Why Do My Sites Disappear? Rating High Then Drop Majorly

[Sheryl Polomka]

I know everyone is going to say it's the Google dance but my sites don't seem to come back up once they drop. This has happened to a few sites of mine.

One example is my PLR site, was sitting at #5 for the term 'quality plr' and now is nowhere to be seen and hasn't been for about 4 or 5 weeks now. It is still indexed, just not up in the top 1000 anywhere.

Now I've just had it happen to another reasonably new site that was sitting at around #3 and has now disappeared too. I have a few sites that this has happened to and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong or how to get them back up.

Any ideas?

[Sheryl Polomka]

*Buying backlinks - I recently bought a backlink package and my plr site disappeared shortly after, although there aren't too many of those backlinks indexed at all so I wouldn't think it would be that. The newer site I hadn't bought backlinks and in fact had only created around 50 backlinks over the couple of months the site has been live.

*Too many too fast - the plr site main backlinks are from here in my sig - only a couple hundred other backlinks from various sites.

*Dripping auto-content - I don't use auto-content on any of my blogs

*Competitors sabotaging you with anti-campaigns - possible but wouldn't think so on varied niches

*Buying third tier traffic... - nope don't do that

*Promoting in usual aff infested pools of traffic - no I don't think so

I have another site that's 8 or 9 months old now and should rank well for it's main keywords but doesn't, it's down in the 1,000's - never bought backlinks, never done anything blackhat or greyhat - no idea why it happens

[Sheryl Polomka]

But if Google was going to 'punish' my site wouldn't they de-index it? They are still indexed.

Hundreds of people buy backlink services, surely they don't all get penalized for it or no-one would be doing it anymore. It wasn't even a huge backlink service.

Are my sites just to be written off now or can I bring them back from the dead?

[Sheryl Polomka]

Originally Posted by ncmedia

Like my x-girlfriend used to like to say.

"There's many forms of punishment"

Not sure if you can bring them back I don't think anyone here can truly say with confidence what might happen. I've seen people get sandboxed for a few days, a few weeks, and a few months. Sometimes they come back twice as strong, sometimes they never come back, stay de-indexed or stay in the sandbox forever.

well yes there are many forms of punishment

Thanks for your help, I guess I'll keep working on them and hope I can revive them!

[darkmaster]

I think making a thread in Webmaster Central Help
can give you better idea.
I hope this can help you.

--
THanks

[Sheryl Polomka]

Originally Posted by darkmaster

I think making a thread in Webmaster Central Help
can give you better idea.
I hope this can help you.

--
THanks

Thanks I'll take a look, it looks like there are some threads on the same topic so I'll have a read through some

[Barry Unruh]

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

One example is my PLR site, was sitting at #5 for the term 'quality plr' and now is nowhere to be seen and hasn't been for about 4 or 5 weeks now. It is still indexed, just not up in the top 1000 anywhere.

I'm not sure what triggered your problem, but I currently see an interior page of your Quality PLR site at position 228 broad match. (Using Market Samurai to check.)

You are right, though. The main page is not showing up within the top 1000.

When you mention "bought a backlink package", the one thing I would worry about is where the backlinks are from. If they are from sites which Google starts seeing as either a source of "selling backlinks" or is from sites which have a tendency to link to "anything and everything" you may not get de-indexed but simply take a severe ranking penalty.

The best way to combat this is to start focusing on highly relevant links from higher PR sites for a while and see if you begin to see your site climbing back up through the ranks.

I just about bought a "backlink package" on Fiverr a week ago for a play/test site. One I am willing to see disappear from Google if it happens. Then I stopped and thought for a moment. I have no idea where they are going to put these links, the PR of the sites, but I do know they are selling this identical service over and over and over again. Which means to me it is going to be a very diluted source of backlinks very fast with a higher chance of taking a severe Google penalty much sooner, too.

I went back to blog commenting, videos, articles, and other content locations using Posterous and my rankings keep slowly climbing week after week. It may not be fast, but it is at least consistent, and safe.

Hope it pops back in for you. Your site is high quality and deserves the attention.

Barry

[Sheryl Polomka]

Thanks Barry

The backlinking service I believe is profile backlinks, but there are very few of them that have even been indexed, that's why I can't really see it being the reason for the drop in ranking.

The service I used is also from a very reputable Warrior that I trust to give a good service.

I've just added the site to webmaster tools and I've put in a reconsideration request, I'll keep building links using article marketing and blog commenting and hopefully I'll get it back up.

[pavionjsl]

Originally Posted by ncmedia

Like my x-girlfriend used to like to say.

"There's many forms of punishment"

Not sure if you can bring them back I don't think anyone here can truly say with confidence what might happen. I've seen people get sandboxed for a few days, a few weeks, and a few months. Sometimes they come back twice as strong, sometimes they never come back, stay de-indexed or stay in the sandbox forever.

I know it's not encouraging, but it's real. Every action causes a reaction, whatever happens I'm sure you'll figure out a way to still bank without G being a big part of your potential income anymore. Hard to look at it as a blessing in disguise but it just might be (a while from now when you're normalized again).

So let me get this "punishment thing".

If I have a site ranked number 7 on page 1, and I slam the 6 sites ahead of me with 5000 profiles links each for the keyword we are all competing for they will disappear forever being punished by Google for the links I give them for that keyword?

Wow, that theory would spawn a profile links attack method would it not?

[Fernando Veloso]

Originally Posted by ncmedia

Are you doing ANYTHING to them for promotion that isn't considered absolutely white hat? Your sequence of publishing and promoting might be triggering their flags unbenounced to you as to why/where.

*Buying backlinks
*Too many too fast
*Dripping auto-content
*Competitors sabotaging you with anti-campaigns
*Buying third tier traffic...
*Promoting in usual aff infested pools of traffic

Norb,

I had two sites completely knocked out after I sent 2 warnings for illegal use of my copyrighted content.

WHAT could had they done to knock my sites from #1?

[Sheryl Polomka]

Originally Posted by pavionjsl

So let me get this "punishment thing".

If I have a site ranked number 7 on page 1, and I slam the 6 sites ahead of me with 5000 profiles links each for the keyword we are all competing for they will disappear forever being punished by Google for the links I give them for that keyword?

Wow, that theory would spawn a profile links attack method would it not?

That's a very good point really isn't it! If Google penalize you for a thousand backlinks then you could just go and send backlinks to your competition and get them penalized.

I really don't think it was the backlinks that did it, but I have no idea what did

[Fernando Veloso]

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

That's a very good point really isn't it! If Google penalize you for a thousand backlinks then you could just go and send backlinks to your competition and get them penalized.

I really don't think it was the backlinks that did it, but I have no idea what did

Thats why I asked Norb what he meant by *Competitors sabotaging you with anti-campaigns.

There is ALWAYS more to it, especially in competitive markets...

[bgmacaw]

Here's what I'm seeing.

The vast majority of the links are signature links from right here on Warrior Forum. Many of the others are weaker footer links, ad banner links or profile links. So, you're in a rather weak position where any discounting of a site that's linking to you can cause a dramatic drop in ranking. I suspect this is what's happened and not any kind of direct penalty.

Another thing that might be impacting your ranking is that, as I recall, you swap out your footer links here often as you introduce new PLR packages. This means one page on your site loses 3000+ links overnight and this doesn't look particularly good to the algorithm. This will probably put your site into a recalculate state. As long as your site is bolstered by strong authority links it wouldn't be a significant problem but when a site lacks this 'anchor' such changes will make it dance about.

[2ndopkate]

Hey Sheryl,

My PLR has consistently been on the 2nd and 3rd page for keyword phrases I'm trying to optimize. Haven't moved and inch!

Did most of your traffic come from organic searches? Not that it wouldn't be sweet to be Numero Uno for 'Buy PLR' or 'Free PLR' or even 'Quality PLR', but so far the traffic for me is not organic for the more high traffic keywords. Traffic is coming in via direct referral.

I'm going to start a 30 day campaign on a new keyword phrase or two and see if I can get them to the top. Not as popular as 'buy plr' but not to shabby either.

