My site went up in October of 2007 and I have targeted some pretty competitive keywords. I made it up to the 8th position in Google for my two top keywords in January of 2008, that lasted a few weeks, and now I am out of the top 100 for those same keywords. I think that my site is too new to rank well for these KW's. I assume this is what the Google Sandbox is? Whether you believe in it or not, how long will this last? Does my site have to be a year old to get out of SandBox? Any thoughts would be appreciated!!
Anywhere from 90 days to over a year - it depends on how competitive the keyword is. Many times it isn't the sandbox, but a lack of authority links compared to the top ranking sites. Have you compared the top ranking sites backlinks to your site? Site age can also be a factor.
I think that it dependns on the Search query and on intensively of work you are doing for SEO benefits. And I have heard that the best and the quickest way is article submission
I had this problem too. I ranked really good for some sites within a few months, but then dropped out of the top, sometimes almost nowhere to be found. I think what it is you lose your focus over time and don't try as hard backlink building as you used to. Thats what I think has happened to me.
The more broad keywords the longer it takes you need backlinks with anchor text to season it does take a while.
Thanks for the replies!! I think part of the problem, like one of the other posters mentioned, is my site age. I'm going against sites that are minimally 4 years old and I'm 6 months old. I do have more backlinks than anyone on the first page SERP's and I continue to build those.
Remember, it's the quality and relevance of backlinks that is important to google. I have a site that is #2 for a keyword with a 50K+ overture and almost every other site in the top ten has 5 to 10x the backlinks - but the majority of those links are sitewides they purchased, free directories, blog comments, forum links, and other low quality links.
Count on waiting a total of 4 months to one year. Just keep building up your backlinks in the meantime.
"I made it up to the 8th position in Google for my two top keywords in January of 2008, that lasted a few weeks" Google give New Content Boost to new sites or new pages. This boost help them rank high in search results. I think in your case, your site had this boost too, and now it's rank dropped as this boost is only temporary. I suggest you wait and build backlinks.
I totally agree with the above, and it really depends once i have escaped the sandbox within 3 months and some sites never been sandboxed while other sites last for almost 6 months. after all good luck.