Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi John,

If they were doing articles and promoting them then this is why your website has been hit. Article websites took a major hit in the update prior to Christmas and the Penguin 2.0 update last night has more than likely reaffirmed any penalty you were going to receive unfortunately. Do a backlink analysis in OSE and find all the article websites with links on and get them taken   down (if you can, obviously if you have login details then this will be easier). If you can't then use the disavow tool.

Don't forget that any onsite changes that you make, you will have to wait for Google to come back and cache the website before you see any effect. Concentrate on creating great content and look to create relationships with those in your industry and concentrate on your outreach. 5 links on relevant, topical blogs are worth a million times more than 10000 links on article websites.

page authority and domain authority are a good measure of how good a website is (but not the only measure!). Think about where your post and link are going to be in the long term. For example, if you are guest posting, the post may be on the home page for a week or 2 but then it will be archived so you need to look the inner pages of a website and look at the authority of that page.

If a website has a much higher page authority than domain authority then it's a sign to me that it isn't that good. It'd be much better to have a higher domain authority than page authority because it will show that the website has been up and running for a while.

Also look at the last time Google cached the website and the inner pages, that way you will see how often Google revisits the website and the chances of your link getting cached. Look at some popular websites and look at the domain vs page authority scores, the home page maybe slightly bigger but not that much.

Hope that helps!

Hi Jonathan,

Have you looked at the links to the page you want to rank compared to the links to the other 2 pages? it may be that the other 2 pages just have better quality links to them. If that is the case then get in touch with the webmasters and ask them to change the link.

Alternatively, if you have been building heavily to the page you want to rank, the page may have received a penalty from Google (not accusing you of doing so by the way, just a possibility!). As Mark said, if you can supply us with the URL of the 3 pages then we can have a look into it for you.

Hi Lily,

I think the first thing you need to do is a full back link analysis because it sounds as though you may have been hit a little with the Penguin/Panda updates. Have a look through your links and be really strict about the ones that you know are quality and get rid/disavow the others. That will give you a good starting block.

The next thing is, what are you going to do with this fresh content that you are producing? You need to find websites where it will add value, it doesn't necessarily have to be about the ping test but it adds to your credibility in the industry. Make sure you have your Google +1 account setup. There has been a lot of talk about it recently with Moz directors getting a bit of negative comments from Matt Cutts but it will definitely help to have a G+1 account up and running.

Just to add...it is really important that you match your new urls with your old ones so that you aren't just redirecting every page on the old website to the home page of the new one. I use Xenu to find all the old URL's and then match them to the new urls. That way all the link juice will be passed to the new pages.

Totally agree with Devanur here...there is no need for any site-wide link. If there is a link between the two websites then I wouldn't take them off but i would no-follow the link.

Hi Ali, your link building tactics have got you the penalty, I'm surprised you didn't see this drop at the end of May when Penguin 2.0 was released. You need to act quickly and get rid of all those types of links that you have created and start to focus on non-automated techniques. Start to create content that your users and customers will find useful then look at influencers in the industry to share it with, that is your first port of call.

It is vital that you get rid of all those links (article, directory, blog commenting) because they are very spammy techniques.

Vary the anchor text that you use, this includes the 3 names you mentioned and the URL of the website as well. Just keep in mind that Google wants your backlink profile to be "natural" so if the company is called NLCPA then use that as an anchor text as well.

Whatever you do, DO NOT PAY FOR LINKS!!!! If the content you have to offer is quality then they will be willing to take it. Don't just guest post for the sake of links though, if links is why you are doing it then you're wasting your time because Penguin 2.0 was released to stop people doing exactly that!

Concentrate on writing compelling and interesting copy in your website and reach out to people using it as a way of getting people to visit your website where you can then sell your products and services. If you find a website that looks good, see what kind of stats they have. If they openly say what kind of visits they get then that's good, how often to they post, look at the cache date of the website and look at the quality of the posts.

A good place to start is to look at where your competitors have links on, especially nowadays with the changes, those ranking at the top are sure to have some good links.

I'd create a page for the top cities that you feel are important however don't just create pages just to target local search terms. If each course in each city is slightly different and you can tailor your content to match each city then it would be worth doing.

What I'd do is concentrate on building to the generics versions of the keyword and you should see the localised versions appearing in the SERPS.

I agree with the previous comments and be aware that if your competitors are building dodgy links, there is a good chance that they will get a penalty in the near future! Keep the faith with natural links and you will reap the benefits in the long term. Remember, SEO is a long term strategy so compare your stats each month and make sure you are seeing an improvement...if you are seeing an increase then keep it going, don't worry too much about those above you because there isn't much you can do about them.

Google often puts new websites high up at first and then your rankings will fluctuate whilst it figures out where to place you. You should start to see some stability soon then you can put a long term strategy together.

Start to build some high quality, relevant links back to your website and this should help you stabilise your rankings.

Hi John,

In my opinion, Technorati isn't like other directories and the authority it has makes it quite unique. If you have a niche blog then it might be worth it because you won't be lost in the long list blogs that some categories have. I think they also nofollow the links to the website as well.

Whilst over-optimisation is an issue, it is more about the quality of the websites you are getting links from than the anchor text used. You could have a brand link and if it's a poor quality website, you are going to get penalised. If you haven't disavowed any links, I'd make sure that 90% of them were disavowed.

You've also got duplicate content on your website so I'd say you've been hit by a Panda refresh as well as Penguin. Type in "To assist clients in getting value from their businesses, we provide Business Critical Software and IT services within various industry verticals." to Google and you will see 4 different versions of your content.

You need to do a full backlink analysis ASAP and be ruthless in the ones you get rid of, if you wouldn't show the link to Google then it's bad. Use the disavow tool in Webmaster Tools then file a reconsideration request to Google with details of what you have done and why there were so many bad links.

It's a long road to take but if you want the website to come back into the SERP's then you are going to have to do this.

Good luck!

I'd say a product page (if it is very similar to the product that is no longer available). If you have something like "You May Also Like" on the products this would be useful to have. Only my opinion though and there is no right or wrong answer.

I'd usually say redirect it to a category page (zip code or city) straight away but from a users point of view it may not be the best thing to do. Maybe leave the page up with a sold sign and then have a "you may also like" section underneath so they know the house is gone but there are some other options, probably the best for UX. After a few weeks, I'd then 301 it to a category page.

The first thing to consider is what type of penalty the website got hit by, if it was Penguin and 99.9% links built were spam then you can leave all your links and just take the content. If it was Panda then you can't even take your content and place it on the new/old website because you'd still get found. If it was both then don't even bother redirecting anything!

I'd question the importance of the website to any business if it wasn't worth spending time on finding ALL the spam links and fixing the penalty. The reconsideration request can take a while, you may have to submit 3 or 4 requests before it gets lifted. I know this can take a considerable amount of time, effort and money but it's got to be worth it to get the business back on the right footing. Put yourself in Google's shoes, they deal with these requests every day and have got a back log so if they see ONE link that looks spammy, then they aren't going to lift the penalty. Someone is going to have to sit down and look at your link profile manually!

If the www.websitename.com has bad links and poor content, then why 301 it? I know you are doing it for the customers but you could just put a banner on the homepage saying you've moved to www.website-name.com.

Removing all links is definitely not the way to go but many people are still unsure what constitutes to a good and bad link. That company have gone about it the wrong way though!

Google still crawls and indexes "hidden content" but from a user point of view if you have to hide it then it probably isn't worth reading. From experience, we use some css to dropdown extra content when the client insists on it being there but it is too long.

If it has to be there then I don't think it will be doing any harm but if you don't need it then get rid.

A canonical tag tells Google that you are aware of the duplicate content that exists on your website and you are telling Google which page to count as the authority. Pages with a canonical tag WILL be indexed.

Websites with duplicate content can, have and will be penalised by Google, that is what Panda is all about. The canonical tag does fix this in the majority of times but if there is a way of removing any duplicate content then this is advisable.

Unfortunately this is a problem that many people have. Sometimes the best thing to do is to simply rewrite your content. I know it seems the wrong thing to do because why should you have to rewrite yours but its often the easiest thing to do. The websites with your content on will be getting penalised for copying yours not the other way around as Google will realise that your website is the authority on this.

However, you can visit https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-notice?pli=1 and file a DMCA complaint to Google. Also, have a read through this post http://blog.kissmetrics.com/keep-content-thieves-away/ as well, if you haven't already sorted out your rel=author tags then this will help you.

Good luck!

Have you tried using Whois to find the contact details?

If you disavow the domain rather than an individual page in the disavow tool, you shouldn't have to update the file every time they take one of your feeds. I don't think there is anything you can do to stop them taking it though unfortunately.

What content is going to be duplicated? The reviews?

The best way would be to add a canonical tag to the website. You need to identify the main page the content is going to be on then add the canonical tag. For example, If you have 4 pages with similar content then pick the page that has more authority and canonicalise the others to that page.

