Would 37,000 footer links from one site be the cause for our ranking drops?
-
Hey guys,
After this week's Penguin update, I've noticed that one of our clients has seen a dip in rankings.
Because of this, I've had a good link at the client's back link profile in comparison to competitors and noticed that over 37,000 footer links have been generated from one website - providing us with an unhealthy balance of anchor terms.
Do you guys believe this may be the cause for our ranking drops?
Would it be wise to try and contact the webmaster in question to remove the footer links?
Thanks,
Matt
-
Hi
continue optimizing and do not assume it will get back to where it was before.
I see some of the site I optimize stuck in new positions and only a very slow movement upward.
I guess it takes a lot of work to move up again
-
When you say a "waiting game", do you mean weeks? Months?
We've now returned to page three for the keyword.
-
Hi Tom
this may be a waiting game.
I would assume this link is not the only reason for the drop in ranking.
continue with your site review. get busy creating content and clean any other unnatural inbound links.
-
Just an update on this; after removing the footer links we're still seeing a downward movement for one of the most competitive keywords that we were ranking on the first page for.
As I mentioned in my last message, a couple of days ago it dropped to third page and now it's on page 8! Should we be looking at a reconsideration request even though we didn't receive an actual warning from Google?
-
We've now managed to remove the footer links that were incoming from the website I mentioned.
Any advice on the next stage of the process? Or is it just purely a waiting game? Should we submit a reconsideration request? Will we be able to see any immediate changes?
To give you an idea of the scale of the ranking dips; the site was originally floating around 6/7/8 for a competitive keyword but has now dropped to the third page.
-
Hey Tom,
That's great. Just the sort of confirmation I was looking for.
I'll get on to the process of removing these links now.
-
Hey there
That's really an unnatural amount. And if it looks unnatural it's always in line for a penalty.
Has a commercial anchor text been used? Or is it brand? Even if it's brand, it's still a grotesque amount of links, while many of the pages linking to your client's site may be from low quality pages. If it was a commercial anchor text, partial or exact match, then I'd be in little doubt this would cause the penalty.
I'd get the links removed ASAP, or ask the webmaster to make the links nofollow, although that may not suffice now the penalty has been put down.
If this coincided with the penguin update, the likely thing is that you won't see a recovery until the algorithm refreshes - unless we hear otherwise from Google - which is pretty frustrating. A manual penalty can be appealed any time with a reconsideration request, of course.
Hope this helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Do more internal links from sub-domains to domain (website) hurt rankings?
Hi, We have nearly 10 sub-domains. Couple of our website top pages including homepage have been linked from every page of these sub-domains; from footer or top menu. Is this kind of linking is bad as per Google? What is the right way of linking between website and sub-domains?
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Not a mobile friendly website, will it hurt my rankings?
Unfortunately my website is not mobile friendly. As it is based on clickable links within an image there is no way to adapt it either. Now, I have heard Google is getting serious about mobile friendly design, how will this impact my ratings? My current analytics show 57% desktop, 24% mobile and 19% tablet. I really like the design of my site with the clickable images and would hate to have to change it because Google says so :-(. My website is http://tamarindobeachinfo.com
Algorithm Updates | | ijb0 -
Falling Ranking
Hello until recently I was ranking quite well for a certain keyword and now week by week I am dropping in ranking. How do I fix this or find out how my competitors are getting higher than me Thanks Linda
Algorithm Updates | | invitationsforless0 -
Rankings Drop Week Beginning 19 May
Hi All I have experienced quite a significant rankings drop since week commencing 19 May. I have heard there has been a Panda roll out recently was it around that time? Thanks Gavin
Algorithm Updates | | gavinr0 -
Why is a sub page ranking over home page?
Hey guys! I was wondering whether any of you Mozzers out there could shed some light on this query for me. Currently, one of our clients is ranking (on the second page, at least) for one of their target keywords. However, it's not the home page that is ranking - it is a sub page. I guess you could say both are targeted to rank for the keyword in question but the home page has a considerable more PA (+10) and has a lot more incoming links so it's a little bit baffling as to why the sub page has been given an advantage. Does anyone know why this may be? Also, on a secondary note, should I continue to build links to the home page or target this particular sub page to have a better chance of ranking higher for the keyword? Any advice on this welcome! Cheers!
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
High ranking but low traffic, what gives?
One of our clients is in the top 3 spots on high volume keywords that get 20-70k hits in the US each month (per adWords keyword tool), but their daily traffic is in the low hundreds. What's going on?
Algorithm Updates | | optimalwebinc0 -
Mobi sites and sitemaps
Hi all, How does should one treat mobi sites which have a separate set of files to the main site - with regards to the sitemap? Doe we tell Google about them?
Algorithm Updates | | gazza7770 -
Rankings dropped in Yahoo
Hi All, I've recently seen some of my clients experience drops in Yahoo.co.uk. Does anyone have any info on any algo changes or updates? Thanks Bush
Algorithm Updates | | Bush_JSM0