Please help me with your advice
-
Hi all,
Couple years ago I started to build my business based on EMD domain. The intention was to create the source with the rich unique content.
After a year of hard work the site achieved top 10 in Google and started to generate good amount of leads.
Then Google announced the EMD Update and site lost the 90% of traffic (after Pandas updates our SERP was steady )
“ a new filter that tries to ensure that low-quality sites don’t rise high in Google’s search results simply because they have search terms in their domain names. ”
But I don’t consider my site low-quality site, every page, every post is 100% unique and has been created only to share the knowledge with others…
The site has EXCELLENT content from industry point of view....
Since the “ EMD Update “ I read hundreds , hundreds of different articles and opinions related to EMD update and finally I am confused and lost.
What should I do…
• Kill the site and start new one
• Get more links, but what type of links and how I should get them
• Keep hoping and pray....
• Or do something elsePlease help me with your advice
-
Thank you...I will appreciate if you will give me 10 mins of your time....i sent site to your PM
-
I have a post on the subject here - it's very long, because it's a complex subject:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-in-a-post-panda-world
We're not saying this is definitely the problem - just that you should be aware of how complicated it can get. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell without really looking at the site. A lot can happen to hurt a site's rankings, and the EMD update was just one piece of the puzzle.
-
But Panda...as far as know looking for duplicate content....and we are very careful with that for all our sites....Content is 100 unique and never been spinned, written by humans....
so i am confused more...
This is the article by M.Cutts I remeber i read it
date 3 october 2012....
after that day our site started to loose the trafic...not in 1 night but slowly..slowly...than
up to mid nov 2012 it lost about 65% ..this is why i have concluded from the begging that it was EMD -
Ah! I was thinking it was end of September because you said you were a casualty of EMD. If this happened mid November then it's definitely not EMD.
There were Panda updates November 5 and November 21. If the drop doesn't coincide with those dates then it is not due to a major algorithm change. (By major I mean Panda/Penguin as Google is constantly tweaking the algorithm.)
-
all top 10 positions were dropped in mid of november 2012.
I said 90 % ...i think the statment has been exaggerated....but 65% for sure -
The thing is that if you lost 90% of your traffic at the end of September (i.e. Sept 27/28) then the issue is very likely either EMD or Panda. If you have a good site with 300 well written unique pages then in my mind EMD is almost impossible. So, I would go investigating Panda issues. Duplicate and thin content are the top culprits but there can be other factors.
There are other possibilities though including a change in urls, DNS problems, hosting problems, malware issues, robots.txt problems, accidentally noindexing, a competitor ramping up their SEO etc. etc.
If the traffic drop was a little later, like October 5 then Penguin is a possibility. Penguin is related to overoptimized anchor text in your backlinks among other things.
Sometimes when a site is affected on a Panda date but doesn't seem to have Panda issues it is possible that sites linking to your site were affected by Panda and as such you have lost some of your link juice. But it is unlikely that 90% of your traffic would go because of this.
-
the site got only unique urls, by pages i meant urls too
-
I will appreciate if you will explain it bit more in details....
-
Keep in mind, too, that a lot of duplicate content is accidental. Google doesn't care about pages, per se - they care about unique URLs. So, if you have 300 unique pages, but something about your CMS translates that into 5,000 crawlable URLs, then you could definitely have problems.
-
I really appreciate your knowledge , but the site has nothing to do with Panda as it got 300 pages with unique and well written content
-
The number of unique pages doesn't really matter when it comes to Panda. You could have 300 unique pages, but if there are also 50 pages of copied content then this can trigger Panda.
But the other question I had was about thin content. An example of thin content would be a page that has say, a product photo, a bunch of template text that is the same from page to page a few ads and then only 1 or 2 lines of text.
Another example of a thin page would be if you had a section of definitions and each one had its own page. They could possibly be considered thin.
-
If this is really related to the EMD update, then I'd agree with Charles - starting over is a bad idea. My best guess is that the EMD update wasn't a penalty, per se - it was more like Google lowered the volume on EMDs. In other words, having one isn't bad now - it's just that it's not as good as it used to be. There's no way to fix that really (you can't turn the volume back up), but the risks of switching domains would probably far outweigh the benefits.
To back up Marie, though, a lot happened right around the EMD update, and it's really tough to diagnose. I'd definitely look at Panda factors, like "thin" content. Try to look at the site from Google's POV - what you view as unique doesn't matter, frankly. You could be spinning out URL-based duplicates, for example, and not realize it - that's more of a technical SEO issue (you're not doing anything devious, but the site may still be giving Google problems).
