Sudden drop in ranking
-
Hi,
I have been on page 1 (around 5-7th) for an area specific phrase (liverpool wedding photographer) for most of last year. I wrote a 2500 word article which was about documentary wedding photography which was meant for a landing page of its own, I decided to put it on my home page. A week later I was second position page 1. This was last November and within a week or at most 14 days I was suddenly dropped to bottom page 1 (9th 10th), then a week later half way down page 2 (14th, 15th) and ending at the bottom of page 2. I had a bad SEO company a few years ago who got me a lot of spammy links so I ended up disavowing a lot of links I had. What are peoples opinions on links now? Do I disavow all directory links, and non wedding or photography related links? Did something major happen to the google algorithm in November?
The only other thing I can think of which might cause a penalty is using the keyword "Liverpool wedding photographer" as a link from at leat 10 blog posts back to my home page which is optimised for those keywords. This was something I copied from someone who was ranking nationally for phrases. Just looked at their site now and they are still using this technique and are No1 nationally for their chosen phrase????
I do try and get as many 'good' links as I can (featured weddings on wedding blogs and credits for photography work) but I am totally confused. I thought google likes a lot of content? Very gutted as it could not happen at a worse time as January is the busiest month for bookings and I have been nowhere.
any help will be greatly appreciated.
Best wishes.
David.
-
Sometimes it's easy to be blinded by the technical aspects of SEO and overlook the most basic things. Put it this way, my troubleshooting started from the links down, rather than the site up, so don't feel too bad - there's a lesson there for all of us, I'd say.
P.S. I think I preferred Toast
Good luck and happy snapping!
-
I meant Yoast local!
-
Hi Hurf,
Wow what a response! I have an old copy of toast local so have contacted them, hopefully they will give me a good deal on the new version. Doh!!! I had forgotten the importance of having the address in your website!
Thank you also for pointing out the uninspiring adwords text. to be honest another photographer completed it for me and it has been performing very badly, I need to sit down and think of something more compelling.
Will let you know how I get on!
Best wishes.
David.
-
Overall, David, your inbound links don't look too bad. You have a Moz Spam Score is 1/17 which is positively saintly. But, as you say, the worst of them are all based around the 'Liverpool wedding photographer' anchor text.
http://www.submit.biz/23/Photography/ - a bit nasty
and
http://marieosmondwedding.com/find-the-best-wedding-photographer-in-liverpool/ - positively stinky.
All too often, when people find they have fallen foul of less than pure SEO practices they start start disavowing directory links despite the fact Google clearly says they probably don't need to:
"This [disavow tool] is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google’s search results. We recommend that you disavow backlinks only if you believe you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, and if you are confident that the links are causing issues for you. In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance, so most normal or typical sites will not need to use this tool."
This page is worth reading: https://www.bowlerhat.co.uk/penguin-4-0-business-directories-yay-nay/
However, I don't think this is where your problem lies:
Compare the site in the number one spot (with next to no inbound inks): http://www.theliverpoolweddingphotographer.co.uk/book-online
to your site:
http://www.dwliverpoolphotography.co.uk/contact/
Can you see the difference (or, more to the point what's missing)?
AN ADDRESS!
Google knows where 'Merseyside, L37 4AL' is but even the Mighty G will struggle to locate "David [who is] a wedding photographer based in liverpool." In fact, you don't even use the word Liverpool on your contact page!
I hope that helps you, David. You're work looks great. Correct that address issue and see how that changes things for you.
Also, I noticed your AdWords (down the bottom of the page) I'd urge you to get 'Liverpool Wedding Photography' in your Titles along with some ad extensions: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375499?hl=en-GB and a compelling call to action.
Compare:
-
Liverpool Wedding Photography - £500 for 2017 Weddings
Ad<cite class="_WGk">www.stevechaplinphotography.com/special-offer</cite>If you're getting married in 2017, I have an amazing offer for you - 50% OffBeautiful Albums · Great Client Reviews · Professional · Creative · Special OfferSouthport - 07769 998166 - Closed now · Hours
against your ad:
-
NorthWest Wedding Photographer - Natural Relaxed Unobtrusive
Ad<cite class="_WGk">www.dwliverpoolphotography.co.uk/</cite>David Walters captures moments as they happen, relaxed unobtrusive - no fuss.