Kater

[2ndopkate]

Bgmacaw

Awesome observation and great advice on the footer links. Never even thought about the impact of swapping those about.

Thanks, Kater

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Here's what I'm seeing.

The vast majority of the links are signature links from right here on Warrior Forum. Many of the others are weaker footer links, ad banner links or profile links. So, you're in a rather weak position where any discounting of a site that's linking to you can cause a dramatic drop in ranking. I suspect this is what's happened and not any kind of direct penalty.

Another thing that might be impacting your ranking is that, as I recall, you swap out your footer links here often as you introduce new PLR packages. This means one page on your site loses 3000+ links overnight and this doesn't look particularly good to the algorithm. This will probably put your site into a recalculate state. As long as your site is bolstered by strong authority links it wouldn't be a significant problem but when a site lacks this 'anchor' such changes will make it dance about.

[derekwong28]

I don't know what your problem could be, I am not convinced about issue of buying backlinks. But if it had happened to more than one site, I would suggest that you split your hosting among different Class C ip addresses. That saved my business from oblivion.

[Bill Farnham]

Hi Sheryl,

I'm just throwing this out there, so don't give this anymore weight than it deserves. I could be way off base here...

When looking at the code for your PLR site it looks way over bloated. The content ratio to all the other stuff on there is upside down, to say the least. Especially all the 'share' buttons at the botton of the page.

If you don't need those there get rid of them, e.g. they look nice but don't bring you any traffic.

Open up the source code and look at it. Now pretend you're a search engine and you're trying to figure out what your site is about. I know the 'algos' are supposed to filter out the code from the messege, but you really want to give them a hand. Once the code far outweighs the content you'll have an uphill battle.

I know some SEO experts will think I'm nuts with this post. I can live with that...

~Bill

[rockfuse]

if your site does not have unique content this is always going to happen. When google first indexes you you will rank higher for each article for a little bit then google will scrub harder and throw your duplicate content lower or completely out of their index. Its pretty simple if you want long term ranking write unique content or hire someone to.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Bill Farnham

Open up the source code and look at it. Now pretend you're a search engine and you're trying to figure out what your site is about.

You don't have to pretend. Go to the Adwords interface and ask it want it thinks your site is about. If it agrees with you, then you're fine.

[Latsyrc]

The same thing happens to me. I just wrote a post about this, well I was trying to convey the same question you had. I think my problem has to do with the hosting provider.

[Sheryl Polomka]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Here's what I'm seeing.

The vast majority of the links are signature links from right here on Warrior Forum. Many of the others are weaker footer links, ad banner links or profile links. So, you're in a rather weak position where any discounting of a site that's linking to you can cause a dramatic drop in ranking. I suspect this is what's happened and not any kind of direct penalty.

Another thing that might be impacting your ranking is that, as I recall, you swap out your footer links here often as you introduce new PLR packages. This means one page on your site loses 3000+ links overnight and this doesn't look particularly good to the algorithm. This will probably put your site into a recalculate state. As long as your site is bolstered by strong authority links it wouldn't be a significant problem but when a site lacks this 'anchor' such changes will make it dance about.

Thanks bgmacaw, I see what you mean. My main url is always in my signature but I do change some of the other pages on here. Do you think I should only list the main url and get rid of the rest completely from my forum signature, so that they aren't changing?

[Sheryl Polomka]

Originally Posted by Bill Farnham

Hi Sheryl,

I'm just throwing this out there, so don't give this anymore weight than it deserves. I could be way off base here...

When looking at the code for your PLR site it looks way over bloated. The content ratio to all the other stuff on there is upside down, to say the least. Especially all the 'share' buttons at the botton of the page.

If you don't need those there get rid of them, e.g. they look nice but don't bring you any traffic.

Open up the source code and look at it. Now pretend you're a search engine and you're trying to figure out what your site is about. I know the 'algos' are supposed to filter out the code from the messege, but you really want to give them a hand. Once the code far outweighs the content you'll have an uphill battle.

I know some SEO experts will think I'm nuts with this post. I can live with that...

