From #2 to #300 in Google - Please Help

by PGA
22 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Could someone please shed some light on the following situation?
For over a year, I was ranking between #2 and #4 in Google for a keyword relating to a piece of exercise equipment. Last week, I noticed that the particular keyword I was ranking for fell to #300 in an instant. There were also 2 other keywords from two other separate pages that were ranking on the second page of Google that fell to over 100.

I didn't have many backlinks pointing back to the keyword in which I was ranking highly for. In fact, I only had two from pages such as Squidoo and Ezine. The only thing that I did was to hire the services of a certain company to boost the backlinks to one of my other pages for a certain keyword. Since then it seems that my whole site was affected in Google. I'm still ranking OK in yahoo and Bing, but it seems that Google has slapped the sh** out of me for some reason.

Something else that I've noticed is that some of the other websites that are on the first page of Google for that particular keyword aren't even optimized for it. The keyword is not in their URL's, Title, Description, or even in their content, yet they are on the first page. What is going on? My site is highly relevant yet I'm now at #300 and penalized for something that I can't understand.

My site is highly relevant to the subject with original content that I wrote. In my opinion, it provides very useful information and reviews to the reader with over 800 words per page.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
P
##300 #google #google penalty #google sandbox
  • Profile picture of the author sylarrr
    Don't panic, it is normal. G is just indexing your new links and calculating your new, higher SERP score.

    If this problem still continiues after 2 weeks, send me PM with your site link and general info- I'll do some reasearch and probably find the problem (if there is a problem).
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    • Profile picture of the author nightcrawler
      It might be just Google dance. Secondly, you should run an audit on your website because sometimes few sneaky hackers drops links and Google find them and deindex the website (Install Google webmaster tools for better insight). I hope it is not the case!

      Another instance might be that Google updated their Algorithm and many websites have seem to loss their current rankings starting February.
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    Yeah, I've had a similar thing on a site. I also did about 30 backlinks in one go (not forum profile links though). Hope it IS just the 'reranking'/Google Dance phenomenon. It was a harmless little site, and made a few pennies too Been about a week now, guess I'll wait a little longer before giving up!
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  • Profile picture of the author rvrabel2002
    I am experiencing the same thing with one of my sites. I did a backlink package through someone on this forum, and so far have suffered a 50% reduction in Google traffic.

    Im thinking (and hoping) that sylar is right and that it is just temporary.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    This guy said he wasn't using many back links...

    Did you stop updating content recently? Did you build some back links, and then stop?
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    • Profile picture of the author PGA
      I did use a backlink package with forum profile links on a different page of the same site for a keyword that was on the second page of Google. I did not use the package for my highly ranking page. It was the same site but a different page that I used the backlinking package for. I don't want to make accusations that this backlinking service was the cause of my drop in Google because I believe that if we had that kind of power we could knock off our competition by submitting those sites. I just think it's kind of strange that soon after I did use the backlinking service that the keyword I was ranking for dropped to #300 along with the other pages that I was ranking for on page two of Google, even though I only used that service for one page on my site.
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  • Profile picture of the author jhonsean
    Not only you who experience this kind of scenario google is updating it will takes time to get back in normal rankings but always continue your activities google will consider it.
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  • Profile picture of the author bay37
    Google is re-evaluating your website because of all the new backlink love. Give it some time. I have a bunch of websites going from positions 5-6 to 150-250 and back from one day to another... Give it some time.
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    • Profile picture of the author BradRich
      I've been seeing more and more posts like this lately. What the heck is going on? Is google changing their algorithm again?
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  • Profile picture of the author Jordan Kovats
    Originally Posted by PGA View Post

    I didn't have many backlinks pointing back to the keyword in which I was ranking highly for. In fact, I only had two from pages such as Squidoo and Ezine. The only thing that I did was to hire the services of a certain company to boost the backlinks to one of my other pages for a certain keyword. Since then it seems that my whole site was affected in Google. I'm still ranking OK in yahoo and Bing, but it seems that Google has slapped the sh** out of me for some reason.

    Any advice is greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,
    P

    Ahh, the dreaded attempt for a boost. The company wouldn't have been from the Ukraine would it? Just kidding. I did the same over a year ago, for a 'boost'. A similar thing happened, took 30 days to stumble back. Didn't come back very well, so a reconsideration request was put in.

