[naishster]

I've been in webmasters tools after A site I have that got around 200 visits a day from Google just lost all traffic.

I read this thread that outlines a similar problem: Webmaster tools - googlebot error message

They actually moved DNS which resolved(?) the problem but I'm just wondering if any light can be shed on it now?

Thanks peeps.

[teezone]

After chatting to my host at length... and it's something that is puzzling them lately.. it seems googlebot has a tendency to trip Mod Security. This, in turn, causes Mod Security to ban the IP address.

Whether or not your site bans the google IP that tripped the security rule depends on the hosting setup. Some are more vigilant than others...

Not sure if this is the info that you were looking for, but hope it helps!

And welcome to ABW..

[naishster]

Thanks for the welcome Teezone, and for the feedback. :-)

Is this something I can clear up myself or is can it only be handled by my host?

If I can do it myself would you mind outlining how? I can make a few $ on the internet no probs but stick me in the cpanel and I freeze! lol

Any info you can supply would be most appreciated.

[teezone]

In most cases, your host will handle it...

However if you have a VPS or dedicated server, you have access to an enhanced Cpanel-type interface called WHM. For my VPS, WHM contains a link to configure the firewall, and that's where banned IP addresses are listed.

In Cpanel you have the option to ban IP addresses yourself, but there is no "un-ban" for the IPs that tripped mod-security, so you need to speak with your host. This is one of the limitations of shared hosting.

It's difficult to trouble-shoot this problem - Google comes in a with an assorted range of IP addresses, so it's not easy to pin down. If you can isolate the day, your host may be able to find the IP that got banned.

Moving the DNS should fix the problem, but that's an extreme measure. I was panicked in other thread as it wasn't my own site (a shared project)... the next time it happened to one of my own sites, I found the IP address in the banned list.

Hope this helps!

[naishster]

Thanks for that Teezone,

I'll get onto Siteground right away.

I'll let you know how that goes, I think they are getting unhappy with my questions as when I try to continue with the line of questioning I get the 'This ticket has been permanently closed, since you marked it as resolved.' message, even though I didn't mark it resolved.

Sad really, I liked Siteground hosting up until that point.

[teezone]

Welcome to the world of websites.. I'm on my 3rd host in 5 years, and if you browse the hosting sub-forum, you will see many interesting threads on the same topic.

Domains & Hosting - ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum

Another problem with shared hosting is that you can find yourself in a bad neighborhood - to avoid this, make sure you have a dedicated IP address.

Hosting aside, have you examined everything else - make sure robots.txt is not disallowing googlebot, and your htaccess file is properly formed (which could be related to canonical issues, ie. www vs non-www).

[naishster]

I have Thesis doing the setup to canonicalise things, To be honest i wouldn't know where to begin looking in the .htaccess file for errors or how to set up my robots.txt. I recently used a plugin to set up the robots.txt but the hosts informed me that it was blocking googlebot. This was after all the traffic dropped btw, not the cause of it. Maybe something changed the plugin data however? (perhaps I'm just on a paranoia buzz? lol)

I have a guy who I trust looking into this right now as it goes so I'm hoping he will pick out the errors/bugs/hackers/cock-ups in hosting, or whatever it may be soon. lol. I have sent him the link to this (and your old thread) for reference, judging from previous reviews on this guys ability however I think he is up to it.

Go Peter!!! ;-) lol