Site recovery after manual penalty, disavow, SSL, Mobile update = but dropped again in May

[Robertjw]

I have a site that has had a few problems over the last year.  We had a manual penalty in late 2013 for bad links, some from guest blogs and some from spammy sites.  Reconsideration requests had me disavow almost all of the incoming links.

Later in 2014, the site was hit with link injection malware and had another manual penalty.  That was cleared up and manual penalty removed in Jan 2015.  During this time the site was moved to SSL, but there were some redirect problems.

By Feb 2015 everything was cleared up and a an updated disavow list was added.

The site recovered in March and did great.  A mobile version was added in April.

About May 1st rankings dropped again.  Traffic is about 40% off it's March levels.

Recently I read that a new disavow file will supersede an old one, and if all of the original domains and URLs aren't included in the new disavow file they will no longer be disavowed.  Is this true?  If so, is it possible that a smaller disavow file uploaded in Feb would cause rankings to drop after the May 3 Quality update?  Can I correct this by disavowing all the previously disavowed domains and URLs?

Any advice for determining why the site is performing poorly again?  We have well written content, regular blogs, nothing that seems like it should violate the Google guidelines.

[MarieHaynes]

It sounds like this is a complicated situation. Regarding the disavow, each file you upload completely replaces the previous one. So, if you had unnatural links and then you uploaded a new file that did not contain some of those unnatural links, you've essentially asked Google to start counting them again. It can take time for them to start to count again as Google has built a lag in to the system to prevent people from trying to game it. However, it's certainly possible that the unnatural links are hurting you.

The main algorithm that uses data from unnatural links is Penguin and Penguin has not refreshed since 2014, so it is unlikely that Penguin is affecting the site. But, there are other algorithms that use links. If one of those is affecting you, then reinstating a full disavow file should show some positive effect within a couple of weeks.

With that said, as far as we know, the Quality update was not related to backlink quality, but rather on-page quality. So, if you dropped because of the Quality update then there are likely other issues with the site.

[Robertjw]

Yes, that does help some.  Rebuilding my disavow list was my plan, but wanted some confirmation that it was the right thing to do.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Bob,

First of all, have a read of the Google Disavow page here. It will run through how this needs to be performed.

What Google say about the file:

Note: Uploading a new file will replace all previously uploaded ones.

What this essentially means is that if you upload a new file, you will overwrite what is already there. You need to download the current file, add new links to at and re-upload. You can't just overwrite a new file with new links.

...is it possible that a smaller disavow file uploaded in Feb would cause rankings to drop after the May 3 Quality update

I wouldn't have thought so, but I never rule out Google doing odd things. I would certainly rebuild your disavow list and re-upload it though.

I hope this helps a little.

-Andy