Violations of the webmaster guidelines?

[t1shopper]

Our site, t1shopper.com, was dropped last week becuase of violations of the webmaster guidelines. After posting to forums like google.public.support.general, we were advised to change the following things:

1. We deleted a hidden text site map at the bottom of the home page - viewable in the source code here (http://web.archive.org/web/20060428125505/http://www.t1shopper.com/).
2. We had many domain names all resolving to the same directory path as the main domain and now they are all "301" permanently redirecting (e.g. wispshopper.com)

Other than the above can anyone see anything that might not be "best practice?" The only thing I can think is "duplicate content." The service we provide (DSL service pre-qualification) is geographically sensitive so we have regional web pages for many of the cities in the United States (t1shopper.com/us/ca/). Could Google be dinging us for duplicate content?

How do we find out if "duplicate content" is an issue for us? And is there anything else that we might have violated? Thanks in advance for your help.

[glengara]

Looking at www. t1shopper.com/service/dsl/mi/Michigan.shtml you've gone way overboard with your internal linking, IMO...

[funkgypsy]

I notice your domain has no SPF record. This is important, especially when sending to certain ISPs "accross the pond."

Also, your MX points to t1shopper.com (204.2.109.47) but the RDNS for this IP points to e1shopper.com.

[t1shopper]

funkgypsy, you're totally right. We recently changed the PTR and I cannot remember why, I'll have to look this up. Our DNS host does not support SPF records yet, we're working on that because it seems like a solid concept to support.

BTW, Google has relisted us. We had a bunch of domain names all pointing to the same directory our main domain name is point at. While lots of big companies do this, it turns out it's much better to have superfluous domains Permanent Redirecting with HTTP 301 to the main domain instead of just having all the domains resolve to one place.

[funkgypsy]

It is good you took Google's advice.

The more compliant you are, the better (at least with Internet standards!)