Identifying a Negative SEO Campaign
-
Hi
A friend/clients site has recently dropped 2-3 pages (from an average #2 - #3 position on page 1 over last few months) for a primary target keyword & suspects a Neg SEO campaign hence asked me to look into it.
I checked on Removeem and the KW does not generate a red (or even a pink) result.
I looked at Ahrefs & MajSEO, backlinks and referring domains have dropped over the period the KW dropped hence presume i can be sure its not a neg campaign since this would show an opposite pattern (as per articles like this: http://moz.com/blog/to-catch-a-spammer-uncovering-negative-seo ) ? Also site has very few site wide backlinks.
The keyword is a 3 word phrase with 2 of those words being in the domain and brand name hence presume such kw are relatively safe from neg seo campaigns anyway
I would have presumed the backlink/ref-domain drop may well explain the ranking drop but site still in first field of view of page 1 for the other keyphrases which 2 out of the 3 are words are same as effected keyphrase (and also in the domain/brand name) so would have thought these would have dropped too if a neg campaign. Also many of the anchor texts in the disapeared backlinks are for one of the other partial match variant keyphrases which are still top of page 1.
Anchor text is at 4.35% for the effected kw according to MajSEO
Im pretty confident from the above that i can conclude no negative seo campaign has occurred, nor other type of penalty and probably just a 'wobble' at Google that may well right itself shortly
Would appreciate feedback though from others that im concluding correctly just for confirmation ?
Many Thanks
Dan
-
I would have thought if that were the case would effect the other partial match variation rankings too, which it hasnt since all others are still on page 1 !
The kw in question (along with the other kw still ranking on page 1) are partially matched with the domain
-
Is it possible that there are so few links that losing a few cause a big change in ranking values? Was the keyword in question an exact or partial match with the domain name?
As far as accuracy, it can go either way. Majestic often reports links that existed but are now dead, but it can sometimes be more thorough. The only way to know for sure is to check the links and see if they're still live.
Panda is often site-wide, but it can apply to one or several page/kw combination, or even to all the pages with the same layout in a section.
-
Thanks for taking the time to comment Carson
One of the reasons friend/client has hired me to look into this is because he cant retrieve any link data from GWT. Have asked him to check messages and new manual notifications too.
If Panda surely probs would be site wide not kw/page specific ? Its the HP thats dropped for a primary target kw when all other similar kw rankings for hp are still page 1
Also interestingly there is link growth spike of aprox 1200 backlinks (but only an increase of 4 domains) over 3 days according to MajesticSEO although hrefs reports a link & ref domain drop over same period, any idea which is the most accurate/trustworthy data since directly contradictory date, one of those data sources must be WAY off the mark !?
cheers
dan
-
Panda would be site wide not kw specific !
It was the HP
there is link growth of aprox 1200 backlinks (but only an increase of 4 domains) over 3 days according to MajesticSEO (although hrefs reports a link & ref domain drop over same period)
-
Most claims of negative link efforts are either not link-based penalties, or something self-inflicted. I'd be fascinated to see one, but it doesn't sound like that's what's happening. This is the process I follow in diagnosing penalties:
The very first step is always to check webmaster tools for messages - or now you can check for manual penalties. Second, look at the date of drop and compare it with http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change. Try to figure out when the drop was and whether Google was making any updates at the time.
Link profile: look first for overly-targeted unbranded anchor text first, as you did. Don't forget to pull the link info from Webmaster Tools and check for newer links from Moz newly discovered or ahrefs.
Panda or other site/page quality updates: If you couldn't tie it to an announced Panda release, we just have to guess. Is there a heavy template? Are there a lot of pages targeting very similar terms? Is there any "form-letter-like content"? Is the organic bounce rate/time on site very bad?
Link profile part 2: Look through the linking sites. Check for looking for links that are clearly ads, but lack the nofollow attribute. Start with sites that have been knocked down to PR 0 despite having plenty of links, and look for paid links, especially of the site-wide or overly-targeted variety.
Finally, remember that rankings can fluctuate without it being a penalty.
Google might suddenly "realize" that "Cavendish" is a biker in addition to a type of banana, and might also refer to a philosopher. They'll then push more diversity into the SERP for disambiguation, which will cause rankings to fluctuate wildly. (QDD). Sometimes Google just devalues links that were helping you to rank - it's not a penalty, but it has the same effect. Sometimes we just don't know; the rankings might pop back, and they might not.
