Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Research & Trends
    3. White Hat / Black Hat SEO
    4. Interesting case of IP-wide Google Penalty, what is the most likely cause?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Interesting case of IP-wide Google Penalty, what is the most likely cause?

    White Hat / Black Hat SEO
    3
    9
    3951
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • tomypro
      tomypro last edited by

      Dear SEOMOZ Community,

      Our portfolio of around 15 internationalized web pages has received a significant, as it seems IP-wide, Google penalty starting November 2010 and have yet to recover from it. We have undergone many measure to lift the penalty including reconsideration requests wo/ luck and am now hoping the SEOMoz community can give us some further tips.

      We are very interested in the community's help and judgement what else we can try to uplift the penalty.

      As quick background information,

      • The sites in question offers sports results data and is translated for several languages.

      • Each market, equals language, has its own tld domain using the central keyword, e.g. <keyword_spanish>.es <keyword_german>.de <keyword_us>.com</keyword_us></keyword_german></keyword_spanish>

      • The content is highly targeted around the market, which means there are no duplicate content pages across the domains, all copy is translated, content reprioritized etc. however the core results content in the body of the pages obviously needs to stay to 80% the same

      • A SEO agency of ours has been using semi-automated LinkBuilding tools in mid of 2010 to acquire link partnerships

      • There are some promotional one-way links to sports-betting and casino positioned on the page

      • The external linking structure of the pages is very keyword and main-page focused, i.e. 90% of the external links link to the front page with one particular keyword

      • All sites have a strong domain authority and have been running under the same owner for over 5 years

      As mentioned, we have experienced dramatic ranking losses across all our properties starting in November 2010. The applied penalties are indisputable given that rankings dropped for the main keywords in local Google search engines from position 3 to position 350 after the sites have been ranked in the top 10 for over 5 years. A screenshot of the ranking history for one particular domain is attached. The same behavior can be observed across domains.

      Our questions are:

      • Is there something like an IP specific Google penalty that can apply to web properties across an IP or can we assume Google just picked all pages registered at Google Webmaster?

      • What is the most likely cause for our penalty given the background information? Given the drops started already in November 2010 we doubt that the Panda updates had any correlation t this issue?

      • What are the best ways to resolve our issues at this point? We have significant history data available such as tracking records etc. Our actions so far were reducing external links, on page links, and C-class internal links

      • Are there any other factors/metrics we should look at to help troubleshooting the penalties?

      • After all this time wo/ resolution, should we be moving on two new domains and forwarding all content as 301s to the new pages? Are the things we need to try first?

      Any help is greatly appreciated.

      SEOMoz rocks. /T

      cxK29.png

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • seoug_2005
        seoug_2005 @seoug_2005 last edited by

        Thanks tomypro.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • tomypro
          tomypro @RyanKent last edited by

          Generally speaking, you will achieve the best results by consolidating your sites under one domain with a dedicated folder for each country as you described. I would recommend delaying the move until you are sure your sites are not under any penalty.

          The advantage you will receive with a single root domain is the consolidation of your Domain Authority. It sounds like your sites were doing well before the penalty. The higher DA can help even further.

          Thanks again for your thoughts. This is actually a topic I am very involved with. I work as a Technical Director in a large digital agency and our SEO team just recommended a large Fortune 100 customer to break their web property into market ttlds from .com/de, .com/es etc into .com .es .de using the same top love root domain. According to our SEO team DA is sort of shared if the same root domain is used. However, local ttlds will obviously give you better rankings in local Google engines.

          My thoughts are the right approach probably depends on the size of your brand. If its easy for you to build up quickly DA for local ttlds are preferred. If you are a smaller player you might run better consolidating everything under one umbrella to share DA.

          I am actually running an experiment for one of my projects where I am doing the ttld breakout for one domain to compare organic search traffic. the benefit with local ttlds is that eventually you can tie those to market-local servers which boosts again SEO in local markets. This isn't possible for directories.

          Do you share my thoughts Ryan? As said, this is a very hot topic for me at this moment.

          P.S. I will definitely reach out for recommendations - thank you.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • tomypro
            tomypro @seoug_2005 last edited by

            Atul,

            What I mean by it is that all domains hosted under the same server IP (=dedicated root server) have experienced significant ranking drops that seem tied to a global penalty.

