(updated) Huge Drop in Traffic Related to DMCA...?
-
(update: How would I know if someone has filed a DMCA Takedown Request? There is no message on Webmaster Tools. The reason I ask is because a few months back my client's old SEO threatened him with copyright infringement, and I believe the date of the threatening letter coincides with our drop in traffic. Coincidence?)
We've been increasing traffic for a pest control client on a very consistent basis throughout the year. However, in October we noticed a drop but I honestly didn't dig too deeply into the issue. In November we saw another drop...a very large drop...in traffic. Since September, we've lost 50% of search traffic.
We've lost specifically branded search traffic, which baffles me. What are some reasons for losing branded search traffic? I've consulted the client and asked if there is anything happening within the business that I should know about, but things seem to pretty normal as far as he can tell.
We are also losing rankings dramatically. We've had two locations on Google Places pending for over a month, which I've consulted Google about but, of course, have received no response.
The strangest part is that SEOMoz is showing our errors on site have increased dramatically, when we have done nothing new or different over these past few months. It's been business as usual, and yet we are losing traffic, rankings, and errors have gone up.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! http://www.MagicPest.com
Thank you!
-
Yep, this definitely is an issue that we are painstakingly working through. The old SEO really did a number on their content. Thanks so much!
-
It has to be something related to their recent algo updates.
This little chunk of text might be your problem as it is showing up on most pages - http://screencast.com/t/3SakXPlpL.
1. This is duplicate content.
2. It also looks like keyword stuffing
3. More than the suggested amount of links
4. Google might be viewing it as an excessive and unnatural internal linking strategy
I can't guarantee this is the main cause of the problems, but it might be contributing to it. Google's just getting way more picky about this stuff
-
Thanks Streamline Metrics! Yes, the drop has been across all keywords. I've checked our branded rankings and they have remained the same as branded traffic has decreased. And yes, I did check Google Webmaster Tools and do not see anything fishy, although it does appear that Google is crawling less pages, though not sure why. It's got to be the recent Google updates.
-
Usually a drop in branded traffic can be attributed to a change in offline advertising, such as ending TV or radio commercials or flyers in those coupon magazines. But if the client says everything has remained the same, then I'm not 100% sure what to tell you without actually digging into the data. Did you notice a similar drop in non-branded keywords? Or only branded terms?
Have you claimed your site in Google Webmaster Tools? Have you gotten any messages from Google about possible penalties (usually from unnatural linkbuilding), site errors or even possible malware?
Also, there have been several Panda updates/refreshes the past few months, which may have had an impact on your site if you have several pages with low quality content.
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
-
What is the best way to change the URL along with the brand name change & having a minimal affect on the traffic
We are changing our brand name & hence our URL should change as well What is the best way to do that keeping in view we donot want to take a hit on the existing traffic to our ecommerce site as we get a good revenue from the site. Can someone give me the best strategy to approach this or share there experience with a similar issue they have dealt earlier
Technical SEO | | sharp_instincts1 -
Image Search / sudden drop in traffic
One of our sites in Germany had a very sudden drop in traffic (starting Oct. 7th). The site gets most of it's organic traffic from Image Search. Checking in Search Console revealed that search volume for keywords increased in that period our average position is stable our click rate dropped dramatically (we double checked - searching the keyword in "anonymous mode" still showed our results for main keywords in top image positions (first 2 rows)). As an example (see attached screencopy) - keyword had clickrate of 1% (average) - dan dropped to 0.06% while the position remained stable. Germany is still using the "old" version of image search (unlike the rest of the world) - which gives the site preview rather than just the image slider when you click on a result in image search. Our first thought that this was changed - but it seems that it didn't change. Ideas what might cause this dramatic drop in click%? There have been no major technical modifications on the site for the last 2 months. thanks, Dirk GjlV8CW.jpg
Technical SEO | | DirkC0 -
Is it good practice to update your disavow file after a penalty is removed.
I was wondering if you could use the disavow file by adding to it - even after your site has recovered from a partial site penalty. As a recurring SEO procedure, we are always looking at links pointing to our Website. We then ascertain those links that are clearly of no value. In order to clean these up, would it be good practice to update your disavow file with more of theses domains. Is the disavow file just used for penalty issues to alert google of the work you have done? (we have had penalty in the past but fine now) Would this method help in keeping high quality links to the fore and therefore removing low quality links from Googles eyes? I would welcome your comments.
Technical SEO | | podweb0 -
Why is my business website site dropping down the ranking
Hi, i have a business site which is dropping down the ratings and I would like your help in understanding why. I know a business site is different from other sites such as news sites and blogs where the front page changes all the time. I would like to know what is the best way to get google to visit the site on a regular basis, should i have a page that changes all the time or should i keep changing all the pages on the site. One of the important pages was always number one in google and now we are number 11 http://www.clairehegarty.co.uk/virtual-gastric-band-with-hypnotherapy any help and advice on how to combat dropping in the rankings would be a great help
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
New EMD update effected my mom's legit author page? From page 1 in SERP to nowhere for her name
I think my mom's site, MargaretTerry.com was hit by this update for her name "Margaret Terry". Went from bouncing around the first page on google.com and .ca all the time to nowhere on the index. The results are now very strange, a mix of Youtube, linked in, and small book stores that she has done events at recently to promote her first book. I was checking after some of my SEO buddys were freaking out about their EMD's getting hit on Sunday. She is an aspiring author with a book coming out this month. There is obviously no ads or spam content on the site... I have never done SEO for it either except a bit of on page I guess. It sucks that people might be grabbing her book soon and when they Google her name nothing shows up. This couldn't have really happened at a worse time. Not to mention the hours spent building the site to her liking, free of charge of course 🙂 Is there anyone I can contact there to help me out? Shouldn't and EMD that is someones name still rank when you search their name?
Technical SEO | | Operatic0 -
Advice on Linking to an Adult Related Website
I have a question regarding whether or not Google would penalize my main website for linking to a website that has adult content. The site I am linking to is not a porn site, rather it is a site that sells web site templates for adult related stores selling sexy toys, videos, etc. For example my site that is linking to the adult related website is here: http://www.websitetemplatedesign.com/ and the link to the site is in the footer at the bottom left which is an icon. And it links to http://www.adultsextemplates.com/ Im just looking for advice as to whether or not this could be a penalty or not. I did suffer major SERP loss in the last month and Im trying to find what I am doing that may have caused this. Any advice would be appreciated.
Technical SEO | | jmccommas0 -
Does anyone use buzzfeed to creat links traffic and increase brand
Hi i would like to know if anyone uses http://www.buzzfeed.com to create links, gain traffic and increase brand awareness. I have signed up for an account but cannot get it to work and would like some help. I can get my content on there but cannot manage to get the links to work I signed up for this account a while back and a friend shown me how to use it but i have forgotten. here is my page http://www.buzzfeed.com/lifestylemagazine some links work and some links do not. what i am trying to do is to publish stories from my site as well as other sites and have the link included where you press the title and it goes to the site any help would be great
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
My site has dropped three places in one day i do not understand it
Hi our site has always been either number one in google or at the bad times number two for the search word gastric band hypnotherapy but today we have dropped three places and we do not understand what has happened Can anyone please have a look and see what we need to do to get back on top. the site that is above us does not have much information on the subject so we are very puzzled here is our site www.clairehegarty.co.uk/virtual-gastric-band-with-hypnotherapy many thanks
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860