SEO experts: Has Google penalized my .co.uk minisite?

[RSK3000]

In June 2010 my .co.uk minisite, consisting of one page of about 450 words ranked number 3 on Google UK. The domain was an exact match key word.

I expanded the site and its ranking has fallen on Google UK. All I did was increase the first page to about 1,000 words and I added a few more shorter pages.

The front page does not rank for the two key words in the domain name - at least I can find it, but the contact page, which has almost no content can be found on page 13. The site is still in Google and the front page was cashed as recently as 13th Oct 2010.

Anyone with knowledge of SEO know whats going on and if there is anything that can be done to restore the rank?

Thanks

[dadamson]

Yes. It's a common activity that new websites often face, the Google Dance.

Keep building quality links to your homepage with anchor text of the keyword you are ranking for. Do this continuously and as frequent as you can.

Also, I'd be building an XML Sitemap which tells the search engines that your homepage is the authority page and your contact/about/policy pages are less important. - This will squeeze your SEO juice on your money pages.

Cheers,
Dave

[F1SEO]

I tend to hang fire on link building for a bit, on a new website.

Give it a few links to get it indexed, and that's it for a bit.

If it was cached 3 weeks ago - it's not that recent. I reckon it may be dancing, could come back shortly - who knows why it happens but I've seen it before.

[dhex]

This thread may help you understand what is going on

Drop in Google SERPs today

Originally Posted by RSK3000

In June 2010 my .co.uk minisite, consisting of one page of about 450 words ranked number 3 on Google UK. The domain was an exact match key word.

I expanded the site and its ranking has fallen on Google UK. All I did was increase the first page to about 1,000 words and I added a few more shorter pages.

The front page does not rank for the two key words in the domain name - at least I can find it, but the contact page, which has almost no content can be found on page 13. The site is still in Google and the front page was cashed as recently as 13th Oct 2010.

Anyone with knowledge of SEO know whats going on and if there is anything that can be done to restore the rank?

Thanks

[chinafulldress]

And I met this situation, I don't know how to solve this problem.

[Defunct]

There could be many reasons, you changed the content, so just leave it for a few weeks and see what happens.

If you still arn't ranked you might want to do a bit of link building for the keyword.

[crunchie]

Well the implementation by google of places results into the serps has thrown a major curve ball into the equation. Google is pushing local search hard, and pushing everyone to ppc ...
Pretty hard to give a great response without seeing the url

[RSK3000]

Sorry, I should have said this.

Its a relatively old site. The single page website was on page one for perhaps as long as a year. Then I changed it, in July 2010 and thats when it dropped. Its only got a few backlinks. Its also plain HTML - not Wordpress - don't know if thats relevant.

Another thing is that I have hundreds of domains and 60 - 70 little sites like that all in the same hosting package. So probably all on the same server/ IP address - is that relevant?

I've not posted the URL because I dont want to be accused of 'promoting' the site here.

[32paul52]

Hiya,
It does look like a google dance, with some of my clients it has lasted around 10 days, but it was at a time that no changes were made to the site.

I recently tried out some on page software (for wordpress) which made a lot of suggestions for on page design. after the changes were made, the site dropped from 55 to not top 10 pages, I waited around 2 weeks. i reverted the site, in which the ranking cam back up to the same place.

You might want to look at this as an option

[paulgl]

Adding more words would certainly effect one page.
You have now changed the dynamics of it.
Google is going for relevancy more and more.
Your site may rank high for words other than "your" chosen keywords.
I would play around with search terms to see if I can bring it up.
Look in your stats to see what keywords people found your site
by. That would be the first place to look as to how the dynamics
of your site changed.

But here's the thing. You play around with your site, then assume google
does not play around with SERPs? If you change, google should change
their outlook on your site as well.

And we really don't know what your competition has been up to, or
many other intangibles.

Paul

[RSK3000]

Thanks Paul, I does sound like the Google has taken a disliking to my site because of the changes. So, I dont think google dance or competition is the explanation.

Paul any suggestions about getting the site to rank properly. i.e. if the domain name was tennisrackets/co/uk (its not) I'm looking to rank for the search tennis rackets.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by RSK3000

Thanks Paul, I does sound like the Google has taken a disliking to my site because of the changes. So, I dont think google dance or competition is the explanation.

Paul any suggestions about getting the site to rank properly. i.e. if the domain name was tennisrackets/co/uk (its not) I'm looking to rank for the search tennis rackets.

Google dance explains it pretty well according to your statements as well. Often times while Google re-assesses your page it will disappear from the SERPS. A good indicator of this is that your contact page is ranking on page 13 while you're homepage is absent. Give it some time and I'm certain that your site will return to where it was or even higher.

[Rob141]

It's sandboxed but it will come back, disappear, come back a few times before settling.

[F1SEO]

Originally Posted by RSK3000

Sorry, I should have said this.

Its a relatively old site. The single page website was on page one for perhaps as long as a year. Then I changed it, in July 2010 and thats when it dropped. Its only got a few backlinks. Its also plain HTML - not Wordpress - don't know if thats relevant.

Another thing is that I have hundreds of domains and 60 - 70 little sites like that all in the same hosting package. So probably all on the same server/ IP address - is that relevant?

I've not posted the URL because I dont want to be accused of 'promoting' the site here.

The normal culprits for changes in ranking are: <title> change, h1 change, wording changes, and keyword density.

That's a lot of sites all on one hosting package. If a lot of them are linked up then imo this is not so cool.

You could spread your sites a bit (that's what we do), we use these guys cPanel Hosting, Domain Name Registration, Virtual and Dedicated Servers - Vidahost Fast UK Web Hosting, and they're brilliant. We've got 7 accounts on seven different servers with them. And I'll be expanding that soon.

[paulgl]

I think the term "disliking" is a little harsh. They have shuffled the
relevancy, so to speak. Jacob makes a good point, close to what I
was thinking: The site is there, somewhere, just not in the place you
think it should be. It's not fatal, and you should look at the
amount of traffic it gets now as opposed to then. Looking up what
keywords it is being shown for is job one. Once you have that info,
you can either SEO it even more for the new ones, or even go
back to where it was. I struggled on one site with google for months
before tossing in the towel. I now just go with it, and it's been
great.

I can only agree with a google dance in a very small way. I don't think
they are dancing, but putting you somewhere that you had not
planned on.

I may even search for the domain by itself. Google has been known
to de-index a main page, leaving all others intact.

Paul

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