In August I informed my webmaster that I was ending my contract with him and moving to another host, before doing this I made a backup of the site. Upon informing him of my intentions he changed the ftp password and refused me access. After about 3 weeks he agreed to release my site and facilitate its move to the new host. Until this point my position in Google with certain keywords was very good, top 5 for the last 4 years. Now I am not listed at all, a search for my domain www.macassist.co.uk reveals that it is not indexed. Using Google's webmaster tools I can see that access was blocked to my site by a robots.txt file in early September .Comparisson of the backup and uploaded site reveal that the robots tag in the two are different, the backup site is set to index and follow, whereas the current one is set to noindex and no follow. My guess is that the webmaster changed the robots.txt file blocking access to the site and/or used the remove from Google tool.

I guess my questions are 3 fold.

1. Now that the files have been corrected and the URL resubmitted, how long should I expect relisting to take?
2. Is there any way of proving what has happened
3. Is there any action I can take against the webmaster?

You live in England can I assume? Where does your webmaster live? For #3 the answer largely depends whether you're in the same legal jurisdiction. I'll let the Brits answer this one.

#2 how did you learn of this? Can you make a printout of the robots.txt file on the server in front of a witness, ideally your lawyer?

#1 Since you put a link to the domain, assuming it's already been moved, you'll be listed within a week, max. But you won't probably have the rank you enjoyed. Google is probably going to see your site as a brand new one.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

You live in England can I assume? Where does your webmaster live? For #3 the answer largely depends whether you're in the same legal jurisdiction. I'll let the Brits answer this one.

#2 how did you learn of this? Can you make a printout of the robots.txt file on the server in front of a witness, ideally your lawyer?

#1 Since you put a link to the domain, assuming it's already been moved, you'll be listed within a week, max. But you won't probably have the rank you enjoyed. Google is probably going to see your site as a brand new one.

Yes, we're both in England.

I never had a copy of the robots.txt that blocked the site, the re-uploaded one had a perfectly fine, but as the webmaster tools report that access was blocked, I can only assume that once it had done its job he was happy to upload the original one. However the robots tag in the index page was set to noindex and no follow, I don't know if leaving this in was an oversight on his part or not.

Does the fact that the domain has been moved to a new host really affect my ranking?

Moving the domain to a new host should have absolutely nothing to do with how you rank. But it being "offline" (not really, but in Google's eyes because of the robots ban) for half a month can. It sounds like you already verified that you're not in Big G's index anymore. And I'm sorry to be the one to break the news to you, but it really sounds like you're going to have to start from scratch.

I don't think it was an oversight. Web pages and sites don't start out with code to ban all robots and search engines, and then remove the tags when we're done. Somebody typed those in there, or copied and pasted them from somewhere else. And it's very plain to see what the intention was - it's what happened.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

Moving the domain to a new host should have absolutely nothing to do with how you rank. But it being "offline" (not really, but in Google's eyes because of the robots ban) for half a month can. It sounds like you already verified that you're not in Big G's index anymore. And I'm sorry to be the one to break the news to you, but it really sounds like you're going to have to start from scratch.

I don't think it was an oversight. Web pages and sites don't start out with code to ban all robots and search engines, and then remove the tags when we're done. Somebody typed those in there, or copied and pasted them from somewhere else. And it's very plain to see what the intention was - it's what happened.

No, I meant that if he wanted to remove the evidence then he should have returned everything back to normal, not left the code in.

I'm guessing that if my ranking doesn't return, I may have to take legal action as the majority of my business comes directly from Google.

Yeah, if I was going to hijack somebody and hold them for ransom this way I'd put everything back as close to how it was originally to destory the evidence, too.

But if he was trying to hurt your business from Google for not paying the guy to run your site anymore, it's not the state of the robots file today that matters - it's how it was over the past two weeks while Google couldn't reach your site. And all of that evidence can't be destroyed, at least not without Google's help, so maybe he left the other code because if you can't do everything, don't do anything?

wilvo first I'm really sorry this happened. Your webmaster gives the industry a bad name. Now that you've put back the original robots.txt file everything should come back, though it could take a little time for Google (and any other search engines) to recrawl the site and index the pages again.

