Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I've done basic SEO on page. Submitted to social directories, Article marketing, and obtained links from a few blogs (4 or 5) that I created.
I Obtained a first page ranking last Saturday for my site and now it is gone from the top 10 pages. I've asked this question on other forums and was assured that it is normal in most cases for new sites. This makes sense because my site is only about a month old.
In any event, I would like to hear if anyone has any other explanations regarding my recent drop from the top ten pages.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
What are the reasons that you haven't accepted the responses you have had in other forums? I
my response is "this is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about, if you are sure that you are not doing anything that would upset Google in the first place" but I get the feeling that's not what you want to hear (if it were you wouldn't still be asking right?)
Google "sandbox" <--sorry mods if that against TOS... or go to the Hot Topic [webmasterworld.com] thread, and read everything about the sandbox
You need many more backlinks and a several months to get 'proper' rankings that are not artificially inflated by Google's auto-boost for new sites.
[Edit: Style Codes]
[edited by: Shaddows at 5:27 pm (utc) on Jan. 14, 2009]
Assuming your site is new-ish (not quite clear), then sandbox-type effects is the overwhelmingly likely explanation.
Think about it ... why would your new site get to the top so quickly?
BTW, be careful of creating extra sites purely for promotion; it can get you into trouble (bad neighborhood), while not doing much to help.
Are you going too keep asking in forums until someone tells you this is wrong/bad/be worried?My reply is that, I just might do that. Please understand as I explained earlier that I am new the to the world of internet marketing/SEO/Google. In many cases you can hear contradicting information from different sources, so in my humble opinion the best way for me to obtain clarity of some sort regarding my concern is to:
1. Gather information.
2. Form my own opinion based on the consensus.
I'm not sure if your were asking rhetorically or not but I did not want to be rude and not reply to your question.
What are the reasons that you haven't accepted the responses you have had in other forums?
It's not what I want to hear it's what you want to tell me (I mean
would you have responded differently if you thought this was the first time I asked this question?).
Shaddows and Quadrille Thank you for your replies as well. I have another site that is on the first page and I don't recall the same thing happening to it.
Keep in mind I am only competing with 18,000 other sites for this niche with quotes. One site on the first page only had about 5 backlinks (one was a PR3 and another a PR4). So I did not think that it was going to be that difficult to rank on the first page. I especially did not expect the site to not be in the top ten results.
I'm not so concerned that the site is not on the first page, I am mainly wanting to know what to expect with G (if this is normal). Secondly, if I did do something wrong I would like to know as well so I do not repeat the same mistake twice.
At johnnie it was good while it lasted :)
This is something I see a lot in another community I frequent, people will ignore those who genuinely know what they're talking about, when 1 person with little experience tells them that it is another way, because somewhere in their heart of hearts they want it to be the other way, and are more willing to believe the wrong answer.
I know it is difficult to tell who you can trust when you are new to a forum, but posting in lots of forums won't necessarily help you get an answer. If what I and the others had said on this thread was in any way disputable, I can guarantee that others would have come and told us so and opened up a debate on the subject, it's the nature of forums. Additionally people like Quadrille don't build up such huge post counts spouting rubbish, because when you talk rubbish on a forum, you are almost always called on it, or ignored, either way you don't get to work through thousands of posts. (that's not to say that everything someone with a few thousand posts says is right, or that people with low post counts are wrong, but that you can generally assume that they have a certain level of knowledge and experience under their belts)
You probably did nothing wrong at all, sites often pop to the top then go back to a true position. What you need to do now is forget that first page "glitch" and work on getting your site to where it needs to be. Think about it this way, this is a really good thing, because I know that when your site is 1 year old, with a few really good quality back links and a true first page position, you will be grateful that people just starting with a one month old site are unlikely to beat you in the SERPS without the same amount of hard work that you're about to start putting in on your site :)
The sandbox is almost certainlly what has happened. I see it time and time again when I build new sites. I tell the clients that they will appear and disappear often over the first few months.
I always tell them to use this time to obtain good incoming links, to create as much good content as they can handle and submit the site to all the good SE's and directories they can. Notice the word good mentioned, they have to be or face negative impacts :-)
I am guessing that G does this quite often for new sites because this is the second or third time it's happened. My sites have been on the first page, then second, then gone and back to the first page and now there gone again. However this is the first time I've asked for an explanation. Now my other site has done the same as well.
As a beginner now I can make a better informed decision as to what type of strategy to use because obtaining back links is a pain.
I think I will try Article Marketing more for sales. Until I learn SEO well enough to have clear understanding of what to expect and or have a few sites one the first page.
Notice the word good mentioned, they have to be or face negative impacts :-)
Yes I agree good is the key word here but the problem as a newbie is finding out which one's are. I have a list of about 300 to 500 directories, article directories etc. to get back links from but not all of those will appove me for one, and I'm sure not all of them are considered good.
What's even harder is to find out where to get anhor text links with out paying for them (besides articles)that have any page rank that are not time consuming (such as writing letters to other site owners.
What's even harder is to find out where to get anhor text links with out paying for them (besides articles)that have any page rank that are not time consuming (such as writing letters to other site owners.
If links are easy to get, they're probably no good. Putting effort into getting links is the only way to get the good ones.
To put it the other way round- if a link was 'good' and 'easy', everyone would have it. You need to get the onles no one else has got.
If you're informational, links will come, depending on your content. If you're ecommerce, you'll need some good content and quite possibly some gimmicks.
I believe some of the factors such as building Natural links, link progression (too many links at a time) and other factors I can't remember right know may have contributed to this sandbox effect in addition to the site's age. Due to time constraints I would gather 20 to 30 links at a time in some instances.
I will do as suggested and try to build a more links for the current project but only for so long. If I don't see any results I will start a new one(hopefully this time avoiding the sandbox). In any event I will re-start my forum marketing campaign in addition to my Article marketing campaign as I stated earlier.
As said in another forum member in DP:
I WILL NOT LOSE.
100 Factors in the Google Search Rankings [webmasterworld.com]
And a few signals
101 Signals of Quality : Celebrating 10 years of SEO [webmasterworld.com]
101 Signals of Quality - The WebPage Title [webmasterworld.com]
101 Signals of Quality : Keywords in File Path [webmasterworld.com]
