The dreaded drop
-
Hello all,
So a sister site has contacted me about their drop in traffic, around January they created a page, (and I kid you not), with a title of "Banner Link Exchange", it took me about ten minutes to stop laughing. Around the 16th of July their traffic dropped like a stone (see image).
Obviously I've had them remove the page and we've contacted the sites that they swapped links with, there are 20+). I'm going to give them a week then I'm going to disavow the links. Interestingly the brand keywords are all still at position one, but it's decimated any product and broad search links. I've had them create a blog and they're going to contact the sites they were linking with and write some proper articles. We'll clean up their backlink profile and any site issues they have. It's an ecommerce site so the projected take is down around 40%
My question is are there any indications after fixing as much as possible that the traffic will return, and in what period of time? (i'm seeing conflicting ideas about this)
We can't change the site domain as there's a physical store as well... the domain was first used in 1996...
Cheers
Stew
-
Hi Bruce, thanks for responding again, no we're not running adwords, we have some products that google doesn't like.
I've looked through the sources, it's literally just the google traffic that's died a death, although in general the conversion rate on the traffic is abysmal, circa 1% when my site is more like 3% for very similar products..
-
Hi
Are you running Adwords and Google Products?
Have you switched to the new Google Shopping in Adwords? If so this could be the problem. If you have switched (as everyone has too during August) a significant drop in sales coming from the new shopping campaigns in Adwords might be the source. We have noticed this too and spoken to Google Adwords about it.
Worth checking this out, as this might help? Check GA to see conversions by channel
Bruce
-
Thanks Bruce, I am looking at it from as many angles as possible
It's an ecomms site for a bricks and mortar store, the keywords that are still at number one are all brand keywords that bring up their local result page and their homepage, the 40% drop in revenue is directly from the search channel, everything else is as effective as before. Funnily enough I'd just been nosey and started to track their keywords just before they dropped, you can see the change point...
-
What might be interesting to check out is this: Is this now the genuine real traffic that the site generated and therefore is now realistic?
Often when problems are fixed, what you start to see is the real figures behind the site.
Check GWT and also GA to see if the two are matching trends. Often impression are only that, impressions and what matters is the real bottom line. Those who engaged and purchased might be found to be equal to that of before, although you mention that take is down 40%. Although if keywords are still at No1, then somethiing appears to be not quite right in the numbers.
Without knowing the industry, seasonal flutation can be that dramatic, due to rain, snow, sun etc.
Validate the data from all sources and cross match to get more evidence
Just a few thoughts.
Bruce
-
Thanks Malcolm, I need to talk to our board tomorrow and want to manage their expectations...
-
Thanks both, there wasn't any notice from Google, but i can't see anything more egregious than that page
We're working on a content strategy, fortunately it's a niche market and the store has a good reputation so we can leverage that.
The link exchange did boost the traffic, although it wasn't particularly good in boosting the revenue, i guess it's best endeavours and see what happens!
-
I would suggest you certainly take the steps to have the link removed. Disavowing links would be my next immediate step in this process. I have seen sites recover within 4-6 months and others take up to 12 months.
Malcom
-
How much traffic can return is dependent on how much traffic the link exchange brought in. Your best case scenario for the immediate future would be to get back to around the same levels before they implemented the page...assuming you get all the bad links removed.
Sidenote, sending a few emails and waiting a week may not be enough for google to move on your disavow request, but it's a start.
Good luck,
Ruben
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
-
DA drop down
Hello, I am the administrator of einricht.com . My site DA drop down 6 to 4. How can I recover the Bad links for increasing DA?
Link Building | | cnibkunpeffob0 -
Which of the following actions caused a drop in keyword ranking?
Hello, About 2 months ago we build a specific page arround the keyword 'kerstkaarten' (christmas cards in Dutch). It moved up to the first page (7th position), but last week we fell back to a +50 position.
