OK!
I have now officially had enough with the WordPress domain mapping and redirection service and its causing my WordPress blog to disappear from Google search results for going on six months now.
I asked for help again from WordPress several days ago and got the following response:
Wordpress Response
As you can see from the above, WordPress doesn’t think its part of the problem but instead suggests Google is the responsible party.
Having already verified my new mapped WordPress domain with Google Webmaster Tools some time ago, I can submit a reconsideration request from Google.
There aren’t any options for just asking Google – hey why isn’t my site in the Google index?
Google Webmaster Tools Reconsideration Request
The presupposition with this particular request is a site isn’t in Google’s index because of something the site owner did – not what Google may or may not have done.
Reluctantly – I submitted the Google reconsideration request.
I had previously written WordPress about my experience and frustration with their lack of documentation and the caveats of their domain mapping service.
A WordPress staff member “Tellyworth” did provide a general answer to my question about their service in the WordPress forums:
Timothy,
WordPress.com does a 302 redirect from all of your old URLs to the new domain, to notify Google and other search engines of the new location. We’ve determined that is the safest way to do it.
Using a 301 (permanent) redirect is faster, but it usually causes both the old and new URLs to completely vanish from Google results for several weeks or more.
302 redirects will mean that Google takes longer to use the new domain – sometimes months or more – but your old URLs will usually retain their position in the search results until then. And people who click on the old URLs are obviously redirected to the correct location.
Google Webmaster Tools has the following boiler plater response to Reconsideration requests:
Google Webmaster Site Review
Below I provided my description of how I followed both WordPress and Google instructions and yet nearly six months have passed without my site appearing in Google’s search results.
Google Webmaster Site Review Request
At this point I have concluded, WordPress’ domain mapping service is effectively a Google search traffic death sentence.
Tags: 301 Redirect, 302 Redirect, Google Index, Google Webmaster Tools, Reconsideration Request, Tellyworth, Wordpress Domain Mapping Service
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