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Traffic / Sales have DROPPED - HELP URGENTLY NEEDED

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BrightIdeas

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Dec 2, 2009
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Mainly due to Google alogorithm updates, I have seen traffic drop significantly over the past year or so. Where our site was on page 1 for most of our key terms, we are now hidden away - page 2 (at best) to page 14 (at worst). Needless to say, it's had a big impact on sales and I feel like I'm treading water at the moment.

I've used two SEO companies for link-building - the first delivered results, but they didn't last. I think, as the links were poor quality. The second company just didn't deliver any results whatsoever. In fact, in that time, I saw rankings erode further.

The guess is... due to the artificial link profile, there does appear to be some kind of penalty imposed by Google on the site, which has had a big impact on rankings. Also, for some KWs, there have been massive swings in rankings, e.g. one kw goes from 70 to 150 every few weeks, where it used to be on page 1 a couple of years ago.

In addition to SEO, I also use PPC, email marketing, Facebook, etc. Also, other things like PR activity/entering industry awards, etc. So, there isn't a lot of scope to expand on these forms of marketing without a fair bit of investment.

It's stressful, and I need to come up with a solution fast - before I lose my only member of staff and it has a big impact on my family life.

Has anyone been in this situation and have got themselves out?
 
Have you had anyone review your link profile to see if it can be saved? Have you removed as many of the poor quality links as you can? Did you get the notice in WMT back in March last year? re building new links have you been using keywords in the anchor? Can you start again with say the .com or co.uk version of your domain name and focus more on content than links?

Without knowing your domain name it's hard to comment further.

Have you tried exhibiting at applicable fairs for your products? released newsworthy press releases? Got product listing ads setup with adwords?
 
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Thanks for replying, appreciate it.

Yes, my then SEO did a review of the link profile and was working on diversifying the link profile to make it appear more natural. They never said they thought it couldn't be saved - although they did have a vested interest in keeping things going, I suppose. We did talk about submitting a disavow request to Google at some point, but decided against it after some consideration. But, perhaps it's worth just looking at again? Would hate to do more damage though, that's my concern.

Haven't had any notices in WMT.

Consumer shows for my products is a possibility but would require a significant investment - and I'm not sure it's the right strategy in any case, for various reasons. One of my brands exhibits at one of the main shows and probably just about breaks even with immediate sales - and that's with better margins, of course.

Got PLAs and working on Google remarketing at the moment. We have regular product features in target press, but it's so crowded out there, it takes a lot of features and mentions to see uplift in sales.

Press releases - nothing majorly newsworthy at the moment, no matter how it's spun! Found they worked ok in past though with new range launches etc., so might be worth re-looking at.
 
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BrightIdeas said:
my then SEO did a review of the link profile and was working on diversifying the link profile to make it appear more natural.
Click to expand...

This sounds as if you were on the right track? From what I've read on various forums, I wouldn't disavow as I think that just rings alarm bells with google, especially as you didn't get an un-natural links penalty.

I don't think there is a quick fix I'm afraid, but hopefully some seo's will pop along with some advice. You say your keywords are bouncing around pages 2 to 14, I don't think that is too bad, at least they are ranking and are not on page 40!

We've also thought about doing some christmas shows, but they are so expensive and it's hard to know if you will even sell enough to break-even, they get the footfall and have been going for years but when you get 100 or so new companies exhibiting, that just makes me think why didn't those 100 from the previous year come back and exhibit again!
 
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BrightIdeas said:
The guess is... due to the artificial link profile, there does appear to be some kind of penalty imposed by Google on the site, which has had a big impact on rankings.
Click to expand...
And the only way out of this mess is to remove all those links. You even suggest that the SEO companies wern't very good so why on earth were you still using them.

It's could well take many months to extricate yourself from this situation. It's even possible that you will never regain your former ranking.
 
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BrightIdeas said:
Mainly due to Google alogorithm updates, I have seen traffic drop significantly over the past year or so. Where our site was on page 1 for most of our key terms, we are now hidden away - page 2 (at best) to page 14 (at worst).
Click to expand...
Doesn't sound like a penalty to me. More like G has decided that other sites are more valuable. Penalties tend to see you beyond page 100.
 
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Yes, 'penalty' is too harsh a term. But certainly there's something imposed that's depressed rankings significantly, particularly with a selection of keyword terms.

I'll post more later, when i get the chance, really keen to get more thoughts.
 
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There is a simple way to see if there is a manual penalty against you and that is to go to the reconsideration submission page in webmasterstools. if there is no option to submit a request, there is no manual penalty, thus making it algorithmic. Look at the dates of traffic drops and you should get your answer.
 
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First of all remove all your poor quality links and do guest posting ,forums, blog submission,article submission on high pr websites.Also use only fresh and unique content to submit on article or blog sites.This will surely increase your website traffic.
 
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wordpress123 said:
First of all remove all your poor quality links and do guest posting ,forums, blog submission,article submission on high pr websites.Also use only fresh and unique content to submit on article or blog sites.This will surely increase your website traffic.
Click to expand...
The contender for the most stupid post of the day.
 
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RadiusBPO said:
Just 301 it over to a new domain, this is how I keep sites alive.
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Which is fine if you are running churn and burn websites. But what if you're a real business? :|

Rebrands aren't free, neither at printed materials.

Plus being an SEO you should also know that it's becoming fraught with risk if you 301 your way out of a penalty as we see on Searchmetrics winners and losers list each week with various brands that have 301'ed to new domains and lost visibility again weeks later.
 
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OldWelshGuy said:
I would guess it is because you state they should remove the poor quality links and then suggest making poor quality links.
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Where did i mention to make poor quality links?FYI the backlinks which we get from high PR website are always of high quality and will be beneficial to our website.
 
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I can only echo what's been said above really.

If you haven't had a Manual Penalty (check in Google Webmaster Tools) then it's likely algorithmic. As sites linking to yours have been picked up by Google, the benefit from those links will be lost as G stamps on them. If you're doing little or nothing to replace these your going to see things continue to slide.

You're not going to be able to recover from this overnight, it's going to take a good long term effort running your SEO in line with Google Guidelines to gradually rise up again.

Ignore any advice when it comes to creating links via Article sites etc etc. I suspect that's what's got you into this situation in the first place and it would only compound things.
 
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wordpress123 said:
You mean to say that submitting articles on high page rank articles websites like ezinearticles.com is useless?
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Yes.

5 minutes research on Google will show how wrong your SEO strategy is.
 
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fisicx said:
Yes.

5 minutes research on Google will show how wrong your SEO strategy is.
Click to expand...
I haven't done keyword stuffing and always hyperlink on long tail keyword not on the exact keyword.If my Seo strategy is wrong then plz suggest me right Seo strategy so that it would be beneficial for me.
 
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Thanks for the replies... Some helpful points.

@OldWelshGuy - I looked on WBT and there was no reconsideration submission option. Is this under 'manual actions'? If so, it says 'no manual webspam actions found'. I've looked at traffic volume and it's not clear there's been any specific drops. It's a seasonal business, and this year seems to have followed the same trend line but at a lower level.

@Jonathon SEO - Glad you recognise that 'just' 301'ing it is not going to happen!

Absolutely, this is a real business that's been nutured for several years - with real people, overheads and customers. I'm not going to do any quick fixes, as I can't see how these can work... Besides, this business needs to continue to generate a solid income while improvements are made - to pay wages, VAT, insurance... all the things any normal business needs to consider.

@DPOM, WeblinkPlus, OldWelshGuy - you've indicated that it's likely to be algorithmic rather than a penalty, however, there appears to be a 3 oddities that suggest there's maybe *something else* lurking around too, rather than a straight forward alogrithmic thing... would be interested in your thoughts are on the following:

First of all, some of the rankings are fairly unstable, e.g. ricocheting between positions 55 and 120 from one week to the next. This isn't the case for all KWs, just some of them - never used to be the case as far as I am aware.

Secondly, for these particularly problematic terms, the site actually ranked higher for these KWs BEFORE any link building was ever done. In fact, there are many inferior webpages that are ranked much higher, e.g. Etsy pages, not brilliant articles (PR 1), Facebook pages, etc.

Thirdly, the page that actually ranks for one of the KWs is not the actual KW landing page/product category page, but the homepage.

These three things lead me to believe there's a bigger problem here.
 
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BrightIdeas said:
Thanks for the replies... Some helpful points.

@OldWelshGuy - I looked on WBT and there was no reconsideration submission option. Is this under 'manual actions'? If so, it says 'no manual webspam actions found'. I've looked at traffic volume and it's not clear there's been any specific drops. It's a seasonal business, and this year seems to have followed the same trend line but at a lower level.

@Jonathon SEO - Glad you recognise that 'just' 301'ing it is not going to happen!

Absolutely, this is a real business that's been nutured for several years - with real people, overheads and customers. I'm not going to do any quick fixes, as I can't see how these can work... Besides, this business needs to continue to generate a solid income while improvements are made - to pay wages, VAT, insurance... all the things any normal business needs to consider.

@DPOM, WeblinkPlus, OldWelshGuy - you've indicated that it's likely to be algorithmic rather than a penalty, however, there appears to be a 3 oddities that suggest there's maybe *something else* lurking around too, rather than a straight forward alogrithmic thing... would be interested in your thoughts are on the following:

First of all, some of the rankings are fairly unstable, e.g. ricocheting between positions 55 and 120 from one week to the next. This isn't the case for all KWs, just some of them - never used to be the case as far as I am aware.

Secondly, for these particularly problematic terms, the site actually ranked higher for these KWs BEFORE any link building was ever done. In fact, there are many inferior webpages that are ranked much higher, e.g. Etsy pages, not brilliant articles (PR 1), Facebook pages, etc.

Thirdly, the page that actually ranks for one of the KWs is not the actual KW landing page/product category page, but the homepage.

These three things lead me to believe there's a bigger problem here.
Click to expand...

Too many questions to answer just broadly. Why don't you sign up to full member and post the site?
 
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Almost the same. Change the homepage banner, text snippet from blog, and a few other bits every so often. But def no rotating product galleries and such like.
 
