Penalty

[Essel]

My site dropped on the 26th (oh no not another one) but wait.

If I search for specific portions of text from my homepage that are unique to me, my site comes up last or very very low.

Even if i search for my phone number (in speech marks) i come up last.

So a few questions.

1) I can only assume it's a penalty. Correct?

2) What could have caused this?

3) How do i rectify it.

Ok easy questions to answer with no domain, right?!

Finally when doing the above checks I notice a competitor of mine cloaked my entire site content...Could this have caused it?

[Essel]

Further information:

I've just noticed, there's no date next to my listing(s) in g.

All other sites have dates....The cache is very very old, 20th of December.

PR6 site, g normally updates me every day.

Comments?

[JuniorOptimizer]

Do the link: or site: command show anything?

[Essel]

I rank, but always last, or very low.

Site shows many of my pages.
Link shows some of my links.

The site is pr6, it's been ranked 1st for the keywords I *want* for 14 months. I like to think I know how to rank, but this has got me flummaxed.

[paladin]

did you try adding "&filter=0" to the URL when you searched in Google?

If not, try it

[Rugles]

>>I rank, but always last

What do you mean by last? Number 10?

[weela]

Semi related maybe, I’ve been trying to figure this out for the longest time. For my keyword phrase I rank #2 on MSN beta, #2 on regular MSN and #3 on Yahoo. I’m not in the top 1000 results on Google, I’m completely baffled. The funny thing is my old site (I removed all the content) still ranks really well for my phrase. Anyone have any ideas?

[nippi]

I don't thnink its a penalty, I think its a stuff up.

You should come up for your phone number.

If you'd care to sticky me I will have a look if you like

[Powdork]

Weela, I'm guessing you are having problems with a new domain. If so, you are describing the sandbox.

[newsphinx]

Heard of Sandbox, didn't you? If your site is new and your search queries are keywords, I guess you are sandboxed. Since you still rank, you are surely not penalized.

[newsphinx]

Powdork types a lot faster! :o

[jeffwade]

Paladin: I have a similar problem, why my site appear only when I use filter=0, what does it mean?

Thank you.

[paladin]

I have a similar problem, why my site appear only when I use filter=0, what does it mean?

From my understanding, chances are that your site is being caught as duplicate content.

I had a similar problem with one of my older clients, where they did not want me to make too many changes on their site, so I created a new site for them.

This new site was in the first 3 positions for over a year, but as of a few weeks ago it is gone without the filter.

[Essel]

re: sandbox theories.

I've been first for all the keywords I want for 14 months. The domain is circa 1990.

I don't consider myself a noob, i've been doing this a while. I rode all the storms, florida included.

Another site I have ranks first for a major term (37,100,000 results).

But this has me baffled.

[edited by: Essel at 9:49 pm (utc) on Jan. 4, 2005]

[Essel]

What do you mean by last? Number 10?

Well the "search for my phone number example" I come up on page 3 (out of 3 pages)! All the overture/espotting directory sites that have taken a portion of my text come up before me...

[Essel]

did you try adding "&filter=0" to the URL when you searched in Google?
If not, try it

Whilst it has a small affect on the results it doesn't place my site any differently.

[The_Hitcher]

I just ranted about this phenomena in another thread - missed this one. [webmasterworld.com...]