16 replies to this topic

[ddzc]

Hi all,

I have a site which is over 1 yr old. Last week, I noticed it on Page 1 #6 for a certain long tail keyword for the past few months. I started some back linking since then and it moved to #4 on Page 1. I continued to perform off page seo and now it's gone completely for the keyword..it's no where to be found in Google. If I do a site:domain search in google it comes up. I did the link building for about 3-4 days until it was removed, 3-4 links a day. It's been one week so far where the site was removed. Some of the links received weren't relevant...but I got them from other sites which ranked high for other keywords and the links weren't relevant to theirs either...so i'm assuming google isn't punishing the backlinks coming from those sites/resources or they wouldn't rank so high.

Question is...will it return to it's old ranking? will it return with a better ranking? As of right now, should I stop the off page seo and link building completely?

I wanted to view the stats of my site in Google Webmaster Tools. I logged in and I noticed my site is unverified. Very weird, because I verified it with the html file in my root directory over a year ago. I noticed that file was 0KB in size. How did that happen? Anyway, I downloaded another file and verified it successfully.

So in the main dashboard, I see this:

Googlebot has successfully accessed your home page.
Pages from your site are included in Google's index.

Top search queries

# Query Position
1 my longtail keyword 5

Updated Jan 14, 2010

This is the longtail keyword i've been discussing since my original post. I clicked my link and it's definitely not #5, it's no where to be found like I mentioned. Actually like I mentioned, none of the search queries are ranked in google, even though google webmaster tools states that they're ranked in google from #1-10 positions. Maybe i'm looking at the numbers wrong...I assumed positions mean where google thinks I rank in the engines? I may be totally off though b/c I just checked another site of mine showing #2 for some keywords where i'm not even close to.

What do you all think about this data? Is there anything else I can view and investigate in the Webmaster tools?

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[OldWelshGuy]

If you have built the links, and you have accessed google accounts, and you have the toolbar on with interactivity, then there is every chance in the world you have been slapped around a bit.

There really is no black and white answeer, but a site with a really weak link footprint can easily be taken down by spam linking. I have done it to my test sites with ease.

have a quick check through your files and folders though and make sure that there is no odd looking folders. Check your web stats and look for any image referrals. I have seen this happen with a virus infection that is distributed through an I frame hack.

[ddzc]

Thanks for the reply,

What do you mean by toolbar with interactivity? For the google account, you mean the webmasters tool? I do have access. If the site was slapped around, how can I recover and bring it back up asap? Should I try to remove some links? Gain more links?

I checked through my files and folders, everything looks good. Also, the web stats look clean. Are there any scanners I can use to look for viruses or that iframe hack on the site?


Thanks

[Randy]

If you've been slapped around as OWG so elegantly put it the solution is probably going to be to build some good quality links to the site. As he said, this sort of thing typically doesn't happen to sites that already have a healthy backlink profile, but only to sites that don't yet have a strong backlink profile.

Just to ask the question, you're not linking back to any of those sites you got links from are you? That's another bugaboo that can bite you if you end up linking to a known spam site. Again, especially if you don't already have a strong backlink profile.

As to the rest, make sure you log out in your browser after you've accessed any of your Google accounts. eg Webmaster Tools, Developer area, Gmail, Google Analytics, Personal Profile in Google. If you're logged in you've given them tacit permission to track your movement around the web. The same thing goes if you have Google's Toolbar installed on your browser and have the PageRank widget enabled. It states as much in the Option for the Google Toolbar.

[ddzc]

I see, thanks for the response. I find it odd that other sites ranked #1-3 are using the same backlinks as me....I'm assuming they have other additional links which are strong, outweighing the crappy links which I used maybe?

I didn't know that about the google accounts...good to know. I don't think that's affecting anything though, I get the same results with different machines, browsers, etc and my cpanel shows my traffic gone since the removal of my site.

There really is no black and white answeer, but a site with a really weak link footprint can easily be taken down by spam linking. I have done it to my test sites with ease.

One more thing I wanted to quote was the above...if that were true, wouldn't I be able to create a slew of spam links pointing to my competitors site to take them down and have them removed from Google while I watch my site climb to the top? Seems a lot easier than building links for myself if I was mid-bottom of page 1.

