New sites on subdomains disappearing altogether

[dombili]

Two months ago we registered a non-US domain.

1. Around 6 weeks ago, we have started a sub1.domain.extension with unique content, a site with around 20 pages of quality information.
2. Around 4 weeks ago, we have started a sub2.domain.extension, having nothing related to sub1, with again unique content on another topic.
3. Around 2 weeks ago, we have started a sub3.domain.extension, having nothing related to sub1 or sub2, with again unique content on a completely different topic.

These three subdomains do not link to each other. sub3 links to mostly governmental instutions, sites that are trustable, sub1 and sub2 are almost external link free.

We have linked to these three sites from a few of our well-established sites, from pages that are related to their topics, so they are links that add value to our well-established sites as well.

For all of them, pages got indexed, we started getting some hits through Google, for some medium-level competition keywords, we have even seen them in top 10 results or around that. Then 3 days ago, they have effectively disappeared from search results, for some terms they do not even show up, and for the ones they show up, they are around 200+ ranked results.

I can understand that websites need time to show up, and that is my experience from before, they took their times showing up, but had a somewhat consistent flow after that.

So I'm curious. Although we started them at different times, they all disappeared at the same time. Could it be some sort penalty or filter? If so, what could it be?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

edit: had forgotten "time" after "same"

[edited by: dombili at 8:33 pm (utc) on Mar. 4, 2009]

[tedster]

they took their times showing up, but had a somewhat consistent flow after that

Much more common today is an early period of ranking well, followed by a drop to the deep. Then, eventually, a slower appearance of more stable rankings, as the site attracts a stronger natural backlink profile and gains trust at Google.

I've been calling it the honeymoon period. It's still frustrating, but it's better than the 6 months of suffering in the so-called "sandbox" we used to see.

[dombili]

Thanks for the insight. But I can't explain them getting disappeared at the same time with what you have just said. One is 6 weeks old and another 2 weeks, they both ceased to be in honeymoon period at the same time?

[tedster]

Sometimes Google does give a specific treatment whole blocks of sites all on a specific date, rather than after a specific time period. It is too early to think about this as a penalty -- unless you know you did something that violated the guidelines that is.

Instead, I'd suggest you work on attracting more diverse backlinks. If the only backlinks are from sites that are obviously under the same control, that can hamper rankings quite severely.

[dombili]

The backlinks are only a few, 3-4 for each one, we have managed to get a few more as well, but still they are less than 10 in total for each. And yeah, they are from the same IP-blocks, but I feel the obligation to repeat that the links are on-topic and informational from only related topics.

I don't mind working on getting more backlinks and that was what I really was waiting for - getting the websites running and then starting getting backlinks. I had no hope to get visitors from week 1, I was just surprised to be getting them, then even more suprised when they disappeared. I just do not want my backlink efforts go wasted for some kind of filter or penalty that we will be able to understand only in 2020.

[dombili]

A few years ago, I used to think that Google handles subdomains as seperate websites. Could anyone confirm this?

[tedster]

Yes, Google used to treat subdomains "more like" separate websites. Here's a blog post that Matt Cutts wrote [mattcutts.com] when this changed, back in November 2007. Now it's "more like" subdirectories - but there are still shades of gray here.

[dombili]

So that sort of means these un-related sites of ours look like a spammy bunch of webpages scattered around subdomains? Bah.