Good luck!
-
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 rankings sudden drop
Hello, I own an online headshop, and as of last week my keyword rankings dropped significantly on some competitive keywords I was ranking for. I noticed the same thing happened to me last month, and then a few weeks later these keywords were ranking again. In fact, they were ranking even higher than before. I also noticed that 2 of my biggest competitors who receive 500k+ clicks a month had a significant drop in their keyword rankings as well. Does anybody know why this happens and how to correct the issue? Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Kobeghods930 -
LOCAL SEO / Ranking for the difficult 'service areas' outside of the primary location?
It's generally not too hard to rank in Google Places and organically for your primary location. However if you are a service area business looking to rank for neighboring cities or service areas, Google makes this much tougher. Andrew Shotland mentions the obvious and not so obvious options: Service Area pages ranking organically, getting a real/virtual address, boost geo signals, and using zip codes instead of service area circle. But I am wondering if anyone had success with other methods? Maybe you have used geo-tagging in a creative way? This is a hurdle that many local business are struggling with and any experience or thoughts will be much appreciated
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | vmialik1 -
SERP dropped Today ??
Hi, Long story shot. my 2 main keywords 'makeup artist sydney' and
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | EdsonGroupMedia
'sydney makeup artist' that have fluctuated in #1 - 4 position for the last year even after panda, have now moved to the 2page as of last night 23 May 13. I have checked webmaster tools and have no messages or error, i have checked Bing and still rank # 3 for the keywords. I am all out of ideas! am I being paranoid ? there hasn't been any major changes to the site and I don't seem to have major duplicate content issues! Any suggestions and Ideas would be great, website is www.sparrowmakeup.com.au Thanks.0 -
Why won't my home page rank for branded terms?
Hello, I've been trying to figure out what factors are causing my home page not to rank for my branded terms. The site is www.lipozene.com and after the late April Google algorithm our rankings have disappeared off the map for the term "lipozene". Different element of the site show up in organic rankings, including our shopping cart (http://shop.lipozene.com) as high as page two. However, the home page is not ranking organically. On Yahoo & Bing we have never dropped out of the number 1 spot. We did engage in some link building activities, however we've removed nearly all of the links that were created by our SEO guy. I did NOT receive any notifications from Google regarding their link policy. If you search for lipozene.com we rank #1. Any thoughts on what we're missing thats causing us to not rank is greatly apprecaited. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | lipoweb0 -
Has anyone ever reported a spammer and actually seen them de-ranked?
I have a few competitors outranking me using black hat SEO. I reported them to Google, and I'm just wondering if Google will even look at it. What has been your experience with this? Has anyone ever gotten results?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | UnderRugSwept1 -
Sudden Ranking Drop from 1st Page
My client's Website http://countryfeelingholidays.com is experiencing a huge drop of its rankings since Aug 1st. It was at 2nd on 1st page on google.lk for the keyword Holidays Sri Lanka . But When I checked it last it has gone to 20th page. I really cannot find a reason for this drop . Only thing that comes to mind is that we put a comment on a blog but finally it appeared on all pages because of top commentator plugin . huge rise in backlinks in oneday . from next day we lost its ranking on google.lk but on google.com it is still at the same position where it used to be . What would be the reason for this ? Could it be a penelty ? What should we do now to get its ranking back ?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Osanda0 -
How does Google rank a websites search queries
Hello, I can't seem to find an answer anywhere. I was wondering how a websites search query keyword string url can rank above other page results that have stronger backlinks. The domain is usually strong, but that url with the .php?search=keyword just seems like it doesn't fit in. How does Google index those search string pages? Is it based off of traffic alone to that url? Because those urls typically don't have backlinks, right? Has anyone tried to rank their websites search query urls ever? I'm just a little curious about it. Thanks everyone. Jesse
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | getrightmusic0 -
Drop in non-branded organic search April 1
I saw an intense drop in non-branded organic search for major pages on my site on April 1st this year. The homepage wasn't affected and it's not an annual thing. I've attached a screen shot showing the drop. I'm new to the company and recently learned that they had hired a pretty black hat company last year and I'm worried that this is Panda...although the timing seems wrong. Has anyone experienced panda effects between the two updates? I'd love to get some feedback!! 1ry2a.png
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | CIEEwebTeam0