When do Panda ranking factors apply when Google deindexes a page
-
Here is 2 scenarios
Scenario 1
Lets say I have a site with a ton of pages (100,000+) that all have off site duplicate content. And lets say that those pages do not contain any rel="noindex" tags on them.
Google then decides to de-index all those pages because of the duplicate content issue and slaps me with a Panda penalty.
Since all those pages are no longer indexed by Google does the Panda Penalty still apply even though all those pages have been deindexed?
Scenario 2
I add a rel="noindex" to all those 100,000+ off site duplicate content pages. Since Google sees that I have decided to not index them does the Panda penalty come off?
What I am getting at is that I have realized that I have a ton of pages with off site duplicate content, even though those pages are already not indexed by Google does me by simply adding the rel="noindex" tag to them tell Google that I am trying to get rid of duplicate content and they lift the Panda penalty?
The pages are useful to my users so I need them to stay.
Since in both scenarios the pages are not indexed anyways, will Google acknowledge the difference in that I am removing them myself and lift the panda ban?
Hope this makes sense
-
I have over 800,000 pages total that contain duplicate content "if" that is an issue with my definitions. I would assume that Panda would slap me hard for that, again "if" that is the issue. Since I have never tried to deindex this many pages I am hoping this works and I will take a few coffee breaks waiting because its going to be a while lol
I have nothing to lose and I feel like I have tried a ton. Thanks so much
-
"Google then decides to de-index all those pages because of the duplicate content issue and slaps me with a Panda penalty."
Panda will not deindex pages. It might move them to the supplemental index, but they're not deindexed. Technically, Panda is not a penalty. It's an algorithmic demotion. If you've got a bunch of duplicate content, Google may choose not to index some of that content, or, more likely, to just show users the most appropriate page of that content.
Now, if Panda has affected your site because Google feels that the site consists of mostly duplicate or thin content then you'll need to noindex or significantly change or remove that content in order for Google to see that the quality has improved. You can't say that the content is essentially gone because Google is not showing it. That wouldn't change the factors that caused you to be affected by Panda. (Now, this is assuming that this is what the problem is, because we don't know that.)
"I add a rel="noindex" to all those 100,000+ off site duplicate content pages. Since Google sees that I have decided to not index them does the Panda penalty come off?"
If these pages were the primary reason for Panda to visit your site, then what would happen is that as Google recrawls your site they will start to recognize that the quality is improved. Then, at some point with a future Panda refresh (it may take several if there is a lot of content to crawl), you should see an increase in traffic. If the duplication was the only factor that Panda was concerned about then you'd likely see a dramatic improvement. If it was just one of the factors, you might see a smaller improvement. If you had a lot of factors, you may see very little or just some improvement.
If I understand the question right, I would say that the answer is to go ahead and add the noindex tag to these pages.
-
No offense man, I really want to figure out what the heck happened with my site, I really feel like I was hit from unfortunate circumstances.
My website is http://www.freescrabbledictionary.com/
The duplicate content I am referring too is that I generate my definitions for words from an API provided by https://www.wordnik.com/
I do site the resource on each definition at the bottom of every page (which was required by https://github.com/wordnik), an example is http://www.freescrabbledictionary.com/dictionary/word/testing/
I have never had a manual penalty from Google, I check Google Webmaster Tools all the time. I also use tools like Google analytics as well as moz.com, ahrefs.com and monitorbacklinks.com.
I used to rank for the keyword "scrabble dictionary" in the top 4 spots on average. For a long time I was #2 which was my biggest keyword traffic.
I remember when the first Panda update came out I was not hit. I notice the negative changes in my rankings after the second panda update and so on. Since Penguin was in the mix as well I cant even tell if I was hit with penguin.
I never paid or did black-hat backlinking
Again I never was hit with a manual penalty, this is 100% algorithmic
If you notice with the keyword "scrabble dictionary" my homepage does not rank for that keyword at all. Not anywhere in all the search results, where I used to rank top 4 spots.
Since I have been hit so hard I have nothing to lose so I have "noindex" 100% of each word definition, sentence example's and quotes which even though those are not copied (except for definitions) I did that just in case. This equates for about 90% of my site's pages indexed by Google.
I have changed my site design to equate for the "refresh" ranking factor, I have desperately comb through my site 1,000,000 times trying to figure out what happened, I have disavowed link 10 fold and nothing seems to affect my rankings. At this point I will try anything...I have nothing to lose.
-
Can you describe what happened to your site and why you believe you got a penalty.
make sure Type site:www.example.com in to Google it will show you what is indexed.
Be certain that you do not have a robots.txt file or something similar blocking your website go to https://www.feedthebot.com/tools/ type your domain in and it will tell you if you are blocking anything with your robots.txt do this on the URLs that you think not indexed.
Because if you are affected by a true panda penalty it would be a manual penalty you would receive word inside your Google Webmaster tools account. If you do not have one set one up.
