Site has disappeared since Panda 4 despite quality content, help!
-
Our site www.physicalwellbeing.co.uk has lost over 20 first page rankings since the end of May. I assume this is because of Panda 4.0.
All content on the site is high quality and 100% unique, so we did not expect to get penalised. Although I read somewhere that if Google can't read particular js anymore they don't rank you as high.
The site has not been blacklisted as all pages are showing in Google's index and there are no messages on webmaster tools. We have not taken part in any link schemes and have disavowed all low quality links that were pointing there just in case (after the penalty).
Can anybody see anything on www.physicalwellbeing.co.uk that may have cause Panda update to affect it so negatively?
Would really appreciate any help.
-
With a bounce rate that low, do you by chance have multiple GA tracking scripts, or something that's triggering an event even if no one goes to another page? Look at the source code when you're in incognito mode, in case your CMS suppresses one of the GA codes when you're logged in as admin.
[voice of experience and learning the hard way here!]
-
I would say you are bordering on over-optimization. Your alt tags are a bit spammy, you are using the keyword meta tag ( a spam signal), you're using both tags and categories within Wordpress, which can cause duplication.
I agree with the other posters ( and your post on Google), not Panda related - just viewed again by Google.
-
EGOL again thank you for your help it is highly appreciated. Bounce rate is really low at 4% so I am not sure it is that but I take your point. The target audience is more 25-45 really as my client offers Urban Conditioning which would potentially be too much for someone over 45.
Maybe you are right about the pixel info, I think that can be solved by toning down some of the heavy media.
My only issue with both responses here is that it was ranking highly before panda. Where you are pointing out general optimisations and not Panda specific, so what I really need to know is what panda 4.0 has picked up on.
-
Thank you for your comments Lee. I agree that it is a bit media heavy as this was the request when the site was built, we could do with altering it really so that there is just the video or just the slider. The disavow was done well after the rankings drop so I doubt it will be the case.
-
I took a quick look at the site and agree with Lee. The content is good, could be a little thicker but that is probably not the problem.
Just tossing something out... a lot of space is given to huge images, huge whitespace, huge video, huge navigation.... So much that the first word of content is 800 pixels down on the content pages and over 1000 pixels down on the homepage.
So, I am wondering about two things.... 1) are people not going down to look at the content and instead bouncing? 2) are search engines seeing no content in the first thousand pixels and giving you a demotion.
Finally... and I am just saying this, knowing nothing of the business in specific, but being a person who has spent a long life in very intense athletics. Between ages 15 and 45 I would have been one of your best clients. Now, decades later, I am still someone's client, but not a client that matches my first impression of your website. So, if your biz matches the images on the website then you have no need to change. But, if your potential clients are below that intensity then they could be bouncing off of the website, in search for something less rigorous. The images are much higher than my impression of "physical wellbeing".
Maybe you have heard this famous quote that I read in a climbing magazine decades ago.... "The demands of the sport attract a certain type of person.... but at the same time severely limit its appeal."
-
Whilst it is possible that Panda had something to do with your ranking drop I don't think so looking at your site. You have well structured text although it could certainly be thicker on your main pages. Your homepage current has 264 words including headers. Understandably it is challenging creating 100% unique content that is actually high quality whilst being a good length to optimize for Panda.
I would say that where you have disavowed links it is possible that you have disavowed some links which were in fact helping your ranking as opposed to hurting it. This has happened to a number of my clients and the solution is simply to work hard a building natural links.
Alternatively, your homepage is very media heavy (despite being well optimized for page speed). This wouldn't explain such a dramatic drop but it would certainly improve your rank as well as your bounce to bring that load time down. Sliders and videos on the same page even with deferring the JS still add a large data load. Yoast explains this better than I could.
Hope this helps!
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
-
Traffic cut-off since Google core update
Hi all, I am the webmaster of www.chepicap.com/en (Cryptocurrency news), and since the 3rd of june (Google core algorithm update) we got the hammer from Google. Organic traffic dropped with 90%+ overnight. We are still in the dark whether we can do to improve the current situation. Does someone have suggestions regarding this issue?
