Say it isn't so

[shimzetts110]

Hello everyone. I am hoping maybe someone here can assist me with my current dilemma. I need to know if it is possible for a competitor to be able to have my site removed (or do anything to possibly have my rankings drop) from a search engine?
(i.e. spamming, submitting to link farms, abusing submission software, etc...)

[martinibuster]

According to GoogleGuy, no. But there are many here who would disagree. This is one of those issues that never finds a satisfactory answer for everybody.

[jcoronella]

According to Google:

"There is almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking"

[google.com...]

Almost nothing.

[zoobie]

Well, that's just Google. I'd say your competitor is possibly submitting your site over and over again to other SE's...but 2 can play that game. Remember...most SE's like fresh content. You could be sinking because of stale pages whereas your competition is updating theirs. You can get around this by rewriting a paragraph or 2 and switching them every month.

[shimzetts110]

<"I'd say your competitor is possibly submitting your site over and over again to other SE's">

Thanks Zoobie. That is what I feel is maybe happening. I am constantly adding new content to my website. I make sure to follow all design and content guidelines to keep my website squeaky clean.

After having top results in Google, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, etc...our website just somehow "happened" to disappear or fall by 10-20 pages.

Not to mention that this business has actually tried sending a virus to our email address and called a few times (the company name actually shows up on caller id) and then hangs up.

It all seems pretty ironic but still I have no real proof if this is the problem.