Did Google flame me?

Great! I wrote a huge reply and it didn't post...!

Well, I'm going to give you the short version:

Your site indeed is not listed in Google at all. Is there anything that you have been doing as far as submitting or rank-checking that might have caused this?

Thanks,
Christian

Carry on sitting on your butt!

Google is currently in the process of implimenting a new filter and their results are changing constantly at the moment as it's shuffling through the 9 different databases. Sit tight for the next two weeks until the permenant update and see how things pan out from there.

FYI, flaming means highly emotional emails, posts and usenet postings, not dropping you from a search engine. If Google wrote on their site that your site was the worst piece of shite ever to mistakenly think it was a viable piece of ecommerce, that would be flaming. Dropping you from the listings would be "dropping", not flaming.

Suzanne, thanks for the lesson! It makes a big difference when conversing on these forums if you're not using the right words. Now I know that I've been dropped (although I feel flamed). Now, if since it appears I've been dropped, what do I do? Can I re-submit? Do I beg forgiveness, or what? Does anyone see anything wrong with my site? Bill

heh, terminology can be confusing, I know.

I think Julia's advice is dead on -- hold tight until things have stopped being revised, then see where you are then. Until Google has stopped rearranging, you'll just be frustrating yourself trying to figure it out.

You can likely improve your results by concentrating on how to make the site more effective for users -- the most effective it is for your users, the more search engines will love you, since there will be lots of links (not "back" and "home", but in the text), and lots of tasty, focused, specific words.

Otherwise, as Christian asked, have you been using any underhanded methods? Seems as if you've been lazy, so perhaps that's not an issue?

Fortunately the more user-centric you are, and the more honourable in your approach, the higher the rewards in search engine ranking. One of the few areas of business where taking the high road is more than morally beneficial.

In going back over the page with a fine tooth comb... I found one thing (and quickly changed it) that may have been the cause of my being dropped! I had at the top, text that contained keywords, and they were one shade off the background so that you could be looking right at it and not see it. As I remember that was one suggestion floating around a couple years ago that worked to acheive good results. Looking back on it, it was at the least unprofessional and at the worst a violation of fairplay, sorry.

As I said, Google is currently a bit up in the air as far as results are concerned so I would wait for the 2 weeks then see what's happened and then if you are still not back in then post us the url to your site and we'll have a look at the site and see what we can suggest.