Is this a goole penalty, and does anyone know what this means? 3 of my sites were ranking #1/2 for quite a few keywords, and now when I search for those keywords my sites are all #53...
Serps do change on regular basis, So don't worry, get some quality links and they will be back to their position.
Just out of curiosity, how old are the websites? I seem to have noticed such fluctuations in SERPs within relatively new websites.
Google is constantly changing algorithm to try to turn down "black hat" matter. Don't worry if your site is not ranked top due to this reason.
is your site ranking if you type the domain name without the www. or the .com? If it used to be in the top 3 lets say and now its at number 40ish then yes, your site is penalised. More details will be needed for a more accurate diagnostics as you dont provide the url, its difficult for us to say. by the way, if that is the case, then doing what others here suggest could make things much worst so if i were you i would stop doing any more seo until you know what is wrong exactly.
One site has been online since 2003, one is 1yr old, and the other is 6months old. I think it's a penalty for too many incoming links in a short period of time...
mines doing the same as well goldelement .info i was in top 10 and now way back in pages 50 plus My google webmaster tools was saying i had 20 odd backlinks and now its saying none
Google change algorithm frequently,You might add more quality backlinks,It will be back to rank top position