Sudden Drop in Keyword Rankings

[GRIP-SEO]

We launched http://www.manufacturedfun.com/ earlier this year and had been ranking 1 & 2 on Google SERPs for the keywords we optimized, but last week we experienced a sudden drop in rankings that pretty much took us off the radar.

For instance, 'popcorn machines' went as far back as page 5 and 'popcorn poppers' dropped even further to page 9.

We are currently working on fixing the numerous Duplicate Page Title and Duplicate Page Content errors identified by SEOmoz, but since we have had those for about 6 months and ranked well anyway, I wonder if there's something else that we are missing.

Any insight you can offer will be sincerely appreciated. Thank you!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I think you have answered your own question there with the duplication problems. However, check webmaster tools for link warnings as well.

Sounds like an algorithm update has caught up with you though and with so many, could still be Panda, or a Page Quality one - or one of many others.

Andy

[ORob]

How are you going about tracking your rankings? Right now via a manual review I see you at the bottom of page one for popcorn machines.

Keep in mind rankings do fluctuate by week, day, and sometimes even hour.

[Thos003]

I'd certainly look at cleaning up the duplicate titles and content. Add cononicals if you have multiple URLs referencing the same material.

What does your link portfolio look like? Anchor text distribution?

If you don't see any huge red flags then take a breathe while google puts you under water. There is constant flux in the serps. Sometimes drops in rank are simply google testing. I've had sites drop out for a week or two at a time then rebound to where they were previously.

[GRIP-SEO]

We have a tool to track rankings, but I've been monitoring it manually too and have sometimes seen the usual 'good rankings' as you mention.

Thank you for taking the time to look into it. Hopefully it is just a temporary fluctuation and not a permanent drop.

[GRIP-SEO]

This is certainly reassuring. I'll look into the link portfolio just in case. And since this drop in rankings just happened a few days ago, maybe it is Google testing as you mention.

Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

In 12 years of doing this, I have never had a dramatic site drop like you said, for a couple of weeks, only to find its own way back again.

Maybe I have just been lucky, maybe my customers have, but one thing I can say, when they have had drops of this degree, it has been down to a problem that needed fixing.

Don't forget, Google is releasing algorithm updates all the time then tells us after 2 months what they did, unless it's something like a Panda refresh which happens ever 6 weeks or so.

Hope it's noting much, but leave no stone unturned.

Andy

[Thos003]

Well I am just a pest control guy....

But I don't think I am the only one that has had this happen to them.. http://www.seomoz.org/q/one-keyword-rank-inexplicably-blasted-into-oblivion