Penalty or Algorithm hit?
-
After the Google Algorithm was updated my site took a week hit in traffic. The traffic came back a week later and was doing well a week AFTER the algorithm change and I decided that I should do a 301 redirect to make sure I didn't have duplicate content (www. vs. http://) I called my hosting company (I won't name names but it rhymes w/ Low Fatty) and they guided me through the supposedly simple process.. Well, they had me create a new (different) IP address and do a domain forward (sorry about bad terminology) to the www. This was in effect for approximately 2 weeks before I discovered it and came along with a subsequent massive hit in traffic. I then corrected the problem (I hope) by restoring the old IP address and setting up the HTACESS file to redirect all to www. It is a couple weeks later and my traffic is still in the dumps. On WMT instead of getting traffic from 10,000 keywords I'm getting it only from 2k. Is my site the victim of some penalty (I have heard of sandbox) or is my site simply just lower in traffic due to the new algorithm (I checked analytics data to find that traffic only in the US is cut by 50%, it is the same outside the US) Could someone please tell me what is going on?
-
Michael,
if you got hit with on the 24th of february, this was the Panda algorithm update.
First, if you sure that your content is 100% unique and a high quality site? i would go to
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=76830633df82fd8e&hl=en&start=800
This thread is dedicated to people that have a high quality site that has been negatively affected by this change. a Google employee will look closer .
On the other hand, the stuff you can do to help your site are (this is my opinion, still webmasters and SEOs trying to figure our how they can get out or what are the criteria that triggered the panda update on their site)
- Trustworthy UI (user interface). your website is old (it looks like an old 1). see if there is a possibility to make a new site built on a robust CMS.
- site speed
-
Can I post analytics data or do I have to edit it first....
CLIFFS:
Site Traffic Drops 50% on Feb 24th and continues to ...
Traffic rises back to 100% March 3rd - 8th
Traffic drops back down to 50% on March 9th - Day after host advised me poorly and changed IP...
Traffic has been 50% of what it had been in the last few to this day, it is killing me financially
-
Okay, if this is the case, what are webmasters recommended to do ? Increase site speed? Any links appreciated.
Thanks
-
I think your talking about askthetrainer.com
after short analysis am sure that is not a penalty.
your site might be harmed from the Google Panda update
-
Michael, answering your question fully will require analyzing your site, and probably your traffic and GWT data. If you can post your site url, I'll take a brief look at it. If you can put together a traffic data graph showing your drops in traffic and how they coincided with what changes you were making to your site, that would be helpful, too.
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
-
Does Google’s Algorithm Populate Answer Boxes with Its Own Independent Research?
If you search 'best games to play for youtube' you get an answer box with answers pulled independently from the article at hand. Here's an image: http://imgur.com/a/S0j9B Here are all the games from my article, in the order in which they appear. Google's chosen games for Answer Box are bolded: Battlefield 1 Bloodborne GTA V FiFA 16 TrackMania Turbo Garry’s Mod League of Legends Call of Duty: Black Ops III Tom Clancy’s The Division Overwatch Just Cause 3 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Brawlhalla Rocket League Dark Souls III Unravel Firewatch GoldenEye 007 (this was put in as a joke, but coded as an H2 nonetheless) Destiny Dead by Daylight Fallout 4 Undertale No Man’s Sky Minecraft As you can see, Google is choosing which games to display to its searchers. My Crazy Egg data shows that these were not picked by click volume (each of these H2s are hyperlinked), which means Google must be using some other popularity metric, such as its own search volume data or external sales data. I wrote this up in a post on my site, for anybody who's curious.
Algorithm Updates | | Edward_Sturm1 -
A company claiming to have a proprietary software that replicates Google algorithm?
Hi all, Unfortunately, getting into a bit of a p*ssing match 😞 with a company trying to compete for the business of one of our clients and just wanted to some feedback from the community here. The company competing for the client's business claims to have spent $1 million to replicate Google's algorithm so they create a replica site (not sure I understand this) of the client site, then test and optimize on-page SEO changes in their software to determine whether the on-page changes are ideal. Sounds fishy to me. Thoughts?
Algorithm Updates | | RickyShockley0 -
Anyone experience google penalties for full-screen pop-ups?
Although we always recommend against onload pop-ups for clients, (we feel the effect the user experience) we do have a few clients that insist on them. I was reading this article the other day https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/05/17/how-do-i-make-sure-my-site-is-mobile-friendly/ which lead me to https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6101188 and I'm happy to see that Google is going to consider these types of content a downgrade when it comes to rank. My question is 2 fold: Has anyone experienced a drop in organic traffic on mobile due to this update? and do you think this will include user triggered content like photo galleries, bookings, email sign ups? We haven't noticed any drops yet but it is something we will be keeping a close eye on in the next little while. Let's hear what the community has to say 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | VERBInteractive1 -
When was the last algorithm update? One of my pages has dropped significantly this week
One of my pages dropped 22 places last week and I'm not sure why - can any body give me some suggestions to why this might have happened?
Algorithm Updates | | lindsayjhopkins0 -
Algorithm Question
Hello, I'm trying to figure out why my site and a competitors site literally trade places in the SERPS every week? My site has a boatload of content with an active blog with a lot of links versus a competitor that has virtually no links, limited content, 404 errors on the site. The links I have are all natural links with the exception of directories like JoeAnt. The only thing their site has is Domain Age where as mines is 4 months old. Any insight?
Algorithm Updates | | bronxpad0 -
Why have organic hits to my site suddenly started to fluctuate widely?
Hits to my website have been gradually growing over the last 2 years to a point where there was 1300 organics a day. Recently the hits crashed to 300 a day and stayed there for a couple of days. They then bounced back to 1300 a day for a few more days before crashing down to 300 again. This has happened a few times now. Oscillating between two points. Its like the site is crossing a threshold of something, back and forth. I have looked at different parts of my site and every part is down by approximately the same percentage. Anyone out there have any ideas?
Algorithm Updates | | easymatt0 -
When did the New Google Algorithm Come into Force in the UK
On March 3rd, the hits on my UK site crashed to 40% of the previous number. I am guessing it may be down to the google algorithm change:- http://wisestartupblog.com/seo/google-algorithm-change-february-2011-losers-winners/5081 However, I am aware this happened on 25th Feb in the US. Do you know when it happened in the UK. Could it have suddenly started affecting me on March 3?
Algorithm Updates | | MattBB121