If you come up empty after all that diagnosis, you have only one choice: carry on building great content, optimize the design and structure for users, and work on building awareness and authority throughout the industry. It will pass eventually, and you'll come back stronger for having built value and done real marketing.
-
Could it be something else, like a Panda update?
I agree, a typical negative SEO campaign in my mind is a ton of easy to acquire links. I doubt anyone is going to take the time to email webmasters and have links pulled.
I would look at your content stats in GA for YTD and see if you can see any trends for the pages that lost rank (or was it the homepage?).
Unless the negative campaign is targeting individual pages then I would assume the whole site would be affected.
-
Also does anyone know which is the more accurate data source MajSEO or Ahrefs since im getting wildly conflicting data from both. MajSEO now showing 845 links added for early July (which would indicate a neg link campaign) but hrefs shows 345 links lost over same time period ! ?
-
Thanks Irving
do you know if any free versions of linkdetox ?
how will doing a link:(space)www.yourdomain.com search help since results wont highlight site quality will they ?
All Best
Dan
-
Thats a great answer Robert, i really appreciate you taking the time to comment so helpfully
I should have added that there was a big rise in backlinks beginning of may, that peaked and levelled throughout June to then drop from beginning of July to date (according to ahrefs data). So in an otherwise nice natural looking link growth rate from nov last year to date there is a huge hump or wave in the graph as links rise in may but then drop over july.
So if i was looking into this in June it would, initially at least, look like it could well be a neg campaign, but the ranking drop has only occurred recently, correlating with the drop, not the rise, in links. If a neg campaign i would have thought the rank drop occur soon after the spike in link growth, not after a drop in links. Also the link growth period is spread over a month (as is the period of the link drop too), not a few days as article suggest one should look out for in a neg campaign, hence i'm pretty confident that its not (which is why i didnt mention it originally but thought best to now just in case).
When you say look at CTR do you mean purely in regard to traffic from the effected kw in the run up to the rank drop ? What kind of time period do you recommend, a week or more ?
Cheers
Dan
-
main keyword anchor text is sometimes not exploited with a negative SEO attack, it's just a massive amount of links from bad sites which harm the site in general. this can easily be detected with link detox for example or you can do a link:(space)www.yourdomain.com search in Google.
-
Dan,
First, Good job on the linking evaluation, it sounds pretty thorough.
Without a complete picture, it is hard to say, but based solely on what you have here it doesn't appear to be something nefarious. I would add, however, that if I had a site with KW's ranking in spots 2-3 and then was on page 3 to 4 and it lasted for more than a couple of days, I would not lay it off to a Google 'wobble.'
I would suggest looking deeper and seeing what else is going on. Look into analytics and WMT for any trends like falling CTR, etc. Look at changes in query or landing page patterns. Look at the content and then at cached content for same pages to ensure yourself nothing changed on the page and then I would look at competitors who have been consistent during this period for differences between them and your client.
We have all seen a page move up or down in Google for 'no reason' from time to time, but if it is for more than a week, I certainly would be digging up everything. To wait loses too much time if there is a problem.
Best,
Robert
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
-
The Importance of Bold Keywords in SEO?
Hi all, Recently I came cross an RV lifestyle blog named RVing Trends. The website features high-quality contents about handy RV camping tips & guides, and in-depth RV product reviews. They seem to spend a lot of effort on the content quality. I've followed this website for a few months and can see they've been producing 3,000-5,000 word length contents regularly. One thing I notice is that they emphasize the main keyword as bold in almost the posts. You can check 1 sample here about RV mattress reviews. Just want to ask for your opinions about the efficiency of this technique and is the keyword density still important for blog content to rank well in Google. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TungNM1930 -
Pharma Hack/Grey hat SEO. Cannot get site to rank, tons of incoming bad links
I have been working on a website trying to get it to show up in the SERPs again. It is being indexed which is great, it has some errors that I'm fixing now. But for the most part it should be ranking. It don't show any penalties going on, but when I did a backlink search we keep getting the cialis, viagra etc inbound links. First thought was Pharma Hack. But it's not a WP site and I recently rebuilt it. So whatever bad code could have been there it's not anymore. It doesn't show up in google either for the search site:www.mysite.com viagra cialis etc... So I'm wondering if anyone has any insight in a direction to point me? I don't understand what would be causing this to still not rank. Only thing it ranks for is it's name. Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | WeBuyCars.com0 -
What do you think of this "SEO software" that uses Rand's "proven method" ?
