Reality of Panda 3.9 Refresh
-
I have had a 10 page website(registered in 1999) rank for my top keywords(top 5) for over 4 years. No changes have been made to the website. (Static website).
July 11, 2012, most of the keywords, and all the major keywords were dropped from Google. They remain steady in Bing and Yahoo.
I saw that some people referred to a Panda 3.9 refresh on that day, but also saw that Google(Matt Cutts) denied the refresh.
Given the simplicity of the website and the strong backlinks, which remain, what are other reasons I could see a drastic drop in 1 day.
Any ideas on where to target my search for solving this very serious issue? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
-
Thanks for all the feedback. After some serious review, I am convinced that Google somehow began indexing our HTTPS pages and dropped all our HTTP pages. As this is a .net website with a web.config file, what would you all recommend I do to make the google bot read the http pages instead of the https pages.
Would you add robot.txt file to the web.config file or handle it another way.
Again, thanks for all the assistance.
-
Check WMT for any notices too. Check for any new spammy links pointing to/from the site.
Neg seo has been talked about a lot lately.
-
Nothing "naughty". I have done some guest articles on various blogs related to the industry over the past 4 months but they are all legit unique articles and on sites with a domain authority or 30 or higher so that should not have been the issue. Also, they were not paid articles, they were free articles.
Our chief competitors have been actively promoting theire sites and increasing the sizes of their websites. We have been limited. We also do not do any PPC, but all our top competitors are doing PPC. That should not be an issue, but maybe things are changing. I am not sure on that point.
Thanks for the feedback.
-
I have only been with this company since July 2011, but I believe they were hit by the Penguin update of March 2011. Since then it has been steady. During that update, they lost their local listings but retained there national rankings. Since that time, the rankings have remained in the top 5 for our major keywords.
-
HI,
I guess there are updates happening all of the time with Google algorithms where they're always trying to improve the quality of results.
So my questions to you are:
Are you sure that you've not been doing what google might consider "naughty tactics"?
Have you had anything flagged in your Webmaster Tools account?
How far down the listings dod you drop and how are the competitors ranking. Are there any similarities between your site and the main competitors. IE if they didn't suffer, what are you doing differently?
I know it's not really an answer for you but some food for thought that I hiope helps.
Best of luck
Steve
-
Did any of your rankings dropped during the Penguin update? Panda update?
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 Panda question Category Pages on e-commerce site
Dear Mates, Could you check this category page of our e-commerce site: http://tinyurl.com/zqjalng and give me your opinion about, this is a Panda safe page or not? Actually I have this as NOINDEX preventing any Panda hit, but I'm in doubt. My Question is "Can I index this page again in peace?" Thank you Clay
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ClayRey0 -
With the New Panda update supposedly only weeks away, is it wise to No Index my products I have not had time to rewrite the product descriptions for ?
Hi Mozzers, I read on SEJ yesterday than apparently the Panda update was due in the 2 - 4 weeks. I still have a large of my products which I have not got around to rewriting unique product descriptions for. I know these product descriptions are duplicated on other affiliate sites so do it think it in light of the panda update coming , would it wise to put a NO INDEX Meta tag on these product pages until I get around to rewriting the descriptions. That way, I may not hit my Panda and it will buy me a bit more time. Just an idea , but thought I'd run it by. thanks Pete
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeteC120 -
Our quilting site was hit by Panda/Penguin...should we start a second "traffic" site?
