Sudden drop in ranking

[caravan]

Recently I came across a good blog which I've been commenting on. The blog has loads of useful tips, advise and viewpoints and my comments have been legitimate and not spammy.

In commenting my profile has subsequently made it onto a top commentator leader board used on the blog giving me sitewide, dofollow links with anchor text.

Shortly after gaining this sitewide link my site plummetted from the SERP's overnight. The affected site is about 8 or 9 months old so still fairly new and has been evolving with traffic slowly but surely increasing. This behaviour of the site dropping has happened on a couple of times in the past but the positions have returned shortly after.

I'm pretty certain the drop in ranking is due to the sudden appearance of these sitewide links for a reletively new domain. In looking for a possible answer or advise to this problem I stumbled on the following post which seems to confirm my thoughts.

Beware: Site-wide links are bad for your new blog

I find it hard to believe though that it would be that easy to harm a website by using external sitewide links. Could it be that the links have been sandboxed and if I sit tight, they'll mature and the sites position in the serps will return? Should I approach the blog owner and ask if the links can be removed? I'm just wondering what other peoples opinion is on this?

[Tubby]

Cause and effect . . . These questions always confuse me when the cause is presumed. .

The information you give is probably not comprehensive enough for anyone to offer advise.

[inertia]

I see sites drop from what appears to be an influx in links all the time. But then again, i see sites drop all the time anyway! Regardless of links. I don't think one link from one site will have that effect on the rankings. Why would it? What you're probably seeing is a normal yo-yo effect which new sites often get.

Forget about it and I bet the site re-appears, where it was, within a few weeks!

Some more thoughts... Any errors in GWT? Has the site lost any other links recently? Are all the site's links still on the same page(s) e.g. has an article dropped from the article site's home page to a deeper category page? Have you played around with any on site stuff such as nofollows, menus, 301s etc? Has your site gained or lost any content recently? Have you changed the hosting? Can i ask any further questions? Can you ask any further quesitons? How long will this list go on? What is the meaning of life? If Paul has 5 apples but he takes 3 and gives the rest to John how many apples does he have...?

[kevsta]

i'd be pretty confident it's not those sitewides hurting you, i dont believe that particular hype for a minute

[caravan]

I see sites drop from what appears to be an influx in links all the time. But then again, i see sites drop all the time anyway! Regardless of links. I don't think one link from one site will have that effect on the rankings. Why would it? What you're probably seeing is a normal yo-yo effect which new sites often get.

Forget about it and I bet the site re-appears, where it was, within a few weeks!

Some more thoughts... Any errors in GWT? Has the site lost any other links recently? Are all the site's links still on the same page(s) e.g. has an article dropped from the article site's home page to a deeper category page? Have you played around with any on site stuff such as nofollows, menus, 301s etc? Has your site gained or lost any content recently? Have you changed the hosting? Can i ask any further questions? Can you ask any further quesitons? How long will this list go on? What is the meaning of life? If Paul has 5 apples but he takes 3 and gives the rest to John how many apples does he have...?

The answers pretty much no to all your questions matt, I've been over these and I'm fairly confident it's not due to any of the usual suspects. My gut feeling is, as you say, a yo-yo effect of a new domain. I fail to see how getting some good links can harm the site. Guess I need to carry on doing my thing and sit out this game of chicken with Big G

[LongTail]

i see this happen with newer client sites all the time. the first time it happened, i panicked, so did the client. but a few weeks later, the site returned to it's position in the SERPs. now, i pretty much expect it to happen.

[Jectillplum]

yes you are right i am also faced the smiler kinds of problem with me as well. but i thinks our domain age in below then 2 years this fluctuations should be happened with us.

[caravan]

Just an update on this. Over the last few weeks site traffic has been very low indeed. I've been getting more traffic from Yahoo. Over the last few days there's been a slight rise in traffic and referrals from google, today more so. A few random searches is showing the main keyword rankings seem to be back in the serps and fingers crossed stronger than before. One of my golden target terms is also back albeit a bit lower than before but I reckon that's likely to improve. It looks like the drop in ranking was just a temporary thing and part and parcel of a new domains evolution. A lesson learnt that patience, faith, an open mind, a steady hand and nerves of steel were required.

[notsoold]

Good to know that your serp positions are gradually coming back. You are right. Patience and faith are required for site owners.

[zebru]

About two and half months ago, I lost my position in the first page for my keywords for site. Just the past Saturday, the pages started showing up on the first page for the key words but it lasted for only 24 hours and they can no longer be seen. Can the gurus tell me what is happening to my rankings

Thanks