I have a site in a very competitive field, that I wish not to name. It is 18 months old and I have never had any luck with google for any KW's in the SERPs. I rank very well in Yahoo and just went from a PR 1 to 5. I aggressively SEO'd my site from the getgo and think I may have over-done it. I don't know if I got myself banned or sandboxed. Am I banned or sandboxed? Is it possible to be banned and still have a PR 5? If I do a link or site command, my site shows up. If I search for the domain itself, it shows up, but in the #5 slot. All other domains I search show up in the #1 slot when I search for their domains. Thanks
Post or PM a url, without taking a look there is no telling really. But the search for the domain itself at #5 is disturbing...
The info you've provided indicates your site isn't banned, but the quote below indicates your site is probably being penalized by Google.
Sorry, no domains here. If you need more info, ask away and I will get it. There is nothing you can do that I can't do on my end. Thanks for the replys. Is being penalized being sandboxed? If I keep doing good SEO will I get unpenalized or do I need to ask for reinclusion?
At 18 months old, it's highly unlikely that your site would be sandboxed to the extent that it ranks #5 for its own domain name. Are the sites that rank above your site for your own domain name sites that link to your site?
At 18 months old, if directories linking to you are ranking above you, it's almost certain your site has been penalized Google.
I was fairly certain I was already being penalized by google by me not showing up in the SERPs with a PR 5. Are the SERPs and PR's totally separate? It seems that they are. The question is what can I do about it? Will good SEO and time fix the problem, or is this more serious? It is good to know about the domain search. At least I know for the future on other sites.
you are being penalized but the key is not that you aren't showing up in the serps because that depends on the keywords you're trying to get. Do you use google sitemaps/webmaster tools? It might be worth submitting one just to take a look at the data they provide. it will show what keywords your site is showing up for and what position. I have a pr5 webmaster site that doesn't show up in the serps for web design. Not penalized, just a highly competitive term. It does however show up for other keywords. Lisa
yep,they are totally different. You can read my blog entry about PR and SERP here: http://everydayseo.blogspot.com/2006/09/google-is-pagerank-factor-on-serp.html
PR only deals with Google. You could be banned from another search engine such as MSN or Yahoo and still be listed in Google (although it is highly unlikely) I've never seen a site with PR be banned at the same time it has PR. Once a site is banned it gets a grey bar. Dan
It definitely happens. I know of a 6 month old site, with some good links and PR3, and it's never been indexed. The site has a lot of graphic language, which is why I think it's not being indexed. Established sites can have adult-language without getting a penalty, but it seems that in new sites it can cause some problems.