Lost ranking for single term
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We are working on a site with a page that has been ranking on page one of serps for quiet some time. It all the sudden completely lost its ranking for a single term (no major changes to on page made), but still ranks on the 3rd page for a few similar terms. Those terms used to rank a bit higher. Is it possible that some old spammier link building techiniques could have caught up with this site? The page itself is still indexed, has a few terms it is ranking for - but just completely gone from index for primary term.
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Unless the page is over-optimized for the term.
@Dylan
What's your percentage of exact keyword match? How long has the keyword been down? When was the last time your site was indexed? Have you searched for duplicate content on the web? When is the last time you updated the page?
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Without knowing the term and site it would be pretty hard to diagnose this... the page is still indexed and it ranks for some keywords than I wouldn't say it's a penalty.
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