Hero to Zero

[James Foster]

Ok, I'm sure this question gets asked a lot around here, but I did a search on the forum and couldn't find too many answers, so I thought I'd put it out there again...

I recently got a site ranked #8 on G's front page. For a bout a week or so before that it was on the 5-7th page. Two days after it was on page 1 it went *poof* and I can't find it anywhere (today is when it disappeared).

I do a site:mydomain dot com and it shows it's still indexed... it's just not anywhere in the first 20 pages, and I quit looking after that many...

The site's been around nearly a year, it had some old articles and other backlinks and most recently I had been using one of those high PR packet programs in the WSO to boost my rankings.

Can anyone give me some suggestions to either get out of the sandbox (or at very least how long I should expect to stay there) or how to avoid it in the future.

Thanks,
James

[Shellaine]

A friend of mine has the same problem. Her website was on the first of a three word keyword phrase and at number 1 or 2 for about a month or so. And since then it dropped to page 2 and now it is nowhere to be found. thus she contacted and ask what happen.
Mind you this very young website was competing with the likes of amazon and 23 million sites when you Google the three keyword phrase.
That best the question what happen. It can still be index but nowhere is the fron page and it only shows the contact and privacy page.
Why would you get sandboxed?

thanks
Shellaine

[Fernando Veloso]

Happened to me last year:

3 old sites (3 years plus at the time) all of them ranking very high _(eh, #1 for high competitive keywords) got de-ranked (filtered? penalized?) to page 5 or 6 for all keywords.

At the time lots of people suferred the same deranking (October/November 2008).

Right now there is a new group of sites suffering the same from what i can see in here and others webmasters forums.

I did ask for a re inclusion in my Google webmaster console BUT i told them i would not change anything in my sites cause they are original, highly relevant, trusted and they obey to all guidelines.

Until today they are raning 5th or 6th page for all keywords, even updating them every week 2 or 3 times, and linkbuilding them as usual.

I bet its a Glitch in their algo.

What pisses me off is the ammount of spam ranking higher them me... Shameful.

[James Foster]

Thanks Fernando, I've been getting a lot of similar info to yours. People saying it's just Big G being fickle today or a mild algo change. Hopefully things will go back to normal in a day or two.

[BlueStar]

Originally Posted by James Capulet

Ok, I'm sure this question gets asked a lot around here, but I did a search on the forum and couldn't find too many answers, so I thought I'd put it out there again...

I recently got a site ranked #8 on G's front page. For a bout a week or so before that it was on the 5-7th page. Two days after it was on page 1 it went *poof* and I can't find it anywhere (today is when it disappeared).

I do a site:mydomain dot com and it shows it's still indexed... it's just not anywhere in the first 20 pages, and I quit looking after that many...

The site's been around nearly a year, it had some old articles and other backlinks and most recently I had been using one of those high PR packet programs in the WSO to boost my rankings.

Can anyone give me some suggestions to either get out of the sandbox (or at very least how long I should expect to stay there) or how to avoid it in the future.

Thanks,
James

Use this tool and find it in seconds: Rank Checker - Track Google, Yahoo! Search, & Microsoft Rankings Free

[Oling]

Originally Posted by BlueStar

Use this tool and find it in seconds: Rank Checker - Track Google, Yahoo! Search, & Microsoft Rankings Free

Thanks blue star... That's a great tool..

Oling

[James Foster]

Ya cool tool. I just downloaded it and checked it out.
I'm apparently not in google right now and I'm 119 in yahoo.
...That's a little depressing, but hopefully it changes

[Steve Crooks]

Word of warning about using any automated ranking tools.. They can get your site banned from Google. I know from bitter experience after using an automated tool to check the ranking of one of my sites for a small bunch of keywords. I checked with Google and they confirmed this was the reason for the site ban.

Google webmaster guidelines state:

Don't use unauthorised computer programmes to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Read for yourself at Webmaster Guidelines - Webmasters/Site owners Help

[Fernando Veloso]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Word of warning about using any automated ranking tools.. They can get your site banned from Google. I know from bitter experience after using an automated tool to check the ranking of one of my sites for a small bunch of keywords. I checked with Google and they confirmed this was the reason for the site ban.

