I have a problem when i type in the website name it doesnt appear as number one. For example lets say the site is www.examplesite.com when i type in examplesite the site doesnt appear as number 1, it did for months now it doesnt. But if i type in the whole domain www.example.com it appears. Is this a common problem that will go away after awhile? or am i getting penalized?
if you were being penalized you site wouldn't show up at all in the SERPs the sites that are ranking for your name "examplesite" are they similar in nature and or are they using those keywords. You could of also been thrown in the sandbox
Chances are there are other people out there targeting the same keywords that happen to be your website's name. Keep up the link building and you'll see it bounce back in no time.
Maybe you site name is some highly competitive "keyword". I suggest you to do continue adding more backlinks to your site using anchored keyword same as your website address and you will see it's ranking in google soon.
One other effective way is to make optimum utilization of H1 tags and the keyword in the URL and ofcourse as others mentioned do some directory submission to get backlinks.
If "examplesite" is a highly competitive keyword, your site may not appear if you Google "examplesite" unless you build enough backlinks to out beat your competition.
To check if you have been penalized use your home page title tag with quotes as search string. if your site does not appear in the first page, man you have something to worry about
the keyword is not competitive at all. Its a brand name I created. When i do my title tag in quotes it appears as number one. but if i just type in my site name its no where to be found. I can only find subpages of my site when typing in my site name.