History: I used to have the #1 spot on Google for "preoder xbox 360" and "buy xbox 360." A few weeks ago I noticed that my spot was gone, as in nowhere to be found on Google at all, anywhere. Jump forward to today. I was checking out this nifty backlink check tool: http://www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/ and put in my domain name. To see who was linking to me and with what keywords. Here is what I found: http://elliptical-trainer-ratings.com/3/elliptical-trainers.html (Pre order Xbox 360) http://symantec.electronics-directory.org/ (Buy Xbox 360) http://www.discountshoppingdance.com/cool/galatians-3184431-so/ (Preorder Xbox 360) http://www.dvd-dealer.net/index.php?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=B000083C6R (Buy Xbox 360) http://www.fungifts.com.au/fun-gifts-info/gift-delivery-5.html (Xbox 360 Buy) http://www.informaticatienda.com/t-hp-p4-4.htm (Pre order Xbox 360) http://www.northeastasia.net/ (Preorder Xbox360) http://www.reportz.info/credit-report/2818.html (Pre order Xbox 360) http://www.rfidscm.info/index.php?p=78 (Preorder Xbox 360) http://www.stargames.info/img62.htm (Preorder Xbox360) I'm not linking these URL's on purpose, but if you copy and paste the URL in your browser you can search for the keywords phrase after the URL and find the link. (Heh, just realized I couldn't link them if I wanted to, which is fine with me!) Now I am not normally paranoid, however I did not and would not EVER ask these sites to link to mine. We all know the effects FFA links have on rankings, and it is my suspicion that someone may have done this intentionally. What would you do in my situation? Should I contact the owners of the sites? Should I contact the major search engines, and if so what would I tell them? I've never had anything like this happen before and I'm still in shock over the discovery. Thanks everyone for reading this and providing me with your expertise.
Yes, the links posted above are the "ffa" links. (I am assuming they are "ffa," at least they appear to be to me.) I have never and would not contact any of those sites to link to mine, especially not a specific post. The only link exchanges I do are to the main index.
I HIGHLY doubt those links are the cause. I went through a few of them and they seem normal to me. The FFA links/networks that you want to stay away from you will know what that link looks like in a second. The usually always have FFA somewere in the URL. These look more like paid links to me.
Aaron, thanks for looking. I really appreciate the help. It still seems suspicious to me though - why would all those "unrelated" sites link to one specific post out of thousands on my site, and with specific keywords in the link? It's the only thing I can attribute to losing a spot I held for quite a long time.
How are those Free For All links? That usually refers to a page where you can add any link yourself. That looks more like Link Vault or a static Co-Op page. I don't think it is LV since I haven't seen any of those sites in the network. I'd agree and say that isn't the reason for losing the spot.
I hope you'll pardon my ignorance - I thought they were FFA sites. They only other thing I did was add Vibrant Media's IntelliTXT to the site, which I promptly removed when I saw my ranking on Google vanish. It was only today that I discovered these other links...very strange!
From Google Fiction: A competitor can ruin a site's ranking somehow or have another site removed from Google's index. Fact: There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. Your rank and your inclusion are dependent on factors under your control as a webmaster, including content choices and site design.
That answers it for me, it must have been the IntelliTXT or something else that caused it. Thanks so much, and thanks for helping someone less educated in the fine arts of SEO. You guys really are the best!
For some segments google has been dumping rankings for the last 3 weeks or so. For others things have remained rock-solid. Perhaps you are just experiencing regular flux. Highly unlikely any of those links are the result.. and if you actually went back and checked your work, you are probably responsible for those links in some shape or fashion. The problem with the serps is there are probably 1000 other people who think they are qualified to be #1 for those keywords as well. Just because you were there doesn't mean you actually deserved the position or deserve to be there forever. No knock on you, it is just a very common mentality when people start trying to figure out why their site is not where it once was. Not everyone can be #1. It is not realistic. It is possible that other sites are more deserving of a #1 position etc etc. Anyways, hope it straightens out for you.
Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback. I've seen certain rankings of mine rise, drop, etc which I've always seen as normal. In this particular case though, I went from #1 (deserved or undeserved) to not listed on Google for that page at all. It was very unusual, I'd never seen it happen before, and I'm still not sure why it did. Is this something that's normal, and just hadn't happened (to me) before perhaps?