The other issue to consider is whether your EMD has caused you to really pile on exact-match anchor text, especially keyword-loaded anchor text. This could trigger Penguin or similar problems. This is often correlated with EMDs, even though it wouldn't necessarily be a result of the EMD update.
If they've really just turned down the "volume", then you have to get other ranking factors in play - build more relevant, authoritative links, increase your social signals, etc. In other words, focus on aspects of SEO beyond simple on-page ranking factors.
-
Hi Maire, thanks for your answer site got over 300 unique pages...
-
When EMD hit on September 28, I asked for people to send me domains that had been affected so that I could see if there were any patterns. I had over 100 domains sent to me and the vast majority of them actually had Panda issues. Then, a few days after EMD, Google announced that they had also done a Panda refresh on September 27.
In all of the domains that I analyzed I would say that one of them was likely a true EMD candidate. This was a one page site with very little content and several affiliate links. It previously was ranking well for a competitive niche. The only reason it was ranking well was because of its domain name. EMD was designed to take the ranking benefit away from sites that ONLY ranked because they had keywords in their domain name. It doesn't punish a site simply because there are keywords in the domain name.
You've mentioned that your pages are 100% unique. Do you have thin pages? If you have a section of your site that has pages with very little content on the page then this can cause Panda to affect you. But there are other possible reasons as well.
-
Thanks Charles for your time...
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
-
Please help need some advice?
Can any of you guys please help me I have alerts on links coming in and it looks like recently someone did this, it looks maliciously done as it is only our domain mentioned and most are brand new posts? http://testosteroneclinicindenve53950.shotblogs.com/testosterone-clinic-in-denver-fundamentals-explained-6102386 http://claytondmnnp.ampedpages.com/Details-Fiction-and-testosterone-clinic-in-denver-16897309 http://vinylvehiclecarwrap38041.alltdesign.com/a-review-of-vinyl-vehicle-car-wrap-9574042 http://devinxccct.educationalimpactblog.com/1784474/little-known-facts-about-vinyl-vehicle-car-wrap http://keeganbsftf.ka-blogs.com/7488539/how-vinyl-vehicle-car-wrap-can-save-you-time-stress-and-money http://andybxoes.thezenweb.com/vinyl-vehicle-car-wrap-Fundamentals-Explained-17581028 http://kylerhfdzu.blogkoo.com/not-known-details-about-vinyl-vehicle-car-wrap-9029141 http://troyytkyn.timeblog.net/7695911/the-greatest-guide-to-vinyl-vehicle-car-wrap http://waylontyzab.pointblog.net/testosterone-clinic-in-denver-Secrets-16335972 http://testosteroneclinicindenve30516.onesmablog.com/Top-testosterone-clinic-in-denver-Secrets-17252737 http://emiliogkmop.blogofoto.com/7667522/top-guidelines-of-testosterone-clinic-in-denver http://caidenaczxt.blogs-service.com/7514172/testosterone-clinic-in-denver-fundamentals-explained http://daltonpyfms.mybjjblog.com/5-simple-statements-about-testosterone-clinic-in-denver-explained-6517932 Should I try to disavow these and submit to google or will google know our site which has been up for 5 years is not doing this? Should I do any of these https://tehnoblog.org/google-webmaster-tools-my-website-got-bombed-with-backlinks-what-to-do/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobAnderson0 -
Probably basic, but how to use image Title and Alt Text - and confusing advice from Moz!
I've been doing SEO on my business's site for years and have got good results. I've always used image Titles and Alt Text text. Our blog posts are image-intensive, often with 100-200 pictures (not surprising since we're photographers). For any given blog post, I've tended to have a uniform image Title for each image and then a more specialised Alt Text tag giving a description. A typical image on one of our blog posts would be like this: Image filename: wedding-photography-at-so-and-so-venue-001.jpg .... 002, 003 etc Image Title Attribute: Wedding Photography at So-And-So-Venue by Our-Company-Name - this would be the same for every image in the blog post. Alternative Text: Bride and groom exchanging vows during wedding ceremony at so-and-so-venue - this would be tailed for each image. So my question is - is this right? The Moz help page for image SEO is actually incorrect in one aspect: https://moz.com/ugc/10-tips-for-optimizing-your-images-for-search "Alt text (short for “alternative text”) is used to highlight the identity of an image when you hover over it with your mouse cursor. It also shows as text to all users when there are problems rendering the image." This is not the case. Hovering over the image in Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Opera ALL display the Image Title, NOT Alt Text. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | robandsarahgillespie0 -
Should I switch my website builder/host? Please help.
