Panda / Penguin Behavior ? Recovery?
-
Our site took a major fall on March 23rd, ie Panda 3.4 and then another smaller one on April 24th, ie Penguin. I have posted a few times in here trying get help on what items to focus on. Been doing this for 13 years, white hat, never chased algos but of course learned as I went.
As soon as the fall hit one expert said it was links, which I kinda doubted because we never went after them but we have some but only a handful in comparison to really good authorative links.
I concentrated on cleaning up duplicate content due to tags in a blog that only had 7 posts (an add on section to the site) then focuses efforts on just going through and making content better. Had other overlapping content that I would guess would pass inspection but I cleaned it up.
After 6 weeks no movement back up, another expert here said yes, he saw some bad links so I should check it out. So back to focusing on links, I actually run a report and discover questionable links, and successfully get about 25 removed. Low numbers but we have only about 50 that were questionable. No contact info on the other directories so I guess we are stuck.
Here is where I just go in circles...
When our site fell on March 23rd we had 13 of our main pages still ranking at number 1 and 2 on each keyword phrase. Penguin hit and they fell about 10 spots. EXCEPT, one... This one keyword phrase and page stayed on top and ranked at #1 throught he storm. (finally fell to #4 but still remains up there). The whole site is down 90%, we only have 3 fair keyword phrases really ranking out of 250.
The mystery is that the keyword phrase that was ranking was the one that supposedly had way over the % of anchor text, 7% of our links go to that page. The other pages that fell on Penguin had no pages linking back.
I have been adding blog posts to our site, I post one an in a few days it gets indexed, have one of those ranking at #2 for the keyword, moved up from #4 a week after posting it in the blog. (google searches shows 80K)
Just seems like the site should bounce back if new content is able to rank, why not the old?
Did other people hit by Panda and Penguin see a sitewide fall or are they still ranking for some terms?
I would love to see some discusson on success stories of bouncing back after Panda and Penguin. I see the WP success story but that was pretty sudden after it was brought to Google's attention. Looking for that small business that fixed something and saw improvement.
Give me hope here please.
-
Thanks Egol!
-
It sounds like you are paying very close attention to the consultants recommendations and applying common sense. I usually don't recommend specific people but if I owned your site I would ask Ryan Kent to do a paid consultation.
He just authored a Youmoz post on link problems and has been helping people with Panda and Penguin problems. Your April 24th drop could be related to Penguin as mentioned in his article.
I don't know if he can help. He is a busy person. But you can ask him if you are interested.
-
Thanks for the input.
I agree completely but finding someone that knows what they are doing is the key.
Never claimed to be an SEO expert but know my way around. I have always believed content is king, never chased the algorithims but definitely watch the industry and what Google is doing. Of course I don't do this everyday so I agree with hiring an expert. I know the history and details better than anyone and can explain it to make the job of research much easier on the consultant.
I want to be the person the implements the changes. I just need expert advice on what to focus on. I never went after backlinks, just tried to create content they would want to link to. This is an area that I know I need to learn more about and freely admit it.
When this hit I had an SEO company go through my backlink report with me. The problem is some of the links they claimed I should remove were the ones that were very good, and some on the do not remove list were bad. If a link directory has been deindexed.. that should be a sign our link should not be there, at least imho. He agreed when I pointed out the actual sites and did not just look at the numbers on the report.
A red flag went up when the consultant wanted to do some things that were a little questionable to help us recover. In talking futher he admited, yeah the things he wanted to implement were going to be a little grey hat. Needless to say I stopped there, I have always wanted to keep things white hat even though I know Black hat stuff does work.
I had hoped in the forums I could throw out some behaviors that were happening and see if I am on the right track.
So I am back to square one, trying to solve the mystery by myself when I need somone to actually look at the site and share some insights on what they think I should focus on.
I agree, hire someone but who is the question.
.
-
Diagnosing panda and penguin problems on a site with a 13 year history and deciding what to do about them is really really difficult.
One of the dangers of asking in a forum is people tend to shoot from the hip with BS and partial knowledge and not enough time to..... study the site thoroughly, ask you all of the necessary questions needed to understand the 13 year history of your site, write the book that is needed to educate you about the problem, and then give all of the advice needed to give you a shot at fixing your problem with no guarantees.
Expert advice requires the above. That is why you see very little "expert" advice in forums for fixing panda and penguin problems.
In my opinion, the solution to your problem is going to involve detailed consulting and serious painful work on your part to get it solved. You could be advised to do the near impossible work of cleaning a link profile or the heartbreaking work of dumping (or noindexing) reams of treasured content.
If this site is important to you I would recommend hiring a professional who fully understands panda / penguin problems, can spend the time needed to understand your site and has the guts to give you advice that will make you wince.
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
-
Recommended action for site hit by penguin ?
