Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi  Bongani,

Here are some extra resources that could help you understand better what happens when you do layout / website changes. This is a video by Matt Cutts posted a wile ago, it also includes some other things but it also mentions things related to the layout:

Will changing the code and layout of my pages while moving to new URLs affect their rankings?

Also, besides what EGOL said I would also add another thing:

8. Be very careful about the Wordpress theme you are going to use. It's a good thing you already mentioned that you want it high quality. Just to be sure - I would check for any embeded / hidden links. I had some unpleasent experiences even with "high quality ones".

Hi,

I used Copyscapefor these 2 pages:

http://www.ciaoitalia.nl/product/pizza-originale/mediterranea-halal
http://www.ciaoitalia.nl/product/pizza-originale/gyros-halal

And found that out of 915 and 918 words - 899 were identical in both documents.

But it's hard to say what happened previously - maybe you can give us more details?

Hi Wesley,

It's better if you do it in stages. A more gradual roll out is also recommended by Matt Cutts. His example is for 200K pages, but 65K is not so far away. I think the approach should be the same.

Check his video, it will help you understand what's better:

Should I add an archive of hundreds of thousands of pages all at once?

I hope this helps, good luck!

Yes. If your website has clear and interesting titles, more people will click on them (as compared to same repeating brand stuff). So, as more people engage with your website, the chance that they talk about your website or link to it increases.

So, this is an additional bonus you get besides the bonus you got when Google Bot understood your content better.

Hi Dan,

Yes, for sure. Assuming that the content of the news pages is unique and valuable.

Having same title gives Google Bot mixed signals which has side effects. Check this post by Rand, I think you'll understand everything:

http://moz.com/blog/how-to-solve-keyword-cannibalization

Hi Rachel,

There are some pretty cool articles written right here on Moz.

Domain Migrations: Surviving the "Perfect Storm" of Site Changes

Web Site Migration Guide - Tips For SEOs

Domain Migrations: Lessons from the Moz Transition

Achieving an SEO-Friendly Domain Migration - The Infographic

I hope this helps, good luck!

Hi Taysir,

Domain Authority is Moz's calculated metric for how well a given webpage is likely to rank in Google's search results. It uses a machine learning model to predictively find an algorithm that best correlates with rankings across the thousands of search results that we predict against.

In terms of accuracy (the level of correlation with Pagerank and other signals from Google) it's pretty good. A lot of professional SEM's are using it to get a general idea of how competitive a given site is in Google.com. But, in your case, a difference of 7 points does not say anything. If we compare two different websites which have a 7 point difference we can't say that one is ranking better than the other. One of them could focus on very specific terms and rank better there (even with a lower DA) than the other with more general approach for users.

There are a few other things that cause fluctuations in DA, which are not in your control:

• Moz says: "We constantly update the algorithm used to calculate Page Authority, so you may see your score fluctuate from time to time."

• Some of the websites you got links from might loose some of their powerful links - and even if you constantly add more, if the loss is bigger than what you gain - you will see a drop in DA

And a few more things:

• Don't rely on DA to "explain the ranking loss". It was not meant for this. Instead try to match the Mozcast Google Algorithm Change History with the drop in your rankings.

• Webmaster Tools does not tell you if you were hit by Penguin, Panda, or Hummingbird. It tells you if you have a manual penalty which is a totally different thing. If you see a drop in impressions in GWT you could be hit by any of the above. Try to do the timing check mentioned above.

Hello Chanpreet,

Like Yiannis says, it's probably related to "over optimized anchor text". To get more info you could compare your anchor text link profile with one for a competitor that still ranks well in SERP's.

Hello Eran,

I'm 100% with kadesmith at each point he covers. So we are two now (small community :). I can add a few more things:

-> It's easy to fall in the "over optimized anchor text" pit when working with directories. At least if they do it like most of the people did it in the past. I had at least 1 website penalized because of these. If I were you I would approach them in this way: I would ask for what details do they need to submit to directories and then check if they would use the same anchor text in all directories. If they use the brand name as anchor text they might be aware of last changes. If not they are probably just doing it to get some money and don't really care for what happens.

-> link velocity -> is related to the historical changes in link profiles - and it mentioned by Google in some of their patents. If people submit to directories like they did in the past they will get a lot of links in a short amount of time. Google is able to detect this, and at least in theory is able to do some interesting stuff like: temporarily rank the website lower and wait to see if the owner of the website takes action to remove the links. This is not 100% confirmed, but personally I would take it into account.

So, directories are not necessarily a problem. But if they handle it the "old school" way, then probably it will be.