My website: www.joeborders.com is hosted with a service called jigsy: www.jigsy.com. I'm losing my mind trying to figure out if I should stay or not. Lol. I am positive I have done waaaayyy more work on my seo than many people ranking above me. I used to be on the first page, but over the last year I've slowly dropped in rankings. I've checked everything! I need to do some work on my blog, but I'm really thinking now that it might have something to do with my host. Some concerns I've identified: 1) I can't give pages individual h1 tags. The same one is blanketed across the site. 2) I'm told there are a lot of .css and JavaScript. 3) i cant redirect blog posts.....so moz is tagging me with 250 critical issues because my posts are on both www and http versions of my site .But that's all I know. I've talked with squarespace and WordPress and they have no way of transferring my site. It would probably take me a good 30 hours to set everything up....should i move? Please help 😞
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | joebordersmft0 -
Google Indexed Old Backups Help!
I have the bad habit of renaming a html page sitting on my server, before uploading a new version. I usually do this after a major change. So after the upload, on my server would be "product.html" as well as "product050714".html. I just stumbled on the fact G has been indexing these backups. Can I just delete them and produce a 404?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alrockn0 -
Help understanding 301 domain redirect
Can anyone help me understand a specific process of a 301 redirecting a domain. Here is what I would like to know.... When you 301 redirect a site, most if not all the links follow to your new site. But how does this process happen? 1.When Google sees the new domain does it simply apply the backlink profile of the old site to the new one? 2. Does it have to re-crawl all the links one by one and apply them to the new domain? 3. or something else?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gazzerman10 -
.htaccess 301 Redirect Help! Specific Redirects and Blanket Rule
Hi there, I have the following domains: OLD DOMAIN: domain1.co.uk NEW DOMAIN: domain2.co.uk I need to create a .htaccess file that 301 redirects specific, individual pages on domain1.co.uk to domain2.co.uk I've searched for hours to try and find a solution, but I can't find anything that will do what I need. The pages on domain1.co.uk are all kinds of filenames and extensions, but they will be redirected to a Wordpress website that has a clean folder structure. Some example URL's to be redirected from the old website: http://www.domain1.co.uk/charitypage.php?charity=357 http://www.domain1.co.uk/adopt.php http://www.domain1.co.uk/register/?type=2 These will need to be redirected to the following URL types on the new domain: http://www.domain2.co.uk/charities/ http://www.domain2.co.uk/adopt/ http://www.domain2.co.uk/register/ I would also like a blanket/catch-all redirect from anything else on www.domain1.co.uk to the homepage of www.domain2.co.uk if there isn't a specific individual redirect in place. I'm literally tearing my hair out with this, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Townpages0 -
Same Branding, Same Followers, New Domain After Penalty... Your Opinion Please
I know I've asked a similar question in the past but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my website. I've got a website at thewebhostinghero.com that's been penalized by both Panda and Penguin. I cleaned up the link profile and submitted a reconsideration request but it was denied. I finally found a handful of additional bad links and I submitted a new disavow + reconsideration request a few days ago and I am still waiting. That said, after submitting the initial disavow request, the traffic has completely gone and while I expected a drop in traffic, I also expected my penalty to be lifted but it was not the case. Even though the penalty might be lifted this time, I think that making the website profitable again could be harder than creating a new website. So here's my questioning: The website's domain is thewebhostinghero.com but I also happen to own webhostinghero.com which I bought later for $5000 (yes you read that right). The domain "webhostinghero.com" is completely clean as it's only redirecting to thewebhostinghero.com. I would like to use webhostinghero.com as a completely new website and not redirect any traffic from thewebhostinghero.com as to not pass any bad link juice. Pros: Keeping the same branding image (which cost me $$$) Keeping the 17,000+ Facebook followers Keeping the same Google+ and Twitter accounts Keeping and monetizing a domain that cost me $5000 webhostinghero.com is a better domain than thewebhostinghero.com Cons: Will create confusion between the 2 websites Any danger of being flagged as duplicate or something? Do you see any other potential issues with this? What's your opinion/advice? P.S. Sorry for my english...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sbrault740 -
Could Temporarily Linking New Directory Pages to my Homepage Help SEO?
Within my website we maintain a nationwide directory of auto repair shops. When we add or significantly update / modify a particular listing, would it help improve the individual search engine rankings, Google PageRank, and / or Page Authority of the new auto shop page if we linked these pages to an area on the home page for "Our Newest Featured Shops" or "Latest Member Additions" or something of the nature? Each new shop profile would then be linked directly from the homepage for a period of time. I assume that it might be crawled and added to the indexes quicker, but would there be other benefits? If so, would those benefits only be temporary if eventually the new shop no longer linked to the homepage? Would keeping all featured shops in rotational display on the homepage make any difference? Any input is appreciated. Thanks. Kelly Vaught
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kelly_vaught0