Does Google penalize a single page?

[Dellco]

I think one of the pages on my site has been penalized by Google. Few months ago it was on the first page at number 4 or 5, and about 1 or 2 months ago, it disappeared and is nowhere to be seen anywhere, for all keyword variations on it. The page is still indexed though.....

All I did was put the link on some Web 2.0 articles, and write articles for it on some blog networks. I think that's how it went up to the first page, but then it suddenly disappeared. The main site is certainly not penalized, so why would this one page be penalized? Very confused

The funny thing is my Hub on the topic is still ranking on the first few pages, and number one for some terms, but my own page on it is nowhere....

So does Google single out a single page to penalize? Or is this a "single page sandbox"...is there such a thing?

Whatever it is, how do I redeem it back out again? Any ideas?

[PhilipSEO]

Without knowing the details, the short answer is that yes, a single page can be penalized, and it can be filtered for specific keywords while still ranking for other keywords. However, it is more likely that you are not penalized. Rankings fluctuate all the time, and chances are yours will come back and may even return stronger. Just be patient, check again in like a month.

[Dellco]

Thanks for replying Phillip, Google seems to actually like the site itself, just not that page, but at first it did like that particular page a lot. So I don't know what happened, as I only did for that page what I do for other pages.

It's been dumped for like, 2 months at least...

Indexed, but not able to be found via the SERPs for anything.

[dburk]

Hi Dellco,

Most likely you were not penalized, but instead awarded a temporary boost known as QDF (Query Deserves Freshness). Once this temporary boost wears off, you page will sink to its truly deserved ranking.

I think it is a silly notion to think that Google would waste valuable resources trying to issue penalties page by page. That's just crazy talk.

Another thing to consider is if your page content is unique or not. If there is duplicate content somewhere on the web, then that other page may be ranking while yours is filtered, as duplicate content, from the SERP.

[JaviGos]

Dear Sirs,

This is my first post here, and I have the same problem as Dellco. Let me explain my case.

A couple of days ago one of my .html pages disappeared from google search. The url construction was like this:

www . mysite . com/penalizedpage.html

The curious thing is that all other .html pages within the same domain are still in the google search doing fine, which means that the domain has not been "banned/penalized" entirely, but only that single .html page.

So, my first question is:

1) Can google "ban/penalize" a single page within a website without affecting the rest of pages in the same domain? I gues the answere is YES.

The next question is about the url redirects, and if this could be the reason why the page has disappeared from my google ranking. You see, I have redirected the page in question 2 times in the last 3 months to .html pages that are more SEO friendly. I did it using permanent redirects 301 like this:

first from:

www . mysite . com/originalpage1.html

to:

www . mysite . com/originalpage2.html

and then to:

subdomain . mysite . com/penalizedpage.html

Right now both originalpage1.html and originalpage2.html redirect to

subdomain . mysite . com/penalizedpage.html

So, question number 2 is:

2) Could these redirects have forced google to "ban/penalize" that page? Should I remove the redirects?

The final question is:

3) If a .html page is banned/penalized would the ban be lifted anytime soon or is this something permanent?

Thank you for your time.

[dburk]

Hi JaviGos,

Check your redirects to make sure they are not 302 Temporary redirects. If you leave those in place too long Google will de-index them.