May 21, 2005
How to Get Back into Google
So, you've done a search in Google for your domain name and for strings of unique text from several of your pages and you've found nothing. You can definitively say that your site has been deleted from Google's index. Now, how do you convince Google to let you back in?
Follow these steps…
1) Track down and eliminate every possible piece of spam. You want your site to be absolutely spotless. Read Google's Webmaster Guidelines and make sure that your site conforms to the letter.
Remember, you'll be asking for a human reviewer from Google to personally inspect every detail of your site. If they find anything remotely objectionable they won't only reject your request but will also likely remember you for having wasted their time! …and your chances of ever getting back into Google will be drastically reduced.
2) Once your site is ready, send an email to help@google.com with the words Re-inclusion request in the subject line of your email.
3) Then you wait.
If your site was accidentally removed through an innocent mistake (like a faulty robots.txt file) or otherwise by no real fault of your own, then you'll probably be re-included fairly quickly – usually within a week or two and almost certainly by the time of the next monthly update.
However, if you were intentionally banned by Google for pushing-the-envelope, then you could be waiting a long time – sometimes as long as two or three months. As you might suspect, Google typically receives a large number of re-inclusion requests and each site requires a fairly detailed analysis to insure conformance to standards.
If this is the case and you suspect that your site may be exiled for an extended period, it might make good sense to simply start over with a new website and a new domain name. This means you'll also need to start rebuilding your incoming links from scratch and you'll be faced with reconstructing the name recognition your old site may have had with customers.
Of course, most online businesses have too much invested in their existing domain name to abandon it and start over. But, it is an option you may want to consider if it looks like your chances of ever getting back into Google are slim.
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