PR4 Forum downgraded to PR0 !

Hello,

I manage 3 important discussion forums on network54.com
(1 in English, 2 in Italian), linking to/from my website.

A few days ago I linked a web page of mine to one of these
forums. This page was around #10 for an important keyword
on Google. Suddenly it dropped to #90, then to #200!
It is around #160 at this time.

I also noticed that these 3 forums are PR0 at this time.
They used to be PR3 or 4! I don't know why this happened.
And I see that all the other forums on network54.com are PR0
at this time (there are thousands of them).

What happened?!
Are all my web pages (that are linking to these forums)
penalized?!
If so, it would be terrible, since my web pages must remain
interlinked with the messages in the forums.
What can I do?

I don't understand why they should be penalized.
They are content-rich, and they include many real great
testimonials (about stress relief). So, I can't believe that
Google wants to reward websites about ineffective techniques
with no testimonials, and penalize my websites with real
testimonials about effective stress relief!

Thanks
Fabrizio

P.S. Examples of my web pages:

http://www.natural-stress-relief.com...m#testimonials
interlinking to http://www.network54.com/Forum/254541/

http://www.antistress.usa.gl/antistress/forum2.htm
interlinking to http://www.network54.com/Forum/250739/

__/ [scientia (AT) ipotesi (DOT) net] on Wednesday 23 November 2005 17:41 \__

Hello,

I manage 3 important discussion forums on network54.com
(1 in English, 2 in Italian), linking to/from my website.

A few days ago I linked a web page of mine to one of these
forums. This page was around #10 for an important keyword
on Google. Suddenly it dropped to #90, then to #200!
It is around #160 at this time.

I also noticed that these 3 forums are PR0 at this time.
They used to be PR3 or 4! I don't know why this happened.
And I see that all the other forums on network54.com are PR0
at this time (there are thousands of them).

What happened?!
Are all my web pages (that are linking to these forums)
penalized?!
If so, it would be terrible, since my web pages must remain
interlinked with the messages in the forums.
What can I do?

I don't understand why they should be penalized.
They are content-rich, and they include many real great
testimonials (about stress relief). So, I can't believe that
Google wants to reward websites about ineffective techniques
with no testimonials, and penalize my websites with real
testimonials about effective stress relief!

Thanks
Fabrizio

Before going frantic, are you sure that your PageRank indicator works
okay? Is it temporarily 'misbehaving'? The two sites you listed are PR4 at
the top level. Have you checked the results pages in different datacen-
tres? If so, how long have you kept an eyes on them and how long have they
been down?

The sites seem to be content-rich indeed. Although they look similar, they
contain different content in different languages. I don't see any reason
for a penalty unless you traded links or embraced some practices which are
frowned upon. I suggest you read the following just in case:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/reincl...request-howto/

Hope it helps,

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
5:45pm up 20 days 13:39, 4 users, load average: 0.12, 0.12, 0.17
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms

Thanks for your reply.

About PR0: I don't mean my websites (they are still PR4...),
I mean the Forums they are interlinked to my websites:
they are PR0 at this time but they used to be PR3 or PR4.

The problem is about webpages (from my 2 websites) that
link to those forums: their position dropped drastically for
important keywords (especially one specific webpage for
one specific keyword, that means a remarkable loss of traffic).

Thanks for your Google-request link, it may be useful.

Fabrizio

"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups (AT) schestowitz (DOT) com> wrote

__/ [scientia (AT) ipotesi (DOT) net] on Wednesday 23 November 2005 17:41 \__

Hello,

I manage 3 important discussion forums on network54.com
(1 in English, 2 in Italian), linking to/from my website.

A few days ago I linked a web page of mine to one of these
forums. This page was around #10 for an important keyword
on Google. Suddenly it dropped to #90, then to #200!
It is around #160 at this time.

I also noticed that these 3 forums are PR0 at this time.
They used to be PR3 or 4! I don't know why this happened.
And I see that all the other forums on network54.com are PR0
at this time (there are thousands of them).

What happened?!
Are all my web pages (that are linking to these forums)
penalized?!
If so, it would be terrible, since my web pages must remain
interlinked with the messages in the forums.
What can I do?

I don't understand why they should be penalized.
They are content-rich, and they include many real great
testimonials (about stress relief). So, I can't believe that
Google wants to reward websites about ineffective techniques
with no testimonials, and penalize my websites with real
testimonials about effective stress relief!

Thanks
Fabrizio

Before going frantic, are you sure that your PageRank indicator works
okay? Is it temporarily 'misbehaving'? The two sites you listed are PR4 at
the top level. Have you checked the results pages in different datacen-
tres? If so, how long have you kept an eyes on them and how long have they
been down?

The sites seem to be content-rich indeed. Although they look similar, they
contain different content in different languages. I don't see any reason
for a penalty unless you traded links or embraced some practices which are
frowned upon. I suggest you read the following just in case:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/reincl...request-howto/

Hope it helps,

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
5:45pm up 20 days 13:39, 4 users, load average: 0.12, 0.12, 0.17
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms

I suggest you make your link rel="nofollow" and see if your page comes back
up in the search listings. rel="nofollow" prevents your originating page
being penalised to some extent according to the amount of any link scheme
activity (or other dubious spam) taking place at the far end. Your link
will still work fine for your visitors to follow.

Best regards, Eric.

scientia (AT) ipotesi (DOT) net wrote:

The problem is about webpages (from my 2 websites) that
link to those forums: their position dropped drastically for
important keywords (especially one specific webpage for
one specific keyword, that means a remarkable loss of traffic).

It looks like you have identified the problem, so you are already half way
through to fixing it. Forums are prone to all kinds of abuses and they
may have been overloaded with spam lately, which prompted Google to remove
from index or otherwise penalize them, and, consequently, your site got
hit as one that links to the bad sites. If you have to have the links to
those forums, hide them behind JavaScript.

--
Cheers,
Dmitri
See Site Sig Below
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__/ [www.1-script.com] on Wednesday 23 November 2005 19:11 \__

scientia (AT) ipotesi (DOT) net wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

About PR0: I don't mean my websites (they are still PR4...),
I mean the Forums they are interlinked to my websites:
they are PR0 at this time but they used to be PR3 or PR4.

What you describe is not as unsusual as youn may imagine.

The problem is about webpages (from my 2 websites) that
link to those forums: their position dropped drastically for
important keywords (especially one specific webpage for
one specific keyword, that means a remarkable loss of traffic).

Almost every month, at least in my particular case, dominant keyword make
drastic transitions. Some merely disappear and some appear out of nowhere
without obvious reasons. You might need to rely on other keywords that
will sooner or later re-surface in the logs.

It looks like you have identified the problem, so you are already half way
through to fixing it. Forums are prone to all kinds of abuses and they
may have been overloaded with spam lately, which prompted Google to remove
from index or otherwise penalize them, and, consequently, your site got
hit as one that links to the bad sites. If you have to have the links to
those forums, hide them behind JavaScript.

That's very interesting. I never realised it, but I can see what you mean.
With all of these phpBB abuses like automatic subscription with URL's
pointing to 'natural remedies' (often volatile sites for 'volatile' people),
that can't be good for business, right?

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useful fact: close elevator button = Express Mode
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
2:45pm up 21 days 10:39, 4 users, load average: 1.15, 0.74, 0.60
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms