Trivial change on text-only page - POOF! - it's gone

[Phil_Payne]

I have a couple of pretty much text-only pages that do absolutely NOTHING complicated. No frames, no tables, no scripts, no links to speak of, etc.

I just updated them - in one case adding only a line of plain text - and both have disappeared COMPLETELY from the index. Nothing I put in will bring either up.

The rest of the site, per se, is unaffected - I still get #1 on the relatively obscure keywords that are my speciality - deserved, because I've been at it for years.

But what gives? One of the pages is a school reunion page - I've had emails praising the prose from all over the world. And there's literally NOTHING in it that is even remotely related to SEO.

I'm beginning to suspect that Google's new algorithms are generating some quite incredible false positives.

[johnhh]

Phil_Payne

We have the same, but larger movements test keywords show following since March 15 - page24 to page 9 - currently going backwards again - page 14.

[Phil_Payne]

>> I think Phil's original question was about pages created in December - ranking well - then dropping after a slight alteration. All on a site that is well established.

> It was. Both pages are now back in the SERPS, though slightly lower than before - #9 and #10 in place of 2 or 3.

Both pages are now back exactly where they were before the updates.