Viral SlideShare = Google Penalty?
-
We recently published a slideshow on SlideShare.net and it ended up doing pretty well. It was featured on their homepage for 3 days, and we got quite a few embeds.
Unfortunately, a few days later, our rankings in Google tumbled. I'm wondering if this killed our link velocity, which I suppose would have potentially got us a temporary, automated penalty?
If you look at slide #4 and beyond, you'll notice that the logo links back to our homepage, and there's also a "View Quote" button that navigates to that specific quote, so users can find out more information, share it, or view any associated pictures. So, in total, there are quite a few backlinks in that slideshow (88 to be exact).
Is this what likely caused our drop in rankings? Or is it more likely to be a coincidence? We haven't done anything else in the past couple of months, other than publish an infographic and a press release.
And if this is a problem, how would we fix it? I can edit the slideshare and remove some of the links... but it seems sort of silly considering we haven't done anything blackhat. And, it would actually devalue our slideshow, because users would no longer be able to click through to the quotes.
Thoughts?
-
We saw some similar ranking movement, in which sites rose very high, then settled towards the bottom of the page. This could possibly be due to the update getting implemented, then being finalized. I am all for the proactive approach, but I think you should wait about a week before making any changes on your site. While you are waiting to see if anything shifts again, do some competitor analysis. Take a look and see who replaced your spot. See if there is anything they do better. This way, if nothing changes you have a better plan of action of what areas need "fixing"
-
Well, it's not necessarily SlideShare linking to me that I'm worried about. It's the sites that have embedded the slide, in combination with the amount of backlinks in that slide.
While we did see our rankings fall with the 4.0 update, we rebounded a few days later. And even more mysterious... we actually started to rank #1 for many "current event" keywords such as "memorial day quotes".... even though we had zero backlinks to the article... and the article didn't rank 1 until the holiday actually rolled around, which makes me wonder if it could have potentially been a manual boost in rankings. Same exact thing happened with "father's day quotes". As soon as it rolled around, we jumped to #2 in the rankings.
Everything seemed to be going very well, right up until about 3 days ago, which is when our rankings crashed.
-
It's highly doubful. Just having a site like slideshare link back to you would not single-handedly cause your ranking to plummet. My guess is there were already some underlying factors that existed, and you got slapped by Google's Panda 4.0 update.
Take a closer look at any competitors that ranked higher during this time period, and analyze their backlink profile in Moz's OSE. I would look for clues as to what is working well in your industry for both users, and search engines.
-
Hi,
It would be good to check your backlink profile. I am unable to view the slideshare so cant really say much in that regards. However, if you pay close attention to the backlink profile and also the newly acquired links, it would tell you a lot about the penalization (if its a penalization.
Go through all the links and see how many of those websites are not decent quality websites.
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
-
Best way to manage multiple Google My Business accounts as a marketing agency?
As marketing agency we have for each client a Google My Business account. This means that we have more than 100 Google My Business accounts. We know that GA has a limit of 100 analytics accounts (free version), but is there a limit in Google My Business too? For now, we have created multiple accounts that own different Google My Business accounts of our clients. Can I just change all the different e-mail accounts of our marketing agency and change it to one? So we can manage all the Google My Business accounts of our clients in one e-mail account?
Image & Video Optimization | | conversal0 -
Google instantly suspends Google+ local listing of brand new company
I just tried to create a Google+ listing for a client. It's a brand new company. As soon as I submit the listing, I get an error message: "Google has suspended your page due to quality issues." There is no content on the listing, no website, etc. Just their NAP. All I can guess is their business address or phone number is on a blacklist due to some previous tenant/owner. Does Google keep a blacklist of addresses and/or phone numbers? Any other ideas?
Image & Video Optimization | | AdamThompson0 -
New Google Maps - Does my strategy change?
I am currently in the process of ensuring our 70 locations are accurately portrayed in Google. Does the Google Maps update impact my efforts? My efforts being widespread citations spanning the local ecosystem, G+ optimization via Google Places, and in the future checking Google Map Maker for accuracy.
Image & Video Optimization | | SSFCU0 -
Sat in a York Based Office but I get a Google Lincoln local listing :-(
Buongiorno from 27 degrees C Wetherby UK 🙂 Imagine this scenario... I'm sat in a York Based HQ law office and Google term Langleys and the Local listing is for Lincoln is rendered 😞 The lincoln office is the smaller sister site 75 miles south of where I'm sitting as illustrated here appears (this is wrong) -
Image & Video Optimization | | Nightwing
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/langleys-local-listing-jinxcopy_zps26e3492a.jpg I then do the same thing in a wetherby based office and get the York based local listing appears. So my question is please" what is influencing which local listing is rendered?" Confused,
David0 -
Google Local pulling incorrect business name
A client mistakenly put her business name in one of the directories with "In" after the name for" incorporated". She wants to remove the "In" because it just looks weird, but we cannot figure out how, its showing up in google local too now. She did update her infousa listing but that didn't help.
Image & Video Optimization | | handsun0 -
Google local listings question
im working with gutter installation company, and we're ranking for all the top keywords in google. the only thing that we're not ranking for is for the map results, for the keyword "gutter ma" since we're located in Springfield ma, i thing Google considers certain areas from Boston, because its more center of Massachusetts, What can i do to improve my rankings in maps for this keyword, because i know it wont work with PO box since i need to confirm an address? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | vladraush990 -
Google local - is 7 pack really gone
According to a searchengineland post, Google has replaced "7 pack" results. But they are still appearing for local queries. Like for query "pizza restaurant new delhi" ( in Google.co.in ), i can still see 7 pack results. Has local and general search algorithms merged ?
Image & Video Optimization | | seoug_20050 -
Optimizing Google Places Listing - Please Help!
I claimed the Google Places listing a few months ago - added a description and all the necessary information. Finally got the page to show up in the places category on the 5th page for the search "vet las vegas". Then on some computers it likes to show up on the 8th page and on others the 5th page - weird!?. I need some help on the following: How can I get Google to put my website as an link in the "More About This Place"/citation section? The old website which was at a different domain is present but not the new one (the new one has been live for 2 months). -Am I missing any key information to help with my ranking? The 8th page is a pretty poor ranking and holds no value whatsoever. The description I typed out on Google Places does not display in the search results. - I am assuming adding citations is essentially just about adding backlinks that Google can pull to add to the "More About This Place" section - any surefire ways to get more citations there? WEBSITE: http://www.petmedicalcenter.com PLACES PAGE: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&prmd=ivnscm&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1187&bih=649&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=vet+las+vegas&fb=1&gl=us&hq=vet&hnear=0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3,Las+Vegas,+NV&cid=13431404354265657899&ei=5Bf1TdvWLIey0AGe-M3sDA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=4&ved=0CEIQ4gkwAzhG Any other feedback or ideas would be really appreciated. Thank you to all the SEOMOZ members would have helped me over the last month - you guys are awesome! Thanks again, Brant
Image & Video Optimization | | PMC-3120871