Hi,

1. Like Ash said, it's probably an algorithmic ranking penalty. Especially if you do not have anything in the Manual Actions section of Webmaster Tools. Just fixing the problems will solve the ranking issues, but it will take a wile. A lot of people have experience with these kind of  issues, and they regained back the rankings. Don't worry, it can be done Just read on Moz or other SEO resources about concrete examples if you need some facts.

2. If it's a penalty caused only by the linking practices then you should not worry about the content. But be careful, because we see a lot of penalties caused by the actual content. If you paid for the content, chances are even higher. If I were you I would check:

• if there are other linking issues besides inter-blog link

• if content is really unique and has high quality.

And start fixing the problems.

Hi Bob,

Great job you're doing! I'm certain you will be able to help a lot of people.

I have some suggestions that could help you bring it to the next level. They are more like core/concept ideas:

1. Focus more on you - at a personal level

Right now the website looks more like a business - Bob provides... Bob has hundreds of hours... has helped so many thousands of people... Bob has dedicated ... I would make it more personal. I would focus to grab the user's attention with:

I belive in... this is why I do it... and try to gather an audience around me who believes the same.

There's nothing wrong with the current approach. But I think it will be very hard to get a snowballing effect and grow it to the next level. I know that you already mention beliefs there - which is good - but it's done more like the "corporate way". After a quick look over the website there's nothing actually sticking into my mind. There's a bit about NPL, weightloss, and an actual example. I know you have a lot of experience, you just have to rethink how to present it - and make it stick.

If you want to dream big - I think that this 3 books will help you a lot - Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - by Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Start With Why by Simon Sinek and Linchpin by Seth Godin.

2. Use the story

Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences (I will let you guess who said this - not my quote). With so much experience you must have a lot of stories. Start using them, they will help you a lot!

Hi Bob, some ideas for new keywords/content to cover:

weight loss before and after

weight loss attitude change

weight loss motivation quotes and pictures

Does the news item appear always in the search results on the same position (like 10th)?

If so you have a few more workarounds:

In Google Webmaster Tools look at the "Search Query" report. Do a localization in the desired country. Click on the desired keyword and look at the details. See if the impressions on different search results positions match the news spot.

There is a filter for Google Analytics that shows you the position in search results for that clicked keyword. Search "google analytics filter keyword position" on Google and if I remember right you'll find it. Maybe you can even adjust the filter to extract info about the news clicks.

Good luck!

Hi Rachel,

There are some pretty cool articles written right here on Moz.

Domain Migrations: Surviving the "Perfect Storm" of Site Changes

Web Site Migration Guide - Tips For SEOs

Domain Migrations: Lessons from the Moz Transition

Achieving an SEO-Friendly Domain Migration - The Infographic

I hope this helps, good luck!

Hi Jarrod,

You are in a very complicated situation. I hope you can find a solution.

This video posted by Matt Cutts a wile ago might help you with a few additional tips:

How can I make sure that Google knows my content is original?

- DMCA request: http://www.google.com/dmca.html

- Google News source attribution metatags: link here

- Or even spam report like Matt Cutts suggests.

Hello Joanne,

You should not worry about it, unless it's taken to an extreme.

Here's a video from Matt Cutts that explains this very clearly:

Will multiple internal links with the same anchor text hurt a site's ranking?

So basically you can't be penalized by links similar to breadcrumbs or links used for navigation. Unless their number is amazingly high. And like you said - if the pages are not keyword stuffed and they're well written - this should not be the problem.

Hi Andy,

You do not have to pay the webmasters to remove the links.

Here is a detailed article that could help you:

Google: Don't Pay The Link Mobster For Link Removals, Just Disavow Them

On the long term they will suffer if you use the dissavow tool, so it's in their interest also. The more people will use it against them the worse it will be for them!

Hello,

Yes, it looks like you might be the victim of some kind of attack.

I just have one question, are these links:

• linking to your website

• posted on your website.

If they are just links to your website, then there is an answer to all your following questions:

The Google Disavow Links Tool - https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main

You can read more about it here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en

First contact them to remove the links, if it does not work, use this tool.

If the links are posted on your website just clean everything up, then remove backdors and stuff

Here is the question you posted:

Just because the link is picked up by OSE does that mean that the search engines value it too?

The answer is very simple: no.

However, there is a relationship between the OSE data and Google data. This relationship is not causation. It's correlation. This doens't mean that if you have a link picked up by OSE it will necessarily be picked up by Google. It means that links that tend to be picked up by OSE also tend to be picked up by Google.

I hope this helps!

Hello,

It could be penguin 2.0 update on May 22. This update had more focus on local search results from what I understood. You could do some timing checks using http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change . First look in Analytics when the traffic dropped, then see if there was an algorithmic update in that proximity.

There could also be other reasons like loss of some important links.