Panda 4.1 - Regained rankings by making changes on my site
-
So thought I would share this with others as it 'might' help.
So I got around 40 pages, all of them have taken a dive in rankings so on average from Pg1/2 to Pg5/6.
I took one page and started working on content upgrades, I had around 50 words of boiler plate content above the fold and 750 words of unique content way down the page so maybe 600px below the fold before you hit it.
I removed the boiler plate content and produced 75 words of unique content to replace it, I shuffled things around and managed to get the 750 words maybe 250px below the fold then chucked another 100 unique words into the mix.
Fetched the page in GWMT's and resubmitted the URL - hour later that page alone, the page I upgraded had recovered its rankings back to the original position before Panda 4.1 hit.
Will the rankings for this page drop back down again, not sure but interesting this page was Pg6/7 since the 23rd and doing the above within an hour regained rankings back to Pg2 middle.
-
Interesting. I didn't know position was an SEO factor for content but can see it makes sense.
Thanks again for sharing!
-
Duplicate on my site, well almost I replaced a few words for each page. It wasn't the main content just an intro paragraph but it was the highest piece of content on the page.
I've basically put it down to poor/thin content above the fold, which I replaced with unique better content which is more relevant to the subject of the page.
-
Curious what you meant by "Boiler Plate"? Was this content duplicated elsewhere on your site or the web?
Thanks for posting your experiences.
-
Ok so an update.
Regained rankings for that page I upgraded have remained stable and for some queries better position.
Most importantly I applied the same method/process to 2 other pages and they also regained position - ive put these pages on monitor, ill give it a week to make sure they stay stable then roll out the upgrade to the other 35ish pages.
-
hey thanks for sharing, I have a site that I need to work on one of these days, and this data will help for sure.
Vijay
-
Thank you for sharing this. I haven't been hit by Panda 4.1, but as you say, this info might help someone. Good for you for being so giving! I salute you!
-
Thanks Andy,
I'm in the process of getting the copywriter to produce unique content for the other pages so will post the outcome on here once those pages have been resubmitted also.
-
Will the rankings for this page drop back down again
This is impossible to say I'm afraid. They could drop, or the changes may have satisfied Google and you will stay where you are.
Try making similar changes to the other pages and see if you can replicate your success. Unique content is always great, so as an exercise, it is a win-win anyway.
-Andy
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
-
Where would I start with optimizing my site
I am new here and am would love some constructive community feedback about a website I am working on:
On-Page Optimization | | paddyaran
Things like tags, serps, content, loading time, design, functionality, and anything that will improve.... The site is www.aranislands.ie Thanks!!0 -
What to do with pre-panda gateway pages?
We used an SEO firm back in the day to create gateway landing pages for our site heavily optimized for certain keywords and phrases. They ranked well for years and then the panda/penguin updates hit and the pages no longer rank at all. The content on the pages is actually useful and decent (http://payloadz.com/info-sell-ebooks.asp). The html is over-optimized on keyword though. What should be our strategy here? The keywords and phrases are still important for us. Should we move the content to another URL with less HTML optimization, remove the existing optimization on the pages where they are? The backlinks are of poor quality as well. We have gone through a disavow process and still no affect on these pages after a month.
On-Page Optimization | | Shannon-PayLoadz0 -
On site SEO review please
I'd appreciate it its anyone could take the time to review my on site SEO and suggest improvements. it's an adult dating site at http://www.local-sex-search. All pages can be found at http://www.local-sex-search.com/sitemap
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Why Am I not Ranking ?
Despite having a A in the on-page report card. The keyword I am trying to optimize my site for is not ranking at all in Google. What could cause this ?
On-Page Optimization | | Pzabarko0 -
Homepage ranking before optimized page
We finally managed to obtain a spot in the first 10 positions of the serps for our main keyword. Since a week, our homepage started ranking in the top 15 as well, so we we're pretty excited about that. On our way to dominate the top 10! Since 2 days we started to rank with our homepage before our optimized page, which sucks because the metadescription (made up by Google) isn't helping our CTR. Is there a way that we can show Google that the other page is more relevant than the homepage? Or do we have to wait until we have build up enough PA to switch places with the homepage (seems unlikely to me).
On-Page Optimization | | duoweb0 -
We dropped from a page rank of 4 to 3
We dropped from a page rank of 4 to 3 because of the Google Freshness update. Are there any insights anyone can give me? Our site is www.totalvac.com
On-Page Optimization | | totalvac0 -
Is my H1 and H2 site structure proper?
If I have an h1 tag on the page that describes the purpose of the page, is it a bad idea to make all of the sub-headings h2 tags? A designer mentioned that it was frowned upon to make all of the secondary headings into h2 tags, or to use CSS to selectively style the heading tags.
On-Page Optimization | | dbuckles0 -
Why did our ranking go up, then drop down again?
Hello SEOMoz community. I work for a website that runs a collectibles news service and sells collectibles online. I recently renamed one of the pages from "Stock for Sale" to "Collectibles for Sale" anticipating this would help our ranking for the term "collectibles for sale". This changes the Title, URL and h1 to Collectible for Sale. A few days later we were up to 5th on Google UK for that keyword. But now after the weekend we've dropped off the face of the earth... Or at least somewhere low down in the rankings. I imagine there could be multiple reasons for this, but what are the most likely causes? There is not much text on the page, it contains an iFrame with image boxes that link to relevant collectibles categories. Website: www.paulfrasercollectibles.com
On-Page Optimization | | PaulFraserCollectibles0