Is Google Penalizing "Some" Blogs ? New Posts Not Indexed, Slow

Is this actually happening to you too ? In the last week of Jan 2010, after 25th mostly, many bloggers started complaining that their blog was losing traffic for some and their new posts were not getting indexed. I was shocked when I saw my sitemeter readings showing that my google traffic had dropped to almost one-third.

Random Tip : Questions Every new Blogger Wants to Ask ? Answered

Basic Symptoms of the Blogs Affected

• You site’s google traffic has dropped to half or even one third.
• The new posts less than 5-7 days old, shows up in the site:yourblog.com index but, they are Nowhere in the "Title of the Post" Search Page.
• Many Posts have gone down from the top 10 results.
• Some of your site links have changed or vanished.
• My (PR0) Facebook Fan ranks on 1 and my PR3 Homepage ranks on 2 when searched with "snaphow"

What Might NOT be the Problem

• Duplicate content – I don’t think so because the FeedScraping Sites (sites who copy Title & excerpt and provide a backlink)  doesn’t seem to be affected, some might rank higher than your posts. BTW, News Sites & Blogs are rich in duplicate content. (Some seo experts say duplicate content penalty is a Myth)
• Plugins, Theme Change, Change in Link Structure – I have contacted various bloggers facing this problem. None of them have done any changes, so I don’t think this might be the problem. So stop "optimizing" your blog to try solve this coz it wont work.
• Bad Linking, Lack of Proper SEO, Lack of Popularity – Yes, I am not one of those popular bloggers who get linked by other bloggers every time I post but I like what I post and so do many of my readers. BUT Bad Linking and Lack of Proper SEO… No. I do understand basic seo and linking etc. and so do the affected bloggers.
• Someone has Cast an Evil Spell – Yes, atleast its believable. But too bad its not true.

OMG ! YOU are Not Alone

Apart from you and me there are many others who are having the exact same problem. I was checking the google webmaster’s forum stuffed with this recent problem faced by many.

Some of the very similar ones are Link1, Link2, Link3, Link4 and many over 70. Even forums.digitalpoint are flooded with similar help queries of losing google traffic or new posts not being indexed or slow indexing, de-indexing problems after the last week of Jan.

Possible Reasons

• The Sandbox (a.k.a. Sandboxing or the sandbox effect or the Google penalty) is a debated observation about the way Google de-ranks web pages in its index. Some useful discussion about different types of google penalty can be found at searchenginejournal.
• This is not new because back in 2006 many bloggers including Problogger faced a similar situation.
• Google Algorithm Changes – Recently it was found that Site Speed will be Google’s Next Ranking Factor(details) along with I think maybe factors like social media presence (like backlinks from digg etc), links from related pages etc. Hmmm… Although we cant be sure.
• Actually no one knows even if this is actually a problem. Truthfully, I think maybe this is Google process of removing low quality or less popular sites from their index.
• Spam Report – Spam Reports made using the google spam report tool can hurt your site like anything. In fact I had once read that reported sites are put into Sandbox till they are reviewed and removed from SB if found innocent, and it takes 6-8 weeks.

Site Reconsideration Request

Initially I thought I was penalized by google so I submitted my site for a Site Reconsideration Request. Within 2 days I got the automated feedback. Which indicates that my site doesn’t violate any Google Webmaster Guidelines.

What NOW ?

• HOPE that this will be over.
• Remember, There are over 200 ranking factors in the algorithm and each are weighted differently. Great…
• Forget Google and Focus on Content … "Good Content Rocks", "Smart Content is King".
• Analyze … Build more quality links… experts say this puts you back in the trusted site lists.

** Please do share your experience, Atleast I feel quite terrible.

Lastly, Here’s a Table Chart from seomoz to Cheer Ourselves …

Also Read : Top 10 SEO Mistakes in Blogging