Why Websites Are Removed From The Search Engine Index

A large percentage of the billions of internet users utilize the search engines when looking for almost anything on the internet. The search engines receive the most number of traffic. Websites listed on the search engines are lucky to get a fair share of the search engine traffic.

How do websites get listed on the search engines? The search engines index all the pages of a website. The data gathered becomes that basis for the search results. When optimised properly, websites won’t have any problem with regards to indexing. But there are times when a website is suddenly removed from the search engine index.

When Your Website Is Removed From The Index

Some websites are removed from the search engine index. Website owners are surprised when this happens. They question why their websites were removed from the index. The search engines remove a website from the index if the website is not following the search engine guidelines. Here are some of the reasons why websites are removed from the search engine index:

• Using hidden text to trick the search engines. Some website owners fill their websites with keywords or texts that they hide from the online visitors. Only the search engine spiders can view the hidden keywords and texts. They do this by using identical colors for both the texts and the background.
• Some websites also use hidden links. They create hyperlinks meant to help the search engine spiders index the entire website but these links are not readable for the site visitors.
• Keyword stuffing is one of the most common tricks that website owners use. They fill the website with keywords much more than what the search engines consider as acceptable.
• Search engine cloaking can also get a website penalized.
• Duplicate content and doorway pages can also cause a website to be removed from the search engine index.

Being removed from the search engine index is a serious problem. Website owners need to do all that they could to reinstate their website on the index.

Getting A Website Re-indexed

Websites can request for reconsideration. But before a website can request to be re-indexed, website owners must make sure that they have already made changes or improvements in the website. If the website is caught stuffing keywords, then they must have corrected this already. It would be useless to request for reconsideration when the website is still using black hat techniques.

Use search engine friendly strategies to avoid getting penalized by the search engines. Need to optimise your website properly? Please see our SEO Services or you can apply for our Free SEO Analysis. For more information, please contact our SEO Specialists.