Ducki - 8:51 am on Jan 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

Probably about time I weighed in on this one as this is my third time in the 950 penalty box in the last 1.5 years.

Our original site was created in 1995. We switched to a new domain 1n 1998 and 301 redirected everything to new pages on the new domain.

Since Google came out, we've been #2 for our primary search term. The only times this has varied is when the #1 position spammed and was removed for three weeks and when we've been 950 penalized. Other than that, years of great traffic from Google.

Note: This is only one of thousands of keywords we rank well for as our site has tens of thousands of pages.

Okay, back to the meat of our story:

First 950 Penalty
On September 22, 2005 we were kicked between the legs by Google. Our #2 ranking and thousands of others went up into the hundreds with many of in the 600+ range and a few in the 900+ range. I came on webmasterworld, read a ton about duplicate content, 301'd a duplicate domain we had back to the first domain, reduced keyword density tons and our listings came back on November 7, 2005.

Second 950 Penalty
On August 17, 2006 Google again kicked us between the legs. This time Matt Cutts mentioned that if you'd been hit that your site was probably over optimized. So I went about de-optimizing my site by stripping out keywords everywhere. Sure enough, our site came back on October 2nd, 2006.

Before I go on, many on this site have boldly stated that if you leave everything alone your site will come back by itself. Frankly, I don't like leaving things to chance especially when Matt Cutts actually makes a statement like he did. Maybe my SERP's would have come back if I'd left them alone. Then again, there are people on here whose SERP's have never come back so I prefer the idea that I have control over this.

Third 950 Penalty
On January 12th-15th, 2007 Google kicked us between the legs again. By coincidence, I'd just started re-optimizing our site after the last penalty figuring it was safe to start edging things up again. Please understand, when I de-optimized in August I really stripped the site down.

On the January 16th I undid some of the optimizing and three days later many of our listings improved. More specifically, it appears a 35 penalty was loosened.

So here I sit, for the third time, knowing that I'm the only site in my industry this has happened to. Well, on the first one two other sites with duplicate domains were hit which is one of the reasons I knew what had happened. In this case, the reoptimization I completed just before getting penalized was to add back keywords to internal links. Guess what I'm about to remove?

Final thoughts...
There's a lot of chatter on here about Google having lost it, gone to the dogs, whatever because of these penalties. I don't think Google's lost it, I think they're sending a message. If they penalized you by a couple positions you'd hardly notice and probably increase the optimization of your site. But when Google takes you from hero to zero, it's a wake up call. Honestly, think about it. Your ranking drops 950 positions -- who but an SEO guru would even know how to find a SERP at position 950?

Google is sending a message each time they do this -- de-optimize your site or languish in the pit of despair until you do. I for one am changing my site yet again. It's a pain and the first time I did it I nearly cried at undoing all the hard work I'd put in but it works. For me, that's simple enough.

Enjoy!