Algorithmically penalized site
-
I have been doing SEO for years, but luckily have never had a client penalized or had to go through that. I see everyone talking about it at conferences and know the absolute basics of recovery, but just had someone come to me that was algorithmically penalized about two years ago. They have no actual data to show me a date and they couldn't tell me a specific date. According to them, their SEO disappeared and wouldn't give them access to the analytics. They are definitely showing just about every red flag with anchor tags and low trust links and tons of duplicate content. Just about everything. I realize you don't have the deep data to go by, but are there cases when it is just better to start over from scratch. They have literally thousands of bad links and strange site pages that they say they weren't even aware of. Whether they were or not I guess isn't the point now, but I have heard rumors that if you start over, Google will still figure it out and follow you with the penalty. Is this true or documented? Don't want to potentially recommend that if that is something that generally happens to bad offenders. Happy to do the work and try to resolve their issues, but it is a lot of work and is going to be expensive and want to present other options. Thanks and any thoughts suggestions are appreciated.
-
No problem. You were just trying to help. Appreciate it.
-
sorry my bad man, should have read the full question!
-
Thanks. unfortunately they don't have access to their analytics from that time period.
-
If you have access to the analytics i would recommend checking out the Panguin Tool
You can line up your analytics with any updates in Google algorithms, very easy to spot any drop off points
-
Thank you!
-
You might be able to see some peaks and troughs in the graphs over at SEMRush. They may not be 100% accurate, but will hopefully demonstrate the timing for when things changed. This will then help you to correlate with which algo updates you were most likely affected.
However based on the info you originally gave and the practices that were originaly undertaken, it would not suprise me if you have been hit with pretty much everything.
Good luck with the recovery. Time and effort will in time see a reward.
-
Thanks. I may dig in to that. Initial consult was to tell them if they had been penalized, which seems clear. Will dig deeper with some of these tools if they decide to move forward and try to fix it. Trying to give them a list of options.
Thanks again.
-
Thanks. Great tip. They have tons of those spammy anchor text links from the same subnets, etc. Definitely will start there, though that is the majority, and move on down from there. Initial consult was just to tell them if they have been penalized. That seems clear. I think they knew that.
-
Hi Jeremy
I understand - that can definitely be an issue. Have you looked into SEMRush? You can line up historical data to see where traffic and rankings began to fall and pinpoint it from there.
That will definitely help out a bit! Let me know!
-
Thanks Patrick. Appreciate it. Just kind of wanted to verify what I originally thought. They are a mess. Though I don't have the historical data to see the specific update that got them, from what I've seen just scratching the surface, they were a candidate for just about every update getting them.
-
No problem at all Jeremy.
With the links, concentrate on those with spammy do-follow anchor text first and remember to disavow from a domain level if you think that there is a chance more will be added from that source in the future. Saves a lot of heartache further down the line.
-Andy
-
Hi there
Do you have any access to Analytics or Webmaster Tools? Reason being, you can line up traffic / ranking drops to algorithm history and go from there.
I would definitely go through a backlink audit and remove & disavow bad backlinks.
As far as redirecting a site, there are differing opinions. Google says it likely won't be negatively affected but then say it might, so there's really no straight answer. I always assume it will.
The best option in my opinion is to assess what data you do have and ask what's the best course of action. I personally would start removing backlinks, make sure the on-site SEO is on point, do a content audit, and start benchmarking traffic / rankings - also, make sure you are annotating analytics.
Whether you attack the problem or start from scratch to build the brand, it's going to take time and money. I would just weigh the options with what data you have present.
Let me know if this helps - good luck!
-
Thanks Andy, Yes, I did mean a new site. I really see very few good links on their profile, but it looks like disavowing them all, from what you are saying is likely their only option if it is going to follow them. Just like to provide options other than paying me a lot of money to fix you, but that may be their only option, other than not ever relying on SEO again. Though apparently, they have gone 2 years without it, so maybe that is an option. Thanks again. I very much appreciate it.
-
are there cases when it is just better to start over from scratch.
I'm sure there are, but they will be very few and far between. In all these years of doing SEO, I haven't ever had to do this.
They have literally thousands of bad links and strange site pages that they say they weren't even aware of.
Spend a little time going over these and a disavow will take care of it. However, don't expect positive changes in days. Some take many months to update.
Google will still figure it out and follow you with the penalty
Do you mean build a new site to start again? Well if you have a Penguin hit, then this will follow you. Other penalties could be resolved by a rebuild / refresh of the site though as this will all be on-page.
-Andy
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
-
Google Algorithm non-manual penalty. How do we fix this (quality?) drop?
