How can I tell where I was penalised?
-
It seems for sometime now I have not been showing up the top for my keywords when I use to be ranking #1 and #2 for my main keywords, however now, I don't show up anywhere - this has been for almost a year now, can anyone tell me how I can find out (apart from google web masters tools) where I was penalised?
Thanks
-
I personally would start by using the Panguin tool which gives an overlay of your Google Analytics - make sure you set your date back enough to cover the time prior to when you got hit in order to see if you have been hurt by any of the updates. I have been using this tool for several years and would definitely recommend it - I have done in several other Moz Q&As previously.
Samuel Scott's response mentions the post by Alan Bleweiss and he mentions this tool in it.
Depending on what your analysis uncovers you may find this an interesting read - http://moz.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-google-penalty-removal
Hope this helps!
-
Definitely a good idea to check what pages you set up, when you put them together and compare that to the release of known updates to determine whether there is a correlation. If that isn't possible or is very labor intensive, you might do some research into the strategies and tactics you employed a year ago and make sure that they have not become punishable tactics in 2015 - sounds obvious but you never know.
You might also consider a website audit to see if that might illuminate a previously unknown problem.
Best of luck and feel free to ask follow-up questions if you have any.
Rob
-
This recent in-depth case study that was published on Moz is a great place to start -- seriously, it's amazing!
-
Can you pinpoint the date your site started to slip? then check that against: http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change that might help identify if you were hit by panda/penguin etc
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
-
Links from a penalised site.
Hey Mozzers, Recently we have had a series of agencies in to pitch for work, one group mentioned that due to our association with a possibly penalised product review website, any links and activity associated with the brand would hinder our SEO. We currently have a good rating, but we are now no longer pushing our customers to the site as we move to a new platform. The current link back from this website is also no-followed. Any thoughts on how this could impact us? And how the agencies determined the site was penalised and causing us problems. Cheers Tim
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TimHolmes0 -
Can I undo 301 redirects to purchase site
A website I am thinking of buying has 301 redirected all pages on his site to one page that explains the site is closing down. If I tell him to change the 301 to 302s will I be able to recover the old pages on the site and keep the authority, rankings and link power of the old pages and not the "Closing page"? Is all i have to do is undo the 301 redirects and everything will go back to how the site was before the 301s were in place? Or will I lose all the link power on individual pages because they already transferred to the "Closing page"? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | atomiconline0 -
What happens if one remove the disavow file from a non penalised site
What happens if one remove the disavow file from a site that has not received a manual penalty from Google. Although the site did suffer from a drop in traffic and rankings.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Taiger0 -
New Google AdWords Keyword Tool - What Can We Do?
What options do we have for keyword research now that Google is switching from the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to the Keyword Planner??
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alhallinan0 -
Location appearing on search result. how can this be achieved?
I'm pretty sure this site is not doing any SEO but i think what made them no. 1 is the location. I already tried adding a google publisher tag to my site that points to my google page which contains my address but i still can't have the location appear.. here's a screenshot of the search result that i want to achieve: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tbdv3121rrs6zp5/Screen Shot 2013-04-15 at 9.39.30 AM.png Screen%20Shot%202013-04-15%20at%209.39.30%20AM.png
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | optimind0 -
Is there some tool or person that can review my site and tell me what to improve on?
I'm using the SEO on page tool from this site but I get no help on how to fix the problem. I'm looking for the all in 1 tool that tells me everything about my site (description, keyword density, what to improve, what to add, what to remove, etc). If someone would be kind enough to review it for me, that would be great !
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 6786486312640 -
Can converting a site to HTTPS impact ranking?
We have a client with a very large site that would like to put a login on each page; however, that would require the entire site be put behind a secure connection (changing http:// to https:// on every page). They rank for a ton of keywords and rank well. Would the change impact their rankings at all? Could it possibly help them?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dknewmedia0 -
Can MadCap Flare WebHelp be made SEO Friendly?
A team member is porting over documentation from a .org wiki that will be placed on the company's root domain. The problem with MadCap is that it uses frames as well as javascript navigation. Has anyone encountered this problem before? I'm unfamiliar with the software and the project is pretty far into the pipeline at this point (I'm new at the company as well). Any advice on work-arounds or alternatives would be greatly appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AnthonyYoung1