SEO Tycoon

**Limotek** · 03-04-2009, 08:08 AM

Hi. I've already read the sanbox sticky in this forum but I still need help and am hoping you can shed some light on a problem I'm having.

For around the last 6 months, my website limotek.co.uk ranked well for particular keywords but as of this morning, the site seems to have dropped on average 5 pages for each keyword. Have I been penalised / sandboxed by Google? The table below shows some examples of where the site was yesterday and now the position is today.

Keyword | Yesterday | Today
Limo Hire | 4 | 68
Limousine Hire | 5 | 63
Limo Hire London | 7 | 68
Limo Hire Newcastle | 3 | 38
Limo Hire Liverpool | 3 | 55
Limo Hire Birmingham | 25 | 66
Limo Hire Essex | 16 | 43
Limo Hire Surrey | 27 | 63
Limo Hire Manchester | 11 | 64
Limo Hire Glasgow | 5 | 48

I'm thinking this could be a sandbox/penalty as all key phrases have dropped by a similar amount. The only change I have made to the site in the last month has been to amend the address in the footer (done yesterday) as we have moved offices although I'm thinking this is too recent and minor to be the reason.

In terms of link building over the last few months, this has been article, blog and forum posting as well as a handful of link exchanges. I have never paid for links.

Another interesting point to note is that a major competitor has also experienced the same problem and has had a lot of their websites dropped by a similar amount which is why I'm thinking sandbox/penalty.

I'd be grateful for any feedback you can give.

**chrishirst** · 03-04-2009, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Another interesting point to note is that a major competitor has also experienced the same problem and has had a lot of their websites dropped by a similar amount which is why I'm thinking sandbox/penalty.

This should obviously tell you that is is NOT any kind of penalty

Did the phrases you waste time checking bring in traffic? Has that changed?
Have conversions/sales/enquiries changed?

**Limotek** · 03-04-2009, 08:24 AM

Yes all the phrases brought in a fair amount of traffic for us and today our enquiries have shrunk to a fraction of what they were. This will indeed affect conversions/sales if left unresolved.

The reason I suspect a sandbox/penalty is because our competitor dropped only a few days before us and by an almost identical amount. We have not made any changes to the website so aside from Google making some huge change to their alogrithms (and surely a lot of other people would be posting if that were the case), what else can it be?

**chrishirst** · 03-04-2009, 11:19 AM

Quote:

what else can it be

First off lets get rid totally of the "sandbox" idea, unless your site is relatively new, it won't be affected by the so called "sandbox".
Secondly we'll kick the "penalty" into touch, a penalty will only affect ONE, site not two sites in the same marketplace equally.

So what you are most likely looking at is some change at Google that has affected the sites in your marketplace adversely, most probable is the sites where your links were from got devalued, because no doubt you have been monitoring the "competition" and getting links from the same places as they do.

It doesn't need to be a "huge" algo change at all, when your link building is the shifting sands of

Quote:

article, blog and forum posting as well as a handful of link exchanges

the slightest change is likely to bring about a collapse.

So, are your real promotion efforts and advertising work still bringing traffic and sales? Or was SE "rankings" your only source of business.