Google Toggles our High Ranking On/Off Again and Again

[GV_Excel]

Hello Everybody,

We have a website and are on the first page of Google for a series of keywords since ages. Being into international business we had to create country specific sites and so we have created sub domains for the same a couple of months back.

As a part of Link Development, we started promoting via Google ads and sponsoring Blogs and posting on Article Sites and the other White Hat ways, and we were on either of the first three places of Google for any of the Keywords for all the Countries.

We were so aggressive that we built too many links in a very short span and one unfine day, We were out of SERP. None of our sites were displayed anywhere.

There were a couple of positive answers, when some suggested that it could be due to duplicate domains, and also it could be due to domain farm (we placed site wide footer links on all our micro domains.). Taking all into consideration, we did the following:

Removed Site wide Footer Links
Stopped all kinds of Blog Sponsorships and existing the deleted accounts
Created Separate domains individually
Placed site wide links only on the Home Page of all the new domains

All was fine, when just after we did these changes in 15 days, we were back on Google for 5 Days. Then Google stopped displaying for 2 days and again we were back on Google. This happened for 2 days and again day before yesterday, we were off.

Off(15 Days) - On(5 Days) - Off(2 Days) - On(2 Days) - Off(3 Days)...

We have done no additional promotional activities for linking building nor posted any articles anywhere. We do not use duplicate content on any of our sites and all the sites are specific to the countries and do not overlap. It's been more than a week, and nothing is positive.

The only thing that happened anything from Google was, Our site was last cached last week and our inbound links have come down by 300 as displayed by Google.

Please help, what could have happened mean while?

[tedster]

I'm seeing this treatment for several domains where sudden spurts of backlinks showed up for competitive query terms - the backlink growth is controlled by the domain owner rather than being freely "editorial".

In my current view, it ties in with the Yo-Yo Effect [webmasterworld.com] and the apparent Traffic Throttling [webmasterworld.com] that some members have been discussing.

[GV_Excel]

Thanks for your better insight Tedster. Traffic Throttling [webmasterworld.com] shouldn't be a part of this context because, one of our major competitors is always behind us for the keywords we target for. If what you said was right, based on the priority or something of it, We have been Toggled by Google only very recently, but our Competitors (one particular guy) is rock steady just behind us everytime and anytime for United States Traffic. If we are on the 1st, he is the 2nd, and if we are off, then he is the 1st, his position has been rocksteady for months. Coming to the competition, our competitors who were competing with us are still there on the same, no matter what. Can you please comment?

[tedster]

Here's whay I responded as I did. I've seen such toggling in several cases right after a "backlink campaign" - but this is just a guess. My data set is too small to claim I've got results toggling nailed down to a proven cause & effect.

My suspicion is that when a site's backlink growth seems a bit unnatural (but not completely out of line) the URL is tested to see whether Google users feel that result really belongs on page 1.

If you haven't recently done anything to try to increase backlinks, then some other cause is afoot. How's your server doing? Anything in the Error logs?

[GV_Excel]

Hi Ted,

Our servers are absolutely tact and in place. We have no issues with them. May be what you guessed could be true, you know about the back links. But coming to us coming on page one, You would stop using Google for the results being displayed for our competitive keywords, Except for the first 5 - 6 sites, you will have to rethink, if the results are really organic.

As of now, we have completely removed all the link building campaings,afterall Google doesn't seem to like Links, we are simply waiting for the G to be Good for us soon, nearby. Thanks again.

[youfoundjake]

I've recently started on a link campaign on one of my sites by posting comments in related blogs. As a result I'm getting site-wide links from the blogs, and the IBL's have jumped from 15 to about 6500 in the past month. Keep in mind that they are all site-wide when in actuallity I could have one link from about 100 domains.
I've watched some of my keywords rise, but overall, not a huge gain.
I still think that site-wide links, however nice they are to count and generate clicks by future visitors, still don't't play to much in the rankings.
Could site-wide links affect the OP as much as it did, or could it have been dupe contemt on multiple domains?

[tedster]

One of my clients had the same experience. They were given sitewide links from two pretty potent websites and saw no obvious bump in any rankings. Depending on placement, run-of-site links can be good for traffic. But in most cases I would rather not have the "favor" of ROS links. One nice content link, freely given, is probably more help for both rankings and for traffic.

[GV_Excel]

I agree with Tedster. With an aim to increase the number of Inbound Links, we tried to promote our site via site wide links on various blogs, the numbers were reflected in Yahoo Site Explorer Inbound Links, but Google considered only as one link, something like, you shout once or a thousand times, the message is the same. Also the placement of the link plays a vital position. A lot or #*$! and Poker sites even have the same probabilty like the ordinary portals to get a site wide link and if they unfortunately become your neighbor, your Hub Authority would severly be affected. I suggest out of this experience and go with tedster, that if you get a Link inbetween content, it adds more.