I had a site slowly moving up in ranking until it got to the second page of results, then plummeted to like page 10-15. It is an information resource and from what I see, is more comprehensive than other sites on the topic - It was generating a lot of voluntary backlinks. But now, not so many because it has been virtually hidden for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Is this normal? The monthly search volume for my main keyword is just about 20,000 queries, and it is 3-4 months old.
I have had the same results with my site. Was on the front page and dropped to I don't even know where. And the thing is it isn't even a highly searched phrase. Also looking for the same answer.
"it is 3-4 months old" I think your site is quite new. You will have to wait for sometime to see stable indexing/ranking. For new sites, there is lot of fluctuation in indexing/ranking. Ranking can go up or down a lot.
Hi Everyone, I'm new here and I'm a seeker of information about Googles sandbox system too. One of my sites was on the second page and then went south so far I still haven't sighted it again. When I do the 'site: thingy' it tells me that my site hasn't been indexed yet. So I tried SEOBook and it tells me it was indexed the day after I published it....I'm really confused now as to what to do. Also using Googles tool to analyze keywords on my site it comes up with words that aren't mentioned anywhere on that site?? I really don't think it would be remotely appropriate to have jokes on there but it comes up with about 19 different kw for jokes/humur? Also, this is the first time I've ever bought an expired domain name and this one according to the wayback machine had 2 subdomains attached. What happens to sub domains when a url gets sold? I thought they would simply disappear? OK, as I see it, here are my options: 1) Carry on with my original marketing plan and wait for Google to sort it out? 2) Not do anything more until the problem is sorted? My skill level would be 'intermediate' but this is a totally new problem for me and if anyone can offer some advice please, I'd appreciate it. Regards to all, Jan
6 - 12 months from when the site was indexed would be the norm for a semi-competitive keyword - sometimes longer.
Thanks for the reply mjewel but now I still have some questions~ would it help or be detrimental to continue marketing the site? I've just read Hexed posts on his theory of Hexterosis(?) and it made sense. So if I continue as before then I could well be digging myself deeper into Google's bad books for building links and content too fast. What about if I concentrated on building LSI content? I intended to do it anyway just moved it forward~ I think this may be the way to go. Thanks again, Jan
It all depends on the quality of your link building. I think the most important thing to do is be consistent - natural looking. Don't get a hundred links in a day or two, and then nothing for the next month or two. The higher quality your backlinks, the less harm adding low quality links like free directory listings, comment spam, forum links will do. Don't focus on sitewide footer links - try to build in content links from sites that already rank well for the keyword you are targeting. The more natural a link looks, the less chance you have of getting a penalty. Just realize that your efforts will take time to produce results.