Googlebot Is Back… Getting Re-indexed Temporary or Permanent?
Around two weeks ago, I noticed an IP address ( 66.249.67.1 ) that was on multiple parts of our Home Business forum. My antennae went up as that can be a sign of spammers. After doing a search on that IP address, I found it was the Googlebot. A few hours later, it was not only still there, but it had increased to around 30 instances of the Googlebot.
The next day, the Googlebot was on the forum again. After looking over the logfiles, I noticed it had scoured over a good portion of our website non-stop for a week. Then, there was a short two-day break. Two days later, Google was back again, and it has not left since (for the last five days or so).
Now, this Googlebot behavior is quite curious.
You may be wondering why I find it odd when the same kind of Googlebot behavior occurs on millions of sites everyday. I have a very good reason…
HomeBusinessOnline.com was one of the casualties of Google’s De-indexing three years ago. We even wrote a popular article about our experience of being de-indexed by Google (Diary of a Google Gazumpee). Even though we tried several times to get the site re-indexed, our pleas fell on deaf ears.
Now, three years later, I was so curious about Googlebot’s activity these past few weeks that I went to Google.com to see if anything had changed. To my surprise, HomeBusinessOnline.com came up in Google’s search results. A closer look at the pages indexed turned up 151 pages.
While 151 pages represents only a fraction of our over 5,000-page website, it IS at least a hint that Google may want to dance with Home Business Online once again. At the time of the de-indexing three years ago, Home Business Online vascilated between the #1 and #3 position for the coveted keyword search “home business.” Plus, it had a rising Alexa ranking of 12,000.
I have seen one single search result briefly show up only once in Google over the past three years. It was only for the home page and it only lasted a day or two… then, poof! Gone again. So, it may be too early to know if this will actually stick or not. Nevertheless, the Googlebot and Google search results are promising. It is the first time in three years that we have seen this kind of devouring Googlebot activity on our site, and it is the first time we have seen a promising sampling of our site possibly being re-indexed.
There is no PR yet. In fact, Google acts as if it is treating the site as brand new and indexing it from scratch. If the indexing sticks, I’m hoping we’ll see new PR during the next dance (most likely within the next few months.)
Okay, everyone. If you have a site that was de-indexed in the past, check Google’s results now. You may find a pleasant surprise. If your site has come back, please leave your comments and let us know.
Keeping our fingers crossed.
Heidi