One link on my home page dropped me 620 places?

[simetau]

Hi,

I have for the past few months ranked around #10 for a very competitive keyphrase. On 27th March I added to the index page a 2 line text line to a new internal page and the very next day I dropped to #630 for the same keyphrase!

Is this typical or a coincidence?

I have removed the text/link and the new internal page now, should it goe back to the previous ranking anytime soon?

I am panicked here and will be very poor if nothing changes lol

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Simetau

[Seo1]

Google doesn't count the value of links that quickly unless it is a major news story.

It was something you did... I would say about two months ago.

[Lorel]

it could also be a hijacker or someone who copied your content. Search for major lines of text in google, in quotes.

[simetau]

I have found a site that has copied the first paragraph from my home page and it was cached by Google on the 26th March, we dropped 620 places a few days later.........would this be a likely cause?

How do I let Google know about this and what steps should I now take?

Many thanks for all you help!

Simetau

[G_Smitty]

Try contacting the site owner first. This happened to me about a year ago with two sites. I was actually able to get the owner of one site to remove the copy. I reported the other site to Adsense support because they were also displaying adsense illegally. That took care of the other site. Everything was back to normal within 2 months.

[simetau]

Many thanks for the advice, I hope that it does the trick as in 2 months time this will have cost me around $16k in lost earning from this site.

Thanks
Simetau

[asher02]

Try to change this paragraph, hunting the site owners or waiting for google to do the work for you can take some time. When it happens to me I just sit for 15 minutes and write a better paragraph. I know it might sound like folding but when you need to support 30 families...there is no time for principles games.