Has anyone recovered from Panda?
-
My two websites were unaffected by the original and 2.0 panda updates, but istring in June my traffic has been down around 30%. In analyzing it appears that my long tail searches have been greatly impacted. So it looks like I am a victim of the mighty panda.My main site, www.uncontesteddivorce-nyc.com is in my opinion a decent looking site, with unique content and no ads, etc., but for whatever reason it has been negatively affected. There might be some duplication of content between certain pages and also my links are all or practically all directory links, though a lot are pretty heavy duty directories.
I see a lot of stuff written giving advice on how to recover from Panda. Has anyone actually done so? How did you do it?
thx
Paul
-
I looked at the links Interestingly someone said that Wordpress sites have been hit particularlyhard. I know that wordpress sites do tend to have problems with duplicate content due to the categories and tags, etc., so that might have something to do with it. Also someone else said that even if your site is not hurt if the sites linking to you are, that this would hurt your traffic. This might be my situation as my decline in traffic is more moderate than what others have reported whose own sites were bitten by Panda.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
-
The only thing that I think a lot of people would have a problem with is your statement that using wordpress is spammy
I believe WordPress had a recent blog post that said around 10% of websites on the Internet are using their platform. That's not the problem of course! Using the free themes (I see a link in your footer) degrades a website. The sitewide link is taking value from each page, and then of course being a free theme it begs the question if the business is legitimate.
I'll be honest: I only paid mind to the first Panda update. I haven't been affected by the first or subsequent updates so I stopped following it, so I can't give you specific advice on how others have seen it through.
Here is a discussion to get you started, though:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4305793.htm
Here is a poll that shows interesting results about recovery:
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-recovery-poll-13456.html
Juicy content from SEOmoz:
-
I very much appreciate the honest critique. The only thing that I think a lot of people would have a problem with is your statement that using wordpress is spammy. The rest of your remarks make a lot of sense. But what I am looking for is not just anecdotal "makes sense" speculation type stuff but does anyone have any "hard" experienced of how they redic their site to recover from Panda? It seems that all there is out there is a lot of guesswork based upon Google's public statements, which most of us take with a grain of salt. But once again, very good and helpful response.
Paul
-
Put yourself in Google's shoes: doesn't your website structure and content look familiarly like a content farm? I'm not saying your website is one, but it gives the vibe for several different reasons.
First, the domain is clearly overly-targeted towards keywords. That's a big giveaway that the website is probably not a legitimate business. If you are an attorney, you should instead have a domain registered for your company name. Have branding.
You are using a free WordPress theme. Content farms largely run WordPress because it's so easy to install across many different domains and manage them all with little effort. Content farms grab free themes because, well, they are free. Shouldn't a legitimate business have it's own web design?
You don't have a business listing in Google. When I search for your address I don't see your domain come up. Create one and verify your business number.
Give your website a more personal touch. Your admin name is uncontesteddivorceny. Create an author bio if you plan on having multiple authors, but at the very least use your real name.
To sum up the onpage stuff: it looks like you tried too hard to game the system. If I saw this listing in Google when searching for an actual attorney, I would quickly press back and block your website from appearing in my results again. I mean this criticism constructively.
And then of course there is the external SEO. I only took a brief glance, but it looks like all of your links are from directories, video channels, and comment spam. None of this looks good. Get endorsements from any organizations and websites you can that are actually authoritative. I don't know your industry well enough to give specific advice on this, however.
To answer your question, yes people recover from Panda. But if you are doing SEO right you never had to recover in the first place. SEOmoz has great articles to help you out if you aren't sure where to start.
Cheers.
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
-
Google Panda July 2016
Hi Does anyone know what impact the recent slow Panda roll out may have? Obviously content, but would it perhaps include engagement/user behaviour factors regarding your on page content too? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Anyone have experience with using HTTPS compared to HTTP and how it could affect rankings?
Are there any negative or positive effects of using https over http when it comes to rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | classifiedtech0 -
Trying to recover from a ranking crash
My site was well established and I'd built up some good rankings in Google using link building and onsite optimization. Then last year it completely fell out of the rankings except for a few keywords. There were some suspicious links but nothing that seemed too toxic, no warnings from Webmaster Tools. 9 months later I still haven't recovered. The site is well optimized. Any ideas?
Algorithm Updates | | Infogenix0 -
Did anyone else notice all their keyword rankings go down after the last Panda refresh on January 17th 2013?
Even before January 17th I noticed my keyword ranking slowly going from the top 3 to around 8, 9 and 10. Then between January 15 and January 30th, (SEO MOZ) is not showing the exact date) they all went down to the second page and worse. The rankings dropped for an e-commerce website petsspark.com. They sell a tear stain removal product which is a pretty competitive market. After January i started to notice that Google was starting to rank blogs, forums, overal product review websites and of course amazon, better than me and my competitors. Was anyone else effected by the panda refresh or have any idea what may have gone wrong? Please help ScreenShot2013-04-10at50852PM.png?t=1365628252
Algorithm Updates | | DTOSI1 -
SEPRs drop from 2nd to 4th after Panda, What steps should i take?
Hi, My blog was on the 2nd or 3rd position on Google Search for my 2 word keyword for many countries. But after Panda Update, First i noticed 500-700 visitor drop on my site daily. Then i saw my blog is now on the 4th or on the 5th even 7th position of Google Search. So what step should i take now, i ran the on-page optimization and i have 5 easy fix, i can fix 2-3 out of them, One of them suggesting this: Keyword should be in front of the title, like: Keyword: Elephant Life Blog URL: www.cuteelephantslife.com My blog title is "Cute Elephants Life | Sweet stories of elephants and more" And It should be changed into "Elephants Life | Cute Stories of elephants life and more." So, As i am already on 1st page on Google for the keyword "Elephant Life", If i change the title from "Cute Elephants Life | Sweet stories of elephants and more" to "Elephants Life | Cute Stories of elephants life and more.", Will it help my ranking or it will harmmy position on SERP ? Please, suggest me what should i do to improve my blog and get better rank.
Algorithm Updates | | rimon56930 -
Google.co.uk vs pages from the UK - anyone noticed any changes?
We've started to notice some changes in the rankings of Google UK and Google pages from the UK. Pages from the UK have always typically ranked higher, however it seems like these are slipping, and Google UK pages (pages from the web) are climbing. We've noticed a similar thing happening in the Bing/Yahoo algorithm as well. Just wondered if anyone else has anyone else noticed this? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | Digirank0 -
Panda Updates?
Anyone aware of any algo updates/refreshes today? Been seeing some serp movements on .co.uk
Algorithm Updates | | PeterAlexLeigh0 -
Was I Kicked Off Google Page One by Panda/Farmer?
Took over this site in March. Got a Panicked call from client Mid-March that all of a sudden keywords that put the site on Page One weren't working. There are still 9 that work, but apparently there were more. A large percentage of the backlinks are from Article Directories and Link Farms. Is this my problem? Also, a large percentage of the 149 pages suffer from keyword stuffing and were obviously written for Search Engines and not people. How much of a difference does that make?
Algorithm Updates | | reeljerc0