Popular WordPress Plugins Removed From Google

Popular WordPress Plugins Removed From Google?

Published

April 19, 2013

31 Comments

As part of on-going brand and SEO checks at Photocrati, we do regular searches for relevant keywords for our products. This morning, we found that NextGEN Gallery’s WordPress directory page has dropped out of Google’s search results.

So as any curious WordPress team might do, we started to search for other popular plugins in the directory. As it turns out, Askimet, WordPress SEO by Yoast, Contact Form 7, and most other popular plugins are also nowhere to be seen.

Here are some example searches on Google, all which used to bring up the WordPress.org plugin pages or other WordPress.org pages within the first couple results:

Apart from plugins, many other common WordPress.org pages also seem to be missing from search results.

Now, I’ve been monitoring social media and not seeing much buzz around the topic so I thought it was worth throwing out there with some questions.

Have you noticed this today?
Have you noticed happen before (with WordPress.org specifically)?
Do you know exactly what is happening?
Are you confused by this?

Thanks for reading; I’m baffled!

There are 31 comments

April 19, 2013 #

mindctrl

They’re in Google results for me. I’ve seen problems like you describe before, and deleting cookies fixed it. It was almost as if they were corrupt. The problem was happening when signed in or signed out. Deleted the cookies and worked fine afterwards, both signed in and out.
- April 19, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  We have multiple people doing searches on our end, and we contacted other plugin developers who also don’t see their plugins listed anymore. Very odd that you’re seeing it.
- April 19, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  Although if you’re seeing it, that could be a sign that whatever happened is slowly getting fixed.
April 19, 2013 #

matt

I’m getting the appropriate results from Google.
April 19, 2013 #

SpelaGP

Hi,

my Google search shows all the plugins just fine – the ones you liste too. It had to be a momentary glitch :).
- April 19, 2013 #
  
  Mike Zielonka
  
  Hi SpelaGP.
  
  When you are checking can you make sure your not logged into google?
  
  When i search for “nextgen gallery” I see this: http://cloud.tunas.co/image/0D46261b0s1W which is missing the main page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/ from the search results.
April 19, 2013 #

Sebastien

I’m a WordPress plugin developer my self. Is this just for WordPress.org plugin or is it also for when doing keyword searches ? Has Google released another update that has caused our current cookies to no longer be valid and not return results properly ? This is a very cautious topic. Must follow.
- April 19, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  No major update that we’re aware of.
April 19, 2013 #

Chris Wiegman

Glad to see it’s not just me. I noticed my Better WP Security plugin was missing this morning as well.
April 19, 2013 #

Thomas

Greece is ok with these search results.
April 19, 2013 #

Mike Zielonka

Scott –

There was a minor but still very important change made on Plugin Description Pages recently: http://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2013/04/16/be-the-author/

It’s very odd that this would impact all the plugin description pages in Google SERP but it’s possible.

I’ll dig more.

Mike
- April 19, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  We noticed that, but don’t see how adding authorship would remove or lower rank. Please keep us posted what you find.
  - April 19, 2013 #
    
    Mike Zielonka
    
    Well it shouldn’t…I’ve done it many times over for my customers but never done an implementation at the large size of wordpress.org
    
    Think of the possible red flag this could have raised with Google…1000’s of new authors on the same domain.
    
    I did a dozen searches and all the description pages are gone…so i suppose it possible.
    
    I put my SEO CSI hat on…report back soon.
    - April 19, 2013 #
      
      Scott Wyden Kivowitz
      
      Good point. Never know!
April 19, 2013 #

Scott Offord

I see that the pages are still in the index: http://scott.offord.me/OQ2U
- April 19, 2013 #
  
  Scott Wyden Kivowitz
  
  They’re there, but their rankings have been lowered drastically. For example, Joost’s plugin has always been in the top 3 results for “wordpress seo” but for us it no longer shows, even on the 1st few pages.
  - April 19, 2013 #
    
    Mike Zielonka
    
    Those are symptoms of a Google penalty. Scott O and I are hunting someone down who can help us look into this more.
    
    Stay tune to this episode of CSI: SEO as we work the case lol
  - April 19, 2013 #
    
    Steven Gliebe
    
    wordpress.org forum posts relating to WordPress SEO start showing on page 6 but still no sign of the actual plugin’s page. Weird.
April 19, 2013 #

Mike Zielonka

@Scott – If you know any of the WP.org devs, see if you can contact them and ask them to check Google Webmaster Tools for any messages.
April 19, 2013 #

Scott Offord

Can someone at Automattic has access to Google Webmaster Tools give us some insight?
April 19, 2013 #

Scott Offord

@mike follow this tweet for more info on that.
April 19, 2013 #

Bill Robbins

I just noticed the same problem for Woocommerce. I was looking up the link to the plugin at wordpress.org to help a customer and it was on the second page of results for me (normally it’s the top one). I even ran a couple of variations on the search with the same results.
April 19, 2013 #

DJ

I don’t see anything wrong here from AZ. All searches seem ok.

WordPress seo definitive guide is #1 and the plugin #2

NextGEN Gallery site is #1 and plugin repository #2

etc…

DJ
April 19, 2013 #

Josh Wagner

I’m getting the right searches as of now. Signed in and not. Sounds like Google had a glitch to me… But that’s not a glitch you take lightly.
April 19, 2013 #

Shea Bunge

Strange… I’m receiving the same results. At least a search for my biggest plugin still shows the WP.org page as the top result 🙂
April 20, 2013 #

photoMaldives

I saw a similar thing this morning, and thought it had just been a browser glitch of some sort.

Searching google just for “WordPress Plugins” would usually give the obvious ORG site repository as the first hit – I do this now & again cos I don’t have the page bookmarked – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ – But now it does not appear at all !

Even searching for “WordPress free Plugins” or “WordPress.org Plugins” does not bring it up. This is the same whether I am signed into google or not (chrome incognito window). Both bing and duckduckgo still give the expected result – ORG plugin repository as the first result.

I’m no SEO expert, but it looks like google has penalised/downranked the official site for some reason ?
April 20, 2013 #

Dave Clements

I noticed this too! I wanted to get the link for WPTouch yesterday and it wasn’t on the front page. It wasn’t until I searched for “wordpress.org WPTouch” that it showed up. Very odd!
April 20, 2013 #

Otto

Patience, please. It takes a while for Google to adjust to change.

Additionally, we’re continually adjusting as we see problems arise. It will sort itself out, but as many people know, Google isn’t prone to instant-response, so it will take some time.
April 20, 2013 #

Scott Offord

Can anyone from Automattic confirm if they received a message from Google in their Google Webmaster Tools account?
April 21, 2013 #

Paul

Maybe it was just a single-day trouble? So, even though all the plugins are removed…. has it an influence on the SEO results?
April 21, 2013 #

Emil

No need to guess, or be too alarmed over this, please see:

http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

Thanks,

Emil

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