Hugene - 6:55 pm on Apr 14, 2009 (gmt 0)

I've noticed the same development as internetheaven has reported. My 5 year-old topic-authority site used to rank high (up to 2 years ago) for a keyword that has since become highly competitive. As the competition increases, we have been buried at the bottom of the page.

I've always relied on organic support for my site: no conscious keyword optimization, no link buying, no link creating, no keywords at the bottom of the page, no fake-content pages (like random blurbs with 2 sentences not making much sense).

For my key keyword I am still on top. For all other keywords, especially commercially competitive one, I have been heavily damaged.

I have been following this in real time for 2 years now, so I know it's happening. The strangest thing is that some techniques that we always discuss on WW as being obvious SEO seem to actually be accepted and tolerated by G, and the sites using them are going up.

It's simply baffling, and very disappointing and scary.