Google Slap??

Hi all,

Without wasting too much time rambling, I'll lay out my situation:

I am a fairly experienced Internet marketer. I know all the basics about link diversity/velocity, varying anchor text, fresh original content, SEO meta info, masking affiliate links, etc.

My site is a PR2, 8 months old, and has a large amount of high PR backlinks (well diversified). I am targeting 2 primary keywords and 8 sub keywords.

I am currently at the top of the SERP's for my 2 primary keywords and several sub keywords. The other sub keywords are on the 2-5 pages (these rankings are in Google.com).

I have been bouncing back and forth between ranking well in Google.ca (first page for keywords) and ranking poorly (not in top 20 pages for most keywords).

Currently I am in my 3rd Google.ca "slump" where I am not ranking well for any of my keywords on Google.ca (I should mention that the 1st one lasted 1 month, 2nd one lasted 1 week, current one has been a month so far)...

OBSERVATIONS

One thing that I notice is that when my site goes from ranking well in Google.ca to not ranking well, my sub page rankings in Google.com fall as well (anything from a few spots to a few pages). My homepage rankings still stay at the top.

Also, when I am ranking well in Google.com and Google.ca, I get tons of long-tails. When I am not ranking well in Google.ca, I only rank for my specific keywords in Google.com (no long-tails at all).

The ONLY thing I can think of is that I am building links to quickly (almost 20,000 in the last month). I am not sure whether this is causing it though because I have been doing this for several months now and it hasn't caused any problems up till now.

Basically what I am asking is has anyone else had the problem of ranking poorly in one country's Google SERP's when they were ranking well there before?

Can anyone think of anything affecting my ranking volatility?

Thanks for your time,
Jeremy

Well - the short answer is yes, the rankings can vary wildly with different markets. I'm in Canada, but market for the USA - my domain is .com, my servers are in the US, I'm not sure what else determines the location for ranking, but for my main keyword I'm not even on the first page in Canada and #3 for the US (I don't even try to get to #1, #3 is better in my niche).

To be honest - I haven't checked the variation in secondary keywords.

Fast and furious backlinking can bring significant dancing, but don't stop all at once, just ease off the gas pedal.

P.S. There are many variables to be considered, so it's not one answer fits all I'm afraid...

Surprised you care about your G.ca rankings! But just sounds like a dance.

A slap is when all your rankings getting pushed back to page 4/5/9/10 etc

Thanks Guys.

I am convinced it is just a dance. I'm not overly concerned about the fact that my Google.ca rankings have dropped off.

I am more concerned about the fact that I notice a direct correlation that when these rankings fall, my long-tail traffic/rankings disappear entirely and my keywords drop in Google.com as well (though to a lesser degree).

does anyone else have any experience with this? It's just frustrating because it keeps happening. Just when I think it's stopped dancing, it does it again

What does everyone think?

Hey fellow Blackhatters,

If anyone has any other advice, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

I'm noticig that when I'm running my link campaigns my traffic spikes all around for that day... fwiw. Or it could be coincidental.

It could be just a dance to see if these links are a burst or whether they are going to be consistent? You might have thrown up a red flag somewhere, but usually that is when you get completely sandboxed and delisted. I've e-mailed google just like they say in webmaster tools when this has happened to a site of mine. Most likely it is because it is a relatively new site and it will dance a bit before it settles down. All depends on how solid the keyword is, I would assume and or if your competition is trying to compete with your progress.... Good Luck..