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The site is about 6 months old. I have added relative backlinks, about 5 a week since the site started up. Total of about 40 backlinks with PR of 2 to 5. I purposely added the backlinks slowly to avoid the so called sand box stuff.
I optimized the site (not overly so I thought) for a 2 and 3 word phrase using the state that the site services. In other words...
2 word ---> state widget
3 word ---- state widget whatever
As of last week the site was slowly creeping up the ranks. Started in the 700s about 5 months ago, was at 158 as of Friday for the 2 word phrase. Number 78 for the 3 word phrase.
Last week I decided to change the home page file name to state-widget.html. Also another 3 backlinks were added with a PR of 3,4, and 5.
Today for the 2 word phrase, gone. Nothing in the serps. for the 3 word phrase, I actually gained a couple of positions.
I don't think this can be the sand box thing, the site is still indexed. It just totally dropped for the 2 word phrase. So you think I hit that edge that we are not supposed to go over with optimization?
I noticed that googlebot started a deep crawl, got about halfway through the site then stopped and it hasn't been back since.
I also deleted all the 301 redirects on the site except for a redirect from www.mysite.com to mysite.com. The reason I did this was because for some odd reason, googlebot was starting deep crawls and then just stopping at these redirects and not going forward anymore. I thought there might be a problem with that. I had about 6 301's added to pages that no longer existed. The site gets fresh info on it almost daily exept for the home page.
Is this proof of the so called and very contreversial overoptimization filter?
Just wondering.
Do you think I should wait and see if it returns? It just freaks me out that it's gone for the 2 word phrase.
Thanks!
Maybe I'm missing something but why would you change the file name?
What could this be?
[edited by: eelixduppy at 7:55 pm (utc) on Feb. 18, 2009]
Is this proof of the so called and very contreversial overoptimization filter?
No.
"Proof" is a repeatable experiment that has been repeated "x" times where "x" is a number proportional to the size of the index, the complexity of the algorithm being tested and taking into account factors which could achieve the same effect.
Or, in old English "one Swallow does not a Summer make".
Do you think I should wait and see if it returns?
I think you should wait, generally, longer than you have been doing.
As of last week the site was slowly creeping up the ranks.
It takes longer than a week for these effects to make a difference and then stabilise.
You really need to wait until all the dust has settled until you start tweaking.
I would now probably leave it alone and wait and see what happens over the next 4-6 weeks.
TJ
Can my non-standard filename for index page(not default, index or home) trigger duplicate content penalty of any sort?
I am at my wits' end...
added- Do you still have an index.html?
but I doubt taking off all your optimization will do much good short-term. I've done it before with little good effect.
I feel like crying!
Welcome to the wonderful world of search-engine-awareness. This same thing happened to me over a year ago, simply disappeared from the index. Slowly crept back and now have PR6 on homepage and several internal pages, with rankings gradually getting better for some good phrases.
Were you around here for the Florida update? I didn't pay much attention to it as my site wasn't affected one way or the other, but I read enough here to know that there were thousands of upset, angry and financially-ruined webmasters after that one. It happens . . . it's a tough world.
Can anyone tell me what just happened to our ranking?
I'd say renaming your homepage was a major contributing factor. I used to rename pages and they got dumped every time; I don't rename them anymore. The first thing I'd do in your place is rename it back to whatever it was before just as quick as possible, unless it's been awhile since you made the change. In that case, leave it and wait for things to adjust before changing anything else.
I figure this out i did nothing to upset google, how did this happen to me. Man, i really hope someone figures out what happened so that we make the chnages required.
With sympathy for your position, allow me to suggest relaxation. When major changes occur, it takes days or even weeks for them to stabilize. If you're still having the same problem a month from now, I'd start to worry, otherwise just ride it out. People are saying they dropped out weeks ago, and are getting back in now, and others are saying they've dropped out now. Sounds like Google is tweaking its filters around or something. Who knows, you could be out for good, or you could be back in tomorrow. There is nothing you can do about it, it's way too soon to start looking for causes or making changes, so all you can do is watch and hope.
Anyway, to answer a few questions...
Maybe I didn't make myself clear.
I changed the file name to incorporate keywords as in state-keyword.html. The bot crawled the new page almost immediately. I did this with the hopes of bumping the site up a bit.
The new page (new home page file name) was returning at about 158 in the SERPS BEFORE it was dropped for the phrase. The new file name retained its same PR as the old file name.
All incoming links point to just mydomain.com. No referrals directly to the file name.
This seemed to work for a few days. I even got a bump in the SERPs. But as of yesterday, nothing for the 2 word phrase. As I stated, the 3 word phrase and a couple of other 2 word phrases actually went up in the SERPs. In fact, one of the 2 word phrases currently ranks the site at #1 :-) Of course, I am happy about that, but the money 2 word phrase for some reason was dropped like a lead balloon.
Anyway, comments are welcome. I suppose I could go back to the original filename, however, maybe I should wait a month and see what develops. Since yesterday, googlebot seems to be crawling the whole site, albeit very slowly. New page picked up about every half hour or so. I also am reading other posts that seem to indicate a lot of movement as of late. I might just stick this out and see where I land.
What's up with that?
At first I thought I was the Olympics but when I checked my rankings, tears began to flow...
But like Muhamed Ali said "A champion has to be able to take a good punch", so I just have to take this punch, get up and go into the next round of the fight.
And the next round for me is to go deeper into PPC and viral marketing :)
I think a change in mindset away from free traffic, especially from G, will do a lot of good for my sanity. How about you?
I have long been an avid Google supporter because of the way it provides uncluttered results, but if this is the way a search engine that has just completed an IPO conducts itself, then it is simply time to get rid of that stock. If this carries on they will be handing the No.1 position back to Yahoo on a plate.
Whatever they have tried to do - it has gone dreadfully wrong.....
What I think is happening is that Google is paying more attention to offsite factors, and Webmasters incorrectly interpret a "filter" or "penalty" for their onsite factors, when what is actually happening is there is more reward for offsite factors.
Having said that, for those who keyword stuff, that is another issue altogether.
Google has just redefined their understanding and definition of the term.
It exists.
