How does one lose a top Google search ranking overnight?

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   Benson Yeungposted 16 years ago

   Hi guys. I was developing a new blog entitled "Doctors' Health Tips" at http://doctorshealthtips.com.
   All seemed to be going well with me building links to it from various commenting areas. It was on number 2 for the search keywords "Doctors Health Tips" yesterday. Today, it vanished from the search results into nowhere. The only thing I did before it disappeared was that I posted an article fron ezinearticles.com writter by myself. Did google hate the duplicate content so much that the blog got penalized? Can any one share his / her thoughts and experience regarding this?

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2. 77

   Lissieposted 16 years ago

   Benson your site is fairly new yes? Less than 6 months old? Your rankings will fluctate all over the place.
   BUT your doctorshealthtips.com site is resolving to a blogspot address doctorshealthtips.blogspot.com - that may be upsetting google - I'm not sure but it might
   
   Also you shouldn't be publishing duplicate content on your blog - it does mean that the page won't be indexed properly because the original on ezinearticles will have more authority

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      Benson Yeungposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Lissie, thanks for the tip. I have deleted the most recent post to see whether it helps.

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3. 71

   Curious Travellerposted 16 years ago

   Further to the above, the duplicate content will certainly have contributed to your downfall. This is something which we should never do online - it is the Google kiss of death.
   
   Also, I have found that when amendments are made to pages in any respect, this will cause their ranking to drop in the short term. I believe that this is to allow the Google spiders to rate, index and rank the new material.
   
   Delete your duplicate content, replace it with original, and hope that the damage you have done isn't permanent. I have a very high performing site that was Google slapped over a year ago for a totally different reason - largely beyond my control - and although it was very high on the Google rankings at the time, my strenuous efforts since have been in vain to have Google recognise it again in any way.
   
   Good luck.

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      Benson Yeungposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Curious Traveller,
      thanks for the tip.

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4. 59

   lindagoffiganposted 16 years ago

   Great observation, Lissie, about Google probably not liking duplicate content but blogspot is a different site so that should not have been the problem.  Hubpages usually note the hubpage if a violation has been committed and then gives you time to make the correction to delete or rewrite.

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