            However it is questionable if Google would be considering this a valid approach given the probability that other domains could be hosted under the same IP that are not associated with the to-be-penalized URL.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • tomypro
              tomypro @seoug_2005 last edited by

              Atul,

              What I mean by it is that all domains hosted under the same server IP (=dedicated root server) have experienced significant ranking drops that seem tied to a global penalty.

              However it is questionable if Google would be considering this a valid approach given the probability that other domains could be hosted under the same IP that are not associated with the to-be-penalized URL.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • seoug_2005
                seoug_2005 @RyanKent last edited by

                Ryan, i would like to know what is meant by IP specific penalty ?

                tomypro seoug_2005 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • RyanKent
                  RyanKent @tomypro last edited by

                  Due to the penalties we have been considering moving everything under one umbrella and manage local sites in directories e.g. .com/es/keyword1 .com/de/keyword2 - however until the penalties hit the url approach has worked very well for us. Any thoughts?

                  Generally speaking, you will achieve the best results by consolidating your sites under one domain with a dedicated folder for each country as you described. I would recommend delaying the move until you are sure your sites are not under any penalty.

                  The advantage you will receive with a single root domain is the consolidation of your Domain Authority. It sounds like your sites were doing well before the penalty. The higher DA can help even further.

                  The internationalized sites are each hosted with a different root domain keyword1.es keyword2.de - are you still confirming that this should not be causing duplicate content penalties?

                  Correct, as long as the sites are properly set up to target their target countries. Sites which are dedicated to a specific locale and language would not normally compete in SERPs with other sites that offer similar content in another country and language.

                  Does your company have that experience and do you provide such services?

                  While I appreciate the inquiry, my resources have been already dedicated for the remainder of this month. You could take a look at the SEOmoz directory. Please note that anyone can list their company in the directory. A listing is not an endorsement.

                  If you desire a further recommendation you can send me a message on SEOmoz and I will respond. I can share a few names of SEOs whom I have confidence in based on their Q&A responses, blogs and reputation if that would be helpful.

                  tomypro 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • tomypro
                    tomypro last edited by

                    Ryan,

                    Thank you for your thoughtful answers. Couple of clarifications:

                    The internationalized sites are each hosted with a different root domain keyword1.es keyword2.de - are you still confirming that this should not be causing duplicate content penalties? Due to the penalties we have been considering moving everything under one umbrella and manage local sites in directories e.g. .com/es/keyword1 .com/de/keyword2 - however until the penalties hit the url approach has worked very well for us. Any thoughts?

                    I should clarify the comment on auto-linkbuilding. The company used LinkAssistant to research potential partners, i.e. a lot of link solicitation emails were sent but the actual link building was still performed manually only with legitimate and contetn relevant partners.

                    We are not working with our old SEO agency any longer and have been reaching out to a couple of external SEO resources/experts but have not been presented with a conclusive, convincing concept to resolve the issues. I guess it takes a resource with experience in handling Google penalties to do the job. Does your company have that experience and do you provide such services?

                    RyanKent 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • RyanKent
                      RyanKent last edited by

                      Is there something like an IP specific Google penalty that can apply to web properties across an IP or can we assume Google just picked all pages registered at Google Webmaster?

                      Think of Google as an intelligent business. They have processes which algorithmically penalize websites. They also have systems which flag sites for manual review. When a penalty is deemed appropriate it is possible for it to be applied on any number of factors such as an IP address, a Google account, a domain, etc. It depends on how widespread of a violation has occurred.

                      What is the most likely cause for our penalty given the background information? Given the drops started already in November 2010 we doubt that the Panda updates had any correlation t this issue?

                      You mentioned a few points which can potentially lead to a penalty. I am not clear from your post, but is sounds like you may be linking to casino and gambling sites. While those sites may be legitimate, many have a reputation for using black hat SEO techniques.

                      If you want to remove a penalty, be certain that you do not provide a followed link to any questionable site. When you provide a followed link to a site, you are basically saying "I trust this site. It is a good site and I endorse it". If you are found to offer a link to a "bad" site, your site can be penalized.

                      What are the best ways to resolve our issues at this point? We have significant history data available such as tracking records etc. Our actions so far were reducing external links, on page links, and C-class internal links

                      Hire a professional SEO to review your site. You want to review every page to ensure your site is within Google's guidelines. I am highly concerned about your site's links to external sites. I am also concerned about the automated link building that your current SEO has been doing. A professional SEO company should not lead your site to incur a penalty. I am having difficulty understanding how this happened in the first place, how it has not been fixed in almost a year, and how this SEO company is building links for you. Frankly, it's time to consider a new SEO company.

                      Translating content to other languages is fine. You can take the exact same article and offer a translated version for each language, and even country. For example you can offer a Spanish version for your Spain site, and a different Spanish version for your Mexico site. As long as these sites are targeting specific countries then there is no duplicate content issues.

                      After all this time wo/ resolution, should we be moving on two new domains and forwarding all content as 301s to the new pages? Are the things we need to try first?

                      The penalty would follow to your new domain.

                      The external linking structure of the pages is very keyword and main-page focused, i.e. 90% of the external links link to the front page with one particular keyword

                      Not good at all.

                      Summary: your site needs careful, professional review by a SEO professional who adheres to white hat techniques. Every day your site is penalized you are losing traffic and money. The cost you pay to fix this issue may be extremely small in comparison to the amount of revenue you have lost.

                      seoug_2005 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 5
                      • 1 / 1
                      • First post
                        Last post

                      Got a burning SEO question?

                      Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                      Start my free trial


                      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.

                      • See all categories

                      Related Questions

                      • NathalieBr

                        Too many dofollow links = penalty?

                        Hi. I currently have 150 backlinks, 90% of them are dofollow, while only 10% are nofollow. I recently hit position #10 for my main keyword, but now it is dropped to #16 and a lot of related keywords are gone. So I have a few questions: 1. Was my website penalized for having an unnatural backlink profile (too many dofollow links), or maybe this drop in positions is just a temporary, natural thing? 2. Isn’t it too late for making the backlink profile look more natural by building more nofollow backlinks and making it 50%/50%? Thank you!

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | NathalieBr
                        0
                      • PhotoMattJames

                        Significant "Average Position" dips in Search Console each time I post on Google My Business

                        Hi everyone, Several weeks ago I noticed that each Wednesday my site's Average Position in Search Console dipped significantly. Immediately I identified that this was the day my colleague published and back-linked a blog post, and so  we spent the next few weeks testing and monitoring everything we did. We discovered that it was ONLY when we created a Google My Business post that the Average Position dipped, and on the 1st July we tested it one more time. The results were the same (please see attached image). I am 100% confident that Google My Business is the cause of the issue, but can't identify why. The image I upload belongs to me, the text isn't spammy or stuffed with keywords, the Learn More links to my own website, and I never receive any warnings from Google about the content. I would love to hear the community's thoughts on this and how I can stop the issue from continuing. I should note, that my Google My Business insights are generally positive i.e. no dips in search results etc. My URL is https://www.photographybymatthewjames.com/ Thanks in advance Matthew C0000OTrpfmNWx8g

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | PhotoMattJames
                        0
                      • theseolab

                        Whats up with google scrapping keywords metrics

                        I've done a bit of reading on google now "scrapping" the keywords metrics from the analytics. I am trying to understand why the hell they would do that? To force people to run multiple adwords campaign to setup different keywords scenario? It just doesn't make sense to me...If i am a blogger or i run an ecommerce site...and i get a lot of visit regarding a particular post through a keyword they clicked on organically. Why would Google wanna hide this from people? It's great Data for us to carry on writing relevant content that appeals to people and therefore serves the need of those same people? There is the idea of doing White Hat SEO and focus on getting strong links and great content etc... How do we know we have great content if we are not seeing what is appealing to people in terms of keywords and how they found us organically... Is google trying to squash SEO as a profession? What do you guys think?

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | theseolab
                        0
                      • bjs2010

                        Does IP Blacklist cause SEO issues?

                        Hi, Our IP was recently blacklisted - we had a malicious script sending out bulk mail in a Joomla installation. Does it hurt our SEO if we have a domain hosted on that IP? Any solid evidence? Thanks.

