The Position 6 Google Penalty?

WebmasterWorld administrator, tedster, has compiled the feedback of the December 2007 Google SERP Changes thread, which we covered earlier in a new WebmasterWorld thread. In this thread, he says there is a pattern of reports he has been noticing where webmasters are reporting that their rankings have dropped for some searches from a position two to a position six.

Tedster summarizes his findings:

1. Well established site with a long history.
2. Long time good rankings for a big search term - usually #1
3. Other searches that returned the same url at #1 may also be sent to #6, but not all of them
4. Some reports of a #2 result going to #6.

He explains that most the reports say it is not site wide but rather search term specific. Plus, he adds that is seems to be off-page related and not on-page related. That means, he believes the cause for such a "position 6 penalty" is caused by linkage reasons and not your on-page SEO.

Is there something to this new "Position 6 Google Penalty?" Is this just an excuse for some holiday forum chatter? Let the forum discussion continue...

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.