    Give it a week or two to play out. Never, never, never use backlinks as a boost. Steady lnk building at any rate, is better than a boost.
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    • Profile picture of the author PGA
      OK, here's an update. My page came back to its original #2 spot in Google for about two days, but I checked it again today and it disappeared again along with the other two pages that I was ranking for. I checked and I'm still indexed in Google. Anyone have a clue as to what could be happening?
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      • Profile picture of the author miranon
        Originally Posted by PGA View Post

        OK, here's an update. My page came back to its original #2 spot in Google for about two days, but I checked it again today and it disappeared again along with the other two pages that I was ranking for. I checked and I'm still indexed in Google. Anyone have a clue as to what could be happening?
        The EXACT same thing also happened with my website: i was ranked #2 for a few months, then for 1 week i dropped to #96, the came back again to #2, then dropped again for 2 days to #78, then came back again to #2 for 1 day, and now I'm again at #70-90. I hate it!
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      • Profile picture of the author bay37
        Originally Posted by PGA View Post

        OK, here's an update. My page came back to its original #2 spot in Google for about two days, but I checked it again today and it disappeared again along with the other two pages that I was ranking for. I checked and I'm still indexed in Google. Anyone have a clue as to what could be happening?
        Yes - exactly what I (and many others) have already told you. Google is re-evaluating your backlink profile, give it time. There's a very good chance that it could take another 2-6 weeks for things to settle down, so try to be patient.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarkSherris
    sylarr - he's right ... the chances are because your site hasn't had any backlinks and then all of a sudden you've got loads google will take some time to re-evaluate your site and dump your ranking for a bit... it will come back so try not to worry (even though it's hard not too, after all my site is doing the same right now lol)

    It doesn't matter that you had links built to just 1 page but not the other ones, Google will drop the ranking for the whole site not just that 1 page while it figures your new rank out...

    During this time your site might jump all over the place from no.200 to no.300 to no.90 etc etc, it's very stressful and annoying but once it's happened a couple of times you realize why and the likely outcome (that it comes back).

    In future just make sure if you are going to link build then do it gradually because otherwise you're site will always be dumped for a week or so before it comes back which often (in my case) can mean you miss out on a lot of money which is extreeemely annoying lol
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  • Profile picture of the author wpgwalt
    Listen to bay37 he knows what he's talking about. It's just Google re-evaluating your SERP score. It's happened to most anyone who is involved in online marketing and probably scared the crap out of us all the first time it happened. Lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author MickeyMil
    I'm experiencing the same thing right now my friend, my sites are bouncing around all over the place and it is quite a nail biting experience waiting for them to come back up. I feel you pain lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author rcritchett
    I agree with what a lot of other people are saying.

    Unless of course, you have links from places that aren't considered "good."

    Does it have to do with the recent search algorithm changes? Depends on how legit you're doing your SEO.. or in this case, having someone else do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author PGA
    Thanks for the replies. I feel better knowing it's a common occurrence.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimmypate
    I think you were penalized or something, it's a big decay.
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  • Profile picture of the author mary21
    No panic.Try ti build backlinks to website and let google to index .it will be review time for google . u soon regain your postion
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    I mentioned earlier in the thread one of my sites this happened to as well. The weird thing is, after a while it bounced back in the US rankings to around 15 (well, not good enough for me, but still...) - whereas in the UK rankings, which is really where I want it, it's still nowhere - like, page 50. Weird... Google does know I 'want' it ranked in the UK though, because I specified that in Webmaster Tools. Maybe I'll go and change that to US and see if it bounces back in the UK
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    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by markowe View Post

      I mentioned earlier in the thread one of my sites this happened to as well. The weird thing is, after a while it bounced back in the US rankings to around 15 (well, not good enough for me, but still...) - whereas in the UK rankings, which is really where I want it, it's still nowhere - like, page 50. Weird... Google does know I 'want' it ranked in the UK though, because I specified that in Webmaster Tools. Maybe I'll go and change that to US and see if it bounces back in the UK
      Oh, but wait!

      No sooner had I posted this than I checked my ranking for that site again and it was number 5 on page one (when I search logged into Google) and when I check using HideMyAss I am number ONE! So the UK listing took a full month to bounce back, and two weeks longer than the US listing did to return to no. 15!

      Only this morning I checked and there were a bunch of weird results on page one, like an eBay listing and whatnot, many of which I had not seen on page one.

      So Google definitely shuffles stuff around and I am under no illusions that this couldn't all happen again.

      Now, what did I do to get my site back from no. 400 to no. 1 in the space of a morning!? Well, of course, I could now post here and say, "Here is how I reranked my site", and list all the things I did the last month, but the truth is, who knows what may have done it, or if it wouldn't have happened anyway. But if you want to know, I did as follows:

      - a couple of dozen social bookmarks via OnlyWire
      - changed a LITTLE of the content around, added some new pictures = worse clickthrough on the Adsense as a result, but probably a good tradeoff.
      - posted the same article (and some slightly spun versions) to another half-dozen article sites
      - posted useful comments on related blogs (maybe... 10-20 blogs) with the backlink, sometimes with the kwp in the anchor, sometimes not. Honestly, I have no idea how many comments even got approved...

      And that is it, nothing amazing, but then this is my idea of a fairly low-competition keyword (1900 local searches, 3600 global, poor competition on page one). Maybe none of that was necessary.

      Will keep you posted as to what happens.
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