Algorithm Updates | | NielsDE0 -
Have AMP pages on Chrome disappeared?
Hi, We amplified our site the other day and Google was quick to find our AMP pages. Today, we can´t seem to find any AMP pages on Chrome and it looks like we can´t find any other pages from sites like Wapo and so forth. They´re still visible on Safari. We are searching from Iceland. Is anyone experiencing this and if so, could you please share a link to the news? Thanks and have a nice day!
Algorithm Updates | | guidetoiceland0 -
How is your site holding up post Penguin 4.0 roll out?
Hi team I was reading an article this morning from Barry Schwartz at SERoundtable about the impact of Penguin 4.0 and how webmasters are reporting minimal effects since launch. There was another article posted this morning about how the roll out may have began before the launch date, which would make sense as MozCast was reporting high temperatures leading up to Friday, specifically 9/12 to 9/15. I was wondering how everyone's traffic / rankings are performing after news broke on Friday, 9/23? Were you see fluctuations before that? What are you focusing on most now that Penguin 4.0 has launched? I understand we are a few days in and this is a real time / ongoing rollout, but I would be interested to hear what everyone has been seeing so far, if anything! Hope you all are doing well and I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Good luck!
Algorithm Updates | | PatrickDelehanty
P0 -
How do I code SEO for a secondary site without impacting the main site?
We have a secondary site for our online magazine, how do I code the SEO so I don't steal links from the main site?
Algorithm Updates | | gacwebteam0 -
50% drop in search, no changes to site over 2 days, no notifications, A rank...
My URL is: http://applianceassistant.com
Algorithm Updates | | applianceassistant
With no changes to my site, I suddenly experienced a huge drop in search queries on Aug1. Your company has still given me an overall rating of A. I just thought you may be able to help or be interested in my case due to it's strange nature. Due to some suggestions on the webmaster forums, I have disavowed all low quality back links to the site, and I am currently working through each page trying to make the key words a little less spammy. Here are some screen shots of the action...
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WgXUf-lvUyg/U-nrWNgspPI/AAAAAAAAAEI/imoI190LUns/s1600/Analytics_081214.tiff
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-srmvn288rr0/U-pxlwoycVI/AAAAAAAAAEg/ckmyX_2Sl_Y/s1600/PAGES_AUG.tiff
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DVCYxhkutbQ/U-pxpQVfYfI/AAAAAAAAAEo/MN9PiLFT-zs/s1600/pages_july.tiff This appears to be almost a 50% 2 year set back. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated0 -
What are the most trusted SEO sites?
Other then SEOmoz what sites can you trust for SEO? Is there some type of formula I can use to find out if any site is trustworthy?
Algorithm Updates | | uofmiamiguy0 -
Lesser visited, but highly ranked landing paged dropped in rank on Google. Time for a content update?
I noticed that my page one ranked landing pages that don't get a lot of love from me have dropped in rank big time on Google this week. This is a site that has static (meaning, I can't freshen up the content easily) landing pages for products that we sell. The pages that dropped are the ones that have the fewest inbound links, and don't get much attention on the social media side. Our most important landing pages have also dropped, but just a few spots on page one. This is a first for me. Does anyone think that this is a "lack of freshness" penalty? We are still number one on page one for our brand search terms. Would fresh content give me a shot at getting the pages back up? I'm willing to update them slowly, but before I go crazy, I'm reaching out to the pros here.
Algorithm Updates | | Ticket_King0 -
What is considered duplicate content in an ecommerce website that offers the same product for retail and wholesale purchasing?
I have an ecommerce website that offers retail and wholesale products which are identical, of course with the exception of pricing. My concern is duplicate content. If the same product is offered under both the retail and wholesale category, and described identically, with the exception of price, metadata and a few words, is that considered duplicate content and would both pages be disregarded by the robots? Is it best to avoid the same description for that one product under the two separate categories? Thanks for all your help!
Algorithm Updates | | flaca0