Google webmaster guidelines state:

Don't use unauthorised computer programmes to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Read for yourself at Webmaster Guidelines - Webmasters/Site owners Help

Steve, this happens IMHO when someone goes all day doing it. I mean, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

And another point of discussion: if I do use automated tools to go checking YOUR site, is he going down? No way this is possible, or is it? Otherwise it will be a open war.

Thoughts?

[Steve Crooks]

My experience of having a site dropped from Google occurred after testing 8 keywords for 1 site, just once. I liken it to being caught for speeding by the police, you could go for years breaking the speed limit and then one day you get caught by the police. I don't know the actual methods that Google use for detection but trust me, it can happen, use automated ranking tools at your own risk is all I am going to say.

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

Steve, this happens IMHO when someone goes all day doing it. I mean, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

And another point of discussion: if I do use automated tools to go checking YOUR site, is he going down? No way this is possible, or is it? Otherwise it will be a open war.

Thoughts?

[BlueStar]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Word of warning about using any automated ranking tools.. They can get your site banned from Google. I know from bitter experience after using an automated tool to check the ranking of one of my sites for a small bunch of keywords. I checked with Google and they confirmed this was the reason for the site ban.

Google webmaster guidelines state:

Don't use unauthorised computer programmes to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Read for yourself at Webmaster Guidelines - Webmasters/Site owners Help

I find that impossible. I own an Internet Marketing firm and I have many clients. I use this tool constantly to update rankings for my clients. One client in particular I have 75 keywords and I check once per month and send the client a report showing the rankings. Been doing this for several years. I have this client ranked #1 on Google for over 30 Major Keywords for over 2 years now.

Theres no way this tool has anything to do with getting Google slapped.

If that were true I could destroy all my Competitors.

[Fernando Veloso]

Originally Posted by BlueStar

If that were true I could destroy all my Competitors.

Exactly.

Steve, i am not saying you are wrong, i just ask into webmaster world would turn IF that its true.

You said you had a (site ban) confirmation from Google? Can you share details?

Thank you.

[James Foster]

Crazy idea, I don't even know if this is possible but, I just checked another one of my sites with rank checker and see that it is also missing from Google. Is it possible that it has something to do with my host's IP? The two sites aren't interlinked at all though....

[BlueStar]

Originally Posted by James Capulet

Crazy idea, I don't even know if this is possible but, I just checked another one of my sites with rank checker and see that it is also missing from Google. Is it possible that it has something to do with my host's IP? The two sites aren't interlinked at all though....

If your site ranks worse than 200 you'll see a - minus sign. It doesn't mean your not ranked, just worse than 200.

[dburk]

Hi James,

Have you checked your Google Webmaster Tools account yet? If they have a problem with your site it will appear in the diagnostics.

Have you change your site recently? That could cause a major ranking shift. Have you checked to see if there have been any 302 hijacks on your site?

If you are using backlink packages you may be seeing your backlinks deleted, have you checked your backlinks?

If all the above appears normal then I would say that you are simply experiencing the frequent Google Dance that all sites are subject to, and just wait a week or so and you'll be right back.

[Shellaine]

So there is a risk of using the checker tools. Now that we two differing opinions and experience, I think I will go safe on this.
There is not real big reason why I have to use so I would not

Shellaine

[James Foster]

Thanks for all your help guys. I just went to my webmaster tools and saw there IS a problem. I've changed the site pretty drastically over the past month and the crawler can't seem to find some pages (because they aren't there anymore). I'm assuming a new site map will take care of this?
I'll add a new site map and if you guys have any other suggestions; it's greatly appreciated.

[dburk]

Hi James,

You should setup Permanent 301 Redirects for the missing URLs.

[James Foster]

Ok, so I'll check the exact file names, then set up 301s from my missing pages to my main domain.

[James Foster]

So I added the 301's like you guys suggested. Do I need to do anything else for G to go back and recrawl the site? Submit it to a social bookmarking site or something?

[Steve Crooks]

It might be that you are using an authorized tool to check rankings and I didn't.. Anyway, I was told I was in violation of the following guideline..

Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Originally Posted by BlueStar

I find that impossible. I own an Internet Marketing firm and I have many clients. I use this tool constantly to update rankings for my clients. One client in particular I have 75 keywords and I check once per month and send the client a report showing the rankings. Been doing this for several years. I have this client ranked #1 on Google for over 30 Major Keywords for over 2 years now.

Theres no way this tool has anything to do with getting Google slapped.

If that were true I could destroy all my Competitors.