Do you think this site has been hit by penguin?

[gezzagregz]

Hi Guys,

I need some opinion on a website i am working on www.colourbnners.co.uk

They updated their website in August but the company they used did not take into account the URL structure and hence there's a massive loss in links in August time.

They also dropped off Google for all their key terms except their brand name 'colour banners'
Since then, they have implemented a 301 redirect.

Some key points

• They have not received any manual warnings in WMT
• I have disavowed some poor quality links that they have built over the years
• I am building high quality links quite selectively/slowly
• There were a lot of duplicate content issues - these have been resolved now.
  So my question to you SEO pros is do you think its penguin? or something that i am missing?
  If it is penguin, what is the best form of attack to get it removed?

regards

gezzagrez

[Dr-Pete]

First, I have to second Marie - the easiest way right now to detect a Penguin drop is to look at the publicly released update dates and compare them to your search traffic. Penguin often hits hard and fast - it's not usually subtle.

One thing I think you have to be careful about is your definition of "quality" vs. Google's. For example, diversity matters to Google. If you guest blog on generally decent sites (non-spammy, for lack of a better word), but that's your only link-building tactic, you could still be in trouble. It's just not natural, in Google's eyes, and they're going to think you're only guest blogging to get links (which may be the truth). It's not that your posts are bad, but you're relying too much on one tactic to the point that it could look manipulative. I'm not saying this is what you're doing - just making a general observation (and one that affects a lot of people right now, IMO).

At first glance (and, please note, link profile analysis can be tricky), I'm seeing a lot of keyword-loaded anchor text. It's a bit tricky, since you have an EMD (so your "brand" is keyword-based), but you may be pushing the variants of "banner(s)" too hard. Again, that can be a sign of artificial link building patterns.

Frankly, you've also got some links that look outright spammy. Take this one, for example:

http://www.constructionindustryscheme.org/

Your link is at the bottom (not even really in a footer) with no context or relevance to the page. This looks incredibly artificial.

[MarieHaynes]

To determine if it's Penguin, look at your Google analytics. In the left column, click on "Acquisition" and then "all traffic".  Then, move a little to the right and click on "google/organic".  Change the dates so that you're seeing everything from Jan 1 2012 to present.  Do you see a dramatic drop that starts on a particular day?  If Penguin has affected you then the drop happened on April 12, 2012, May 25, 2012, October 5, 2012, May 23, 2013 or October 4, 2013.  If there's a drop on another day then something else is going on.

A quick look at your backlink profile though, has me concerned.  Google is getting really good at only taking in to account links that are truly earned.  I'm seeing lots of low quality directory links.

If you do have a drop on a Penguin day, then you've got a long road ahead of you.  You have to remove or disavow close to 100% of your self made links AND be able to attract new links.  Then you'll need to wait till the algorithm refreshes and see if things improve.  If the drop is just gradual with no specific day then it may just be that Google is no longer giving value through the links that are self made.  In either case, you need to find ways to attract links naturally.  Don't say it can't be done.  If you start another thread asking people for ways to attract links to a site selling colour banners you'll get a whack of ideas.

[gezzagregz]

thats brilliant how you have got links on them high profile websites! time is an issue that i have. Writing a truly creative piece can take days which is the thing i struggle with most.

In terms on the URL...the URL has always been www.colourbanners.co.uk its just the structure of the deeper pages i.e. www.colourbanners.co.uk/products/mesh-banners all changed.

I don't know whether this triggered something, but there was a huge drop in August (ahrefs shows this pretty well)

I know there are some shoddy links - some of which i disavowed but with no manual penalty im treading carefully. I'm leaning towards it being a problem with the anchor text distribution.

[purpleindigo]

Don't say that around these parts! There's always content that can be created that will gain attention. For instance, our main business is phone unlocking yet I've just got links from The Guardian, Forbes, Gizmodo, MSN, Yahoo Finance, Cult of Mac, the list goes on. This is now the third time in 6 months that a piece of work has spread like this. You just have to find the research or idea that will get published on target sites and publish/promote it.

This particular site looks very similar to a problem I'm actually going through. I'd be asking more questions about the switch over in August. What do you mean the URL structure wasn't taken into account? It sounds like it wasn't just a simple redesign.

If the previous URL didn't have a penalty, it seems too coincidental to me that it all of a sudden it would after switching to a new domain.

[gezzagregz]

yes its banners.

Yes i guest blog and so i am extremely selective on where my posts go.

I know 'content is king' and all that, but realistically, but how much content can you write about colour banners that gets people interested? its tough and so paying for guest blogs on relevant sites is (in my opinion) still plausible and extremely important.

What are your thoughts on this drop and what would you do?

cheers

gezzagregz

[purpleindigo]

URL doesn't exist. Is it "banners" instead?

Quick question. You've mentioned building high quality links, slowly and selectively. This sounds manipulative and when considering a link based penalty, is this the best thing to do?

I suppose I'm actually question how you can be decidedly selective or slow about building links. The route I use is to create content and then beyond my powers of promoting it, hope that others find it interesting and link to it. What method do you use that allows you to select which links you're getting and ensure that you're work won't snowball, with links coming in quicker than you'd expected?