How to unrank your content by following expert advice [rant]
-
Hi,
As you can probably see from the title, a massive rant is coming up. I must admit I no longer understand SEO and I just wanted to see if you have any ideas what might be wrong.
So, I read this blog post on MOZ https://moz.com/blog/influence-googles-ranking-factor - where the chap is improving ranking of content that is already ranking reasonably well.
I've got two bits of news for you. The good news is - yes, you can change your articles' ranking in an afternoon.
Bad news - your articles drop out of Top 100.
I'll give you a bit more details hoping you can spot what's wrong.
Disclaimer - I'm not calling out BS, I'm sure the blogger is a genuine person and he's probably has had success implementing this.
The site is in a narrow but popular ecommerce niche where the Top 20 results are taken by various retailers who have simply copy/pasted product descriptions from the manufacturer's websites.
The link profile strength is varied and I'm not making this up. The Top 20 sites range from DA:4 to DA:56. When I saw this I said to myself, it should be fairly easy to rank because surely the backlinks ranking factor weight is not as heavy in this niche as it is in other niches. My site is DA:18 which is much better than DA:4. So, even if I make my pages tiny tiny bit better than this DA:4 site, I should outrank it, right?
Well, I managed to outrank it with really crap content. So, I got to rank two high-traffic keywords in #8 or #9 with very little effort. And I wish I stayed there because what followed just completely ruined my rankings.
I won't repeat what was written in the blog. If you're interested, go and read it, but I used it as a blueprint and bingo, indeed Google changed my ranking in just a couple of hours.
Wait, I lost more than 90 positions!!!! I'm now outside Top100. Now even irrelevant sites in Chinese and Russian are in front of me. They don't even sell the products. No, they're even in different niches altogether but they still outrank me.
I now know exactly what Alice in Wonderland felt like. I want out please!!!!
-
Hi there,
I know it's been a while, but were you able to figure it out? What happened after you requested a fetch?
I'd love to do some type of case study on this with you if you still didn't recover.
-
Why was this marked as "answered"? I don't know what I'm more shocked about - my discovery on Google or your lack of reaction here...
-
Update. I checked Google cache on all my experiment pages and it was out of date. So "fetching as Google" adds the page to a queue and it takes several days for the queue to be processed. Judging by my recent experience, Google withholds queued pages from the index until it's got a chance to re-crawl the page. I don't think I have a problem with this, but...!
Now all my experiment pages are back exactly where they were (no, dear Mr Jeff Baker, no improvement whatsoever), however, I still think this is really bad news, and here's why:
- You can't listen to "experts" too much even if they publish on authoritative sources. That's why it's important to keep a few test sites so that you can test theories before you apply them on your client sites.
- Content is not king. You won't be able to increase your ranking by purely providing better content without improving on other factors
- If you have a stronger link profile, you can afford to serve your visitors crap content
Indirectly, Google is encouraging people to buy links. Next thing I'm going to do after hitting the "Post" button on this page is contacting my link broker whom I stopped using in 2013. Who is the winner in this situation? Nobody, apart from my link broker. I'll tell you who is the main loser in this situation - the visitor. He will be served crap content because from today I will stop caring about providing valuable content to my visitors. Thank you very much, Google!
Conveniently, comments are closed 30 days after MOZ guest posts go live, preventing people to call out BS. Well, I guess it keeps the circle of friends happy, which is the most important thing, right?
-
Thank you, I did check Copyscape and it is not copied.
The original post is here: https://moz.com/blog/influence-googles-ranking-factor - I did check a few of their own site (Brafton) and their articles are ranking reasonably well. I wouldn't say amazing, it is hit and miss but some of his own content ranks pretty well.
So, I can now officially confirm that I'm NOT going mad. I have since done another two experiments and both backfired spectacularly!
Experiment 1 - improve a product description of another product. For the previous experiments I also embedded useful YouTube videos in the description. To make sure it's not the iframe that causes ranking to disappear, I didn't include a video this time. Just took the description from 56 words of nonsense to 300+ words of content that answers buyers' questions.
Tank!!! From #9 to #Nowhere
Experiment 2 - a completely different website with a different audience, different link profile and different buyers intent (lead gen site)... Identified a static page (not a blog post, not a product description) that ranks #17 for a super popular lead gen keyword. It had very average 500-word content. I improved the structure (H1-H3) and added 400 fresh words based on real-life questions that this business receive from potential customers. Sounds useful to you? Sure it does. Google downgraded the page to #27
I am massively worried now. I think I'm giving up SEO and I'm not joking. If this is how Google rewards valuable content, my other option is to make a really crap spam site with copied content. But hey, I just don't want to do it.
