SERP Drop
-
Hi,
I have been trading online since 2006 and over the years I have built up some impressive SERP's for keywords such as "mens underwear' which I was SERP 1 for.
However, over the past 6 months I have pretty much dropped off the face of Google for a large proportion of my keywords.
I suspect I have been hit by the Panda/Penguin updates and do not know how to recover this. I have a mixture of what I consider to be relevant and healthy links, but there are also a few links in there that Google would no longer like. However, I believe that the majority of my links are OK.
What should I do?
Thanks
-
I dont like to comment on specific details because I simply don't know what works and what doesn't.
The best thing you can do is look at what is ranking and do your own version of that. If it's currently ranking well (and has done for a long time) there is a very chance that google likes it. But bear in mind that sites with very high link juice and brand awareness can get away with stuff that your brand won't be able to.
If it was penguin you won't get a links warning.
If you have been hit by panda or penguin a reconsideration request wont help.
I would totally redesign your homepage. I don't like looking at it at work, it feel almost like a porn site. Plus the there are nearly 70 h2 headers which feels spammy and there is very little content.
-
Thanks.
I was just wondering what your thoughts are on this;
1. Site Re-design - in June 2012 we launched a re-design of our website that replaced the previous design that had been in existence since 2008. I personally think that the new site is far better from an SEO perspective. However, I do feel that the content on the product pages (product descriptions) is not quite as good as we did not keep relevant outgoing links or formatting.
2. How useful would it be to add static content blocks to the footer of each page like the one show at the bottom of this page - http://www.freshpair.com/mens.html
3. Content - how do you improve the content of a commerce site as it is essentially made up of products. All I can think of doing is improving the product descriptions, adding static blocks as mentioned above and posting blog content. Are there another ways?
4. Link Warnings - if my ranks were due to back links wouldn't I have received some link warnings from Google
5. Home Page - do you think my home page is too spumy?
6. Extent - whilst some of my sub pages (category pages) aren't ranking quite so well, they are not too bad and have not been affected anywhere near as much as my home page for the query mens underwear. Does this tell me anything more?
7. Google Reconsideration Request - I have submitted the Google Reconsideration Form because I think I have been incorrectly targeted for spam. How long can I expect to wait before I hear anything back from Google.
-
Panda is like a black hole, once you are sucked in there are very few sites who escape.
Chances are you will never get all your rankings back. Sorry but thats the state of play, e.g. http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-two-years-later-losers-still-losing-one-real-recovery-149491
Also you are up again some big players:
- asos.com - domain authority 86
- debenhams - 76
- sports direct - 66
your domain authority is only 34
The good news is that http://www.iwantpants.com/ is only 31 and in 4th place.
No one fully knows how to beat panda, but you need to improve you content, add more content, basically make users love you site, stay on your site longer, etc. Google refers to these 23 questions: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html
Your aim is to make every page of your site HIGH QUALITY. If you cant make a page high quality delete it.
-
Thanks Julian.
That is a really useful tool and although I have never used it before it seems to be telling me the following as I see it.
I can only measure as far back as July 2012 because this is when we launched our re-designed website.
FIRST DECLINE
However, the attached graph shows a massive and continued decline in organic traffic from 26th August 2012.
It seems that the start of the decline came just after Panda 3.9 on 24th July and Google's 7 Result SERP's on 14th August
SECOND DECLINE
It then appear we experienced a second sharp decline on 23rd September and this followed Google's Improved SERP Diversity action on 14th September 2012
From then on it has been a steady decline to date.
It is our home page that seems to have taken the brunt of Google's actions with us experiencing a 98% difference in traffic for the keyword "mens underwear"
Question is, what can I do about it?
Thanks
-
Hi,
You can also compare the date that your ranking started dropping to the date from the search updates. This way you can find out witch update caused the drop.
http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
Every update has a different reasons to drop your rankings.
-
The first thing you should do is try to identify what the penalty is. Try this: http://www.barracuda-digital.co.uk/panguin-tool/
Once you know which penalty you have you will be able to make a plan of action after doing more research.
Basically if you have been hit by panda it because your content is not good enough, and if you have been hit my penguin you have some/a lot of un-natural links.
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
-
Indexed Pages Increase and Major Drop June 25th and July 16th?
I am seeing information regarding a possible Google algorithm that may have taken place on June 25th...and seeing total number of pages indexed in GSC increase (cool!)...BUT, then on July 16, I'm seeing a consistent drop (BIG DROP) of pages indexed - not only on our site, but several. Does anyone have any insight into this or experiencing the same issue?