Here's more info on the canonical tag https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en

I wouldn't waste your time to be honest. Article directories, even Ezine Articles, took a huge hit and I honestly don't think they even drive that much traffic. We used to use them a while back and they drove hardly any traffic so I'd focus on other areas. If you are going to the effort of creating unique content, use it as a way of attracting people to your website, you'll get much better results from it.

Just make sure that your posts are relevant to the blog you are posting on and that the links match the blog post you are writing. In terms of the benefit, because they are going to different pages on your website there is some benefit to be had.

Hi,

I can seem pretty hard to get some quality links nowadays but I think the best thing to do is not to think of it as "getting links" and to think about where your content will be seen by your potential/existing customers. Guest blogging can still be useful because if it is on a relevant and powerful blog then there is a good chance that people will read your post, realise you have a good knowledge on the subject and look for more information.

The secret is to give enough information about the subject you are writing about but enough in reserve to make readers want to know more. Think about creating some content (without the subject of the website you are looking to build for it is hard to be specific) and adding it to your website. As saw this before on Direct Travel's website (www.direct-travel.co.uk/infographic/uk-aviation) and thought it'd be a good example. They created this infographic and they can now contact different travel-related websites to ask them to link to this page. On the page where you create the "linkable asset", make sure you have details about the products/services you offer because you want to entice people to search through the website and ultimately convert.

This is just one way of getting links but it can be quite successful if you find the right type of content.

Hope that helps!

When you are looking to post content or get links from anywhere, look at the potential of the website as well as the stats. Yes, it is really good if they have a high DA and PA because it will tell you that it is an established website but it is not the be all and end all. Look at the social presence of a website/blog, whether they tweet the story or post it on facebook, look at how many posts they have made and how regularly they are posting and what they are posting about. This will tell you much more about the blog/website.

If you are really interested in posting then why not ask them how many readers, sign ups, followers, visits etc they have/get because if your post is just going to sit on a website and nobody reads it then your time is best spent elsewhere. So a blog maybe new and therefore only has a DA of 10, but they may have many followers and a high readership count so the post will be useful.

All the points made are great and I'd just add one more thing...look at the average length of the blog/website that the post is going on. Like EGOL said, on Moz, most posts are around 1000 words so that's what you should aim for but for another blog, they may want something longer or shorter. Match the content and length to the blog it is going on, that way you are adding value to the blog and not just blogging for links.

hi,

Well done on getting your first link, it's good to see people using the right techniques in order to gain links. Looking at stats of a page is a decent gauge of the quality but I also recommend our clients to look at the website as a whole. When deciding whether your to get a link from a website consider the following;

1. Does your links and content match what is already on the website? It has to look natural and fit in with the theme of the website.

2. What are the other posts like? Do they look paid? if so then you may be submitting your content to the wrong website. Are the links followed or no-followed?

3. Are people commenting on posts? You want people to interact with your posts because that is how you attract people to your website.

4. Is the website pushing your content through social channels? Ideally you want this so your post gets maximum exposure.

If you consider these 4 things when you are looking to push your content then you should be fine. To summarise,check the website for these 4 things are you'll know how much traction your post is going to get. If it ticks 3 or 4 of these points then I'd say it was 2 hours well spent!

Good luck.

Whoever gave you that advice is an idiot and is clearly inexperienced in the internet marketing field. However, EGOL is right that, to find out why they outrank you, we'd need to know a lot more about the industry you are in, what your website/your competitors websites are like.

Thats SEO in the modern times for you!! Its all about the quality of your website and the quality of your links. That doesn't mean you will never compete with these websites but it will take time. Use the crawl reports on SEOmoz and make sure that you at least have your website in the best possible conditions.

Remember, its quality of quantity so dont be tempted to just build thousands of spammy links or you will never compete with them.

Hi Peter,

As Martijn said, if you can supply us with more info then we can help out. What is the website? When did this happen? what link building activities have been utilised on the website?

a no-follow tag just means that the link won't pass any link juice, if you don't want Google/SEOmoz to crawl then you'll have to no-index the pages or disallow the URL's in Webmaster Tools

Hi Douglas,

Have you used the keyword tool to find the exact match figures? They may be industry standard terms but if the search volume is low then there may be less traffic than you think.

By highly, do you mean in positions 1-3? If so then it would point to the fact that there is little traffic to be gained and you would be best moving on to another keyword. if you are lower than that, it may be that the websites above you are very good at converting visits into sales.