You can help that along by getting more links to your site. Create a signature here with a link or links back to your site and spend a few days posting. That should be enough to get the spiders to come back again.

Everything should eventually return to close to as it was. I say close because things do change and it's possible that your pages were going to drop a little regardless, but you should ultimately see things back to where they were.

My guess is he left the robots.txt thinking you wouldn't notice. Not everyone would. He also isn't too bright since even if your rankings do come back I would think you could take him to court over this. Hold onto every piece of evidence you can. You might even want to take screen shots of Google results pages and your Webmaster Central pages. I seems clear that what he did was malicious and intended to hurt your business. I would think that's actionable in court.

As for your rankings coming back as long as you undue everything they should come back in time.

1. Now that the files have been corrected and the URL resubmitted, how long should I expect relisting to take?

If the URL remove tool was used, around 6 months.
If not, anywhere from a few days to a couple of months.

2. Is there any way of proving what has happened
3. Is there any action I can take against the webmaster?

Probably not and probably none.

I'm guessing that if my ranking doesn't return, I may have to take legal action as the majority of my business comes directly from Google.

A lesson in why you should NOT rely on free results from search engines for your business.
And the reason why any court case you try to bring would fail.

I don't understand why you should inform your hosts that you are moving. I never do that I have the domain registered in godaddy and just change the nameservers. I am not sure how does host come into picture here.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

If the URL remove tool was used, around 6 months.
If not, anywhere from a few days to a couple of months.


Probably not and probably none.



A lesson in why you should NOT rely on free results from search engines for your business.
And the reason why any court case you try to bring would fail.

Well its been working fine for four years. My webmaster, and former best friend I might add, knows a lot about Google and as a result of his expertise I have remained in the top rankings of Google.

I think its going to be fairly easy to prove in a civil court what he did and why he did it, however you have to prove a financial loss and it will only really be possible to do so if my domain doesn't return to the index in the next few weeks. Otherwise I will compare the value of business to come via my website over the last 4 years and come up with a yearly average and base any claim on this.

Originally Posted by vangogh

wilvo first I'm really sorry this happened. Your webmaster gives the industry a bad name. Now that you've put back the original robots.txt file everything should come back, though it could take a little time for Google (and any other search engines) to recrawl the site and index the pages again.

You can help that along by getting more links to your site. Create a signature here with a link or links back to your site and spend a few days posting. That should be enough to get the spiders to come back again.

Everything should eventually return to close to as it was. I say close because things do change and it's possible that your pages were going to drop a little regardless, but you should ultimately see things back to where they were.

My guess is he left the robots.txt thinking you wouldn't notice. Not everyone would. He also isn't too bright since even if your rankings do come back I would think you could take him to court over this. Hold onto every piece of evidence you can. You might even want to take screen shots of Google results pages and your Webmaster Central pages. I seems clear that what he did was malicious and intended to hurt your business. I would think that's actionable in court.

As for your rankings coming back as long as you undue everything they should come back in time.

According to Google my site has over 900 links pointing back to my site so that shouldn't be a problem.

I have taken screenshots of the Google pages and have emailed Google to ask if there was request made to remove the URL from the index.

I'll wait and see what happens I think and make a decision based on how quickly my rankings return.

Well its been working fine for four years.My webmaster, and former best friend I might add, knows a lot about Google and as a result of his expertise I have remained in the top rankings of Google.

That's all well and good, but to rely on something that is totally outside your control is a dangerous business practice, and obviously even more so now you are parting company with how you say you got there.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

That's all well and good, but to rely on something that is totally outside your control is a dangerous business practice, and obviously even more so now you are parting company with how you say you got there.

Well yes, but it would also be foolish to spend money on marketing when a free service is bringing in lots of new inquiries. If I had dropped off the index because Google had changed their algorithm I wouldn't have a complaint. If I rely on a van to do a job and someone slashes my tyres preventing me from doing so, that would be regarded as criminal.

The website was constructed in such a way that it has done very well in Google, there is no reason why this should change. If it did change then I would again pay a professional to optomise my site.

Originally Posted by wilvo

Well yes, but it would also be foolish to spend money on marketing when a free service is bringing in lots of new inquiries. If I had dropped off the index because Google had changed their algorithm I wouldn't have a complaint. If I rely on a van to do a job and someone slashes my tyres preventing me from doing so, that would be regarded as criminal.

