Have I suffered a keyword specific penalty?

[Confetti_Wedding]

Hi all,

We've been working on improving our ranking for a specific keyword for the past couple of months. Progress has been steady if not spectacular (it's a very competitive keyword). Last week we obtained (not bought!) a site wide link from a partner (nothing fishy, they are business partners in the same industry) as well as a link each from a relevant resource site and a directory with good PA/DA. The anchor text used on the new links is keyword rich.

This week our rankings have fallen dramatically from page 2 to page 39 for our targeted page although other pages on our site still rank well for this keyword. The targeted page is still indexed by Google.

Could Google just be reassessing our ranking for this page and it will return to its previous rank or is it likely it has received a keyword specific penalty?

Thanks in advance.

[eunaneunan]

This has happened with us too a few times, usually we bounce right back if not higher in the listings a week or so later.

[RobertFisher]

Brendan,

I would say a week will not tell the story. With changes like you describe here, not to mention even simple changes in the content and on page SEO, we often see wild swings in rankings initially. Think about the times you have seen a site that is brand new all of a sudden show up on page one ahead of quality well established sites and then fade into obscurity over days or weeks.

We likely see this more often as we deal with a lot of emerging issue type sites where in the early stages (3-6months) there is not as much on the web as there is with maturity of the issue. Once the later adopters begin to arrive en masse, we see a lot of the "bumpy" rankings.

With changes we make to pages, we usually do not panic at negative rankings movement until at least 3 to 4 weeks have passed. (We do however suffer from nausea quite a bit during that time frame It is funny that with positive changes we tend to be a little more accepting..... Must be human nature...

Best

[Confetti_Wedding]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your reply. The reason I asked about the penalty is because the new links used keyword rich anchor text. Couldn't this be the proverbial straw that triggered the Google penalty? Obviously I take this in to consideration when link building and mix it up as much as possible but the vast majority of links to this page are internal and as such use 100% keyword matching anchor text.

For your info, the site is very well established in the market however we have made a lot of changes to the target page recently (URL, page title, alt text etc). I know there can be no categoric answer to this but you seem confident that I shouldn't panic and just sit tight. Could you tell me why you think I haven't been penalised? Are there any methods of testing for keyword specific penalisation?

Thanks again,

[RobertFisher]

I still don't believe there is an issue. First, there are 1) a sitewide link from a business partner, 2) a relevant resource link and 3) a directory link.

If you had 100 links to the page in the last two weeks from Chinese Gambling Sex Enhancers, etc. well, maybe it would be an issue. But based on what you described I do not see it.

[Confetti_Wedding]

Thanks Robert,

You've managed to calm my nerves somewhat!

Now I'm off to take a look for those Chinese Gambling Sex Enhancer sites you speak of!

Thanks again,

Brendan.

[RobertFisher]

Sorry, I responded before reading the end. I would suggest that if you really believe that page has been penalized individually, you submit to Google for reconsideration. You do this through WMT and simply login to the account and on the left side mid way down will be the link to reconsideration requests. Click and follow directions. Caveat:

Don't do this until you have read and understood the guidelines and are sure your site complies. It is likely this is all due to the on page changes and not due to Google. You do not want to have them look closely at your site and then decide something is wrong, potentially costing you a real penalty.

Best

[Confetti_Wedding]

I'm 100% confident that nothing breaks Google's guidelines. The only thing I can think of is that our anchor text is overly optimised. That's my worry.

Thanks again,

Brendan.

[KeriMorgret]

Now that it has been a few weeks, how have things settled out? Can you give us an update, and is there anything we can do to help?

[Confetti_Wedding]

Hi Keri,

We took all of the above on board and decided to redesign the page completely adding more content to the page and decreasing the number of links. Our rank improved almost immediately so a great result!

Thanks to all who helped out.

[KeriMorgret]

Thanks for letting us know, and that's great to hear!