I know, it's frustrating and probably happened to all ethical SEO'ers at some point. Keep at it, you'll be rewarded! Good luck for the future

We are going through the same thing at the moment and have opted to use the rel= alternate hreflang=x tag. There is more info on it on this Google page for you https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

Hi Peter,

I had a look at your backlink profile and there are more non-branded keywords than branded keywords so that will have set the alarm bells for Google. Every website should have considerable more branded links than keyword rich anchor text links because it is natural for someone to link to your website via your brand name or URL.

Hi Ciaran,

Welcome to the SEO world!!

Moz's ranking software shows you were you rank, the >50 you mentioned is how much it has risen/dropped since they last crawled the website. I use Advanced Web Ranking for my keywords, its not free but does as many keywords as you like. However, if you are only managing 1 account then use Moz's ranking tool

Hi Robert,

It seems like your strategy is right now and you were unfortunate to hire an agency that has resulted in the penalty. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I have seen websites that have never recovered from a penalty, even after having the reconsideration request accepted. However, looking on the positive side, and with the links you are/have built there shouldn't be any reason why you shouldn't start to see a recovery.

When you got them to remove the links, did they get them removed or use the disavow tool. The problem with using the disavow tool is that some agencies aren't sure what is a good link and what is a bad link so if they just got rid of everything then you have effectively started from scratch but with a penalty hanging over your head so it is going to be hard to rank again.

Look at your backlink profile again and compare it to what it was before the penalty (if possible) and then see if you still have any links that look suspect. Any article directores or poor quality directories that are still there, get them taken down.

100% in agreement with Alan here. Reconsideration request and the disavow tool DO work and we have used them on 2 clients with proof. It can take anything from 4-12 months for you to actually see the positive results, they do work. Try and get the links removed first BEFORE using the disavow tool because Google wants to see that you have made an effort to get them removed rather than just take the easy way around!

It is true that you won't get responses from them all, especially if it is article websites where the webmaster rarely does anything on the site itself. That is when you use the disavow tool, just make sure that you are 100% certain that the links are doing your website harm.

Be honest though and look at which links are spammy and do your up-most to get them removed first. It takes time and a lot of effort but it will work....eventually!

I'd be really careful with automation software like this, you want to have 100% control over where your links go and this won't give you that. You are better finding some quality links yourself, it may take a bit longer but at least you will know where the links are and know that they are relevant. Ask yourself, "does the service really know what a quality link is and what a useful resource is?"

Directories are unlikely to get you better rankings, many directories have been devalued in recent months. Given that many of them are freemium, you are better spending your time writing a great piece of content and reaching out to bloggers/websites to help you spread the word about your brand.

1. Always start with the onpage optimisation, without it your backlinks will mean little. Think more about site speed, URL structure and user benefit because this is what will give you a better conversion rate.

2. It is possible but as Gavo said below, it depends on how competitive the keywords are. Look at interacting with people on social media, follow them, look at how they would like to be connected with and do so. For example, if some influential in your industry is talking about a particular topic, put your spin on things and get a conversation going. This will help make you an authority in this industry.

I agree with David..it seems like the drop was due to the one of the algorithm updates. Did the drop happen at the end of May by any chance? There's no way it is down to installing GA.

This is where Google gets it wrong in my opinion. The video that Matt Cutts did a few weeks ago said they were going to target key industries that are typically spammed like Payday loans but even companies on there seemed to have been missed. Also, EMD's should have been devalued but here is another example of companies dodging this.

I think the only thing to do when you operate in industries like this is to concentrate on your own website and make sure you are creating quality content to engage with customers online.

As long as you know exactly where your links are going BEFORE they go live then that's fine yes. However, if they are going to take some content and distribute it to loads of directories and websites then this will do more harm than good.

As a side note...why not get the client to contact the forum and make an official statement so they can clear up any misconceptions that a potential customer may have?

It is possible yes, your home page is where the majority of your website authority sits so if that gets penalised then other pages can be affected. Simon is right that without more details, it is hard to give you a proper answer.

If you have been doing a lot of articles recently then this may be a reason because article websites have taken a huge hit since the update in January.

I think it largely depends on the industry you are in. The important thing to remember is that SEO is a long term strategy and therefore a long term commitment.

Google is always looking to refine its searches and it will get to all industries and those who are spamming will eventually get penalised. As Penguin 2.0 has only just been released, give it a few days and you will see the true effect of it. Keep the faith (even though its hard to sometimes!)