Website disappeared on Google since coverted to DIV?

[ChrisMillard]

Hi All

I'm not technically trained so please forgive the following words if ignorant.

I'm an antiques dealer just moved to the 21st Century. Spent 3 years getting my site to the top of Google for my niche area (large sized furniture not available in small shops or antique centres) of the already small antiques market. Very few dealers online, most have no idea of seop and so the job has not been difficult. Have a good company doing all meta work and design.

Changed site from HTML to DIV 8 weeks ago and my site has all but disappeared on Google. Held it's place on MSN and Yahoo though? Usually when substantial change is made to the site it takes 3 weeks to get back to the top but no recovery this time. Google would be right to put my site at the top as am the only dealer in the UK with the stock on sale via the web in the volume listed of my product type.

Business on it's knees, children eating beans without toast now so desperate for help.

Site is www.elisabethjamesantiques.co.uk if you think might be able to solve the mystery. Understanding that this will be free advice, that may save my butt, I will gladly pledge to double my £250 marathon sponsorship to Children In Need if anyone can offer help. (Haven't read the forum rules so hope donations to charity are OK in exchange for gratitude)

Regards
Chris Millard

[Dani]

I'm not sure what you mean by changing the site from HTML to DIV, since <div> is an HTML tag, although I assume you mean you went for a tableless design and started using more CSS, minimizing the amount of HTML on the site. If so, I can't understand why that would translate into Google not liking you more.

In checking out your site, I can tell you that a HUGE RED FLAG are the many many links on the homepage which just scream SEO spam. Never ever do that. If you used to do it, it's possible that the massive changes to the HTML code caused Google to take a deeper look at your site, and that set off a flag that it never paid much attention to before.

Also, if you had read the forum rules, you would have known that posting a link to your site isn't permitted in this forum. That's why there were 10 notices all over the place to read our rules.

[ChrisMillard]

I'm not sure what you mean by changing the site from HTML to DIV, since <div> is an HTML tag, although I assume you mean you went for a tableless design and started using more CSS, minimizing the amount of HTML on the site. If so, I can't understand why that would translate into Google not liking you more.

In checking out your site, I can tell you that a HUGE RED FLAG are the many many links on the homepage which just scream SEO spam. Never ever do that. If you used to do it, it's possible that the massive changes to the HTML code caused Google to take a deeper look at your site, and that set off a flag that it never paid much attention to before.

Also, if you had read the forum rules, you would have known that posting a link to your site isn't permitted in this forum. That's why there were 10 notices all over the place to read our rules.

Dani

Thanks so much for quick reply. I've searched the net for many forums and liked the open diallogue of yours. Read much from your technical subscribers and figured that a live case might wet their appetite to make use of the theory.

In answer to your notion that Google have taken a deeper look I can tell you factually that their is no spam on my site at all. I do have the best offering in the UK and every link on my site, every word, every text paragraph and image is only related to products I offer in exact words that match the product. For your technical people I think my case is a real challenge. Why did my site dominate the searches for so long (correctly if you assume that I am the best on the net for my tiny niche) but reject when converted to a better/slicker code. For your web designers I think this is a subject worth understanding.

Very sorry if I've infringed the rules but I reckon that all the forums deal with technical theory only so perhaps a real end user with a problem might spark a real debate about the actual results of the theory so entheusiastically discussed. I could have disguised the questions as third party or general thread but figured you were up to the head on dealing with the reality.

Yes, I'm just a low key antique furniture dealer but I'm truly trying to master a subject that very few of my breed will even contemplate.

Beat me up as much is needed but please first understand that I am genuine and am (just about) smart enough to make your forum hit some rational diversity that perhaps before might have been parked up as solved without checks.

Keep me in play and I'll test the bounds of the forums capability.

Hopeful
Chris Millard

[Dani]

> In answer to your notion that Google have taken a deeper look I can tell you factually that their is no spam on my site at all.

It *is* search engine spam, violating the rule of linking to all of your products off of your homepage in a way that attempts to be more search engine friendly than human friendly.

[davidgeo]

Using Div tags will reasonably reduce the codes and will help us to present the content (Which all SE's love) in the top to the search engines. So just becoz u use Div, u wont be getting poor results in SERP.

[ithelp]

Try to validate your website at w3c.org , if there is no validation error your website was not deindexed because of DIV probrably someone reported to google about spam/buy and sell links/copy right violations ,etc

[selfhelpebooks]

Your page does have a ton of links. It may be wise to just have a navigation bar left, which you do and have those as sub directories. If all else fails, I'd email Google.

[sierrasoft]

Google considers any page with more than 30 links as a link farm. Your main menu on the left already links to the Category and item pages. If you remove the links at the bottom of the pages for the different categories and items, your site will be back in the rankings in a week to 10 days.

[topgun79]

I did not understand your statement "dissappeared from google". Are you talking about the main keywords you had targeted on your website. As I can see that your website is in top 3 in google.co.uk for "antique furniture warehouse".

[kronikmedia]

I think that this could be temporary. I would advice two things. First is to wait for a week or two to see if the rank comes back. Sometimes when a lot of change are made ranking can behave in a strange manner initially before stabilizing again.
If it still does not work then I would advice removing some extra links from your homepage. In the past I have had my site jump back to normal after dropping a few pages after I removed some links form my homepage.