How to Identify Which Penalty : Penguin, Panda or Other?
-
I'm in the process of putting together a plan to recover from Algorithmic penalty. I'm not sure if I have to focus my recovery effort based on Penguin, Panda or Other algorithm penalty.
After looking at the attached screenshot : Google Analytics Data vs Google Algorithm update timeline, I'm not sure if the blog is affected due to Penguin or Panda.
I have following questions
- Traffic drop is because of Pengin, Panda or Other penalty? (there is no manual penalty message)
- Where should I focus my time with recovery efforts? (link removal, contents, link building, etc).
- Any other comments or suggestions?
Thanks for you help.
-
Thanks EGOL. I will get that removed as well.
I got a new link from this site in footer 2 days back. There are about 20 pages in that site. I have an option to request the same link in this single page.
Should I request from single page? Thanks.
-
One of them have removed it and trying to get other removed as well. Google Webmaster listed like 2500 links pointing to home page from those 2 domains.
I agree, these links could be a problem.
Also, I'm trying to get the link removed from sites that scrapped contents, but those sites don't have any contact info to reach a real person.
Getting rid of these links can be next to impossible. I don't think that they are as bad as a site-wide footer link.
-
I'm going to take the quiz later today. Link to the Blog.
Link Build Efforts: I didn't put any effort to build links.No guest blog posts or any other dedicated campaign for building links. 99% of the link came in naturally.
There were 2 sitewide footer link from PR 5 sites. Only effort I put to get the links (not paid). One of them have removed it and trying to get other removed as well. Google Webmaster listed like 2500 links pointing to home page from those 2 domains.
Also, I'm trying to get the link removed from sites that scrapped contents, but those sites don't have any contact info to reach a real person.
Abut 3500 pages are indexed. About 2000 receive SERP traffic. Bounce rate of the site is 55%.
-
EGOL said it best. Nobody could possibly tell you this based on the limited information provided.
Sharing your domain and other details (link building schemes/efforts, what you do to market, etc) would help us get closer to helping you. But EGOL's resource is awesome and he's absolutely right. Take the quiz, be honest, discover where you went wrong. If it's not manual, this can still be resolved. If it's that bad, expect a manual penalty to come next.
G'luck.
-
You are in a better position than anyone to answer this question. Anyone who answers here is guessing.
Take the quiz at this website and be very honest with yourself when you answer. If you don't know an answer because someone else did the work then get them to give you a straight answer.
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
-
Panda Penalty Recovery?
My site: www.stephita.com, is based in Toronto, Canada. It used to rank top 3 in local and national searches for "wedding invitations" and "wedding invitations toronto". I've now been placed on the dreaded page 2 ;| I didn't keep up with the times and news, and wasn't aware of Google Panda Penalty until earlier this year 😞 So, I've cleaned up most of my site with what I suspect what caused me to drop: a) Cloaking pages - I had PHP script generate about 1000 pages of "cloaked" pages. This has been removed, and I've used Google webmaster tools to "remove" the directory as well. b) Duplicate Content pages - (not cloaked, but I've done content writing on the majority of my product pages) The 2 items above is what I "assume" caused a Google Penalty... I started this cleanup endeavour late January, and with the content writing to remove what MOZ tools notices as duplicate pages. I've read online that Panda is now part of the search algorithm. So does that mean, ideally, I should start seeing "better" ranking results now? Or is there a process I should be following and submitting my site for "reconsideration"? Thanks all!
Technical SEO | | TysonWong0 -
Panda Cleanup - Removing Old Blog Posts, Let Them 404 or 301 to Main Blog Page?
tl;dr... Removing old blog posts that may be affected by Panda, should we let them 404 or 301 to the Blog? We have been managing a corporate blog since 2011. The content is OK but we've recently hired a new blogger who is doing an outstanding job, creating content that is very useful to site visitors and is just on a higher level than what we've had previously. The old posts mostly have no comments and don't get much user engagement. I know Google recommends creating great new content rather than removing old content due to Panda concerns but I'm confident we're doing the former and I still want to purge the old stuff that's not doing anyone any good. So let's just pretend we're being dinged by Panda for having a large amount of content that doesn't get much user engagement (not sure if that's actually the case, rankings remain good though we have been passed on a couple key rankings recently). I've gone through Analytics and noted any blog posts that have generated at least 1 lead or had at least 20 unique visits all time. I think that's a pretty low barrier and everything else really can be safely removed. So for the remaining posts (I'm guessing there are hundreds of them but haven't compiled the specific list yet), should we just let them 404 or do we 301 redirect them to the main blog page? The underlying question is, if our primary purpose is cleaning things up for Panda specifically, does placing a 301 make sense or would Google see those "low quality" pages being redirected to a new place and pass on some of that "low quality" signal to the new page? Is it better for that content just to go away completely (404)?
Technical SEO | | eBoost-Consulting0 -
Our Panda Content Audit Process
We've put together this process over the past year that has shown success when it comes to sites that appear to be hit by Panda. The idea was to put together a process that would allow us to give our clients an understanding of the problem at hand and metrics we can use to explain how recovery is going. Would love to hear your opinion or if you have a different/similar strategy.
Technical SEO | | eyeflow1 -
How different does content need to be to avoid a duplicate content penalty?
I'm implementing landing pages that are optimized for specific keywords. Some of them are substantially the same as another page (perhaps 10-15 words different). Are the landing pages likely to be identified by search engines as duplicate content? How different do two pages need to be to avoid the duplicate penalty?
Technical SEO | | WayneBlankenbeckler0 -
Rankings drop after Panda
Hi All, My site dropped completely out of the SERPS on September 27th. I've tried everything I know to do (re-wrote all content, disavow links tool, filed DCMA complaints, de-optimized on-page content, made anchor text less aggressive, etc). Can you all please take a look at www.doctorloanusa.com and let me know what you think the problem is and how much you'd charge to help? Keywords used to be: doctor loans, physician loans. I ranked 2 or 3 for those keywords consistently for over 4 years. I know I need more content, but I feel like it's a waste of time creating it. If a thin site was the issue, wouldn't I at least rank SOMEWHERE in the 1000 results? Thanks for your consideration. At my wits end.
Technical SEO | | Cary_Forest0 -
Local SEO and Penguin
All, One of my client's sites was hit by Penguin. The business has lost almost all of its organic rankings but is still holding on for a handful of local searches for some of its satellite offices. We've built a new site and are slowly building domain authority. My question is this: at what point do I swap out the new site's location URL for the old URL in Google places? I don't want to risk the existing local placement which is all they have left for the time being. Thanks, John
Technical SEO | | JSOC0 -
Google Penguin - Target Landing Page
Hello, One of our sites have been hit by the first penguin update back in April and ever since then we have been removing links and submitting reconsideration requests... It only seems to have affected our home page as some of our internal landing pages are still ranking OK in the SERPS #1 / #2. I'm just wondering if we created a landing page for this keyword and drove high quality / relevant links to this landing page could we get it to rank higher than our homepage even though our Homepage is on the 5th page.Hope the above make sense. Has anybody had any joy with this?
Technical SEO | | ScottBaxterWW0 -
Penalized by Penguin 1.1 Release
I just realized that my blog, (www.onbetterterms.com) just recently got blacklisted. That blog actually redirects to www.springcoin.com/blog On May 25th, Google released the Penguin 1.1 update. After looking at my rankings, I found out that all my keywords positions were dropped. I have no idea why, and don't know how to fix this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | kevinyu10290