Ranked well initially, then experienced a significant decrease does anyone know why?

[jackaveli]

Hi Everyone,

So I recently launched a new site a few months ago, and initially I ranked great for a number of terms I am targeting then rankings decreased significantly.  In some cases, the pages targeting specific terms have disappeared from serps.

Now I have heard about this "Honeymoon Phase" where google will give you a initial boost in rankings to test you out, and I have heard that they rank you higher initially based on a newness factor but can anyone offer insight into this?

How long does it typically take to get back into the rankings?

My site is build much better than the majority of my competitors and from what I can tell their link profiles are significantly superior to mine, but please help.

Ie: http:luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/longwood/alaqua-lakes.html

key term: Alaqua Lakes homes for sale, Alaqua Lakes Real Estate

Thanks in advance for your help!

[danatanseo]

I tried putting this URL into Open Site Explorer and OSE cannot access any data for this page. Is anyone else seeing the same problem? I had the same problem when I moved one level up in the structure by following the breadcrumb. OSE couldn't access that category page either. Have you noticed this before?

[jackaveli]

Hi Dana,

Thanks for the response.  Currently only our home page is showing up in OSE, but this was the same case when we were ranking for this term just a few days ago.  We have begun our campaign with these internal landing pages, but our efforts have yet to show up.  Any thoughts on the referred to "Honeymoon phase or freshness factor"?

Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond.

Scott

[jackaveli]

Hi Dana,

Thanks for the response.  Currently only our home page is showing up in OSE, but this was the same case when we were ranking for this term just a few days ago.  We have begun our campaign with these internal landing pages, but our efforts have yet to show up.  Any thoughts on the referred to "Honeymoon phase or freshness factor"?

Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond.

Scott

[danatanseo]

I have heard about this "honeymoon phase" but I have seen no data to back it up. I am very interested if anyone here can point to proof that this actually happens and that it is deliberate on Google's part.

[WSPL]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the "Free Instant Access" popup that restricts any further access to listings until an email address is provided?

I was unable to escape the popup whenever it came up, and always had to close the tab. Could this affect crawlability? It certainly affects user experience.

[jackaveli]

Hi Dana,

So I was wondering....why wouldn't this page show up in OSE?  When I look at the number one ranked site for this target terms specific landing page for this term in OSE it comes up, but only has one linking root domain.  Itself.  At a minimum, shouldn't this page of mine produce the same result?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[danatanseo]

I tend to agree with you although I am not a programmer so may not be the right person to answer. Could you try removing the popup requiring an email address as WSPL is suggesting, and see what happens in OSE?

[jackaveli]

Thanks Dana.