[OldWelshGuy]

You can only do this with weak sites, so unless you are in a non competitive field where the sites at the top are there with on page factors only and very little off page, then it isn't possible. The process is a black hat method known as google bowling. It isn't a route you want to go down, though, or at least one i would recommend you go down.

You should look at your own site, look at competitors backlinks, and pick the strongest opf them for yourself to try and gain.

[ddzc]

Hi everyone,

I thought it would be nice to update everyone here on my status.

My site came back to Google last week. I've been checking several times a day from the morning to the night.

Before it was removed, it was #4 in US...it's back to #4 position. In Canada .ca, it was #2 , it's now #1. I'm wondering how/why only .ca moved it up a spot? The backlinking wasn't performed solely on canadian sites...anyone know how google differentiates rankings in ca and us? How can I rank higher in US?

Anyway, here is one I would like to throw at you guys. I was attempting to get links in the past 2 weeks or so. I was checking my backlink profile for the site every day and it wasn't showing anything accumulating. This morning, once the site returned to it's original rankings, I checked the backlink profile and it was showing double than what it was originally showing. It was showing all the links I got before the site was taken down and a couple from this week.

It can also be the software i'm using for analysis (removed).

I still don't have a clue why it was removed completely from Google for this duration...

[ddzc]

Hey everyone,

So I checked my rankings today and guess what, it's gone again. It was back for a good 3 weeks and in that time, I never built any links because I was paranoid of dropping it again. We'll, actually I wrote an article related to my niche about 2 weeks ago and linked to it...so 1 link in 3 weeks.

So now i'm really frustrated and worried at the same. Is this because I didn't build any links this time? I have no idea what to think and assume at this point. What do you all think I should do at this stage?

Thanks

[chrishirst]

What do you all think I should do at this stage?

Stop checking!

[ddzc]

Stop checking!

Maybe if I was an expert SEO, I would stop checking, but I'm obviously doing something wrong if my site keeps getting removed. I'm taking this business very serious, all day and night. I think about it all the time and how I can stay on top and better rank my sites. I sleep 3 hours a night so I can work on my sites. I would like to do this f/t but with my site being taken down = failure in my eyes. I really need the help and assistance at this point from the pros around here.

[Jill]

It doesn't keep getting removed. You're just seeing different databases, one of which it is simply not there.

[ddzc]

It doesn't keep getting removed. You're just seeing different databases, one of which it is simply not there.

Hi Jill,

Thanks for the response. Does most of the population use a certain database? The site is definitely gone for everyone worldwide. I was getting 200 visitors a day..it was removed from Google Monday night. My site stats indicated 20 visitors yesterday. My traffic pretty much went down to nothing since I noticed it missing in Google.


Thanks

[Jill]

You had 200 visitors for 1 longtail keyword? (as per your first post.)

Since long tail terms by their very nature (only bring a couple searches a day or less) don't bring much traffic, then this sounds pretty odd.

My guess is that you simply need to get more quality links and also be sure your content is unique.

[ddzc]

You had 200 visitors for 1 longtail keyword? (as per your first post.)

Since long tail terms by their very nature (only bring a couple searches a day or less) don't bring much traffic, then this sounds pretty odd.

My guess is that you simply need to get more quality links and also be sure your content is unique.

We'll, I analyzed from awstats in cpanel on where my traffic was coming from. Most were from 1 long tail keyword (55%) which is searched quite often. I was #1 in .ca and #3 in u.s which is why the traffic was decent. It was also ranked for about 6-7 other long tail keywords which generated about 40% traffic. It's not ranked for any of them anymore. The only way my site will come up in Google right now is if I search the url name in Google. It won't come up for any sets of keywords anymore.

The content is definitely unique. I will work on more link building for sure. Right now, I have a nice set of quality links in comparison to the top sites in Google...I'm surprised it was taken down. The whole thing bothering me is that I really don't know WHY it was removed.

Thanks

[Jill]

Most were from 1 long tail keyword (55%) which is searched quite often.

Not that it matters to the point of this thread, but if it was searched quite often, then it's not a long tail keyword. Just trying to keep definitions straight here.

A long tail keywords, by it's very nature, means it's not searched very often.