Newish site - 5 months - after one month of being indexed it drops in and out of serps - from number 6 to page 46 (not number, PAGE 46, i.e. the 'last page in the serps for this term) for a few days, then comes back to position 6 for a couple of days or so, then back out for about 7 days, and it's been doing this for months as have a couple of other sites. All pages still indexed in google - definitely not banned. (Another of my sites is No1 google, and has been doing the same thing for a while - but remains static number 1 in 'results from the uk, whilst nowhere in results from the web (google uk)) Because it/they (6 sites, all under a year old) keep coming back and ranking well I don't think that it is a penalty. Yes they are affiliate sites (links via php file), but, no paid links, all unique content, no 'nasty stuff' going on, not exactly white hat but not far off, I use blog comments, forum sigs etc. I'm tempted to think it is some kind of bot/indexing issue (however my robots.text is not doing any exclusions, and my htaccess is pointing to the no www. domain) I've checked my one site that has webmaster tools account - no messages, html check says no dupe content etc Anyway, my questions are a) has anyone else had this issue, and b) what did they do about it, I'm tempted to just throw links at the sites, and hopefully 'mud will stick', but as I do this in my spare time, I don't want to waste energy link building if I am missing the point somewhere along the line. (I'm pretty sure my onpage SEO is cool, and not 'overdoing it') I have seen a couple of posts that cover this same problem on other forums, but, the nearest to a satisfactory answer I found was "this is quite common in sites under 8 months old" - this may be true, but, I am guessing that there is a way around whatever is going on. People talk about the sandbox, but although I believe that it may exist ( a matter of indexing), I'm pretty sure that there are ways around it - especially if it is an indexing/linking issue. Any help on this will obviously be very appreciated.
Avoid blackhat methods completely. You seem to suggest you are using borderline methods, this could perhaps be the reason you keep moving back and forth, because big G isn't sure what you are doing... Either way, stay clean my friend, it will only benefit you in the long run.
Hi, thanks for the advice, more grey than black really, just forum sigs, blog comments etc, but you are right - clean is a better long term policy. I don't think I've been penalised, as my sites are never de-indexed. One site is number 1 in google uk (results from the web), then it dissapears and comes back to the same place about 7 days of so later (in rotation), meanwhile it is number 1 in google uk results from the uk (and doesn't leave the spot while the 'results from the web' are dancing)- this is what really confuses me, anyway, thanks v.much for advice, I know that what you are saying is the best policy
Just keep linking to it. When you do link campaigns, the site is dropped as google reassess it and decides where to rank it. Just keep up linking to it as well as linking to feeder sites to make it clear your site is optimized for the kw phrase
as for as i know, this is called Google Dance. In this case google just try to find out the exact ranking for your website. My advise is do not target 1 or 2 keywords. Do not target only home page URL. Do little bit link building only with your URL (do not use keyword in anchor text) write some unique articles and submit to article directory. Do not submit same article in different directories. Some famous directories are ezine,,goarticles,,articledashboard
How many times a day are you updating the site's content? Perhaps it's because you are not keeping the content on the site you're running up to par? Have you ever thought of that?
True, but surely that would result in a bit of a drop in the serps to be overtaken by others with fresher content, not 50 pages down?
Yes the google dance is usually caused mostly by being flagged for potentially black hat stuff. If you are always doing white hat work, it doesn't usually happen. You know the funniest part? Most black hat marketing methods have comparable (sometimes much simpler too) methods that achieve about the same results.
Well, as I know that the time for this prohibition is about from 6 month to 1 year. Try to get authority, quality backlinks for your site, and the time will decrease. So try to do ongoing link building.
My first site was homemade in 2003. Is is one page with about 12 links to secondary pages. It has never been submitted to a search engine or updated. Out of the box, since week two that site has been first page Google and has never dropped below #3. I am passing this on because it blows my mind and every webmasters mind that I have mentioned it to. I don't understand it except that it is extremely content centered and the primary search terms are also the url and the major theme. None of the other SEO formulas apply. Go figure! Thomas Three sites since then have not been as blessed. Although our just released venture (one week ago) is page one.
I had so many experience just like yours. Sadly I end up dropping the sites that became like that. It is like dancing but in page one to last SERP of Google.
Deffo the Google Dance. Jut keep plugging away with white hat link methods and unique content and you'll get there.
The Google Dance.. we've all been there and it sucks, but unfortunately it happens. The only thing you can do is to continue backlinking and probably the best would be to do it the whitehat way.