Algorithm Updates | | kwilgus0 -
Domain Authority Keeps Dropping & FRED
Hi Moz! I've seen a big drop in Domain Authority 31 > 22 recently. I need a plan of what to sort out first, here are the points I know we need to improve: Page Speed Quality content - guides, blogs, videos Better UX experience to improve page engagement Backlinks - quality earned links & improvement of presence on social media This is our site http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/ I am the only SEO, with a small content team - who only really work on adding new products to the site. Our dev team are in France and we can be restricted by them. But I'm worried & I need a plan of what to tackle first to help improve this. We also saw keywords drop out in March - I'm assuming after Fred, some keywords aren't ones I would worry about, but then some are - for example - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/dollies-load-movers-door-skates this page ranked at position 6 for Dollies - now dropped out altogether. Any ideas are welcome - help 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey2 -
Absolutely gigantic drop in Ranking overnight
The site in question has been operating for around 3 months and for the first two months was nowhere to be seen in google results (literally page 10, 11 etc for all but branding searches). Then through a lot of hard work and the help of MozPro I managed to build it to a respectable 6th-10th place for the main keyphrases. Overnight on Wednesday we suddenly dropped half a dozen places or so and were rooted firmly mid table page 2 for both these phrases. Last night however we suddenly dropped from 14th to the very last result on page 10! for the biggest keyphrase where it has slowly dropped through the day to currently be sitting in 8th on page 11. Nothing is showing in Dashboard, theres no reason that I know of to be penalised, however even if we were penalised then surely that would be the site as a whole and not just 1 keyphrase? The weird thing is, when you look at the 1st 2 pages of the search a number of items have changed, a competitor which closed down is suddenly sitting mid table while other newcomers that were doing well have dropped, some of the older faces have gone up suddenly. If I didnt know better I would say that google has suffered a timewarp and is now serving results from a month ago for this keyphrase. Ive now noticed that the MozCast is reporting very stormy weather last night, surely however this couldnt be down to a change in Algorithm etc, not to produce such a massive drop for a site that has followed the rules (I refuse to link with a site that even remotely could be thought of as spam). Someone please tell me that google has been glitching and all will be well when I wake in the morning? Peter
Algorithm Updates | | Pwhitfield0 -
Google sidebar advertising dropped
Has anyone noticed how the google sidebar advertising has completely disappeared? They only display top 4 adwords and then remaining on the bottom of each search page. I can't find any info on it or when it actually happened?
Algorithm Updates | | Purplesars110 -
Ecommerce sites 30% drop in organic since the spring
I help manage SEO for a number of large retail websites and we've seen a significant drop in organic traffic (upwards of 30%) since around May 2015. It's likely we were hit my Google's Phantom Quality update, but I don't understand why it had such a big impact. Can anyone explain that Google update in more depth and advise on steps to take to recover from it? Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | JimLynch0 -
Increase of Directory websites in SERPs
Has anyone noticed a bump for Directory style websites in SERP after the recent Panda/Penguin updates . I am new to SEO but after monitoring one website in particular I have noticed that the site has dropped around 8 positions for location based queries and directory style sites such as yell.com, freeindex.co.uk, thompsonlocal.com all have seemed to moved up ever so slightly even above competior sites, which from memory were all below competior sites in previous search queries . I wonder what your thoughts are on this, or its possible that my site in question has been affected and I need to carry out more work to improve its positions back to its original. Your thoughts are welcome.
Algorithm Updates | | Carden0 -
Can anyone explain these changes to our Titles in the SERPS?
Hi there, We've been doing well in the SERPS over the past few weeks. Our previous meta title was displayed as: "Hunter Original Tall - Buy Original Tall Online Here" However, recently we've seen the title in the SERP switch over to: "Hunter Original Tall - Cloggs.co.uk" This has occurred on several of our product pages which display a particular style of a certain brand. So for example: "Ugg Bailey Button - Cloggs.co.uk" Has anyone else experienced these changes or can explain why this may have happened?
Algorithm Updates | | NigelJ
There is not change to the source code and our Titles have proven to have good click through rates in the past. Any ideas mozzers?0 -
How long does a news article stay on Google's 'News' section on the SERP?
Our site is recognised as a news source for our niche - was just wondering if anyone had any idea how long the news story stays on the front page of the SERP once Google picks it up?
Algorithm Updates | | DanHill0