Dropping Out Of Google For Specific Search Terms

[kidder]

A few sites I monitor have dropped out of the Google results for specific search terms recently, I'm not sure if this is related to the "Panda" fiasco or some other problem. So far I can't see any real pattern. We first noticed this on the 14th of October. And when I say gone I mean gone from the index and no tools can find them.

The problem impacts:

keywords we have targeted
keywords we have not targeted
Some keywords are ranking about the same
Some were high ranking terms
Some were not high ranking for us(page 3)

We can see this on at least 3 unrelated sites now with no sign of recovery. Another site I monitor seems to have been infected in the last 48 hours dropping a bundle of its high converting terms into a black hole. In the past I have seen drops in rankings but nothing like this, anyone else?

[linkbuildr]

Well Panda updated on the 13th/14th so I would attribute it to that. If you heavily targeted certain anchor text then perhaps you got a little greedy.

[sundaridevi]

I had something similar, described here [webmasterworld.com]. I described it is Oct 8, but should have said during that week, because when I looked at the daily analysis the dropoff happened from Oct 13-14.

I think that it is related to spammy incoming links for those keywords and that Panda updates somehow tipped the scale so the penalty started to apply.

[kidder]

If we had created spammy links then fair enough but in the examples I have given there is a lot of variation in link profiles, verticals, age of sites and ownership. If it was a type of penalty for excess link anchor then I can always run some tests with my friend Mr X to see if I can bomb the competition out of the serps... I just don't think this is the case.

[sundaridevi]

I can always run some tests with my friend Mr X to see if I can bomb the competition out of the serps... I just don't think this is the case.

That's what I thought as well, but now I think it is the most likely explanation.

Does your site have spammy links with the penalized keywords allinanchor?

[kidder]

Nothing has been done to excess unless perhaps the Panda effect kicks in and they apply some other factor to kill off your higher traffic terms as part of the punishment.

[sundaridevi]

Nothing has been done to excess unless perhaps the Panda effect kicks in and they apply some other factor to kill off your higher traffic terms as part of the punishment.

I guess that means yes? Or maybe part of the punishment is they punish you for things that were not quite excessive enough beforehand.

How old is your site?

[sundaridevi]

This guy [webmasterworld.com] seems to have recovered by deleting incoming links.