Q and A: Have we been penalised by Google?
Dear Kalena...
Hi, what a useful website you have.
Our site has dropped from the first page of results in google to page 5 and upwards, resulting in thousands of pounds worth of business lost per month. Have we been penalised for something?
Wayne
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Wayne
Thanks for the backslap! I've taken a look at the site and checked it using Google's Site Status Tool. I don't see a penalty of any kind. Why? Because:
1) You've got a healthy Google Toolbar rating of 5 out of 10.
2) Over 4000 pages from your site have been indexed by Googlebot.
3) Googlebot last indexed your page on 1st December.
When you say your site has dropped to page five of search results - is that for a particular search term? Or for all of your major search terms? If it is only for a single search phrase, that is a fairly common occurence as Google changes their algorithm and adds more and more new sites.
Your site is in the highly competitive adult industry, where search rankings change much more often than in other industries. You simply have to optimize the site for a wider range of keywords and phrases (the long tail).
If you are seeing your site drop consistently for ALL your major search terms, then that may indicate the site has been sandboxed. Have you done a major design overall or content change recently? Sometimes this can trigger a site to be placed in the sandbox.
My advice is to keep optimizing, build quality links and start concentrating on your exposure on other search engines so you don't sweat Google's algorithm changes.
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Hi, what a useful website you have.
Our site has dropped from the first page of results in google to page 5 and upwards, resulting in thousands of pounds worth of business lost per month. Have we been penalised for something?
Wayne
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Wayne
Thanks for the backslap! I've taken a look at the site and checked it using Google's Site Status Tool. I don't see a penalty of any kind. Why? Because:
1) You've got a healthy Google Toolbar rating of 5 out of 10.
2) Over 4000 pages from your site have been indexed by Googlebot.
3) Googlebot last indexed your page on 1st December.
When you say your site has dropped to page five of search results - is that for a particular search term? Or for all of your major search terms? If it is only for a single search phrase, that is a fairly common occurence as Google changes their algorithm and adds more and more new sites.
Your site is in the highly competitive adult industry, where search rankings change much more often than in other industries. You simply have to optimize the site for a wider range of keywords and phrases (the long tail).
If you are seeing your site drop consistently for ALL your major search terms, then that may indicate the site has been sandboxed. Have you done a major design overall or content change recently? Sometimes this can trigger a site to be placed in the sandbox.
My advice is to keep optimizing, build quality links and start concentrating on your exposure on other search engines so you don't sweat Google's algorithm changes.
---------------------------
[If you found this post helpful, you might benefit from downloading our free Search Engine Optimization lesson]
Labels: google, google sandbox, google site status tool, long tail phenomenon