I built a website for my wife who is a quilter called LearnHowToMakeQuilts.com. However, it has been hit by Panda or Penguin (I’m not quite sure) and am scared to tell her to go ahead and keep building the site up. She really wants to post on her blog on Learnhowtomakequilts.com, but I’m afraid it will be in vain for Google’s search engine. Yahoo and Bing still rank well. I don’t want her to produce good content that will never rank well if the whole site is penalized in some way. I’ve overly optimized in linking strongly to the keywords “how to make a quilt” for our main keyword, mainly to the home page and I think that is one of the main reasons we are incurring some kind of penalty. First main question: From looking at the attached Google Analytics image, does anyone know if it was Panda or Penguin that we were “hit” by? And, what can be done about it? (We originally wanted to build a nice content website, but were lured in by a get rich quick personality to rather make a “squeeze page” for the Home page and force all your people through that page to get to the really good content. Thus, our avenge time on site per person is terrible and Pages per Visit is low at: 1.2. We really want to try to improve it some day. She has a local business website, Customcarequilts.com that did not get hit. Second question: Should we start a second site rather than invest the time in trying to repair the damage from my bad link building and article marketing? We do need to keep the site up and running because it has her online quilting course for beginner quilters to learn how to quilt their first quilt. We host the videos through Amazon S3 and were selling at least one course every other day. But now that the Google drop has hit, we are lucky to sell one quilting course per month. So, if we start a second site we can use that to build as a big content site that we can use to introduce people to learnhowtomakequilts.com that has Martha’s quilting course. So, should we go ahead and start a new fresh site rather than to repair the damage done by my bad over optimizing? (We’ve already picked out a great website name that would work really well with her personal facebook page.) Or, here’s a second option, which is to use her local business website: customcarequilts.com. She created it in 2003 and has had it ever since. It is only PR 1. Would this be an option? Anyway I’m looking for guidance on whether we should pursue repairing the damage and whether we should start a second fresh site or use an existing site to create new content (for getting new quilters to eventually purchase her course). Brad & Martha Novacek rnUXcWd
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BradNovi0 -
E-Commerce Selling Air Filter. Only 3 Qualities Options in 50 Sizes, Total 150 items. HELP!!!
My online store is selling air furnace filters. We only have 3 different filters to sell. (standard, mid-range quality and high quality) Each filters is available in 50 different sizes. This is a TOTAL of 150 products or 3 products with 50 options!!! My store is setup with the ''150 products'' option. MY PROBLEMS: All the page Title are the same, only the filter is change in the page title. ex: 10x20x1 furnace filters - shop at furnace filters canada 12x20x1 furnace filters - shop at furnace filters canada 14x20x1 furnace filters - shop at furnace filters canada ect... It is the same with the Meta Description, all the same only the size change. It is the same with the product description, all the same, only the size is changing. Trying to come out with 150 different page title, meta and product description is almost impossible. And you know like me, most shoppers will use there filters sizes in there keywords search term or phrase. YES, I have duplicate content all over my store. Is there a solution to this? This is my online store http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/ Thank you, BigBlaze
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BigBlaze2050 -
Ecombuffet.com are offering a Rescue Review focused on Panda - Penguin and identifying issues. Has anyone used this service or aware of the organisation in general?
http://www.ecombuffet.com/rescue-review.htm . I have 2 sites that have definitely been hit by penguin and getting worse so am thinking of paying for this service as nothing I do seems to stop the slide (more like a plummet). Any comments welcome.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Shaann1 -
How best to optimize for a law firm that specializes in 3 different areas
I realize the importance of keyword research and finding keywords where there IS demand and not TONS of competition and optimizing your title and descriptions etc AND content on the different pages for those same specific keywords.......... But.... What do you suggest I do to BEST optimize a site for a law firm that handles family law (divorce), bankruptcy AND criminal. It's one firm with 3 attorneys who specialize in different areas. I know SEO is challenging and ever changing and I read and study and have made significant, noticeable, improvements for some sites but I have to admit this is over my head. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you in advance and have a GREAT weekend! Matthew
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mrupp440 -
What's the best practise for adding a blog to your site post panda? subdomain or subdirectory???
Should i use a subdomain or a subdirectory? i was going to use a subdirectory however i have been reading a lot of articles on the use of subdomains post panda and the advantages of using them instead of using subdirectories. Thanks Ari
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dublinbet0 -
How can scraper sites be successful post Panda?
I read this article on SEJ: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/scrapers-and-the-panda-update/34192/ And, I'm a bit confused as to how a scraper site can be successful post Panda? Didn't panda specifically target sites that have duplicate content & shouldn't scraper sites actually be suffering?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0