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Originally Posted by inertia
There is nothing concrete I can think of that might have done this (no black hat techniques) and they still have plenty of top ranking keywords. We have also attracted plenty of natural and relevant links but Google seems slow to acknowledge these in GWT.
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Clue #1 is sandbox like
Quote:
Originally Posted by inertia
It is the big referring half a dozen keywords that WERE hitting the top 3 pages but have now disappeared.
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Sandbox like... Clue #2
Quote:
Originally Posted by inertia
My client is pissed, im bewildered and im putting it up for consideration by you guys...
Points of note... - There is a duplicate content issue as they have set-up some "partner sites" in the last few months that (despite my explicit instruction) have ended up being indexed. I've put in removal requests on GWT for all of these but the main site was around well before these copies appeared anyway.
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- IMO, the likely culprit and if the client did that then you want to ream their asse good or it will happen again!
Quote:
Originally Posted by inertia
we can come to is "sandbox" issues with the age and competitiveness of the keywords but if anyone can see anything eles i'd be very gratefull. One other issue which has occured to me is that Google has messed about with the index and back dated some stuff?
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IMO, you're seeing sanbox like activity. The sandbox seems to now be about trust in the IBLs. Your client threw a scheme into the profile and voila trust is gone and links aren't acting like they once did. Don't just do a request to remove from the index... teach the client a lesson and insist the "partner/spammmmmmmmmmm sites be taken off line or you will not accept responsibity for the outcome.