Gah, unfairly hit by massive google penalty :/
-
Hi Guys,
We're the folk behind http://wpmu.org and have just been hit by a massive fall in google referrals, see attached
There's no reason in webmaster tools for this, were not engaging in any spammy or dodgy practices and are a massively established and well staffed news *& tutorial site for WordPress (one of the biggest, in fact!)
We've upgraded WP, and requested a referral, but without actually knowing what's going on it's extremely hard to figure out what to do
Maybe we're a wrong hit regarding this: http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/04/googles-new-search-algorithm-to-crack-down-on-black-hat-webspam/ ?
At the moment pretty much the only thing I can think of is one of our authors being dodgy, but I don't think they would be, and I don't know how to go about finding out.
Anyway, if you guys could take a look and let us know anything you think might be up, and share any advice that'd be super super appreciated!
Cheers, James
-
@Georg, tanks for that!
@Boodreaux, ugh, that's shocking service, wasn't like that back in the day
-
James,
If you want more responses you may need to post a new discussion question with your latest information you found out. Your question is far down the list now and only a 4 people are in this thread.
-
Hi James,
your are not alone. Our site lost 50% traffic...
Here is our thread: http://www.seomoz.org/q/lost-50-google-traffic-in-one-day-panic
-
Still looking, it looks like it could be victim of our own success / couple of minor errors around http://edublogs.org
Essentially we tried to remove all links from blogs there to wpmu.org back in the day, but missed, literally, about 3.
And then there's been a lot of splogging on edublogs of late that we're really working hard to clamp down on.
And they are choosing the theme with the wpmu.org links on it.... so 2+2 it coudl be that.
We've now removed all links and are splogging like crazy, using http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/anti-splog/ (one of our plugisn too).
And have p[ut in another request.
Would love to hear from a Mozzer too, given our 4+ year membership here (in which time we've asked like 4 questions
-
Ouch...great looking site. Very scary. Hope to hear back from you on what the issue was in your being dropped so low.
-
Thanks guys.
@Kevin on edublogs it's only the homepage that links to wpmu.org, sub blogs only link to WPMU DEV (separate site) which hasn't been impacted.
Given the prominence of our other sites in the WP space, and the relevance of the topic, I'm not sure if removing links from them to wpmu.org would necessarily be the best approach?
Thanks for other link and we'll go and post in the wbmaster forums now too.
@stubby yes, no paid links, only footer links are from themes (like the 'Powered by Wordpress MU' ones and at least 3+ years old), not at all odd for a WP provider either.
Open to other thoughts / ideas!
-
I have an opinion that many of the other sites that I have seen recently have one of a few things going on.
Either -
- They have crappy links that were bought on blog networks (which I didn't see in your case)
- They have footer links that they installed when people used their services (as in "designed by ABC web Design),
- They have footer links that were installed when people used their software (Powered by Wordpress MU)
The net result that I see from any of these scenarios is that the site in question gets lots and lots of anchor text links from lots of unrelated sites all over the place, which makes the "designed by" or "powered by" links look like an unnatural build, or possibly even look like paid links.
This is just my opinion and it could be wrong - but I am seeing it more and more.
-
I would cut down the sitewide links, in particular the ones on other domains you own. I see the edublogs "main site" has a image link to wpmu.org; too lazy to check the user blogs. Other than that, I don't see anything that would get you hit by the penguin update.
You might have better luck if you posted in the Webmaster product forums at google.
They also just release this form for people who think they've been wrongly affected.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ&ndplr=1
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
-
Strange landing page in Google Analytics
Hello MOZ Community, The website in question is https://x-y.com/ When i looked at the landing pages report in GA , x-y.com is appended at the end of every URL like this. https://x-y.com/x-y.com When i open the above URL in GA interface, it shows page not found. This is obvious as there is no such URL.