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I've posted in the members forum, and have included the URL.

I really need help ASAP, so if you could take a look, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks so much.
 
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Same situation. Traffic loss, turnover dipped over past year.
Hired and fired two SEO companies, one dangerous and one ineffective.
Finally found that the problem was an EXACT MATCHING DOMAIN.
ie we are The Leather Briefcase Co. and that's our domain name.
Yep, Google demoted tens of thousands of small companies that had chosen a website name to make it obvious to searchers that they'd come to the right place. Daft lot!
Best advice - £10 gets you "HOW TO GET TO THE TOP OF GOOGLE" and will explain why you've lost ground, and how to regain it.
Also if you go to my thread started this morning about the Google Survey of small websites, at least you can email one of the whizzard kids with what you think!
Good Luck, Joss Ollett.
 
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Leather Briefcase Company said:
Same situation. Traffic loss, turnover dipped over past year.
Hired and fired two SEO companies, one dangerous and one ineffective.
Finally found that the problem was an EXACT MATCHING DOMAIN.
ie we are The Leather Briefcase Co. and that's our domain name.
Yep, Google demoted tens of thousands of small companies that had chosen a website name to make it obvious to searchers that they'd come to the right place. Daft lot!
Best advice - £10 gets you "HOW TO GET TO THE TOP OF GOOGLE" and will explain why you've lost ground, and how to regain it.
Also if you go to my thread started this morning about the Google Survey of small websites, at least you can email one of the whizzard kids with what you think!
Good Luck, Joss Ollett.
Click to expand...

I would doubt the exact match domain is your problem for losing rankings.
 
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Joss, sorry to hear that you're facing the same predicament. Do you have a game plan? I need one - and FAST.

Thanks for your book recommendation, I'll take a look.
 
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Okay - you need to check google webmaster tools and that will tell you if you have a penalty and maybe what the penalty is for.

If it is for bad links (which some seo companies do) then you need to contact the people where the links are to get them removed. If they do not respond in a few weeks then email them again. If there is still no response then you need to contact Google and use the disavow tool showing proof of contact to attempt removal of the bad links.

Don't forget that your sites ranking is not the be-all and end all, you can get sales through social media sites.
 
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HazelLCottrell said:
Okay - you need to check google webmaster tools and that will tell you if you have a penalty and maybe what the penalty is for.

If it is for bad links (which some seo companies do) then you need to contact the people where the links are to get them removed. If they do not respond in a few weeks then email them again. If there is still no response then you need to contact Google and use the disavow tool showing proof of contact to attempt removal of the bad links.

Don't forget that your sites ranking is not the be-all and end all, you can get sales through social media sites.
Click to expand...

Read the thread, already been discussed :rolleyes:


OldWelshGuy said:
There is a simple way to see if there is a manual penalty against you and that is to go to the reconsideration submission page in webmasterstools. if there is no option to submit a request, there is no manual penalty, thus making it algorithmic. Look at the dates of traffic drops and you should get your answer.
Click to expand...

BrightIdeas said:
@OldWelshGuy - I looked on WBT and there was no reconsideration submission option. Is this under 'manual actions'? If so, it says 'no manual webspam actions found'. I've looked at traffic volume and it's not clear there's been any specific drops. It's a seasonal business, and this year seems to have followed the same trend line but at a lower level.
Click to expand...

-

HazelLCottrell said:
Don't forget that your sites ranking is not the be-all and end all, you can get sales through social media sites.
Click to expand...

Clearly not a like for like replacement. Anyone thinking you can generate anywhere near the level of sales via Social media that you can via Google is wrong :D
 
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Oh yes, definitely cannot rely on social media traffic (or any referral traffic, in fact) to solely replace the lost organic traffic.

I've tried to boost traffic from alternative sources, but there's a big deficit.

JonathonSEO, can you please take a look at my link on the members forum? Would greatly appreciate it if you could, would be interested in your thoughts.
 
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BrightIdeas said:
Oh yes, definitely cannot rely on social media traffic (or any referral traffic, in fact) to solely replace the lost organic traffic.

I've tried to boost traffic from alternative sources, but there's a big deficit.

JonathonSEO, can you please take a look at my link on the members forum? Would greatly appreciate it if you could, would be interested in your thoughts.
Click to expand...

I'm a UKBF snakeoil salesman, telling people to become paid members when I'm not even one myself :D so I can't even look at your site in that section as I can't access it.

I may join eventually just I have commitment issues.
 
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Whaaaaat? Well, I suppose I should have done my due diligence...

It's £40 - not a lot of money for a whole raft of benefits. So the email said except I've it had chance to read it. Too busy trying to turn things around.
 
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BrightIdeas said:
Whaaaaat? Well, I suppose I should have done my due diligence...

It's £40 - not a lot of money for a whole raft of benefits. So the email said except I've it had chance to read it. Too busy trying to turn things around.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it's worth it which is why I recommended it. Just not sure what I'd get from it personally.

Will see what happens once my next giro payment comes in :D
 
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There is a serious problem with the latest Google Algorythm as anyone can throw spammy links at your site, such as a competitor to destroy your ranking. How do you recover when that happens?
 
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