One of the most recent Google theories floating through the forums is the “position six penalty.” The signs of being hit by a “position six penalty” is when you see your number one or two rankings shift downwards to position number six in Google. Many people first started noticing this happening in mid-to-late December.

Aaron Wall posted tips on how he was able to capture his number one positions back. But around the same time Aaron posted those tips, others have began noticing a reversal of that “position six penalty.”

When the theory was first discussed, Google’s Matt Cutts shrugged it off by saying, “Hmm. I’m not aware of anything that would exhibit that sort of behavior.” But typically with this much forum activity on one topic, there is some truth to it. Plus, as I mentioned above, a respected SEO, Aaron Wall, confirmed seeing this penalty himself.

The reversal of this penalty was seen on this data center, but SEOs discussing it in the WebmasterWorld thread are now saying that these data centers are no longer displaying the “pre-position six penalty” results.

Related Topics: Google: SEO | Google: Web Search

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz