Sudden big drop for keyword ranking this month -Numerous possible factors... which is most likely?
-
Hi
I have a fairly new site (domain around 1 year and 6 months old) and in December it was sitting on Google's second page for our main keyword "cv writing service"
In late December we had a couple of stories picked up by the press and got some really good contextual links from a handful of well known media sites with DA60 and above.
Naturally I thought this would have a positive effect on our position for our keyword so I checked and was shocked to see that the site is now sitting on page 4... A drop of 2 pages
Also my site has dropped one point in DA on the Moz open site explorer
I have some possible theroies for the drop but would really appreicate if anyone could point me in the right direction for the possible cause of this drop and what I need to focus on to fix tihs issue.
Theories....
-
I made some big changes to the copy of my homepage and aboutapge a few weeks before the stories were picked up - although the copy is still similar content and optimised for my keywords
-
I had some early SEO work done by a freelancer in the early days and I now realise that a lot of the links are very weak and on quite poor looking sites (although they are not flagged as spammy in OSE, I think they are spammy)
-
The story that got picked up by the media was slightly off topic - it was about jobs rather than CV's - could this make google think that my site is not relevant?
-
Prior to these stories being picked up - we took a short break from link building for a few months due to resource issues
So if anyone knows if any of these factors are likely to have caused the drop I would be grateful to know!
Thanks
Andrew
-
-
Yes - I guess I did know that deep down It's just strange that it dropped like that as I didn't remove any content.. and even stranger that it suddenly moved back up...
Maybe my site is just a bit too thin and that's why it's fluctuating so much at the moment???
Anyway - thanks for your help... I should probably get back to content creation now
-
If you have ahrefs paid subscription, you can download all links, group them by domain. Then you can check those domains in moz's OSE for spam scores. Usually you'd know good domains, cause they are well known (or at least known in your industry). And the amount of the rest should be that large.
But this is what makes the difference:
Realistically I know I need more content on the site
If you think so yourself - that's what's "wrong"
-
Thanks very much Dimitri
Strangely I'm now back on the second page today, although in a slightly lower position than before
Could I pleas just clarify something if you have time to answer one more question...
The majority of my links (and my competitor's links) don't actually show in OSE (even the really good ones - I think maybe because I'm UK) so how would you recommend spotting links that need to be removed? switching to ahrefs and then using the Moz bar on the individual pages maybe? And how bad does a link have to be before you remove/disavow? some look a bit spammy but still have high DA's etc
Or should I maybe just focus on building more content and links than spending time removing bad ones if I haven't actually been notified of any penalties? Realistically I know I need more content on the site
-
Hi there.
I would recommend looking at backlink profile in OSE and ahrefs to see the spam score and difference between number in total links (in ahrefs) and number in links-which-matter (in OSE). This will get you an idea of how spammy/bad your backlink profile is. Also do competitor comparison. This will tell you how far behind you are.
As for DA drop - DA is relative number, if it went down, it doesn't mean anything until you compare with competitor DA changes. If theirs went down the same or more - good for you. Read this on this matter - https://moz.com/community/q/da-pa-fluctuations-how-to-interpret-apply-understand-these-ml-based-scores
And also do audit and competitor analysis on content. You might think that your content is super awesome, but still, look at what your ranking competitors have, what keywords they are using, how often they are using them and so on.
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
-
Main keyword problem
Hello Since the latest Google update our main keyword has been dropping. We employed a SEO company about 6 weeks ago and since then the keyword has dropped a couple of pages further on Google. We have been using the Remove'em site to check our backlinks and a blog this SEO company have done has appeared on the list. The DA is good but the PA is low. In the blog they have linked the exact keyword to our site homepage. Do you think the blogs the SEO company are doing will be causing us more problems? Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks
Link Building | | Palmbourne0 -
Why should I pay attention to sites that rank well in Bing?
If Google has the most market share, why would I use Bing to find backlinks. This question relates to Raven Tools using backlinks found on Bing for their Domain Research tool? Wouldn't that make their tool inferior to one that uses Google? Thanks, Sam
Link Building | | PGD20110 -
Keyword variation.