What is more advisable, though there surely could be debate on this? Back in '07 till sometime around a year ago it seems our site got hit by google's updates, no manual action though, and have seen in past few months disavowed what we could find as well as deleted a lot of links. We are also working on getting word out on the brand as well and trying to get on some business websites to have articles and offer some discounts. Our keyword rankings seem stuck in limbo the past year or so though. Some main keywords for example seem stuck around page 8 when they used to be on page 1. Question is, can what seems to be a penguin update be recovered from? Is Google likely to refresh the algorithm? Also could starting a new site be more worth the investment - starting fresh with natural links, etc And if googles system could pick up that the site is run from same ip, etc. would they care? Also the keyword competition one of Moz's tools said around 46% if that makes a difference for one of the main keywords. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | xelaetaks0 -
That Penguin
Without trying to rub salt into the wounds of anyone hit hard, on the flip-side did anyone get some good news. We have one particular client that was effected in an immense positive way today, for the last four months we found it difficult to outrank one of their competitors ... but they have vanished of the face of the earth today, well Google's earth .. which meant our client moved up the SERP for a number of their key-phrases, which gave me a sense of immense delight. I could see exactly what they where doing, not so natural link building, creating a lot of sub-directories, naming each index file by the key phrase and linking all their internal links, while disturbing all their backlinks form the same source to each index page ... I wondered of they stayed under the radar cause each term was a sub-directory almost. No doubt they will be back, but not after a clean up and a restructure to their website Anyway I digress, anyone else seen any major improvements
Algorithm Updates | | Johnny4B3 -
How to fix Yahoo/Bing Ranking with hurting great Google ranking
If you have a Top ranking for keyword in Google but for Bing and Yahoo you rank considerably lower how do you balance the desire to rank better in Yahoo/Bing with not wanting to damage your Google ranking? Have people found certain on page SEO tactics help one but damage the other? Does anyone else have great Google rankngs for keywords but Bing/Yahoo are mediocre to poor?
Algorithm Updates | | inhouseninja0 -
Should social widgets be the kind that shares/likes a page, or the kind that adds followers to a brand social page?
I'm wondering if the social widgets on my blog should create a share/like referencing the page or should the social widget create a follower to my brands page on a particular social network? Any ideas?
Algorithm Updates | | salesduke0 -
What Does Penguin Look Like Long Term in Analytics?
Happy New Year Moz'ers! Our agency has recently had a number of new clients who were hit by the Penguin updates. These sites came to us over the last two months so they've been dealing with Penguin for months. Looking at Google Analytics for each client, I'm seeing a lot of the same patterns - mostly a large first drop in traffic after the update and then a long, steady decline in organic traffic over the months that follow. I have seasonal factors for traffic dips for each client but I'm curious as to what other Moz'ers are finding long term. Do you see a large traffic drop followed by a sustained plateau? Do you see a large traffic drop followed by a long, slow decrease over the weeks or months that follow? Do you see something else? Thanks! <jason @sonray=""></jason>
Algorithm Updates | | DragonSearch0 -
Video SEO <video:uploader>sitemap optional tag for Google+</video:uploader>
Anyone know the specifics or using the video:uploaderoptional tag for Google+ for rel=”author” attribution. for video sitemap?</video:uploader> Related post has some info, but no specific example. http://www.distilled.net/blog/video/getting-video-results-in-google/ Quote from above link: "Good practice is to ensure that the
Algorithm Updates | | Packetman007
video:uploaderelement links to a Google+ profile or a blog profile
page with rel=”author” attribution. "</video:uploader> This is what it seems it should look like in the video sitemap: <video:uploader info="<a href=" https:="" plus.google.com="" 111123738944093379428"="" target="_blank">https://plus.google.com/111123738944093379428">Bill
Alderson</video:uploader> If you know this works and is worth editing video sitmaps to add the optional tag, let me know your experience. Alternately, my site (and each page, thanks to Yoast SEO for WP) does have the rel="author" linked to Google+ for every page, which may make the sitemap entry moot, but I have not yet seen this work in that manner. If you know it does or does not work, please let me know. Please let me know if you have any better information or specific experience. Also, if I elect to edit my sitemaps (provided by Wistia.com and BitsontheRun) to include this tag, what XML Sitemap Tool might work well to add these tags properly? Seems there is lots of XML Sitemap tools, but few really address Video Sitemap options specifically. Thanks, Bill@apalytics.com www.apalytics.com0 -
Best practice for someone wanting to repost / translate some of your blog posts?
I've been contacted by several sites (a few in other countries) who would like to repost some of our articles on their site. A few of these are in other countries and they would like to translate them in their language. (we have a site about raising a child with Down syndrome so they are wanting to use our info to help people...not "beat us" in rankings, or anything like that.) I didn't know what the best practice on this was. I don't want to get dinged for duplicate content or have someone rank higher than me for my own article, etc. Just curious what the best way to go about this was. I'm also assuming the articles that are translated wouldn't be an issue at all since the content will be in another language. Is this right? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | NoahsDad0 -
Shortened Title in Google Places/Local Results in SERPs
I've been doing some local SEO lately and noticed something today. When I do a search for "State/town name Cat Toys", I see the title tag of the website in the local results as opposed to the business name. I'm happy they are showing up above the normal results, but I wonder if having the brand name at the end of the site title impacts clicks. For example: Site name: New Hampshire Cat Toys and Accessories | Cats R Us But in the places results the title is cut short because they show the address, so all they see is: New Hampshire Cat Toys and.... Do you think branding is especially important in local results? Or less important? I could hear arguments for both sides. I realize the site URL is shown in green below the title, but it's not the same as having a brand in the title portion. It also looks like some of the competition has just their name show up as opposed to their website title. Is this something I can fix in Google Places, or is something Google does on its own? Cheers, Vinnie
Algorithm Updates | | vforvinnie1