I just got penalized by Google and dropped from the first page of results to 10, I think it may be because I used a link exchange with a site that states their sole purpose is to raise Page Rank, and I'm pretty sure Google doesn't like this too much.
yeah I went ahead and deleted the link just to be safe, I'm going for the steady organic growth myself
There are things going on with Google's algo right now so don't just assume you have a penalty...Hang tight until after the holidays and see if your page returns..
its called a google dance not a penalty....when you gain more links you lose your ranking for up to a week but usually come up a lot stronger then before... Source: my experience...its happened to me a bunch of times..
i don't think your site will get penalty for only one site exchange, try to improve your site's content, link building, SEO, i would sure you can see the improvement next time. it's probably a normal SERPs updating.
ouch. google penalties are getting bad. could be a number of reasons. link exchanges usually aren't bad but could be too many bad linking neighbors.
Berre, I can see your point, but so many people say they went down and in the end of the day someone has to go up, right? I'd assume that maybe shopping site would but some niches are not relevant to shopping and it's difficult to realise what's happening. I'd say you might have a good point but it's vital to check your ranking on other search engines as they more or less do the same thing.