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en
if you think you've been hit by an algorithm penalty not manual you can check by using tools listed in this URL
http://www.iacquire.com/blog/5-tools-to-help-you-identify-a-google-slap
now obviously because you're talking about duplicate content which it seems like you may have known existed somewhere else may be and please don't take offense you copied it?
In that case Google takes the domain with the most authority and gives it to that domain.
so time.com could probably take your entire site and you would be the one that looked like you stole their content.
remember Google does also consider the first time it was indexed however site authority trumps it.
Google will only acknowledge a difference if you actually have a manual penalty if you received a manual penalty it would come with instructions on what to do next.
My advice to you is if you have duplicate content that is taken from another website and not yours please remove the content second choice no index that content.
It could be that you have the misfortune of somebody finding out that you took their content and they do digital millennium takedown in many cases would damage or domain beyond repair. You would know if this occurred as well. I'm just letting you know it's not smart to have someone else's content on your site you should write it uniquely to meet your end-users needs and if the current content is very helpful to them I recommend you use that to create your own unique content not spinning it but unique.
please know that if you tell me you didn't take the content I will apologize right away. I do not mean to imply.
respectfully,
Tom
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
-
Keyword ranking for different page than the page optimized
I have optimized "equipment trailer for rent" on this page: http://www.bigtrailerrentals.com/flatbed-trailer-rentals/equipment-deckover. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me why Google has chosen to rank the keyword phrase for this page: http://www.bigtrailerrentals.com/flatbed-trailer-rentals/equipment-24 This is just one example. It has happened on several of my pages / keywords.
On-Page Optimization | | BigTrailerRentals0 -
Google index new data from my website page
Hi All, We have pages which are created few weeks before hand for Movie reviews in those pages we add value with adding the Movie cast and crew info and what ever info possible before the movie releases. The the movie releases we watch the movies and write reviews which is 500+ words. Now the issue is the pages are indexed a week before... How can i have these review pages scanned immediately when i have the complete review as the review content is not indexed for 3 to 5 days and the first day or 2 is when its important for the reviews to be seen in Google. Regards
On-Page Optimization | | AlexisWithers0 -
My Site's Name Not Ranking in Google
Hey all, I've seen a few posts like this. But I wanted to start a new thread in hopes I may find the underlying issue. I've had my site: http://www.ctrl-alt-success.com for about 2 years. Recently I've started really adding a lot of content to it. (about 2-3 posts a week). I get zero organic views which is fine as I know it's still in the beginning. But here's my main question. If I type "ctrl-alt-success" into google. I get some site that shows up. "ctrlaltsuccess.com" I've been looking at this issue forever. That site has been "coming soon" for nearly 2 years. lol My site doesn't even show up on the first 10 pages of google. However in Bing and Yahoo it ranks on the first page. What could my site be doing wrong that it's not even ranking for the exact domain name? Keep in mind, if I google "ctrl-alt-success.com" my site comes up fine. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Ctrl-Alt-Success0 -
Home page and category page target same keyword
Hi there, Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal: Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it. Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it? Thanks Julian
On-Page Optimization | | tprg0 -
Will Google Custom Search results on my home page kill it's ranking?
This is probably a dumb question, but here goes anyway. 🙂 On a site I have it would be very useful to the reader to offer a search box that uses a Google Custom Search that I have optimized to search websites that are closely on-topic with my site. I know it sounds bad that I would send people to other sites, but just assume that the reasons are valid for this discussion. My question is, if the search results are set to display on the same page (the home page) as the search box, will the links in the search results to external sites just bleed my page rank to death? I assume it would, but thought I'd check just in case I'm missing something. I have to option to place the results on separate page of my site, and noindex it, but it won't be as powerful as it would be on the home page.
On-Page Optimization | | bizzer0 -
Google Panda This Past Weekend Impact
I understood that Google was implementing a major Panda refresh this past weekend. Did it happen? Anyone notice any impacts? What changed?
On-Page Optimization | | lbohen0 -
Source page leading to a 404 pages in reports
Hi everybody, I wonder how to find and quickly correct 404 errors in my crawl reports : SeoMoz says me "http://domain.com/this-page-is-dead" is 404, but I can't figure out a source page where a link to that url appears. I tried a google link:http://domain.com/this-page-is-dead request, with no more luck. I imagine the trick is trivial, but I need it 🙂 Moreover, why do not show a list of pages referring to this 404 page on reports ? Thanks, Loïc
On-Page Optimization | | mandinga0 -
Google SERPS showing wrong page.
I am new to SEO and trying to rank for keyword 'corporate entertainment' and my site is currently at 26. However google is showing the homepage http://www.musicliveuk.com in SERPS as opposed to my optomised page http://www.musicliveuk.com/home/corporate-entertainment. Any ideas why it is choosing so show the home page as the most relevant result?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0