Hey all, Just wanted some opinions and feedback on a confusing ranking problem I seem to be having with my site in Google. The main keyword I am targeting is not a hugely competitve one, I have done high quality SEO and linking campaigns and all the rest, however it is nowhere to be seen in the SERPS. Why is this weird? Because every other variation of that keyword/keyphrase either ranks quite well or is atleast ranking somewhere - and I find it very weird that my main targeted one does not. I will give some other brief history that might help in some answers. The domain is between 1-2yrs old, however it wasnt being used for that period. When the site was redeveloped as it is now, I got an incoming backlink from the #1 ranking site for that keyword. After that IBL and all the SEO work I did, I saw immediate results and my site was on the first page within about 1-2 weeks. However since then, it has just completely dropped off the radar. I just dont understand how every other keyword/keyphrase can rank well and this one which was originally ranking very well just gradually drop. If I recall it went from 1st page, to about #200, then around #550, and now its nowhere to be seen. Could it be possible that my site moved too fast up the rankings and Google has penalized me for this? Can Google penalize you for ONE keyword while the rest rank fine? Can I simply be linking to a bad neighbourhood? Can someone have reported my site was Spam (I ask this as the official site has been on a rampage last few weeks - and I wouldn't put it past them to use dirty tactics)? I am clutching at straws trying to figure out a solution. I know some suggestions will be to "just ride it out" - but as I said it's been months, no sign of improvement, and its so confusing I would like some constructive opinions on what might have happened. I have considered simply emailing Google asking the same things but unsure as to whether they would even reply. Any help is much appreciated.
I have seen this with one keyword I was targetting. It did the exact same thing. I was getting first page placement for music converter, music editor, music burner, etc., but "music software" was the actual key phrase I was targetting. I believe it just took more time. It's now on the first page too (although at position 10).
Well the site has been officially redeveloped and live for about 7 months now. Yes at first I did quite a rigorous SEO and linking campaign, however I believe it shouldnt have been enough to trip an over-optimization filter. The SEO was done well first time around and maintenance and tweaking is done on an occasional basis. Content is updated daily, most of my linking was manually done with other high quality sites in my field.