I saw an ad on Search Engine Roundtable and the call to action was... "What is the #1 metric that Google uses to rank websites?" I thought, "I gotta know that!". (I usually don't click ads but this one tempted me.) So I clicked in and saw a method "proven by Rand Fishkin" that will "boost the rankings of your website". This company has software that will use Rand's proven method (plus data from another unattributed test to boost the rankings of your website). I am not going to use this software. The video made my BS meter ring. But if you want to see it.... http://crowdsearch.me/special-backdoor/ Rather than use this "software", I would suggest using kickass title tags that deliver the searcher to kickass content. That has worked really well for me for years. Great title tags and great content will produce the same results. The bonus for you is that the great content will give you a real website.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | EGOL1 -
Victim of Negative SEO - Can I Redirect the Attacked Page to an External Site?
My site has been a victim of Negative SEO. During the course of 3 weeks, I have received over 3000 new backlinks from 200 referring domains (based on Ahref report). All links are pointing to just 1 page (all other pages within the site are unaffected). I have already disavowed as many links as possible from Ahref report, but is that all I can do? What if I continue to receive bad backlinks? I'm thinking of permanently redirecting the affected page to an external website (a dummy site), and hope that all the juice from the bad backlinks will be transferred to that site. Do you think this would be a good practice? I don't care much about keeping the affected page on my site, but I want to make sure the bad backlinks don't affect the entire site. The bad backlinks started to come in around 3 weeks ago and the rankings haven't been affected yet. The backlinks are targeting one single keyword and are mostly comment backlinks and trackbacks. Would appreciate any suggestions 🙂 Howard
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | howardd0 -
A case of negative SEO?
We came across today some very strange forum postings. Essentially they look like some nonsense text followed by a list of "adult" terms. In the middle of the list, completely randomly and strangely our brand terms appear in the list. There are no links to anything. The only thing I can think of is that someone is trying to make our brand terms algorithmically associated with questionable "red flag" terms in the eyes of search engines. I have no idea why else this would be happening. Could this be a case of some kind of Fiverr negative SEO attack? Is there any risk? Doesn't seem like anything we can do about it...
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | edu-SEO0 -
Off-page SEO and link building
Hi everyone! I work for a marketing company; for one of our clients' sites, we are working with an independent SEO consultant for on-page help (it's a large site) as well as off-page SEO. Following a meeting with the consultant, I had a few red flags with his off-page practices – however, I'm not sure if I'm just inexperienced and this is just "how it works" or if we should shy away from these methods. He plans to: guest blog do press release marketing comment on blogs He does not plan to consult with us in advance regarding the content that is produced, or where it is posted. In addition, he doesn't plan on producing a report of what was posted where. When I asked about these things, he told me they haven't encountered any problems before. I'm not saying it was spam-my, but I'm more not sure if these methods are leaning in the direction of "growing out of date," or the direction of "black-hat, run away, dude." Any thoughts on this would be crazy appreciated! Thanks, Casey
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | CaseyDaline0 -
You're a SEO manager for a new company working on a new site. Where to?
So, you've recently begun as a SEO manager for a new company who's just launched a lovely, gleaming corporate site to boot. The onsite stuff is taken care of and your attention turns to link building. Now you've been in the game for a few years. You've seen things change in that time. Directories are out. Link networks are done. You're not going to embark on reciprocal linking either because it's bad and looks horribly tacky. Black Hat, White Hat - you know the score. You're lucky that the company produces a page or two of news a day - it's original, informative, is great for keeping your clients informed and you punt this on Twitter and FB. A bit of link bait, eh? But there's a rub: your competitors, with their bigger budgets, and industry clout, have been around for a some time longer than your company has been. They've snapped up all the good (industry-related) sites to get links from. You've approached all potential targets with the offer of good, relevant content and affiliate partnerships but they aren't having any of it. You're simply out-sized by the big boys next door - you can't compete. They're rich kids. There just seems nowhere to get links from. Do you just go the route of press releases and articles? Do you use paid blogging services? Grovel at doorsteps. The industry you're in is incredibly commercial - no meek altruist is going to take pity and give you a couple backlinks out of kindness. What do you do? What indeed...?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Martin_S0 -
Is this a white hat SEO tactic?
Hi, I just noticed this website http://www.knobsandhardware.com hosts pages like http://www.knobsandhardware.com/local/hardware/California-Cabinet-Hardware.html that are filled with permutations of products + cities. These pages rank for these long tail phrases. Is this considered white hat?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | anthematic0