New Website Design - Site Gone From Search, Any Ideas?

[visualsin]

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[RyanKent]

We submitted all the old pages to Google for removal and they have been removed and we set up 301's for the relevant pages from old to new.

That was a mistake. The only reason to ever request Google to remove a page is if the page is causing serious and direct harm to your business, or if confidential information was released. You would never use the removal tool because you have a new site.

When you use the removal tool, the URLs involved are removed from the Google index and not considered by Google for 90 days.

Fortunately, your main site is still listed with Google. The search phrase you are trying to list for is a perfect match for your site URL. Your site's home page has a DA 61, PA 67. Your site has good onpage scores for the search phrase. Clearly your site should be on the first page of search results.

As I look through SERPs I can't find your site in the first 50 results. The only explanation for your search results is your site has been penalized. When you contacted Google via the reconsideration request, they confirmed that a manual penalty has not been applied to your site, so clearly you have an algorithmic penalty.

I didn't have to look long to find a div called "seoBox". It is the very first content within your HTML code. This is clearly waving a red flag at a bull. You create a huge amount of content, more then the rest of the page combined, you add a list of links, you place it at the top of your code in a div named "seoBox" then you proceed to hide it on your page in a place 99% of visitors will never find it, a footer link named "London Escorts Article". How could you not be penalized?

That idea may have worked at some time in history, but this is 2011 and the days for that nonsense are long gone. Look at your site from the visitor's perspective 100%. Remove any attempts at manipulating SEO then give Google some time to recrawl your site. Your cache for the home page is 4 days old so I am guessing you are crawled about once/week.

Fix the site, wait a week, then your rankings should return. They may bounce a bit at first but should become stable within 30 days after it is ranking returns.

[visualsin]

This post is deleted!

[visualsin]

Have just made some changes to the site now, removed the SEO box - do you think this is better?

[RyanKent]

Have just made some changes to the site now, removed the SEO box - do you think this is better?

Yes.

I understand you may use that method in many other sites. I would suggest to you it is a mistake and with each of those sites you run a large risk of incurring this same penalty. It was done in a clear attempt to manipulate search engine rankings. I am confident 10 out of 10 Google employees who look at the page would feel the same way, and that Google's algorithms either can or should be able to detect such manipulation. You seem like a savvy guy and I have to think you agree on some level.

The change you made is a great adjustment. It keeps the content on the page but positions it in such a way that it is not hidden at all.

With respect to the URL removal tool, 404s are a natural part of the internet. If you encounter that situation again, my recommendation is to ensure your 404 page is current and helpful. There should be a search box along with your site's navigation. I would also recommend 301'ing any pages where a similar page would exist on your site. The 404 pages would naturally fall out of SERPs within 30 days in most cases.

I can't say which of these two issues with your site led to your current ranking drop. I can share that I would classify both as major mistakes and you have done everything possible to resolve these issues at this point. If the hidden text was the issue, which is more likely, then check your SERP each day for when the cache updates. Presently your cache is from Aug 17th. When it updates, that is a confirmation Google has crawled the page and hopefully your rankings should return.

PS. Your HTML sitemap is helpful for your footer. The XML and TXT sitemaps are not helpful and are unnecessary. I would recommend removing those links as a best practice, but they are not in any way related to your ranking issue.