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | bjs2010
                        0
                      • LeverSEO

                        Footer Link in International Parent Company Websites Causing Penalty?

                        Still waiting to look at the analytics for the timeframe, but we do know that the top keyword dropped on or about April 23, 2012 from the #1 ranking in Google - something they had held for years, and traffic dropped over 15% that month and further slips since. Just looked at Google Webmaster Tools and see over 2.3MM backlinks from "sister" compainies from their footers.  One has over 700,000, the rest about 50,000 on average and all going to the home page, and all using the same anchor text, which is both a branded keyword, as well as a generic keyword, the same one they ranked #1 for. They are all "nofollows" but we are trying to confirm if the nofollow was before or after they got hit, but regardless, Google has found them. To also add, most of sites are from their international sites, so .de, .pl, .es, .nl and other Eurpean country extensions. Of course based on this, I would assume the footer links and timing, was result of the Penguin update and spam. The one issue, is that the other US "sister" companies listed in the same footer, did not see a drop, in fact some had increase traffic.  And one of them has the same issue with the brand name, where it is both a brand name and a generic keyword.  The only note that I will make about any of the other domains is that they do not drive the traffic this one used to. There is at least a 100,000+ visitor difference among the main site, and this additional sister sites also listed in the footer. I think I'm on the right track with the footer links, even though the other sites that have the same footer links do not seem to be suffering as much, but wanted to see if anyone else had a different opinion or theory. Thanks!
                        Jen Davis

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | LeverSEO
                        0
                      • Bodie

                        Google places VS position one ranking above the places.

                        Hi Guys, Will creating a new Google places listing for a business have any effect their current position one spot for their major geo location keyword? I.e restaurants perth - say they are ranking no 1 above all the places listings if they set up a places listing would they lose that position and merge with all the other places accounts? Or would they have that listing as well as the places listing? I have been advised it could be detrimental to set up the places account if this is the case does anyone know any ways around this issue as the business really needs a places page for google maps etc. Appreciate some guidance Thanks. BC

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Bodie
                        0
                      • penn73

                        Penalised by Google - Should I Redirect to a new domain?

                        Last month my rankings dropped a couple of pages on Google and am no longer receiving as many visits from Google as I used to. It's coming up to summer which is the time my business naturally picks up yet I can't fix this problem. I have a crazy idea of redirecting my established site onto a new domain in hopes that the penalty would be removed. I have tried removing any manipulative links yet my ranking are not coming back. Anyone had success in redirecting to a new domain?

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | penn73
                        0
                      • BonsaiMediaGroup

                        Can you set up a Google Local account under a PO Box?

                        I have a client that wants a Google local listing in a town he serves but does not have a physical location.  Is it an issue to share an address with an existing company?  Is is it better to use a P.O. Box? or is there a forwarding address company? Is this considered a black hat Local SEO tactic?

                        White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BonsaiMediaGroup
                        0

                      Get started with Moz Pro!

                      Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                      Start my free trial
                      Products
                      • Moz Pro
                      • Moz Local
                      • Moz API
                      • Moz Data
                      • STAT
                      • Product Updates
                      Moz Solutions
                      • SMB Solutions
                      • Agency Solutions
                      • Enterprise Solutions
                      Free SEO Tools
                      • Domain Authority Checker
                      • Link Explorer
                      • Keyword Explorer
                      • Competitive Research
                      • Brand Authority Checker
                      • MozBar Extension
                      • MozCast
                      Resources
                      • Blog
                      • SEO Learning Center
                      • Help Hub
                      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                      • How-to Guides
                      • Moz Academy
                      • API Docs
                      About Moz
                      • About
                      • Team
                      • Careers
                      • Contact
                      Why Moz
                      • Case Studies
                      • Testimonials
                      Get Involved
                      • Become an Affiliate
                      • MozCon
                      • Webinars
                      • Practical Marketer Series
                      • MozPod
                      Connect with us

                      Contact the Help team

                      Join our newsletter
                      Moz logo
                      © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                      • Accessibility
                      • Terms of Use
                      • Privacy

                      Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.