Reporting & Analytics | | Johnroger
The metrics like sessions, Users, Bounce rate all look good. In the property settings, The default URL is written like this http:// cell-gate.com (Please note that s is missing in property settings). But how is traffic tracked correctly How do i solve this problem. What settings should we change to make the landing pages report look ok Thanks0 -
Google Analytics Automated Reporting
HI all, I tend to do a big reporting powerpoint deck using screenshots from google analytics and tables I create year end and mid year. It's like an 80 page report for the 10 webisite swe have and then I go ahead and make annotations as I see from the data. That being said this can take a lot of time, up to a 40 hours of time to pull it all together or more which is challenging when you have daily meetings. Anyhow, I've looked into automating and tried a couple things: 1. Tableau- but it keeps crashing and seems tedious 2. Dashlane and supergrabber- seem a bit tedious to set up too. Anyone have ideas on how to better shar ereporting in the organization in this type of format for a website (websites)? Organic, paid, traffic, etc. Laura
Reporting & Analytics | | lauramrobinson322 -
How can you tell if Google has already assessed a penalty against your site for spammy links?
Is there any way to tell for sure if there is a penalty? My client has a ton of low quality back links, and I think they are in danger of a Penguin penalty. Any way to know? The links are there for a business reason.... their clients mention them in the footer, with a backlink. It is not a link scheme. but folks are generally not clicking on a footer link, and so there is a pro/con of leaving it as it. Any way, to diagnose whether a Penguin penalty has already hit?
Reporting & Analytics | | DianeDP2 -
Mobile Site on Google Analytics
Hi mozzers, We just launched a mobile site and I was wondering what are the main steps to follow for gettting your mobile site tracked via GA (m.example.com)? We have a profile for www.example.com GATC: javascript or PHP to install? Should the profile be on a subdomain? What else to consider when implementing a mobile site on GA? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
2 questions on avoiding issues with Google and while being right in it.
Hi SEOmoz community In fact I have two questions I would like to ask (with future SEO in mind). Do you consider a WordPress Multisite or various Single installs 'safer' for SEO? Theoretically, having various sites packed into one Multisite network seems like an ideal solution. However, is there a chance that once a site in the network encounters a little 'negative turbulence', that your other sites in the network might get impacted too due to the cross-referencing, linked account i.e. Webmaster Tools etc.? It would seem outrageous, but then again I wouldn't rule it out. Do I even have to go as far as setting up new Gmail, Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools accounts, so they (the sites) are technically not linked? You can see, I don't trust search engines one bit... Is there still a point posting articles once Google is having a hissy fit with your site? Basically I am currently going through a 'rankings and traffic drops storm'. It's not as bad as being de-indexed, but it's still having enough of an impact. In addition, Google does not seem to treat my new articles (unique content) with the same attention anymore i.e. does not seem to index them 'fully' or not at all (i.e. posting the headline in Google should return the article, but it doesn't). Is there even a point spending time now and posting new material or may it pick it up again once I am through this low phase? Does Google still index what it considers worth or is it a waste of time right now to keep posting, posting and posting more? Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.
Reporting & Analytics | | Hermski0 -
Facebook.com/I.php
Hi, I get a lot of traffic lately from Facebook.com/I.php. This is was Google Analytics shows me. But I can not see more details concerning what causes of the traffic. Since it´s more than 500 Users per Day I need to see more details. Does somebody has an idea on how to do a more detailed analysis of this traffic? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | RTG0 -
Google Analytics help - exporting reports
Hey mozzers, A little help if you will. I am in traffic sources > sources > search > organic I am view keywords and comparing 1 month with another. Now I see what 1 keyword sends 1st month, 2nd month and % Change. I want to export this data to an .xls file. When I do, I end up with a file that shows what 1 keyword sends 1st month and 2nd month, but no % Change! I really need to include this in exported document.... Summary: Analytics hates me. 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | MirandaP0 -
Google Search Results inconsistent from different computers
Recently after some optimization activities - I do not see much movement in search rankings - my client is seeing the results on page 1 position 3 and I see page 2 for the same keyword. How does Google change ranking based on past searches and how can I get an accurate picture of what the actual rank is?
Reporting & Analytics | | devonkrusich0