Huge unexpected drop from #1 to 37?

[Catamarans]

I would appreciate any focused advice on why our company site had a sudden fall from grace from #1 on upaid rankings to #37 for www.catamarans.com (title: Catamarans.com)

This were the events leading up to the drop:

1. Been gradually adding reciprocal links to our site. Possibly a spurt of outside sites linking to us?

2. Did alter the home page to reflect the Hurricane Charley story....could this have had an impact?

3. Did place three links on our site to a sister site but information was pertinent to the user?

Additionally, I wish to bring up a further point.

The TITLE in the MSN search was "CATAMARANS.COM" while our actual page title was "The Catamaran Company - Used and new multihulls for sale"....

Do I perhaps need to re-submit to MSN.....is there any way to tell exactly where the page fell to?

I would appreciate any specific advice. Our site is one of the few in the industry that pushes the envelope in updating sales and charter information on a daily basis...we really go out of our way to make sure the content is fresh and appealing....I don't see why we are being penalized for this.

Many thanks
Jason

[eitemiller]

Fresh content is not frowned upon, but actually embrassed - Our site changes often, and Google is happy to come back every day and re-visit us, looking for changes.

What keyword are you using to say it dropped from #1 to #37? Check the reciprical links - did you link to a "bad neighborhood"?

[seobook]

one of the best ways to shield yourself from massive ranking swings is to get many inbound links from a wide array of websites.

[Catamarans]

Thanks for the replies much appreciated....

The keyword is 'catamarans'.

I just cannot figure this out.....we have virtually disappeared off the radar.

Additionally, we still held a #1 placement on Google up to a few days ago but have slipped to #4....this does not concern me as Google appears to recognize the daily updates to our pages and appears to reward our efforts...however the drop on MSN and YAHOO after the hurricane story seems out of synch.

Further, we have been adding inbound links on a regular basis.....but I have heard conflicting reports that too many links coming in during a short time frame is considered spamming.

Is it possible that we need to re-submit our url to msn and yahoo...both seem to drop us at the same time as if the same engine was driving them.....

Appreciate any focused advice and hopefully I will be able to return the favour one day!

Thanks
Jason

[seobook]

Thanks for the replies much appreciated....

The keyword is 'catamarans'.

I just cannot figure this out.....we have virtually disappeared off the radar.

Additionally, we still held a #1 placement on Google up to a few days ago but have slipped to #4....this does not concern me as Google appears to recognize the daily updates to our pages and appears to reward our efforts...however the drop on MSN and YAHOO after the hurricane story seems out of synch.

Further, we have been adding inbound links on a regular basis.....but I have heard conflicting reports that too many links coming in during a short time frame is considered spamming.

Is it possible that we need to re-submit our url to msn and yahoo...both seem to drop us at the same time as if the same engine was driving them.....

Appreciate any focused advice and hopefully I will be able to return the favour one day!

Thanks
Jason

you do not need to resubmit. they will spider you again when they want to. just get more links into your site from a variety of locations.

[Catamarans]

Thanks - but what about reports of 'link spamming' and what about the potential results of getting inbound links from companies who are also linking to some of our competitors...does it matter...I don't see why it should?

Thanks
Jason

[seobook]

some of your best links may perhaps be hubs that are also linking to many of your competitors.

try not to link out to garbage sites. its usually best to get inbound links from directories, related sites, press releases, and articles you write and place on related sites.

[Mofo]

Hey Catamarans,

sorry about your unexpected drop..... No Love No Money.

This may be way off topic, but I have noticed that a lot of things have changed in MSN's and Yahoo's SERP's in the last few weeks. I had a lot of satelite sites ranking decently for specific keywords in MSN and Yahoo untill about 2 - 4 weeks ago and then BANG... They go BYE BYE.... Now I have to start again or re-optimize or sit on my ass and watch my boss squirm.

Anybody else notice this, or do I stare at the box too long...

[Catamarans]

Just a further point...

Our site files were originally built and housed under www.catamaranco.com

When then acquired www.catamarans.com and 'pointed' this domain to www.catamaranco.com

Thus typing in www.catamarans.com takes you to: www.catamaranco.com

For a while www.catamarans.com was actually showing up on the engines...now it has disappeared while www.catamaranco.com does still hold its top positions in google and until recently in yahoo and msn.

What is the story with url pointing......suppose one day we take off the redirect from www.catamarans.com to www.catamaranco.com...what will happen?

Further, is this current redirect hurting www.catamarans.com as a searchable url in the engines?

Many thanks
Jason

[Lex]

Further, is this current redirect hurting www.catamarans.com as a searchable url in the engines?


Catamarans.com will not be listed in SERPs because it has a redirect on it. If you have multiple domains pointing to one site, the search engines should only list one domain. If their's any confusion as to which domain is primary, they are likely to yank all of them.