It was only a matter of time before someone was to fall foul to the ICANN Verification, and I've a domain owner who is currently sick.

 

I get a call saying "somethings wrong with the server, I can't see my website". I thought strange but I would take a look. I ran a few tests and the client was right, the site was missing. I rang a ping and it came back saying it cannot find the domain, not the usual packet loss, it didn't get that far.

 

I ran some checks starting at server level and rolling back checks to the ns, then further back to the registrar which in their case was 123 Reg. I contact 123 Reg who said they didn't know and I would need level 2 support. Now since 123 Reg are known for their lack of support I started to dig deeper. Turns out when the client registered the domain all those years ago they used some old email address. I rang the client and asked and they laughed and said "I havn't checked that email in years". I got the login and sure enough their mailbox maxed in April 2013!

 

So to fix I updated the contact details of the domain (since 123 Reg was still silent) and nothing happened. According to 123 Reg documentation there is meant to be a verify button in their admin area, the strange bit was there was not one for this domain. Instead what I did was to change the dns to the same dns and then this triggered a new ICANN verify email which I clicked and 10 mins later the site was live again. The interesting bit is in one article they said 123 Reg would normally put up a holding page to notify you (there was a nice screen grab), however this was not the case. It could be because the domain was using different ns servers but surely if they are the ones blocking they would override this?

 

Sounds all fixed? Not a freaking chance. Currently where they were top 20 for most search terms they are now gone, and I don't mean sliding down I'm talking about vanished. I ran some checks and pages appear to still hold PA and the domain still holds DA. The interesting bit is Bing and Yahoo seem unaffected.

 

As to the next steps I'm unclear and cannot find anything on the aftermath. Has anyone experience in this? What's the chances of returning once the domain has been back online for a few weeks?

 

I will keep this updated as I discover more about cleanup as I can foresee this becoming the blight of 2014.

 

Helpful info by Alex Goodey.

 

Edit: Mods feel free to move this to domains but I posted here as it's more about the loss of serp than the domain name verification.

Ok update for you all. Today the site is back up on most pages so I think a full inclusion will happen. But it just goes to show what a clerical error can do ... 2k unique per day down to 5, the cost can be measured no doubt one way or another.

Ok so all is good and back on track. But for those who might have clients with unverified .com etc domains I have made a little infographic to help explain it to them clearly.

 

 

123reg did this to one of our customers they seem to be doing this a lot.

Yes and others will have to follow suit. Essentially once all are on this new method the registrar themselves can get suspended if they don't act. The other thing to note is dns changes prompt this verify email too so before migrating a site it would be worth checking the domain has the right contact details.