Overnight Drop In Rankings
-
Over the last size eight weeks we have been doing all of our own SEO with the help of reading this forum and asking questions, prior to this we had an SEO company from India who were only doing articles and promoting them.
We have been using various keywords by writing them into our own blogs, to check how we have been doing I have monitored two main keywords, when we started, our choice keyword was on page three, on Monday it had moved up to number one on page two, today it is now back on page three, have we been hit by the Penquin update, if so would I have received a warning in WMT, a lot of my other keywords across the site have moved down although some have moved up, we are retailers not SEO experts so it is a big blow to move down when everyone has worked hard, looking at some pages I do have some pages that look as though they have been keyword stuffed, I have altered some of them to see if anything changes, I have also look at some of the links but how do I know if I am doing the right thing?
-
"An SEO Company from India doing articles"
That is a BIG warning sign. My guess is that you've got a bunch of low quality spammy links pointing to your site.
Another thing to check on is your anchor text distribution as well. Make sure it's not over 10-20% for your main keyword.
-
It's called Penguin 2.0
-
This might not be anything you are doing; Google is having a little stormy weather right now. You can take a look at Google's volatility here: http://mozcast.com/
-
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.
-
Please explore the links your hired help created for you. If it's too spammy, too many direct name anchor text or any other issue that isn't with Google's guidelines, then you have a problem. There are reputable experts on the forums here and thus the general rule is to hire someone who knows what's he doing and not promising results in a two months time. Bear in mind, some of my websites saw improvements you are talking about after two-three years of hard work, but that also meant their rankings are still there after each and every algorithm change.
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
-
My organic search dropped over 25% since March Update....Any insights?
My website is purecbdvapors.com. Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Anthony
On-Page Optimization | | Purecbdvapors0 -
Google search result dramatically dropped with drop in DA.
It looks like on 11/13 by site traffic dropped by like 75% and it just happens to coincide with the MOZ DA dropping to. Anyone else see this?
On-Page Optimization | | Motom70 -
Keywords ranking on Homepage but are not mentioned.
I was wondering why some of my keywords are ranking in my homepage but are not mentioned even once. Is it maybe because they are semantically related with the keywords targeted on the homepage? What are the reason(s) for this? Thanks for enlightening me with this one.
On-Page Optimization | | TWSOM0 -
Acquired Old, Bad Content Site That Ranks Great. Redirect to Content on My Site?
Hello. my company acquired another website. This website is very old, the content within is decent at best, but still manages to rank very well for valuable phrases. Currently, we're leaving the entire site active on its own for its brand, but i'd like to at least redirect some of the content back to our main website. I can't justify spending the time to create improved content on that site and not our main site though. What would be the best practice here? 1. Cross-domain canonical - and build the new content on our main website? 2. 301 Redirect Old Article to New Location containing better article 3. Leave the content where it is - you won't be able to transfer the ranking across domain. Thanks for your input.
On-Page Optimization | | Blenny0 -
Ranking well with Google but not in Top 50 with Bing and Yahoo?
I have sometimes pages ranking very well on Google but in comparison with Bing and Yahoo they are not listed within the Top50 SERP's What are the ranking factors for Bing and Yahoo? Although Bing and Yahoo play a minor role it would be fine also to rank well with these engines. Thanks for any tips!
On-Page Optimization | | inlinear0 -
How long should I wait before making changes to my new site in order to increase ranking?
I just create a site www.autoinsurancefremontca.com. It has been about a week since this site has been launched. The site currently resides at 12th position on google. With Semoz it has a Site Grade Of "A" . When should I start making changes to the site like adding a content as an example to increase my ranking. I am trying to get this site on the first page with google. Please help!!
On-Page Optimization | | Greenpeak0 -
No Content on home page + rankings
If a home page has no content will it hurt the sites ability to rank? The interior pages will have content but not the home page. (See attached image) My client does not want content on the home page as he feels it will take away from the look and feel he wants to achieve. This website is actually 10 sites or locations in one as we intend to market each location (a total of 10) separately. In reality the home page is a doorway page to each separate location. I'd like feedback if possible as to the necessity or not, of content on the Home Page of this or any website. Will the lack of content hurt on the Homer Page hurt with SEO? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | fun52dig
Gary Downey bobby-vans.jpg0 -
Finished On Page optimization and slipping in rankings
Just finished on page optimization for a client that was on page 2 for the keyword. Went from an on page score of D to an A. But we are still slipping down the rankings. We were towards to top of page 2 now we are towards the bottom. Is there a time that it takes to change or does the on page not really make a big impact?
On-Page Optimization | | devonkrusich0