~Bill

Thanks Bill - I haven't even considered anything like this, I'll remove the share buttons and take a look at the source code!

[Digital Info Diva]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

Here's what I'm seeing.

The vast majority of the links are signature links from right here on Warrior Forum. Many of the others are weaker footer links, ad banner links or profile links. So, you're in a rather weak position where any discounting of a site that's linking to you can cause a dramatic drop in ranking. I suspect this is what's happened and not any kind of direct penalty.

Another thing that might be impacting your ranking is that, as I recall, you swap out your footer links here often as you introduce new PLR packages. This means one page on your site loses 3000+ links overnight and this doesn't look particularly good to the algorithm. This will probably put your site into a recalculate state. As long as your site is bolstered by strong authority links it wouldn't be a significant problem but when a site lacks this 'anchor' such changes will make it dance about.

Excellent observation and one which everyone here should be aware of and take heed!

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

Thanks bgmacaw, I see what you mean. My main url is always in my signature but I do change some of the other pages on here. Do you think I should only list the main url and get rid of the rest completely from my forum signature, so that they aren't changing?

I'd say get some better, stronger, links to your site so that advertising link switches won't impact your ranking as much. If your sales from the forum links are more valuable than the search traffic, I suspect they may be, don't worry about it too much. The important thing is to build better links.

There are probably some things you can do, such as setting up a redirection script and improving internal linking, that would help. The question is would it be worth your time/money to tackle them.

[Sheryl Polomka]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

I'd say get some better, stronger, links to your site so that advertising link switches won't impact your ranking as much. If your sales from the forum links are more valuable than the search traffic, I suspect they may be, don't worry about it too much. The important thing is to build better links.

There are probably some things you can do, such as setting up a redirection script and improving internal linking, that would help. The question is would it be worth your time/money to tackle them.

Thank you I will get to work on more valuable link building and see how I go.

[oneplusone]

As far as I know, sites generally don't get any penalty if you build backlinks too fast.

It defies logic, and a majority of the top SEO guys (who have proven themselves over many years) have an entirely different view.

Any "penalty" to your site is simply an illusion.

What happens is that backlinks are discounted by Google, if they believe they are unnatural.

For example if you buy a packet of backlinks, and 1,000 other people do too for their new domains, and their websites suddenly have the exact same backlinks from the same places coming back to their new site as yours, do you think Google doesn't know this?

The probability of this happening by pure chance is close to zero, so they discount the backlinks.

Your site goes up after you add the backlinks, and goes down after the backlinks are discounted.

There is no "penalty", and it is totally irrelevant whether you, a competitor, or your dog added those backlinks to your site.

If Google believes there are unnatural backlinks involved, it will discount those backlinks - and your site will drop back down to where it would have been, without the backlinks.

Obviously if you keep adding a diversity of backlinks, some of them will probably stick and your site will climb back up again.

Most of the stories of people who've had their sites return to the first page after dropping away all seem to have one thing in common, they kept building backlinks.

The saying, "if you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick" comes to mind.

Is this all there is to it?

I don't know, but it makes the most logical sense to me...

[Lauryn]

Sheryl, the same thing happened to me and I posted about it a few weeks ago. My site has suffered since. I haven't even begun to attempt to rebuild it but I did purchase a backlinks package.

At this point, when I'm ready I'll reoptimize it and build new content, but that's about it.

[TrollFighter]

Backlink Packages are a joke

[rockfuse]

if you build links from link packages you have a large chance of getting your serps removed and not just the links you bought. Trust me it has happened to me. You can believe those self proclaimed "seo gurus" who do not make money how they say they do. Most of them just making money from scamming you into believing that they make money the way they say they do and selling you a product that is worthless or even harmful .

my 2 cents

[sogeshirts]

I think my site has just gone through this as well. I had first or second page rankings on a variety of different terms and they have all been wiped out in the last day or so. I was using backlink packets primarily to get all those terms. I think I will switch to article writing and turning those articles into videos instead and see how that goes.

[feliciayapsl]

Keep firing quality backlinks to the sites. Post new contents.