Hi, See attached image. We received a non-manual penalty on March 22, 2015. I don't think we ever came out of it. We have moved up due to the Penguin update, but we should (by DA PA) be up on the first page for tons of stuff and most keyword are lower than their true strength. What kind of quality errors could be causing this? I assume it was a quality update. I am working on the errors, but don't see anything that would be so severe as to be penalized. What errors/quality problems am I looking for? We have tons of unique content. Good backlinks. Good design. Good user experience except for some products. Again, what am I looking for? Thanks. non-manual-penalty.png
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobGW0 -
Will including a global-site link in all 100 local-sites footer be considered spammy?
If I am a car manufacturer brand site(global), and I request all my location-specific domains include a link to the global site in their footers, would this trigger a red flag for Google? There are roughly 100 location-specific sites, but I would like to come up with a long term solution, so this number could be larger in the future. Is it best practice to only follow the footer link on each location-specific site Homepage, and nofollow the rest of the footer links on each site? Is it best to only include one followed link to the manufacturer brand site (global) on each location-specific domain? Is it best to not put this global link in the footer, but rather towards the top of the page only on the homepage?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Jonathan.Smith0 -
Pharma Hack/Grey hat SEO. Cannot get site to rank, tons of incoming bad links
I have been working on a website trying to get it to show up in the SERPs again. It is being indexed which is great, it has some errors that I'm fixing now. But for the most part it should be ranking. It don't show any penalties going on, but when I did a backlink search we keep getting the cialis, viagra etc inbound links. First thought was Pharma Hack. But it's not a WP site and I recently rebuilt it. So whatever bad code could have been there it's not anymore. It doesn't show up in google either for the search site:www.mysite.com viagra cialis etc... So I'm wondering if anyone has any insight in a direction to point me? I don't understand what would be causing this to still not rank. Only thing it ranks for is it's name. Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | WeBuyCars.com0 -
Two sites, heavily cross linking, targeting the same keyword - is this a battle worth fighting?
Hi Mozzers, Would appreciate your input on this, as many people have differing views on this when asked... We manage 2 websites for the same company (very different domains) - both sites are targeting the same primary keyword phrase, however, the user journey should incorporate both websites, and therefore the sites are very heavily cross linked - so we can easily pass a user from one site to another. Whilst site 1 is performing well for the target keyword phrase, site 2 isn't. Site 1 is always around 2 to 3 rank, however we've only seen site 2 reach the top of page 2 in SERPs at best, despite a great deal of white hat optimisation, and is now on the decline. There's also a trend (all be it minimal) of when site 1 improves in rank, site 2 drops. Because the 2 sites are so heavily inter-linked could Google be treating them as one site, and therefore dropping site 2 in the SERPs, as it is in Google's interests to show different, relevant sites?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | A_Q0 -
Build Backlinks on this site? - Advice Please
Hello, I am trying to build some backlinks to my E-Commerce site and was wondering how you all view sites like this: http://www.bookmark4you.com/ If I were to put a listing for my company/site on that site, would that be considered a good backlink or a bad backlink (in terms of Google's guidelines)... There are a bunch of sites like these, online directory or bookmark sites, and i was wondering what the general opinion is on using them for backlinking purposes. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Prime850 -
Site Maps
I have provided a site maps for google but although it craws my site www.irishnews.com at 6:45AM the details in the site map are not seen on google for a few days - any ideas how to get this feature working better would be great. example <url><loc>http://www.irishnews.com/news.aspx?storyId=1126126</loc>
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Liammcmullen
<priority>1</priority>
<lastmod>2012-01-23</lastmod>
<changefreq>never</changefreq></url> thanks0 -
Links to partner sites
I have some partnerships in some portals, usually I put the banner of my company with a link to my site on a space partners. How should I proceed? To place the banner no link? To put the link nofollow? Can’t I do it? Don’t I need to worry about it?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | soulmktpro0 -
Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
Hi All, In relation to this thread http://www.seomoz.org/q/what-happend-to-my-ranks-began-dec-22-detailed-info-inside I'm still getting whipped hard from Google, this week for some reason all rankings have gone for the past few days. What I was wondering though is this, when Google says- Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations? I assume my site hits the nail on the head- [removed links at request of author] As you can see I target LG Optimus 3D Sim Free, LG Optimus 3D Contract and LG Optimus 3D Deals. Based on what Google has said, I know think there needs to be 1 page that covers it all instead of 3. What I'm wondering is the best way to deal with the situation? I think it should be something like this but please correct me along the way 🙂 1. Pick the strongest page out of the 3 2. Merge the content from the 2 weaker pages into the strongest 3. Update the title/meta info of the strongest page to include the KW variations of all 3 eg- LG Optimus 3D Contract Deals And Sim Free Pricing 4. Then scatter contract, deals and sim free throughout the text naturally 5. Then delete the weaker 2 pages and 301 redirect to the strongest page 6. Submit URL removal via webmastertools for the 2 weaker pages What would you do to correct this situation? Am I on the right track?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | mwoody0