Algorithm Penalty?
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I've read the FAQs and searched the help center. The URL in question is: http://goo.gl/9lGqxDSince this website was relaunched around the same time as the Panda algorithm update, it's dropped from the 1st page of results down to page 6 or lower. Essentially, this website no longer ranks well in the Google UK for relevant keywords to the business when combined with the place names in it's geographical operation areas.It's worth noting that the website ranks very well in other search search engines such as Bing! The website had a lot of spammy links which we've requested to be removed from the respective site owners. Most of which are either non-responsive or want extortionate amounts of money to remove the links so we have used Google disavow links tool. We suspect the site is being penalised as a result of the spammy inbound links something which is supported by the fact that only the new pages or pages with fresh content are ranking (http://goo.gl/D1NpxH). However, Google Webmaster tools reports no messages or critical issues.On the whole the website is updated occasionally. The writing is very easy to understand, it's quick to load, URLs are clear and the titles and descriptions are partly optimised.We're believe that our only option is to abandon the current domain and completely rewrite the content for a new domain. Does anyone else have any ideas how we can fix this before we go ahead?Many thanks, Ben
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I'm getting a 403 error for the entire site at the moment (?) Could you double-check the URL?
Interesting that you mentioned geo-targeted pages and that this happened around when Panda hit. Do you have a ton of pages of the form "[brand] [city]" (dozens or hundreds, maybe)? If those pages are very similar - with only a few details switched out, this is definitely the kind of thin content that Panda hit pretty hard. Google views those pages as low value, and can devalue the entire domain based on that perception. This wouldn't appear as an error in GWT, since it's an algorithmic action.
Unfortunately, I can only speculate, without taking a peak at what Google has indexed.
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Hi Ben, I can't advise, but I have the exact same issue on a UK website of mine. Let's hope someone on here can help.
Paul.
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