The website was constructed in such a way that it has done very well in Google, there is no reason why this should change. If it did change then I would again pay a professional to optomise my site.

Google changes their algorithm probably every day. And moreover your competition changes every day.

Messing with your Google rank is less like slashing your tires and more like causing some kind of obstruction in the road you drive on. The tires are something you own, while the road is something you use. Google's placement of your site is something you take advantage of, for free, but don't own.

This isn't to rain on your parade, but to explain how things work in this realm. I don't think that fact will change your legal standing, but hopefully it will help you realize what Hirst is trying to say. I could visit your site, figure out your keywords, and then optimize my site for them out of spite. (I'm not going to, just saying.) That would take away your free source of customers in a legal manner. Regardless, even if Google is free, you wouldn't be loosing revenue right now if you found other sources of customers, whether they're free or not.

wilvo I do think what happened to you was wrong and I would think you do have grounds for some kind of case against your prior webmaster. Granted I'm not an attorney, but something tells me there's cause for action.

However it's not a good policy to get all your traffic and thus revenue from one source. You become reliant on Google for your business and at their mercy. What's to stop them from noticing how much you benefit because of them and decide they should start charging you for all the traffic they're sending?

What if six months from now another search engine dominates the market and takes all of Google's market share?

What if someone else seeing all the traffic you get decides to compete with you and does SEO better and outranks you for everything?

There are so many ways something can happen to cause you to lose all your traffic and revenue if it all comes from one source. The present situation with your webmaster should be enough to convince you of that.

Organic search traffic is only free in the sense that you don't pay per click or visit. You do pay in time though and you might even pay someone to get you the traffic in the first place.

It's never foolish to spend money on marketing if the return is enough. If you spend $1000 and it brings you back $1500 how is that stupid?

There is always reason why your rankings can change. it happens to people every day. If you've built traffic from a variety of sources then the day you do lose your Google traffic you won't skip a beat.

Hold up a minute, wilvo. Having read your story, I felt sympathetic to your cause, but something tells me that there's more to this than meets the eye.

Now that I look at your site, I have to know...is this what your fairweather friend built you, or has this been redone since?

This kind of webmaster should be punished.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Hold up a minute, wilvo. Having read your story, I felt sympathetic to your cause, but something tells me that there's more to this than meets the eye.

Now that I look at your site, I have to know...is this what your fairweather friend built you, or has this been redone since?

Yes it is the original site, the only thing that has changed is the graphic on the front page.

There really isn't anything more to this than a disagreement between 2 friends. What makes you think there is?

Originally Posted by vangogh

wilvo I do think what happened to you was wrong and I would think you do have grounds for some kind of case against your prior webmaster. Granted I'm not an attorney, but something tells me there's cause for action.

However it's not a good policy to get all your traffic and thus revenue from one source. You become reliant on Google for your business and at their mercy. What's to stop them from noticing how much you benefit because of them and decide they should start charging you for all the traffic they're sending?

What if six months from now another search engine dominates the market and takes all of Google's market share?

What if someone else seeing all the traffic you get decides to compete with you and does SEO better and outranks you for everything?

There are so many ways something can happen to cause you to lose all your traffic and revenue if it all comes from one source. The present situation with your webmaster should be enough to convince you of that.

Organic search traffic is only free in the sense that you don't pay per click or visit. You do pay in time though and you might even pay someone to get you the traffic in the first place.

It's never foolish to spend money on marketing if the return is enough. If you spend $1000 and it brings you back $1500 how is that stupid?

There is always reason why your rankings can change. it happens to people every day. If you've built traffic from a variety of sources then the day you do lose your Google traffic you won't skip a beat.

Thanks for your input. I think its great that my site has been able to generate so much revenue over the years, my webmaster did very little to the site over the years but it still remained in the top rankings in Google. If you happen to search for this guys name, even though it is a very generic name you will find him listed 3 times on the first page of any search results, this despite having a famous namesake. Despite his malicious actions he is very good at what he does.

It's probably the spammy keyword stuffed alt attributes of spacer images that Adam is wondering about.