Drastic Difference between Ranking in Seomoz Keyword Ranking and non-personalized Google US Search
-
Hi everybody,
for some of our keywords we saw a huge drop in ranking in the Seomoz Dashboard, yet when performing a non-personalized Google US search we still hold our old positions. Now, I am worried whether this is an upcoming Google penalty or just some bug in the latest crawl.
Did anybody ever experience something similar and how could we find out if we were indeed penalized by Google (as we did some major linkbuilding campaign for these keywords recently)?
Cheers and a major thanks for your suggestions,
Tobias
-
Hi Nick,
major thanks! That sounds like a great way forward and I'll file a reconsideration request!
Luckily, the drop only showed for some internal landing pages and not the domain in general.
Cheers from Germany and another thanks,
Tobias
-
A 30 or more place drop does seem like a penalty might be in place. If you are only seeing the drop for some keywords and not everything, a 30 or 50 position drop could be an "over promotion" penalty. I have to admit I haven't done thorough research on the so called 30 or 50 penalties, but the belief is that if you have too many of the same anchor texts in your inbound links as is often the case with bulk directory submissions, you will lose 30 places with this penalty. In extreme cases it can be 50. I guess that could happen if your page is keyword stuffed too.
Again, I have no proof other than some anecdotal evidence - I had a client who prior to working with me hired a "1000s of back links" scammer who did indeed submit to about 1000 junky directories with the exact same keyword anchor text for each. Once those links started showing up, the site's position for that keyword went off a cliff.
If that sounds like your situation, you could try sending a Reconsideration Request through Google's Webmaster Central. They will usually get back to you within a few weeks with a message that either no manual penalty has been imposed, or if there is one, hopefully they will tell you why.
-
Hi Nick,
thanks for your thoughts! The localization is definitly something to consider, yet the drop we experienced was more than 30 places for a few keywords while others remained unchanged. Therefore I fear that there are some "worse" reasons behind this drop. The thing about information distribution to 3rd party tools might be another good lead particularly as we did not see the drop when performing a non-personalized Google search.
Do you happen to have suggestions on how to find out about Google penalties?
Best,
Tobias
-
I have been seeing a lot of that kind of thing too, but not just with SEOMoz tools. I think something is up with Google in some way. My theories so far are - some kind of algorithm adjustment that has only partially rolled out, a change in how Google releases info to 3rd party tools, or the conspiracy theory: a change in how personalization is handled so that no search isn't at least a little personalized.
Considering Google's recent announcement about limiting search query and referrer data to Adwords tracking only, I am thinking it is an overall shuffling around of things at Google.
Here's a link to a question I asked about a similar problem where my non-personalized local searches were not looking as good as the various keyword position tools I use. Kind of the reverse of your issue, but I think it may have a similar cause, whatever that may be: http://www.seomoz.org/q/local-searches-done-from-outside-of-local-area-better-than-searches-from-within-local-area
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
-
Which is the better keyword strategy? Specifying page or seeing what ranks?
I recently began using another third-party tool that requires a list of keywords and the URLs I want those keywords to rank on (for example, "vegetarian recipes" on www.123.com/vegetarian-recipes). Is this a better strategy than using the Moz ranking tool to see which pages on my domain my target keywords are already ranking for? I can see how the former might mean we miss opportunities but the latter doesn't necessarily show how my priority pages are doing for specific keywords.
Moz Pro | | RikkiAyers1 -
.com vs. .us for the same company in the US?
How does google react when there is a .com and a .us in the same geographic area as with the United States? Wouldn't google prefer the .com over the.us? Even with different content on the site, I would think google would choose one over the other. Would you have to use a 301 redirect or would just geotargeting do it? I'm not interested in using both just to use them, there is discussion between a US corporation and it's US region.
Moz Pro | | CC_Dallas0 -
How do you run ranks now for clients that aren't in your local area now that Google customizes search results based on location?
How do you run ranks now for clients that aren't in your local area now that Google customizes search results based on location? What tool/service have you found that gives accurate rank results? To me it seems like there is no guaranteed global #1position any more, or is this the situation for only certain types of searches? Likewise how can anyone tool give a global accurate rank score?
Moz Pro | | greengroup0 -
Seomoz crawler problems
I have had Seomoz for about a month. It has crawled about 1000 pages. I have about 10,000 pages total for the site. Why are these others being a problem? I have contacted help but the guy isn't any help, we have just been going back and forth for the last two weeks. Any suggestions?
Moz Pro | | EcommerceSite0 -
Video SERP and Seomoz ranking
It seems that my keywords that lead to videoresults in SERP, is not being ranked on Seomoz! How come when i rank #3 on a certain keyword with a videoresult Seomoz is displaying me as #15 (which is the second of my pages in SERP)? What is the reason for not counting the video-result in the ranking-tool?
Moz Pro | | alsvik0 -
Why have my rankings dropped on my keyword report but there is no change for the same keywords on google??
I received a keyword ranking report over the weekend, was horrified to see some of my keywords have dropped ranks by 20+ for some 😮 I checked them on google and they haven't moved (confused.com) Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Moz Pro | | Anthonykal-group0 -
A tool for seeing all the keywords a website ranks for
As title, is there a tool out there that will allow you to see all the keywords a website ranks for in the first few pages of a particlur search engine? I would be particularly interested for keywords in the first 10 pages of Google. Thanks
Moz Pro | | blagger0