knows. For now don't worry so much about your current position. Continue to consistently build your links and the high rankings will follow.

    Good luck James!
  • Eric i think i found the answer. My site is a chatsite but it had blogs and forums plus a guestbook. since i remade the site there wasnt any of the same content that was there before. All i can think of is that the backlinks are not relevent anymore im trying to get it back how it was hopefully this should work.Also when i said the site went down the server owner quit there service but my domain was still pointing to there nameservers so the message was page not found.
  • I'm glad you were able to find the issue.

    If those old links no longer point to pages that exist on your site, you may want to look at implementing some sort of redirect.

    That way even though the page doesn't exist, that link when clicked will direct your visitors to your homepage or some other relevant page that you have.
  • I have a question to throw at you all and here goes - i own a site and it went down for a month as in there was no site at all but the domain was safe.Now its back up and running all the backlinks dont exists for some reason they have disapeared.My question is when googles dances will these backlinks reapear
  • James, when you say your site went down for a month, what happened if I were to go to your domain during that time? Would I get a page not found, or just a blank page?

    The Google Dance shouldn't effect your backlinks, but I would need to know more about your site. Send me an email when you get a chance with the name of your site and what type of backlinks you were creating (i.e. forum posting, yahoo answers, articles, video...etc) and I'll try to help you figure out what is going on.
  • My website get disappeared in google.. I got worried a lot but thanks for your article.. i m a bit relaxed now.. So should I need to change the content of my website regularly (my website is a static website)?
  • I have seen static sites rank just as well as frequently updated blogs in Google. The main thing is to keep building relevant backlinks to your site.

    This can be done with article marketing, video marketing, forum posting and directory submissions among others. If you would like to know some of the services I use to help automate these, shoot me an email and I'll help you out.
  • Thanks for the info.

    I don't know if it is the same problem I got. I am sharing my blog articles on facebook, twitter, digg and yahoo buzz at the same time. For 1-2 days I can still see my articles when I search it on Google.
    The problem is that after a few days some of my articles (those with a lot of readers) suddenly disappear!
    I am not sure if it is due to multiple sharing I have done. Do you think Google would interpret it as spamming?
    Thanks again.
  • How long has it been since you submitted/published your articles? If it was recent, then I would definitely say it is the "Google Dance" and you should see them reappearing soon.

    From my personal experience the "duplicate content" issue is something that is over hyped by many Internet Marketers. From what I have seen you are only penalized for duplicate content if the duplicate content is on the same site. For instance if you had an article published on two different pages of your own site only one of those pages would be likely to appear in search engine results.

    If you would like to learn more about SEO and duplicate content I highly recommend the book SEO lies by Justin Brooke. You can get the digital download for $1 and it is highly worth it if you want to learn more about duplicate content and getting your content ranked in Google.
  • john
    yeh my site listed number 2 in google for "<edited>" then boom all is gone, it really scared me, and still is its been a good few days now. But my homepage will never be edited so how do i convince the spiders that it is still good </edited><edited></edited>
  • First off John, sorry I had to edit your site and keywords out. I have nothing against your site just would rather keep the more mature links off of this particular site. Hope you understand.

    What I would do if I were you John is to continue working on "offsite" SEO. Create relevant backlinks to your site by commenting in forums, answering questions on Yahoo and writing articles that link back to your site in the resource box. I would also contact some other site owners in your niche and see if any would allow you to post a link back to your site. You'd be surprised how many say yes. Start your email with a compliment of their site then transition in to a polite request for them to link to you. Good luck!
  • Hi, gr8 post thanks for posting. Information is useful!
  • Thanks Katty, glad you found it useful.
  • Eric, I enjoy reading this post. I like the way you explained about Google spider as King and Queen 's spiders. Btw, I think strong backlinks is the way that you could get higher ranking. Also, quality content takes the big portion too. :)

    Regards,
    Lee
    .-= Make Money Online´s last blog ..Make Money Online With Affiliate Program Network =-.
  • Lee, I'm glad you liked the post!

    My goal is to try and make it so even beginning Internet Marketers can understand some of the more difficult concepts I talk about.
  • Eric,

    Great article. I remember the first time I took action built a site, promoted it and got it listed on the 1st page of google. Boom! Just like you described it was gone! Very useful article for people that want to know why this happens.

    <abbr>Checkout Michael’s blog..Form A Habit Of Taking Action</abbr>
  • Thanks Michael. I hear this question a lot so I wanted to try and help clear it up in an easy to understand way. Hopefully, I did. :)
  • Backlink building is an essential part of SEO, but people resort to paid backlinks and such other in the quest to gain significance with search engines like Google, only to find that they have been thrown out of the search engines.
    The easiest and long term way of creating backlinks is what you have explained clearly. Create good content and backlinks will automatically be created.

    <abbr>Checkout R Kumar’s blog..Bing - The Microsoft competition to Google</abbr>
  • Thanks for the comment! Good content will always give you your best chance for success in the long run.
  • No problem Yvonne! Create quality content, tighten up your seo and keep working on your backlinks. Everything else will begin to fall into place sooner than you think.
  • Super article! When my sites disappear off google, I keep wondering "what have I done now?"
    The remedy of creating more backlinks and building up the seo makes perfect sense.
    Thanks for explaining it in plain English :)

    <abbr>Checkout Yvonne Tagbo’s blog..Essential Tips for Choosing The Right Cover Art Designer</abbr>
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post: How to do Basic Free Keyword Research

Next post: What is a Backlink?

Web Analytics