Viral SlideShare = Google Penalty?
-
We recently published a slideshow on SlideShare.net and it ended up doing pretty well. It was featured on their homepage for 3 days, and we got quite a few embeds.
Unfortunately, a few days later, our rankings in Google tumbled. I'm wondering if this killed our link velocity, which I suppose would have potentially got us a temporary, automated penalty?
If you look at slide #4 and beyond, you'll notice that the logo links back to our homepage, and there's also a "View Quote" button that navigates to that specific quote, so users can find out more information, share it, or view any associated pictures. So, in total, there are quite a few backlinks in that slideshow (88 to be exact).
Is this what likely caused our drop in rankings? Or is it more likely to be a coincidence? We haven't done anything else in the past couple of months, other than publish an infographic and a press release.
And if this is a problem, how would we fix it? I can edit the slideshare and remove some of the links... but it seems sort of silly considering we haven't done anything blackhat. And, it would actually devalue our slideshow, because users would no longer be able to click through to the quotes.
Thoughts?
-
We saw some similar ranking movement, in which sites rose very high, then settled towards the bottom of the page. This could possibly be due to the update getting implemented, then being finalized. I am all for the proactive approach, but I think you should wait about a week before making any changes on your site. While you are waiting to see if anything shifts again, do some competitor analysis. Take a look and see who replaced your spot. See if there is anything they do better. This way, if nothing changes you have a better plan of action of what areas need "fixing"
-
Well, it's not necessarily SlideShare linking to me that I'm worried about. It's the sites that have embedded the slide, in combination with the amount of backlinks in that slide.
While we did see our rankings fall with the 4.0 update, we rebounded a few days later. And even more mysterious... we actually started to rank #1 for many "current event" keywords such as "memorial day quotes".... even though we had zero backlinks to the article... and the article didn't rank 1 until the holiday actually rolled around, which makes me wonder if it could have potentially been a manual boost in rankings. Same exact thing happened with "father's day quotes". As soon as it rolled around, we jumped to #2 in the rankings.
Everything seemed to be going very well, right up until about 3 days ago, which is when our rankings crashed.
-
It's highly doubful. Just having a site like slideshare link back to you would not single-handedly cause your ranking to plummet. My guess is there were already some underlying factors that existed, and you got slapped by Google's Panda 4.0 update.
Take a closer look at any competitors that ranked higher during this time period, and analyze their backlink profile in Moz's OSE. I would look for clues as to what is working well in your industry for both users, and search engines.
-
Hi,
It would be good to check your backlink profile. I am unable to view the slideshare so cant really say much in that regards. However, if you pay close attention to the backlink profile and also the newly acquired links, it would tell you a lot about the penalization (if its a penalization.
Go through all the links and see how many of those websites are not decent quality websites.
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
-
All images suddenly deindexed from google sitemap tab.
All my images de-indexed from google as reported in sitemap tab. There are more then 10k+ images that are earlier indexed but suddenly all image are de-indexed. Is that a GWT bug or we have been penalized by google for doing something wrong.Sharing the screenshot. image-deindexed-issue.PNG
Image & Video Optimization | | RaviM0 -
Image results Bing vs Google
I have a website with a number of images and I have optimized all of the images on both a file name and ALT text level, relevant to content on the page they are published on. I haven't created a separate image sitemap, but the strange thing is that Google has all of my images indexed and they can be found for the right keywords, but when I look in BING! images, there is no image indexed available at all ...
Image & Video Optimization | | ConclusionDigital0 -
Business with Google + Business Page not showing with map
Hi I set up a Google + business Page for a client and we claimed their address (it shows in the Google Maps page fine. The page has been created for a while now but when you search for this business it does not show the map to the right? Any thoughts? BTW we have two locations and both have separate pages - thought this could be the issue but then when I added the business name + the location still not showing.
Image & Video Optimization | | AllieMc0 -
Google categories for local limousine service
I manage the Google places page for a SAB (local limousine company). The question is, should I add "taxi" and "airport shuttle service" as categories? I have listed only "limousine" and "car service' for now and I want to play it safe although those 2 are related to limo service. Sometimes people refer to limo service as "taxi service" or they are inquiring about prices for shuttle service to the airport and they end up booking the service quite often. Does Google look to our website to find these words in the content? Google Analytics show lots of people are finding us through those two keywords as well although you cannot find the word “taxi" on our website. The interesting thing is that when searching for "taxi + my zip code" the company shows up 4th on maps results and when searching for "shuttle service + my zip code”, the company shows up 2nd on local results and also 2nd in organic results. Is this enough to make me add these 2 categories? Second question is about the area served, does it make a difference (in rankings) if I choose “Distance from one location"over"List of areas served"? What happens is the red pin would be in a different location. If I choose "Distance from one location" the pin would be right in the center of the city (which I think it shouldn't matter anymore that much since the proximity to the centroid is not a ranking factor anymore). If “list of area” served is selected, (the city name will be chosen) then the pin would be about 5 miles West of the city center. Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thank you!
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
Any special way to rank a youtube vid in google page 1 for a kw?
I've failed to rank a youtube video before , I don't know why.. but do you guys have something that can help me to rank a youtube video to google page one? backlinks? If yes, then what type of backlinks? Just like backlinking articles and websites? thx for the input guys
Image & Video Optimization | | martino8880 -
Google+Local Reviews have gone? Any ideas?
Hi Since Google switched places to Google+ Local lots of the reviews that were on the listing are no longer showing? A customer of mine brought up the point when visiting the store today, when they are logged into Google they can see their review under Your Activity, however when they are logged out the only review is listed under 1 Review from everyone and the review is no longer being shown? Any ideas on what is going on? Also with local search / places optimisation has the best practice guidelines changed now that is transformed into Google+ Local? If so it would be great to share any links on getting the most out of this new + local service
Image & Video Optimization | | ocelot0 -
Finding Pages with Youtube Embedded Videos in Google SERP
I'm trying to figure out a process to find specific youtube embed videos using Google search. But a lot of sites are not being returned. For example, I know that the following video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MnylRaQC3w) is linked to and embedded on http://gizmodo.com/5898438/watch-how-fender-builds-its-iconic-stratocasters However, I can't figure out a set of search terms to find that in Google. Searching for (1MnylRaQC3w Gizmodo) doesn't return the right page in the results. I'd like to figure this out so I could see everywhere a certain youtube video has been embedded.
Image & Video Optimization | | nixforsix0 -
Google Maps/Places in Organic SERP
This question is regarding having a Google Places snippet consisting of your business location and opening hours appearing in Google SERP when the business name is searched for. One of our competitors who has a location within their name e.g. 'Widgets of Oxford' have a Google Places snippet appear on the RHS of the search results (where Google Ads usually go) when searched for. We are trying to replicate this for our business but cannot seem to find any information relating to doing this apart from that this only appears for them as they have a location in their name. This is because we see a similar snippet when we search for our business name in the format "OurBusinessName in OurLocation). Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Image & Video Optimization | | jannkuzel0