Site rankings took a downward spiral suddenly

[Biggy Fat]

Hello World. I am experiencing a huge crisis here. For a few days, I had some pretty good rankings for my month old site. It has unique content and it provides all sorts of value to users. Backlinks were being built to it and everything and I was getting good traffic. But now, the rankings have spiraled down to pages where people wouldn't DARE have the patience to look. My site is still indexed in the SERPs and all, and I've tried to figure out what exactly caused the huge drop in rankings. My site has danced a bit in Google before settling in nicely, then I get this huge drop. Do I need to be worried or is this just some more dancing?

If this is permanent, I am completely out of business. Any and all help would be appreciated.

[zoema]

This sounds like the normal trend for most newer sites, call it the sand box effect if you like. It takes time and patience. In the mean time focus on developing more quality content and building some inbound links slowly.

Over time it will normalize.

Good luck!

[Biggy Fat]

Awww, darnit. The dreaded Sandbox, eh? Oh well. Not sure what I did to get in it, but it will take months to get out.

[paulgl]

What's the sandbox?

The disappointment webmasters feel when Google's stupid algorithms don't appreciate their site. It can't be them so it must be Google's fault.
SEO - Frequently Asked Questions

Months? Are you seriously going to wait months? To get out of Narnia?

Paul

[Biggy Fat]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Months? Are you seriously going to wait months? To get out of Narnia?

If I had it my way, I'd want out NOW. But from what I've read about the Sandbox, it will take months to get out.

[inter123]

Normally it does take a few months for a site to mature. In the mean time add a few backlinks and work on other projects / sites if you can.

[Sleaklight]

Maybe it's just part google dance. I've had good rankings then drop off the radar and come back a week later. It'll come back.

[gekko2.0]

I had the same thing happen to one of my site last week, after a couple of days it was back to its original position

[fasteasysuccess]

if you want pm me your site and i'll take a look.

[ADukes81]

Same thing happened to me yesterday. I was on page one and I'm now #94 in Google. I hope it makes its way back to the top

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by Biggy Fat

If I had it my way, I'd want out NOW. But from what I've read about the Sandbox, it will take months to get out.

...if there was a sandbox.

Paul

[wondergirlseo]

Well it just happens when Google changes its rules and policies plus if you stop doing SEO your site goes down pretty fast.

[Biggy Fat]

Well, all I can do now is pray. I needed this like a slap in the face. It really sucks because I had high hopes for this site only for it to get Google Slapped (and before anyone asks, Google Slap doesn't just apply to PPC).

And before anyone asks again, it isn't an XFactor site.

[Biggy Fat]

Thanks to everyone for replying, though. Now all my hopes are lost with this Google Slap.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by Biggy Fat

Well, all I can do now is pray. I needed this like a slap in the face. It really sucks because I had high hopes for this site only for it to get Google Slapped (and before anyone asks, Google Slap doesn't just apply to PPC).

And before anyone asks again, it isn't an XFactor site.

A google slap would be a de-index or sending you to the supplemental index,
which is just like de-index.

If you finished first in a marathon, then the next one 10 people finished ahead
of you, would you blame it on the race officials?

Paul

[Biggy Fat]

Update: Is my site trying to revive itself? Who knows, but yesterday I actually got some organic visitors without even knowing it. So my site had to be on the first page for a while, but this morning it is right back in the Sandbox. I don't know what its doing.

[lukemeister]

I had a site that was getting over 100 unique visitors a day up until Dec 26th (a few days ago) - On that day all the pages that were positioned on the first page of Google dropped to about page 10. And they stayed there for about 7 days. Yesterday, they all came back and my traffic came back.

This happens all the time to newer sites, just don't panic, keep doing positive SEO work and ride it out, you'll probably come back

It is kinda scary though if you're experiencing this for the first time

[sushil10s]

Originally Posted by Biggy Fat

Hello World. I am experiencing a huge crisis here. For a few days, I had some pretty good rankings for my month old site. It has unique content and it provides all sorts of value to users. Backlinks were being built to it and everything and I was getting good traffic. But now, the rankings have spiraled down to pages where people wouldn't DARE have the patience to look. My site is still indexed in the SERPs and all, and I've tried to figure out what exactly caused the huge drop in rankings. My site has danced a bit in Google before settling in nicely, then I get this huge drop. Do I need to be worried or is this just some more dancing?

If this is permanent, I am completely out of business. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Its really a thing to be worried about, happened with me too. I achieved a rank suddenly up by pushing other 3.4 million sites in one week due to the unique content (I thought) but now the rank is stable and even sometimes lower down [may be other sites are more actively indulged in internet marketing for the keywords chosen]. I am sure that something very different is really required to make our site a huge success. Please share with us quickly to get rid off this 'not so familiar' situation.