Strange Google Serp Query

[artistri]

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Hi all

Over the summer we have put in a fair bit of natural link building for one particular keyword that we wanted to target (no paid links). This is a pretty massive keyword in the Garden industry and our work has really paid off over the summer months. Backlinks were going to the dept page rather than the index page.

We were fluctuating around the number 1 spot which slowly decreased over the period of six months due to competitors speeding up their link building to counter balance.

Now the problem, we have completely disappeared for said keyword and have been away for 6 weeks now. The page is still indexed and is getting cached regularly. Out of all 75 serps pages we are nowhere to be found.

We do however appear for the 'keyword UK' term in the number 3 position. All other terms seem to be as normal and the only change has been to this one page and term.

When i do a Google site: search for the exact page it isn't the top result and is somewhere on the third page.

So does anyone have any thoughts about this? I know all about the google dance, but this scenario seems strange and has gone on for quite a while now.

Any penalties spring to mind?

Kevin

[Brendon]

Yup, keyword specific penalty

>> Over the summer we have put in a fair bit of natural link building

There ain't no such thing, and you've probably tripped a filter. It's very easy to do

[artistri]

Thanks Brendon

So what happens next? Temporary or permanent?

Is this likely to be something that will phase back in gradually, and is there any way to limit damage?

[Brendon]

If it's what I think it is, it's permanent until fixed. You need to work out the issue, and fix it, and then your rankings will self restore.

Without wishing to pitch to you as such, I do specialise in this sort of thing (but any competent SEO should be able to help you fix this). It's not terribly complex, so long as the data you've supplied is accurate