Web Host Kills Search Engine Listings

I have always loved a good mystery. Such was the case when one client asked me why she kept dropping out of the search engines when she had not changed anything on her website.

I wondered if her competition was simply ranking higher. Nope, not the case. Her site was completely disappearing from the listings. Completely. So, we'd resubmit it and in a short time, she was back. Then, she'd just disappear again. It was most curious.

So I started checking multiple search engines. Curious and curiouser, she was not disappearing from "all" the search engines. Just some of them

The next step in the puzzle was to read through all the submission guidelines at the search engines she was periodically being dropped from. Therein, I found my clue.

The search engines that were dropping her site had a notation in the submission guidelines that said if a site cannot be reached when their spiders try to crawl the site - the site may be dropped from listing for being inaccessible. A very good clue, indeed.

My next step was to set up 24/7 monitoring on her website to see if her web host was the problem. An email notice would be sent to us when her web host went offline. BINGO!

As it would turn out, her web host's uptime was horrid. Her web host was down far, far more than is acceptable.

I explained this to her, and explained that if the server is offline when a search engine tries to spider her site, she can be dropped because, essentially, there "is" no website at that location. At least at the time.

I also pointed out to her that during the "down" time, it's not just search engine spiders that can't access her site. Customers can't either! When the site is down, she is out of business.

Unfortunately, she had paid for a full year up front with her web host and signed a contract stating that if she chooses to move to another web host, she forfeits the fees paid. It was a "special" and, as such, non-refundable. Her choices were to stay on that web host server, or accept the loss and move to another web host.

This story illustrates a very basic business concept. You can't be the best and the cheapest at the same time. Neither can you BUY the best for the cheapest price. Each has it's merits depending on the situation. When it comes to your web host, which do you choose?

I'm happy to say that when she moved her site to a new web host server, she stopped dropping out of the search engines. content

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