I will do another experiment. I will revert one of the product descriptions back to the super-crap content that it used to have, however, knowing Google I doubt that I will regain the positions. I will report back.
In the meantime, if you've had similar experience, I suggest we join forces and challenge Google's staff on Twitter or other social media.
-
Do you have a link to the post? Would be interesting to have a look at it now, compare it to Wayback Archive version, look at the differences etc. Can also run it through Copyscape to see whether by random chance you have typed something very similar to something else well known on the web :') unlikely but... monkeys in a room with a typewriter, and all that. There are any number of variables which could have contributed to this, or it could be a legitimate Google glitch
-
Hi Alex,
I took two product descriptions. Both pages were very similar - just a couple of sentences taken from a manufacturer's brochure.
I went through competing pages with a critical eye, made a list of topics that would match the buyer's intent and crafted original product descriptions that answered a lot of questions.
So I took it from less than 100 words of nonsense to nearly 500 words of in-depth human-generated content.
I didn't do anything else at the same time because I was keen on finding out how much truth there is in the "give Google amazing content" lie. My thinking behind this was that all competitors were ranked with copied product descriptions. So if I can provide original descriptions, I'd be rewarded, all other things being equal.
As for reverting back, no I didn't revert back. I don't know why, I probably don't see a point because rankings now seem completely random.
I've had lots of success both prior and post the 2012 "scare campaigns" however in the last year or two it's just sliding downhill slowly but steadily and I have no idea why.
-
Hi,
I find that very interesting. Obviously, the post was a bit of a plug for Marketmuse, but I always felt that the underlying advice was solid.
Are you saying that you simply went from having a very focussed single topic page to a more in-depth article and found that you lost rank? Was there anything else you did at a similar time? I assume you have now reverted your content? (And has that had any effect?)
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
-
Need Advice - Google Still Not Ranking
Hi Team - I really need some expert level advice on an issue I'm seeing with our site in Google. Here's the current status. We launched our website and app on the last week of November in 2014 (soft launch): http://goo.gl/Wnrqrq When we launched we were not showing up for any targeted keywords, long tailed included, even the title of our site in quotes. We ranked for our name only, and even that wasn't #1. Over time we were able to build up some rankings, although they were very low (120 - 140). Yesterday, we're back to not ranking for any keywords. Here's the history: While developing our app, and before I took over the site, the developer used a thin affiliate site to gather data and run a beta app over the course of 1 - 2 years. Upon taking on the site and moving to launch the new website/app I discovered what had been run under the domain. Since than the old site has been completely removed and rebuild, with all associated urls (.uk, .net, etc...) and subdomains shutdown. I've allowed all the old spammy pages (thousands of them to 404). We've disavowed the old domains (.net, .uk that were sending a ton of links to this), along with some links that seemed a little spammy that were pointing to our domain. There are no manual actions or messaged in Google Webmaster Tools. The new website uses (SSL) https for the entire site, it scores a 98 / 100 for a mobile usability (we beat our competitors on Google's PageSpeed Tool), it has been moved to a business level hosting service, 301's are correctly setup, added terms and conditions, have all our social profiles linked, linked WMT/Analytics/YouTube, started some Adwords, use rel="canonical", all the SEO 101 stuff ++. When I run the page through the moz tool for a specific keyword we score an A. When I did a crawl test everything came back looking good. We also pass using other tools. Google WMT, shows no html issues. We rank well on Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. However, for some reason Google will not rank the site, and since there is no manual action I have no course of action to submit a reconsideration request. From an advanced stance, should we bail on this domain, and move to the .co domain (that we own, but hasn't been used before)? If we 301 this domain over, since all our marketing is pointed to .com will this issue follow us? I see a lot of conflicting information on algorithmic issues following domains. Some say they do, some say they don't, some say they do since a lot of times people don't fix the issue. However, this is a brand new site, and we're following all of Google's rules. I suspect there is an algorithmic penalty (action) against the domain because of the old thin affiliate site that was used for the beta and data gathering app. Are we stuck till Google does an update? What's the deal with moving us up, than removing again? Thoughts, suggestions??? I purposely, did a short url to leave out the company name, please respect that, since I don't want our issues to popup on a web search. 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | get4it0 -
Guest Blog Post or Article Content Should be Do-Follow or No-Follow Link ? Help Plz !