Hello dear community, I'm just starting to really understand how seo and in-page optimization works that to SEOMoz. I have done alot of seo for my other pages in the bad way expecting great results which acually hurt me more than help 😞 So right now I'm working on application which takes screenshots of your desktop and upload small files on the portals you select. I have done the website (template and most of the content) but I would like to know when I'm going to start and build some links, what are some of the best keywords I should choose? I do understand already than this is not an exact math, but any kind of help would be awesome! I would like to focus more around "screenshot" keyword and not that much on file upload. I know I may ask kind of much, but anything is better. With great respect, Akhlis
Link Building | | akhlis0 -
Why Can't My Ecommerce Site Rank?
I've already done the on-site SEO things, URL's are all SEO-friendly, etc AND I've already done a few rounds of link building to some of the interior pages on my site, and I still can't get my site to rank. What other strategies can I employ to get my site to rank? I don't believe my keywords are that competitive (fleece blankets, baby blankets, etc.)
Link Building | | locallyrank0 -
Is it bad to insert links to other sites and use bold on keywords?
Hi, This is a question I always had doubt about, and would be very grateful in to know your opinions. Is it bad to link to other sites? Can this causes problems to my blog? I frequently insert links in keywords, etc, for other sites. Many times, for sites greater than mine, and I heard from some people that this is bad. Is this correct? In last days, I have used, in some links, the atribute "nofollow". This is good, or not? In a case, for example, when linking to Wikipedia, is it good to use "nofollow"? And about keywords: I'm mostly using bold on them. Is it good, or not? This subject always makes me think. I would be very grateful for any help. 🙂
Link Building | | Andarilho0 -
Do you believe TLD distribution effects rankings in Google?
I have noticed that when looking at TLD distribution of backlinks for many websites that have grown organically, the TLD distribution is somewhat consistent depending on the style of website (I am using MajesticSEO to find this distribution data). Do you feel deviating from this TLD distribution depending on the style of website you have would cause negative effects with Google? Has there been any testing of this that you know of that you can point me to (ex: building all backlinks from .info TLDs and seeing if you rank well for given keywords)? I ask because my companies website has seen some big deviations from this and although I don't see any negative effects currently I want to make sure we create a site that stays consistent with what Google is looking for. For example, if I look at news sites such as New York Times and Los Angeles Times, I see TLD distributions as such: nytimes.com
Link Building | | alohav
.com = 59%
.gov = 14%
.org = 12%
.uk = 2%
.edu = 2% latimes.com
.com = 59%
.org = 13%
.gov = 11%
.edu = 4%
.net = 2%
.uk = 2% From that, if you are a news site, my assumption would be to try to stay consistent with around 55-65% of your links coming from .com domains, around 9-15% from .org, etc etc . Now, looking at large blog styles sites I see this distribution: naturalnews.com
.com = 70%
.org = 11%
.edu = 3%
.net = 2%
.gov = 1% techcrunch.com
.com = 71%
.org = 10%
.edu = 4%
.net = 3%
.gov = 1% Any input or links to tests of this would be much appreciated.0 -
Is it possible to check domain authority for a list of 100+ domains at once?
Well, as topic. I have a list wih a bunch of domains, I want to sort them by DA. Is this possible in some quick way?
Link Building | | ToiletFish0 -
High PR networks look like they are gaining traction - and working!
Let me put a disclaimer here that I do not use high PR networks in any of my seo endeavors. That being said, they have always looked attractive - especially post panda where in content links from high pr websites are valuable. I run seo campaigns for a large lot of websites & have been noticing my competition creeping past me who are using links from these networks to increase their positions for hard to attain keywords. Has anyone here had experience building links using these types of networks? It looks like they are under google's radar for now & are a great way to get some powerful links to your site. Any thoughts on if google will catch onto these types of links if they are properly protected (limited footprint, revolving links, unique content, etc.)? It's tough not to be at least interested in networks like this b/c of the results they provide.
Link Building | | SpottedFrogDesign0