Hello mantony, and welcome to the forums. Here are some thoughts and questions:

1. I noticed that you posted in our Content forum that you posted articles on your blog that were copied from another of your sites. I'd say that can be a big part of what you're seeing.

2. Since you apparently have a Webmaster Tools account - what does it show you?

3. Do any of your pages show in a site:example.blogger.com query?

4. You can't expect an email from Google or any other search engine about ranking changes - too many websites for that to be possible. If a site gets penalized, sometimes there will be a note in Webmaster Tools.

5. Most of all, I think you're seeing a new site phenomenon. Early good rankings that then go away are the rule - I call it the "honeymoon period", during which Google is sort of testing how your site performs in the search results. Only an exceptional site "catches fire" so fast that it maintains those early good search rankings. This is the current evolution of what new sites experience - sometimes called the "sandbox phenomenon."

Here is a thread from our Hot Topics area [webmasterworld.com] that may help:

Filters exist - the Sandbox doesn't. How to build Trust. [webmasterworld.com]

That quick buzz from seeing top rankings early on is nice, isn't it? But it really is a honeymoon period most of the time, and not indicative of the real-world work that needs to happen before a new website "gets there" for real. One big factor is always how your backlink profile grows, especially those "natural" backlinks. Without some links, it's unlikely for a site to hang around at the top of the search results.

Fair enough.

I just don't see any reason as to why it would have been completely removed.

I can understand a crappy ranking, but outright removal?

I do not think I've done anything "blackhat" on the site after reading Googles suggested site parameters.

I have other sites ranking quite nicely, but these are not Blogger accounts with RSS and ads etc.

.

Why do you think your site is completely removed? Does nothing show on a site:example.blogger.com query? Even then, with a new site, this could just indicate a shift to a different data center that has not yet included your urls.

It is too early to draw any conclusions. G loves to index new pages but if they are not soon supported by links with weight, the pages are dropped too. Since now blogs are indexed in real time, they are also dropped in real time. I have seen pages show up on page 1 for a few days and then they are not just pushed down, they are actually dropped from the index.

Early good rankings that then go away are the rule - I call it the "honeymoon period"

I've been noticing the same thing, so hearing this from an authority confirms my suspicions. It also seems that after the honeymoon, the site drops back (not out) to its "logical" position in the SERPs, then works its way up inch by inch, through the passage of time and the addition of natural linking from other websites.

It is a rush to see those early high rankings -- though unfortunately it does give a false sense of optimism -- but realistically we can't expect that sort of ranking to hold very long in brand new sites unless the subject matter is extremely niche oriented.

............................

May I offer my observations?...

I'm talking about indivisual pages here, not my site as a whole...
When adding new pages (all static content, written by myself and found nowhere else on the internet) they are almost always indexed in Google within 48 hours, where they will stay for a couple of days, and then disappear again from the index. A few days later, perhaps a week or two, these new pages will once again reappear in the index and stick this time.

I have observed this countless times. I have no explanation for it, other than the slow propogation through the various datacentres.
For reference, the domain is about 18 months old and the root has a PR4. I have migrated to xhtml extensions but serve with the html MIME type.

In summary, expect your page to appear briefly, disappear and then reappear again to stay.

[edited by: Asia_Expat at 6:30 pm (utc) on Oct. 19, 2007]

Asia_Expat, that's exactly what I see, too. It sounds to me like Google uses a separate database partition for newly discovered urls - one that gets a different kind of treatment. The Supplemental Index may be the most infamous partition Google use, but this "newborn index" may be another.

Over time a blog will get almost real time ranking. By which I mean that a post will take 10 to 15 minutes to appear in the first ten on Google.com and take 10 hours to move to .local googles. it seems to be related, in my view to Google trust in the content being original (or something else that I must be doing, but do not understand).

The reason I write this - here is that blogs being to google a new URL are great for WHITE HAT SEO as long as you are aiming for 2 words (thing, subject + location) optimization.

If you own a blog POST AT THE THE SAME TIME every day and do not copy things and you will get to the real time mode which is a great way to make a client believe in your ability to do work for them.

[edited by: FlexAjaxSEO at 1:37 am (utc) on Oct. 20, 2007]

Thanks for the insight. The site is now back in and has since fallen to page 2, pos. #1...position 11 as it were. I'll check it daily for a few weeks to see if there are any more hiccups.

Appreciate the thoughts and replies.

best,