Link Building | | ETonnard
The changes we made during the last week where minimal, and I really don't have an idea what may have caused the sudden drop in ranking. Maybe you can help? Link: http://www.smartphoto.be/nl/belangrijke-momenten/kerst/kerstkaarten Changes made: -> I changed the keyword kerstkaarten on tim on the page to 'kerstkaartjes', because the Moz page grader said the keyword density was a bit too high. -> We changed the top image on the page with a different promo. Title of the image changed from 'kerstkaarten-promo' to 'kerstkaarten-wenskaarten' -> The date on a small legal text on the page changed -> We got 2 backlinks from bloggers who've written an article about our christmas cards. So no major changes in my opinion. Any ideas? Thanks a lot! hz2DpJS0 -
Sudden Unexplained Drop Should I Disavow
We saw a sudden drop of about 10-12 positions on a couple of core keywords. We received no messages in Webmaster Tools. I have been on board only 2 months. I looked back at the linking profile and there are some spammy things I would never have authorized. Most of it is a couple of years old, although it seems Google is still just starting to "discover" some of the links. There are maybe 15 domains with spammy links to us and each of them have anywhere from 5-20 different links pointing our way. Should I setup the disavow file for Google? My concern is I draw attention to this and it may not be the reason we have dropped.
Link Building | | Furious-D0 -
What's Your Most Jaw-Droppingly Spammy Link ( or Promo) Request?
Sheesh. I get them every day. But this one takes the cake. It's from a woman I met once in my life on a long run with my running club. That was two years ago. Now she wants me to endorse her -- even though I know nothing about her professionally. But wait, there's more. She's not much of a runner. As it happens, I know a thing or two about fitness -- having edited a fitness magazine and worked on websites for many top fitness and nutrition pros. The idea of an MSW doing fitness programs for people with medical problems raises all kinds of red flags. She sent this Facebook IM: Hi Daniel - hope all is well! I was wondering if you can share my page with your friends, with the following message (or something similar). Thank you so much in advance! My friend XXXXXX, MSW, has been running XXXX Personal Training for the past 18 years. She specializes in exercise programming for people who have medical problems, everything from heart problems to chronic pain conditions. She works on site in her clients' homes in midtown and downtown XXXXXX. Please contact her if you know anyone who would benefit from her expertise.
Link Building | | DanielFreedman
http://www.facebook.com/pagesXXXX
XXXX Personal Training
We specialize in helping people who are experiencing medical issues incorporate exercise into their treatment plan. We work as a team with all other professionals involved in your care, whether that is your medical doctor, naturopath, physiotherapist, osteopath, chiropractor, massage therapist, or...
Page: 141 like this [note from SEOmoz staff: we ask that you keep this post TAGFEE and not include specific names, URLs, or phone numbers in your response. Thanks!]2 -
Will removing a 301 re-direct from an old spammed URL drop the links from our profile?
Essentially there is an old page that has been the target of an old school link building agency. There is a 301 re-direct from the old page to the newer version. if I drop the 301 re-direct and update our sitemaps. Will those links be removed from our profile? The old URL passes nothing in actual value & a link building campaign has been running on the new page for over a year.
Link Building | | BenjyH0 -
Should we use 'disavow' if we dramatically dropped serps after Oct 5th, but did not receive a warning?
We dramatically dropped serps after Oct 5th, but did not receive a warning about bad links on google webmasters. Is it a good idea to find and collect the worst links and disavow them? As there was no warning we can only guess links were the problem, but it seems likely. However we do not want to send any requests to google if no warning was sent. Can disavow be used in this way, or should we do more manually? (We are hoping remove links + increase very solid links + optimize for key words will help revive serps) Many thanks. James
Link Building | | Quime0 -
Drop in "Links to your site" in Google Webmaster Tools
Last week I noticed a substantial drop in "Links to Your Site" in Google Webmaster Tools on several of my websites. Upon further investigation the reduced links were from our sister sites. It appears that Google has reduced the number of links they are counting from links in our headers and footers from these sites to our main websites. It is not affecting our rankings or traffic. Is Google doing some clean up with what they are showing in webmaster tools for links from related, owned sites? Any cause for concern?
Link Building | | tdawson090 -
SEO Optimization is causing rankings to drop
The more I improve my site and the more links I try to get it seems that my site is just ranking worse and worse. Any ideas? domain name: www.musillawfirm.com Top Keywords wanting to rank for: Melbourne FL DUI lawyer Melbourne FL immigration lawyer cocoa FL DUI lawyer cocoa FL immigration lawyer
Link Building | | musillawfirm0