Is my site being penalized?

[minouye]

I launched http://rumma.ge in February of this year.  Because I'm using a domain hack (the Georgian domain), I'd really like to rank for just the word "rummage".  After launching, I was steady at around page 4/5 on searches for "rummage".  However since then I've tumbled out of the first 100.  In fact I can't even find the site in the first 20 pages on Google for that search.  Even a search for my exact homepage title text doesn't bring up the site, despite the fact that the site is still in the index.

I'm wondering if one of the following could be the root cause:

1. We have a ccTLD (.ge)--not sure about the impacts of this, but seems like it might not be the root cause because we were ranking for "rummage" when we first launched.
2. Tried running an Adwords campaign but the site was flagged as a "bridge page" (working on getting this addressed). I'm wondering if this could have carryover impacts into natural search rankings?
3. We've tried doing some press and built up a decent number of backlinks over the past couple of months, many of which had "rummage" in the anchor text. This was all organic, but happened over the span of a month which may be too fast?

Am I being penalized? Beyond checking indexing of the site, is there a way to tell if I've been flagged for some bad behavior?  Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  I'm really confused by this since I feel like I've been doing things right and my rankings have been travelling downward.

Thanks!!

Matt

[warnerdata]

If Google gave you a penalty, you'd probably have a message in Webmaster Tools.

I did a search for your url and you popped up.  Also did a search for: best way to browse ebay.  You're on page 1 for that.

Often times with newer sites they rank, bounce around for a minute then disappear from certain keywords.  Just keep going with your SEO and add in social media to start building your brand around rummage.

You might want to consider some on-page SEO since really all the SEs have to go on is your title tag and your header.  Perhaps a pinpoint about us blurb to be placed at the top of the site?

[minouye]

Thanks for the reply and great info!  I'll add in some more about text to the homepage shortly.

Is it odd that I don't rank well for my exact title text? Not ranking well for that is what made me most concerned, but if that's not out of the ordinary then I'm definitely relieved.

[warnerdata]

With over 7 million results being returned for rummage (this is without doing my research) I'd wager it will be a little tough for SEO with a new site.  Just keeping plugging away and you'll see your site come back up before long.