How to handle server crash without losing SEO results..??

[DinSurf]

Hi

We have an eCommerce site having more than 2000+ product pages indexed on Google. All product page URLs are done thru mod_rewriter. Recently our server crashed and all domains & sub domains we had were pointed to the back up server by changing the IP ("A" record). Same mod-rewriter URLs were also done there again in the back up server too.

However, very next day itself, the number of indexed pages drastically dropped to 100+ and for cretain sub domains started appearing supplemental results. Even after 3 weeks, Google doesn't seem to pick these pages again.

Pls explain how & why this happened..??
Does Google penalise the domains & sub domains for not having them live when they crawl the sites..??
How can we get back to the former position..??
Still we are running on the back up server..?? Should we go back to the old server where we were..??
How can we prevent this happening again..??

[vayapues]

Google understands that your server goes down from time to time, and will not penalize you for it, unless it is down for a few crawls in a row.

The number of indexed pages will go up and down like a roller-coaster, especially on Google. I have been watching my sites for over eight years. Some days I may have tens of thousands of pages showing as indexed, and other days I may only show a few thousand.

I used to get really worried when the number of pages went down. However, they always bounced back. The number of pages indexed does not usually change all that much. What often happens is that Google tweaks what they are showing as being indexed. So the same number of pages are still in their index, but they are not showing them all to you. Also, you might be hitting a DC that has not been updated with all your pages.

I have come to the conclusion that the folks at Google just like to mess with us, and see how much they can stress us out.

Of course you could have penalties on your site for other reasons, but I very much doubt it has anything to do with your server going down.

[fathom]

Agree with vayapues.

What you see and what is actually occurring can often be 2 different things.

As many websites lost many pages recently you quite possibly suffered the same fate, and the crash merely occurring in and around the same time provided a convenient camouflage.

You best bet is to develop some links directly to the affect subdomains and even some deep links inside the subdomain to help build up the bottom end of the website.

[Chris Boggs]

Dinsurf I am curious for an update?