Google's Keyword Ban?

Yes, I have a product review blog that was raking in good cash.

I did lots of backlink and it was successful - it manage to hit the first 2 position in Google for the particular term (e.g:xxx review).
Suddenly, my site went missing when someone tries to search for the exact term.

But when they enter other keywords like xxx vs yyy, my site will appear.

And no, it's NOT a Google dance. I've been through that. Before the "ban", my site was still ranking in that term for 2 months or so.

Is this a Keyword Ban?

It depends on what you mean by the "Google Dance" and "Keyword Ban", as people seem to have different definitions of it.

Sometimes Google will drop your specific site within a keyword, usually one that you've tried real hard to rank for and spammed a little too much. Is it listed at all (even a few pages back)?. If it isn't, then I've heard most people refer to this as the "Sandbox" effect.

Matt Cutts claims it doesn't exist, but I've watched it happen many many times to many different people. Of course he isn't going to tell you all of his spam-filtering methods.

It's said that when this happens, it could lasts from anywhere from a month to almost a year. Better off looking into a different type of keyword. Sorry for the bad news.

How quickly were you generating backlinks?

Were you using the same link text?

Did you possibly create a 'closed' linkwheel?

Based on your responses to those, I'd say a keyword ban is possible.

Interesting, I thought I was sandboxed a few weeks back ... then it shows up again back in # 3 after 3 weeks gone... will G dance with me that long?

Or did it just get De Sandboxed because someone was worse than me for that keyword?

dud it sounds like you danced with this keyword your last dance
it seems google sandboxed you by the way what do you mean by closed linkwheel and why is that bad?

BlackSeng said:

Yes, I have a product review blog that was raking in good cash.

I did lots of backlink and it was successful - it manage to hit the first 2 position in Google for the particular term (e.g:xxx review).
Suddenly, my site went missing when someone tries to search for the exact term.

But when they enter other keywords like xxx vs yyy, my site will appear.

And no, it's NOT a Google dance. I've been through that. Before the "ban", my site was still ranking in that term for 2 months or so.

Is this a Keyword Ban?

Click to expand...

I've come to the conclusion that everything Google does is random. As far as I've seen, there are no consistencies when trying to rank your site in Google.

Hate it when that happens. We know more about God than we do about Google....maybe you'll bounce back.

I wouldn't do any more artificial linking or submissions....best to wait it out, might beat a permanent ban.

Next project

If you search the board, you'll find the most recommended thing is to keep building links (that way its natural).. if you stop, then it's quite obvious you've been spamming!