Determining and Resolving Google Penalites

Client's site has been in the sandbox 3 years

[simplesimon]

I created a site for a client over 3 years ago for his manufacturing business. No matter what changes are made to the site it hangs out at around 350+ in serps for the main keyphrase. During one google dance it was on page 1-3 for a couple of weeks, but then plunged back down to the basement in a day.

I've gone through the webmaster guidelines time and again, as well as read all webmasterworld posts I can find on penalties, but can't see any violations of the guidelines on the site.

Homepage is PR3 and client is a heavy Adwords user.

I haven't been able to find a way to contact google directly regarding this matter. Is there any way to find out if there is a penalty involved and if so, what I can do to correct it?

[Lorel]

It doesn't necessarily have to be a penalty imposed by Google. It could be scrapers or hijackers. Look for 302 or even 301 redirects in the inurl and intitle commands and also look for sites with any other kind of redirect (site captured in a frame or Meta Refresh or Javascript redirects).If you find any of these report them to Google Spam and Google AdSense. Usually within a week these are removed or no longer have an effect on your site. If not you'll have to contact the site owner directly.

You might also set up a site map account on Google and send in a reinclusion request (you don't need to have the site map set up to do this) explaining how you built the site and as far as you know there is nothing wrong with the site, and ask for reinclusion (even though it may be fully indexed). Also having a site map set up will let you know if there is a problem with indexing the site.

[jetteroheller]

and send in a reinclusion request

I just wanted to try this, but I do not find anymore the reinclusion request link in my site maps.

Has this link disappeared?

[sandpetra]

Welcome to webmasterworld!

[texasville]

You mention a pr3 but is this competitive with other sites in your niche?
does a site:example search return problems?

[KenB]

I just wanted to try this, but I do not find anymore the reinclusion request link in my site maps.

Has this link disappeared?

On the main "my site" page there is a "link" called tools that extends a drop down that shows the reinclusion request link.

[simplesimon]

Thanks for all the help.

You mention a pr3 but is this competitive with other sites in your niche?

Actually the page in position one is a PR3. It is a competetive keyphrase though. I've had luck bringing other sites up from the depths (no spam, just relevant incoming links, and relevent keywords in the right places), but the way this one hovers around 380 no matter what I do makes me suspicious .

does a site:example search return problems?

No problems. It actually results in almost all pages that are indexed, as the keyphrase is basically the name of the product they sell and is on all pages.

[simplesimon]

You might also set up a site map account on Google

Yeah, I just got the sitemap up last week, so it would be good timing for a reinclusion request. Thanks for the tip.

[simonmc]

If you are around rank 350 for your keyword then you are already included. A re-inclusion request is pointless. It's just that Google sees 349 sites more relevant to the search term you are trying for than your site.

You need to look at the competitiveness of the search term and see what you need to do link wise to compete with the 349 sites above you.

I would say a PR3 for a competetive term is pretty poor. That means you need to work on getting people in related areas of interest to link to you. Build your link pop a bit more and see where you stand in a few months.

[johnyfav]

I assume that you rank top for your company name?

How many links have you got to your site with the keyword in?

[simplesimon]

I would say a PR3 for a competetive term is pretty poor.

I definitely agree. My problem is that this client sees other PR3 sites on the first 3 pages of the SERPs with no backlinks showing and wants to be like those guys. About a year and a half ago I put some time into the site, and after Google updated we bounced around on the first three pages for a few weeks. Then in a day, right back down to high 300s and have been there ever since. That's the only thing that really made me question if there was a penalty involved. If not, that's great - I have more ammo for doing it the right way rather than looking for the easy way.

[edited by: simplesimon at 4:39 pm (utc) on Aug. 22, 2006]

[simonmc]

The problem you have then is that there are far too many of you offering the same thing.

You need to put yourself above these PR3 sites by either adding loads of new content or inbound links.

You need to go a step further. Google can only show 1 site in the number 1 spot. Even if there are 500 sites all the same vying for the same spot.

You need to step up your game to get ahead of the pack. If I had a few PR3 sites to beat on a competetive term, I would be a happy man :)