Site drops 250 spots in steps - and now hovers there

[rankfast]

From time to time, a website of ours shows in the TOP 10 for a few major keywords. The listing showed recently at #5, but I knew it wouldn't last. It was there for about 2 days, then started to slide down to about 8, then ultimately at 250.

After about 1 week it dropped to about 250 where it is currently hovering. This is so frustrating because it has been happening for a few major words, and not similar words.

This website has been historically dinged by bad SEO work, and penalized what seems to be permanently. I would think of suggesting to change the domain name, however, it is a marketable name that is good to keep. SO, I need to find a way out from under this filter/penalty of some sort.

The site uses: isapi rewrite, has about 300 pages, robots.txt, https robots.txt, regular asp programming. The site has a reciprocal link index, and works to get sites to link to it. The site apparently had a duplicate content problem about 3 years ago by bad SEO work. Multiple requests have been made to google for assistance with no reply.

Also, the site has purchased text links in the past, but does not currently.

Any suggestions would be greatly! apreciated. Something is seriously wrong, and I and at a loss in how to fix it.

[edited by: tedster at 12:31 am (utc) on July 11, 2008]
[edit reason] no specifics, thanks [/edit]

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums rankfast.

First thing to appreciate is that Google WANTS to return good sites in their search results. Bans and penalties are there to help them return the best sites. So the fact that you saw a #5 for two days is a hopeful sign.

Cleaning up after dodgy "SEO" work has hurt a site can be a big deal. You've got to find and clean-up everything, both on the pages and off the site. Once you've done that, a reconsideration request sent through the Webmaster Tools account that includes the details of all the clean-up you've done, and the fact that a previous so-called-SEO made a botch of it, can work wonders.

Just don't let anything slide, and don't try to sneak anything past the inevitable human review. Wait until you feel the site is really pristine to submit the request.

But be assured, even long-standing penalties can be removed. You might want to study some of the threads in the Hot Topics [webmasterworld.com], which is always pinned to the top of this forum's index page. That might give you some further ideas on what to fix. Be especially through in your study of backlinks. That's where a lot of penalty causes tend to be hiding.

[Lorel]

The site has a reciprocal link index, and works to get sites to link to it.

Other than what Tedster recommended are your reciprocal links the only links you have procurred? If so, Google may have devalued them leaving you with no links of any value and thus you may need more links.

[rankfast]

Thanks for the great comments, and points to the Hot Topics page.

Tedster, can you give a few hints about what I might look for in how the links can be causing a penalty? I thought that links could provide either no value or some positive value....but also negative value?

Thanks again.

[tedster]

If the algo "thinks" dodgy backlinks were place by the site itself, I am convinced that those dodgy links can sometimes caused a ranking problem. This is especially true in the case of reciprocals - by linking back you have vouched for your relationship to that site.

You should always check reciprocals regularly, not just for 404s but also for domains that have been re-purposed and now represent something you would rather not link to. It's also a good idea to check the entire site regularly for any hidden links that may have been hacked in without your knowledge.