Google Penalties

Knowing which one it is and how to correct it

[Rick42]

One of the sites I work with just suddenly dropped everywhere early last week, for very competitive terms as well as for the non-competitive terms in both Google.com and the local results (which are very easy to rank in).

After looking into what could possibly be the cause for this, it seems as if Google is discounting all the backlinks I have...for reasons I ignore. Some are one way, some are reciprocal...very little are non-related. I have avoided FFA sites as best possible, but some of these add you without requesting permission, so your site is found on alot of those spammy link sites anyways.

As far as content goes, it is not a content-oriented site. It has some articles on its topic, but these are from other sites with credit links to them.

To be more precise, the drop was from first page results to page 3-4 and 5. I still have some results.

Has anyone been able to isolate what may have been the triggering factor after seeing their site get hit with a penalty? What actions have you taken in response?

[irishaff]

From what you say Duplicate content is certainly one of the things you have been caught with. Pointing to the original site they were copied from is not enough to get around that filter. If the other sites have been around longer , and have more links etc. Do the pages you copied rank for the terms you have dropped for?

With regards to the backlinks , even if the link command doesnt show them , doesnt mean they are not recognised. Only the folks in the googleplex know what links are really giving your site some punch ( there is some debate that links from a poor neighbourhood could hurt you , but i think its more probable only if you link back? )

Are the pages that still rank the copied ones, or your own original work ? Sorry for making assumptions , but thats my best guess from the info you posted.

[texasville]

>>>As far as content goes, it is not a content-oriented site. It has some articles on its topic, but these are from other sites with credit links to them. <<<

And if you run the command site: mysite.com do these articles show up as supplemental?

What I am really surprised about is that it happened just last week. Really out of the penalty loop. Seems like a competitor reported you. Time to go thru the site and take a serious look at what could be violating Google's terms of service.