Rankings drop after Panda

[Cary_Forest]

Hi All, My site dropped completely out of the SERPS on September 27th.

I've tried everything I know to do (re-wrote all content, disavow links tool, filed DCMA complaints, de-optimized on-page content, made anchor text less aggressive, etc).

Can you all please take a look at www.doctorloanusa.com and let me know what you think the problem is and how much you'd charge to help?

Keywords used to be: doctor loans, physician loans. I ranked 2 or 3 for those keywords consistently for over 4 years. I know I need more content, but I feel like it's a waste of time creating it. If a thin site was the issue, wouldn't I at least rank SOMEWHERE in the 1000 results?

Thanks for your consideration. At my wits end.

[Cary_Forest]

Thanks so much, Donford. Hate it when you write something and it is erased! Nevertheless, your post is very helpful and I really appreciate it.

I'll look into these items and report back.

Thank you!

[Cary_Forest]

Sorry for my late response, Cyrus. Just had a baby boy!

I really appreciate the time and detail you put into this post. I will look into these and hopefully regain some of my rankings.

Thank you, again!

Best Regards

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi David,

First of all, sorry to hear about your rankings drop. That's totally frustrating when that happens. Unfortunately, recovery can be a somewhat arduous and painful process as well.

September 27th was the day Google introduced it's exact-match domain algorythm update. They intended this to change the way they handles exact match domain, and many websites got hit. it appear you got caught up in it.

The main problem seems to be both the backlink profile and the overall quality of the site (sorry to say it has a bit of an outdated look - and a little thin on content). If we look at the anchor text of the links pointing to your site, using Open Site Explorer, we find many of the types of links that Google has started to devalue and/or penalize in the past year. I won't link to them here, but some examples include:

• http://www.careermedicine.com/2008/08/how-to-negotiate-with-medical-vendors/ (comment link)
• http://aisforatlanta.com/2012/03/emory-match-day/ (comment)
• http://www.goguides.org/topic/10941/161.html (directory)

Have you received any messages via Google Webmaster Tools? If not, the first thing I would do is send a preemptive reconsideration request. Let them know you noticed traffic was down, admit to anything outside Google's guidelines, and explain the steps you've taken to fix it. Often times, Google with respond with actual verification whether or not your site has been penalized.

The process may involve you having to perform a link cleanup and/or disavow. I've been through it myself with several client sites and it can be a lengthy process the first time you do it. Some tips to consider:

1. What links to look at? First of all, John Mueller of Google recommends starting with the links listed in Google Webmaster Tools, as these are the links most likely to effect your rankings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX...

2. Third Party Tools: A couple of companies have developed tools to help identify bad links.

• SEOGadget Link Analyser - http://tools.seogadget.co.uk/ (has a great API - highly recommend this site)
• Link Detox - http://www.linkdetox.com/ (haven't used it, but I've heard decent things)

3. Manual Review - In the end, you're own eye is the best tool you have. You want to look for:

1. links with keyword-rich, optimized anchor text
2. Comment Signature and Forum Signature links (these are different from the more legitimate forum links)
3. Sitewide links, such as in the sidebar or footer
4. Obviously paid, or suspicious looking links on low-quality sites

Our friend Paddy Moogan wrote a great guide on how to do this step by step. You should check it out.

It usually takes Google 2-4 weeks to reply to reconsideration requests. In my experience they like to see both a manual effort to clean links, and I've also had success supplementing this with the disavow tool.

Lot's of information here. Hope it helps. Best of luck getting back on track!

[donford]

Hi David,

Just typed a very nice thought out response and got SEOmozed (got logged out before hitting post).

So I'll do my best to type this again.

I know this sort of thing can be frustrating. I am not a superior SEO but I do have to wear that hat. So I'll just give you some quick things I noticed and hope this gets your going in the right direction.

Google only shows you have 2 domains linking to you. You can test this by searching Google with link:www.doctorloansusa.com Seomoz.org shows 20 domains linking to you, but I suspect you have since disavowed some of them. This link profile is very poor, you should spend some time every day working on links even if you only have 20 minutes a day, that time you'll find pays off better then almost anything else you can do. Work with your lenders and universities to get some quality links.

The next stuff I want to mention is just some SEO basics I noticed were missing on your site.
Improper page names (index-1 vs get-a-loan)
No Meta Description tag
Blank H1 Tags
No H2, h3 tags
No Alt Text
No keyword specific images names
No link title tags ie.. href="somepage.html" title="This is Some Page"
Template does not correctly adjust for short content pages throws the footer way out of wack

If you have time the first thing I would do is a basic seo pass taking into account the things I outlined above. From there spend at least 20 minutes every day building links, this could be writing emails, buying appropriate links (yahoo directory is one that is worth the $300 per year), or researching competition and who is linking to them, find the best of them and seeing what it takes to get them to link to you as well.

After the a basic seo pass and once you get in the habit of spending some time daily on link building then start working on content, keeping your site fresh will help you stay on top.

The good news is your competition isn't that strong, a good seo person or company or yourself should have no problem working up the ranks for those 2 keywords.

Hope that helps