Google Code Unbans Reader
By Robin Nobles
Contributing Writer
Article Date: 02.18.03
A WebProNews
reader shared his recent experiences of getting back in Google after being banned.
His experience is quite unique -- one I'd never heard before.
He said that his own experience in sending polite requests to the help@google.com
e-mail address over a period of 2-3 months resulted only in an autoresponder message
each time.
So, here's what he did:
"When I got no results sending e-mails to help@google.com
I decided to take the proverbial Google by the horns and telephone them. When
I called Google at their Mountain View, CA headquarters, the telephonist was friendly
and helpful. She asked if I had written to help@google.com. I told her I'd written
several times without proper response, and I quoted the dates of my e-mails. She
said: "OK, please send a new message to webmaster@google.com
and use a code word in the subject line of the message. The code word is <and
she gave the code word of the day>. She went on to say that I would have to
use a code word in the subject line of my message and I would have to write the
same day as otherwise the code word would be invalid."
Four days later, he received this response:
"Re: <code word> [#] Thanks for your
email. We will review your site. If we find that it is no longer violating our
terms of service, we will re-include the site in our index.
Regards, The Google Team"
Nothing happened for three weeks, but a month following Google's promise to
review his site, his site was re-indexed and allowed back into the index.
This is phenomenal information! From now on, if any of your readers
are banned from Google, they need to follow these steps to the letter:
1. Clean up your act! Determine (to the best of your abilities)
why you were banned in the first place. Read their Webmaster Guidelines and their
Terms of Service. Don't contact them until you have done everything you can to
make sure your site is squeaky clean and ready to be allowed back in the index.
2. Write to help@google.com and ask them to please review
your site. Explain what steps you've taken to clean up your act, and ask them
to consider reviewing your site for inclusion back in the engine. Save a copy
of this email.
3. Wait 3-4 weeks (for the next spider run), and if your
site hasn't made it back in, write to help@google.com again. Explain that you
wrote to them on , and that you've done everything you can think
of to make sure your site is adhering to Google's guidelines, and ask them again
to review your site for inclusion back into the engine. Save a copy of this email.
4. Wait 3-4 weeks and do the same thing again. Save a copy
of the email.
5. If this doesn't work, call Google at their home headquarters
(650) 330-0100) and explain that you've written to help@google.com three times,
and be prepared to list the dates. If they continue using the "code name" solution,
follow their directions explicitly. Enter the code name in the subject line, and
write to webmaster@google.com that very day, UNLESS they give you different directions.
6. Be prepared for wait about a month for the site review
and inclusion back in the index.
Thank you to the special WebProNews reader for sharing this experience with
us!
Robin
About the Author:
Robin Nobles, Director
of Training, Academy of Web Specialists, (http://www.academywebspecialists.com)
has trained several thousand people in her online search engine marketing courses
(http://www.onlinewebtraining.com)
and is the content provider for (GRSeo) Search Engine Optimizer software (http://www.se-
optimizer.com). She also teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on search engine
marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops
(http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).
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