Gah, unfairly hit by massive google penalty :/

[WPMUDEV]

Hi Guys,

We're the folk behind http://wpmu.org and have just been hit by a massive fall in google referrals, see attached

There's no reason in webmaster tools for this, were not engaging in any spammy or dodgy practices and are a massively established and well staffed news *& tutorial site for WordPress (one of the biggest, in fact!)

We've upgraded WP, and requested a referral, but without actually knowing what's going on it's extremely hard to figure out what to do

Maybe we're a wrong hit regarding this: http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/04/googles-new-search-algorithm-to-crack-down-on-black-hat-webspam/ ?

At the moment pretty much the only thing I can think of is one of our authors being dodgy, but I don't think they would be, and I don't know how to go about finding out.

Anyway, if you guys could take a look and let us know anything you think might be up, and share any advice that'd be super super appreciated!

Cheers, James

Screen-Shot-2012-04-27-at-8.39.32-AM.png

[WPMUDEV]

@Georg, tanks for that!

@Boodreaux, ugh, that's shocking service, wasn't like that back in the day

[Boodreaux]

James,

If you want more responses you may need to post a new discussion question with your latest information you found out.  Your question is far down the list now and only a 4 people are in this thread.

[GeorgFranz]

Hi James,

your are not alone. Our site lost 50% traffic...

Here is our thread: http://www.seomoz.org/q/lost-50-google-traffic-in-one-day-panic

[WPMUDEV]

Still looking, it looks like it could be victim of our own success / couple of minor errors around http://edublogs.org

Essentially we tried to remove all links from blogs there to wpmu.org back in the day, but missed, literally, about 3.

And then there's been a lot of splogging on edublogs of late that we're really working hard to clamp down on.

And they are choosing the theme with the wpmu.org links on it.... so 2+2 it coudl be that.

We've now removed all links and are splogging like crazy, using http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/anti-splog/ (one of our plugisn too).

And have p[ut in another request.

Would love to hear from a Mozzer too, given our 4+ year membership here (in which time we've asked like 4 questions

[Boodreaux]

Ouch...great looking site. Very scary.  Hope to hear back from you on what the issue was in your being dropped so low.

[WPMUDEV]

Thanks guys.

@Kevin on edublogs it's only the homepage that links to wpmu.org, sub blogs only link to WPMU DEV (separate site) which hasn't been impacted.

Given the prominence of our other sites in the WP space, and the relevance of the topic, I'm not sure if removing links from them to wpmu.org would necessarily be the best approach?

Thanks for other link and we'll go and post in the wbmaster forums now too.

@stubby yes, no paid links, only footer links are from themes (like the 'Powered by Wordpress MU' ones and at least 3+ years old), not at all odd for a WP provider either.

Open to other thoughts / ideas!

[stubby]

I have an opinion that many of the other sites that I have seen recently have one of a few things going on.

Either -

• They have crappy links that were bought on blog networks (which I didn't see in your case)
• They have footer links that they installed when people used their services (as in "designed by ABC web Design),
• They have footer links that were installed when people used their software (Powered by Wordpress MU)

The net result that I see from any of these scenarios is that the site in question gets lots and lots of anchor text links from lots of unrelated sites all over the place, which makes the "designed by" or "powered by" links look like an unnatural build, or possibly even look like paid links.

This is just my opinion and it could be wrong - but I am seeing it more and more.

[Klarke]

I would cut down the sitewide links, in particular the ones on other domains you own.  I see the edublogs "main site" has a image link to wpmu.org; too lazy to check the user blogs.  Other than that, I don't see anything that would get you hit by the penguin update.

You might have better luck if you posted in the Webmaster product forums at google.

They also just release this form for people who think they've been wrongly affected.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ&ndplr=1