Decline in ranking for a particular theme of keywords after Penguin 2.0
-
Hi everyone
Last month we found on of our clients rankings were seeing significant declines in ranking (like from 3 to 28). This occurred around the time of the Penguin 2.0 update.
After further investigation we found that only a collection of keywords were affected. If we were hit by the algorithm update we would expect to find all keywords declining.
We have not been manually penalized and other keyword themes are seeing moderate day to day ranking improvements.
I know that rankings jump from day to day but a sudden decline of around 20 places for a theme of keywords isn't what we would expect.
Thanks all.
-
I had the same experience on a few sites. Ranked #1 for over a year, dropped same day as penguin, but bounced back the next day.
-
I'd be tempted to hang fire a little while before "fixing" the problem, and give it a while longer to shake out.
We had something very similar around the time of Penguin 2 on one of our sites, and like you for only a selection of our keywords. Half of the dropped keywords have returned to roughly where they were. Of the other half most have increased, but are still down compared to pre-Penguin.
One keyword went from 3rd to not in top 50 and back to 4th this week.
Aside from burning a fair bit of time trying to figure out what was going on and if we'd been partially Penguined, I'm not sure I'm any the wiser! Nothing notable going on with key competitors, nothing news worthy or topical in the sector - just temporary obliteration of around a quarter of keywords.
-
Thanks everyone. They keywords have hovered around the drop zone for a while now.
The unusual thing here is that the set of keywords have the same sort of back link profile as the rest of the keywords. We recently inherited the SEO work for this site and the previous agency used PR sites religiously with exact anchor matching text. I'm surprised that the site hasn't been hit as hard with the penguin update.
The industry is highly niche and so I doubt it will be revolving around a news story or current trend. Nevertheless we have lined up a competitor analysis.
Apologies for the lack of detail, the keywords effected mainly revolve around 'Carpet Protection'.
So the question here is whether we should take the risk and try removing these PR links (perhaps with Google disavow) or not.
-
Without knowing the site and the keywords (why is everyone so protective over these, even within this community??), it's almost impossible to say.
3 to 28 is quite a jump, but if the terms revolve around a trending news story or a seasonal term then that's not unusual at all. I would be happy to look further if you want to provide more specifics.
-
Did you build backlinks from certain domain names for those keywords? May be Penguine 2.0 hit those sites who were providing you link juice and support such keywords.
Thanks
-
There's some other things to consider (which you may have already done.)
What other changes can you see in the SERPS for your affected keywords, in particular what's happened to your competitors. Are there new sites now competing in the SERPS?
By analysing the "SERP Landscape" after changes like this can (but not always) give you an insight as to whether it's just your site that's been affected, multiple sites or the entire SERP.
A 3 to 28 drop is pretty nasty. Has there been any movement since the drop or has the SERP remained stable?
-
Drop in a particular theme of keywords is not unusual. It is highly possible that the particular theme has more relevant content on other sites or you have probably done over linking with same anchor text for that theme of keywords.
We also saw the same trend happening for one of our clients, but we removed the links, improved the content, and the rank was back up.
-
What is your exact question?
It could be possible that you dropped ranking around the penguin 2.0 update. It doesn't necessarily have to do anything with penguin though. It could be that the user engagement around this area on your site has been less good because for example the information is out of date.
I could take a look at your site and see if i find anything which could have caused this if you give me the url and the set of keywords you have dropped ranking for.
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
-
Have there been any google algorithm updates in the past 2 weeks?
Hi guys - we have noticed a site we work one has taken a hit on its rankings over the past week. We have been through all the usual reason - hacking, duplicate content, back links, other sites copying text etc - but can not find any reason why its rankings have been affected. Has any one else noticed unexplained changes in rankings with sites about a week ago? Thanks in advance! Phil
Algorithm Updates | | Globalgraphics1 -
Traffic, CTR AND AdSense eCPM Down ... Keyword Rankings Unchanged
Since the last week in March, one of our sites with ~ 1 million high quality page-views per month has had a 25% drop in traffic, CTR drop from 4% to 3%, and AdSense eCPM has dropped from $8 to $5 ... however, all of our keyword rankings have remained unchanged. Also, it is an extremely consistent niche with no drop in relevant searches ... The only thing that we KNOW for sure has changed is the removal of the separator and indentation from the Google search ads to our #1 ranking positions. Could such a simple alteration in the Google search results UI have such a significant impact on our numbers? Is anyone else experiencing a similar revenue drop without a rankings drop in the past two weeks? Besides punching up the titles to make our search results more appealing to users, is there really anything that can be done about Googles new paid results placement? Your thoughts and suggestions are invited. Thanks guys and gals 😉
Algorithm Updates | | Humanovation0 -
What is the impact of HTTP/2 on SEO ?
I think it's good for the user experience and speeds up websites, especially if your site has a lot of requests. But i'm not sure if there are other side effects, and if there's an impact on SEO or technical configuration. Most of my websites are built with Wordpress, some with Joomla.
Algorithm Updates | | Croco_Web_Solutions1 -
Meta Description / Meta Keywords
So, I am using Wordpress and the seo by yoast..... I have heard that meta keywords and descriptions are no longer recognized or used by search engines with respect to page rankings in the serps. Is this true? If so, why do people still recommend using these? I thought content is king these days?
Algorithm Updates | | APICDA0 -
AS we using the keyword related to our link but we are not listed in first page of Google search
AS we using the keyword related to our link but we are not listed in first page of Google search, but our competitors using the same keyword , they are listing in first page. how we can short this problem and get into first page on search
Algorithm Updates | | krisanantha0 -
Sharp Drop in SERP Ranking for Specific Keyword
I'm sure this happens to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. My pages http://www.cleanedison.com/leed and http://www.cleanedison.com/courses/leed-green-associate suddenly dropped off the map over the past 2 weeks for the keyword "LEED Certification" I tried to limit the number of times "LEED" was mentioned on the first URL (/leed) to try to combat an over-optimization penalty but I did not for the second (/leed-green-associate). Both of them have fallen precipitously and are no where to be found on Google. What can I do to troubleshoot this? Is there anyway to guard against this in the future?
Algorithm Updates | | CleanEdisonInc0 -
Why do in-site search result pages rank better than my product pages?
Maybe this is a common SERP for a generic product type but I'm seeing it a lot more often. Here is an example SERP "rolling stools". The top 4 results are dynamic in-site search pages from Sears, ebay and Amazon (among others). I understand their influence and authority but why would a search return a dynamic in-site SERP instead of a solid product page. A better question would be - How do I get my in-site SERPs to rank or how do I get my client's page to rise above the #5 spot is currently ranks at? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BenRWoodard0 -
Panda Update 2.5
All right mozers... What do you think? Apparently Google has just realized the next wave of "Panda" .... I'd love to hear your experiences with the new Panda Update. Have you experienced any decline in organic traffic?
Algorithm Updates | | NerdsOnCall0