GoodCamel Blog

I submitted Good Camel Games to Google for indexing the other day and I was happy to see it  in Google’s index shortly after that. Few days later, it was no longer there. I used Google Webmaster Tools to see its indexing status, and it told me the site was not indexed anymore. After reading the FAQs and other documentation from Google, I realized that my website was probably violating Google’s quality guidelines.

Good Camel Games is a GWT web app and it is therefore a very JavaScript heavy application. The problem is that non-JavaScript enabled users just cannot use my application, so for them, I was showing a page saying they cannot use the application and some information about the application and what it actually does (that info was also available for JavaScript enabled users, but somewhere else). Big mistake! Showing different content to JavaScript VS non-JavaScript users violates Google’s quality guidelines because it is often used as deceptive technique to fool search engines. That technique is known as cloaking and Google has mechanisms to detect that.

Fortunately, you can request reconsideration of your site. So I made some changes that hopefully fixes the problem, created a short video explaining the details (not required, but I think it is easier to understand) and submitted the reconsideration request to Google.

Here is the video: My GWT Application is not Indexed by Google

Here is the message I included in my reconsideration request:

Hi,

My web application has been indexed by Google for a short period of time, but it is not indexed anymore. I think the problem with it is that it is not compliant with Google’s quality guidelines.

I made a short video that explains why I think it is not compliant with Google’s quality guidelines and also explains what I did to fix the problem. I made a video because I think it is easier to explain with images and also to help other people not to do the same naive mistake. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIHTUJBawnI

Basically, the explanation is the following: My web application is built on GWT and requires JavaScript enabled in the browser. I think the problem with it is that does not present the same content to JavaScript VS non-JavaScript enabled users. I fixed it by adding an extra step (at the beginning) for JavaScript enabled users which shows pretty much the same thing as non-JavaScript enabled users. But see the video, it will be easier to understand and I think it demonstrates my good faith.

To answer your question about SEO, no I did not use any SEO firm, I did this mistake all by myself.

Regards,
Jonathan Demers

Here is the automated response I received:

We’ve received a request from a site owner to reconsider how we index the following site: http://games.goodcamel.com/

We’ll review the site. If we find that it’s no longer in violation of our Webmaster Guidelines, we’ll reconsider our indexing of the site. Please allow several weeks for the reconsideration request. We do review all requests, but unfortunately we can’t reply individually to each request.

As suggested, I also asked for a site review in Google Forum: My Website (Web Application) is not in Google index anymore. Can somebody review my site?

The only thing is that it can take several weeks for a reconsideration request and you are not notified when the reconsideration process request is over; or your site is OK and added to the index, or it is still not OK and not added to the index. So hopefully, you won’t do the same naive mistake i did.

Anyways, I’ll update the post when I get more info.

… to be continued

UPDATE – November 18 2009: I can see Good Camel Games in Google index tonight. Wow, that was fast. Thank you Google!

UPDATE – November 20 2009: Yesterday (Nov 19), I actually received a notification from Google telling me that my site has been reviewed. That is nice, I did not expect that. And my application is still in Google index. Here is the Notification:

We received a request from a site owner to reconsider how we index the following site: http://games.goodcamel.com/.

We’ve now reviewed your site. When we review a site, we check to see if it’s in violation of our Webmaster Guidelines. If we don’t find any problems, we’ll reconsider our indexing of your site. If your site still doesn’t appear in our search results, check our Help Center for steps you can take.

This is an automated message from Webmaster Tools. Please do not reply to this email. For help, please visit http://www.google.com/support/webmasters.