Nugget For Thought For Losing SERP in G

My site was Number 1. Now it's 150 ....

[Dabu The Dragon]

I have a site that has been number 1 in G for over a year for a 4 word keyphrase. After last update it's setting in the 150 spot, totally out of commission for any competetive marketing.

But interestly enough, the top 5 sites in the keyphrase I once dominated have my link on their front page. These same sites exchanged links with me about 2 months ago. The SEO company that contacted me to exchange links with them was called seoguy.com.

I'm not blaming anyone of saying anything underhanded happened. It's just interesting that the top 5 sites I exchanged links with are now on top and my site is lost in the storm.

This update took all my G visitors. I don't even see G in my logs anymore. Big ouch.

If anyone has a thoughts, I'm open for comments. Should I remove the links or do I just wait and see what happens?

Dabu

[bether2]

It's just interesting that the top 5 sites I exchanged links with are now on top and my site is lost in the storm.

Many people are finding that when they search in google for their company name (or name of their website), the first search results are sites that link to them - with their site being far below the sites that link to them.

Have seen comments on this board about a similar effect when doing a query using a keyword/phrase. Have seen some of that myself. Do a search and you get a list of pages that are linking to pages that have the information you're looking for.

[Dabu The Dragon]

Thank you bether2 for your response. This sort of thing can shake a persons confidence.

[mayday9]

can you give more info about your site? was it a directory, was it a big site, how many inbound links, what sort of links were they?

I have seen most of my strong sites go trough what you just described. Mine were mostly directories with unique content, hand written

[Collieman]

There is an SEO forum within the SEOGUY.com site and reading through their posts it looks like the experiences are shared. I doubt very much that there was anything underhand....just put it down to a bad G day.

[Dabu The Dragon]

Thank you for your replies. Collieman, I don't believe anything underhanded happened. It's just a hard pill to swallow.

And Mayday9, the site in question has over 400 pages of unique handwritten content. It's a financial self help site, that features 2 free financial affiliate services. Whitehat all the way. I'd be totally horrified to do anything tricky.

The site has always done well. I even get email from visitors saying how much the info has been helpful.

The site now shows 45 inbound google links coming from relevant sites. All reciprocal.

I have been a good boy. I hope my good behavior gets rewarded. And even if it doesn't, it's been a great ride.