Many SEO writers and blogs after Google Matt Cutt said, You should not allow no-follow link in Guest Post. What should we do. ? I am allowing Guest post - what they ask in return a do-follow link to their site or blog. other articles or post i wrote about inspiration collected from different source or single portfolio site - i credit them(as blogger - we should respect them). What i am doing right or wrong ? Please advise and help me on this ! http://searchengineland.com/google-guest-blogging-for-links-you-better-nofollow-those-links-166218
Algorithm Updates | | Esaky0 -
Will Parked Domain hurt My SEO as Duplicate Content?
Hello, I have one website (Migration Lawyers) and I have an extra 8 domains Parked so they are basically cloning the content of the site. so if the main site is: migrationlawyers.co.za and I have an addon domain migration-lawyers.com is that good or bad? is there a proper way to redirect the sites, will redirecting (301) subdomains be more effective? Thanks for your Input 🙂 0i8VXqr.png
Algorithm Updates | | thealika0 -
Could we run into issues with duplicate content penalties if we were to borrow product descriptions?
Hello, I work for an online retailer that has the opportunity to add a lot of SKUs to our site in a relatively short amount of time by borrowing content from another site (with their permission). There are a lot of positives for us to do this, but one big question we have is what the borrowed content will do to our search rankings (we normally write our own original content in house for a couple thousand SKUs). Organic search traffic brings in a significant chunk of our business and we definitely don't want to do something that would jeopardize our rankings. Could we run into issues with duplicate content penalties if we were to use the borrowed product descriptions? Is there a rule of thumb for what proportion of the site should be original content vs. duplicate content without running into issues with our search rankings? Thank you for your help!
Algorithm Updates | | airnwater0 -
Organizing Website Content
Hey everyone! I am looking for some opinions on organizing website content. Here are two thoughts. I am open to alternative suggestions as well. Thanks for any consideration in this matter! **Aviation Supply Store Thought A ** **Helicopters Airplanes Rockets ** Helicopter engines Airplane engines Rocket engines Helicopter Fuels Airplane Fuels Rocket fuels Helicopter Accessories Airplane Accessories Rocket Accessories Aviation Supply Store Thought B Engines Fuels Accessories Helicopter Engines Helicopter Fuels Helicopter Accessories Airplane Engines Airplane Fuels Airplane Accessories Rocket Engines Rocket Fuels Rocket Accessories I simply chose aviation as an example. I'm just having difficulty deciding on how best to catagorize. Thank You!
Algorithm Updates | | APICDA0 -
To use the same content just changing the keywords could be seen as duplicate content?
I want to offer the same service or product in many different cities, so instead of creating a new content for each city what I want to do it to copy the content already created for the product and service of a city and then change the name of the city and create a new url inside my website for each city. for example let say I sell handmade rings in the USA, but I want o target each principal city in the USA, so I have want to have a unque url for ecxh city so for example for Miami I want to have www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-miami and for LA the url would be www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-la Can I have the same content talking about the handmade rings and just change the keywords and key phrases? or this will count as a duplicate content? content: TITLE: Miami Handmade Rings URL :www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-miami Shop Now handmade rings in Miami in our online store and get a special discount in Miami purchases over $50 and also get free shipping on Miami Local address... See what our Miami handmade rings clients say about our products.... TITLE: LA Handmade Rings URL: www.mydomain.com/handmade-rings-la Shop Now handmade rings in LA in our online store and get a special discount in LA purchases over $50 and also get free shipping on LA Local address... See what our LA handmade rings clients say about our products.... There are more than 100 location in the country I want to do this, so that is why I want to copy paste and replace.. Thanks in advance, David Orion
Algorithm Updates | | sellonline1230 -
Are you guys finding more No Follows being counted as links?
Wonding if anyone is finding more and more no follows actually being counted as links.
Algorithm Updates | | barrystix30 -
Content below the fold and Panda Update
Hi I was at the linklove conference and I heard some worrying stories about the way content is formatted on a page being a factor in ehow has avoided being slapped. It was the first time I had heard the expression "below the fold..." I am producing some very sexy SERP's results and other sexier metrics are up too but I am concerened that thefurnituremarket.co.uk has a ton of images on the home page and the nice content is below all of them.. firstly is this content..."below the fold"? secondly I know the site is old but do you think when this panda update hits the UK... were will be penalised for the look of the site.. I know there was talk yesterday at the conference of coming up woth a tool to check this out... my gut says that this will be a factor... sooner rather than later hence I am looking at magento and how we can skin it to look nice and present products better.. I would be really interested to know what exactly is "below the fold" on the furnituremarket.co.uk and some thoughts on the whole ehow formatting issue..
Algorithm Updates | | robertrRSwalters0