Google dropped my index page for certain keywords

[Sg_Premium]

Hello everyone,

I am newbie here.

I think that my index page has been dropped by google for certain keywords.

I have been running a site for about four months, which has PR 1 now.

It was ranking around 30-40 in google search results, for lets say keywordA keywordB, untill 3 or 4 weeks ago.

Suddenly, it disappeared.

I have noticed that my site can be accessed from different urls.

http://example.com
http://www.example.com
http://www.example.com/index.htm

which I have fixed now.

But it is still not appearing on google search results.Other pages do appear on google, it just the index page.

Can anyone help me please? Thanks in advance.

[edited by: tedster at 5:51 am (utc) on Oct. 6, 2008]
[edit reason] switch to example.com [/edit]

[tedster]

Hello, and welcome to the forums.

First thing is to understand that this is often part of "new site" experience - and at 4 months, your site is still pretty new to Google. There's an early period where some high ranking is rather easy to get - but then it goes away. It's like an early testing period (I've called it a honeymoon) just in case your site really catches fire - but most sites do not and their growth to good and stable rankings is more gradual.

Next thing, especially since you found and addressed some early trouble, is to be sure that your fix is working correctly. Do a site:example.com search using Google's special operator, site: - your domain root should be the first result if everything is healthy.

If you don't already have a Webmaster Tools account with Google, I'd recommend it. There are many kinds of feedback about potential issues with your site that Google will give to a verified site owner through Webmaster Tools.

[Sg_Premium]

HI thank you very much for the reply. I am still new to the SEO world so its been a bit of tri and error.

"Next thing, especially since you found and addressed some early trouble, is to be sure that your fix is working correctly. Do a site:example.com search using Google's special operator, site: - your domain root should be the first result if everything is healthy."

I have tried that and the first result was FAQ page(www.example.com/FAQ.htm) instead of Home Page(www.example.com) which is wrong I think. Home Page(www.example.com) can be found at the second last of the results. Is there any way to fix it?

Yes I use webmaster, Google Analytics, I submit the latest sitemap regularly, but it doesn't seem to make much difference in terms of ranking.