Any advice from SEO experts out there?

[emailblaster]

Hi All

Can any SEO experts out there help us with our site <url removed site reviews need to be in the review area.> On the 18th of Jan we got clobbered by Google's latest update and for our primary keyword of 'email marketing' we went from 11th to 167th - and since then have been unable to recover our position.

We really are at our wits-end with it. If anyone out there can throw any light on possible reason why, I'd really appreciate the guidance!

Thanks

Jamie

 

[directmarketingadvice]

We really are at our wits-end with it. If anyone out there can throw any light on possible reason why, I'd really appreciate the guidance!

Wouldn't any analysis start with an explanation of the things you did to get to #11 in the first place?

If it was stuff google doesn't like, then it could be that, basically, your site has poor rankings because what used to be SEO isn't SEO any more.

(Or, depending on what you did, it has negative SEO.)

Steve

 

[emailblaster]

Wouldn't any analysis start with an explanation of the things you did to get to #11 in the first place?

If it was stuff google doesn't like, then it could be that, basically, your site has poor rankings because what used to be SEO isn't SEO any more.

(Or, depending on what you did, it has negative SEO.)

Steve

We outsource our offsite SEO to a consultant - the problem is that we (and probably he) doesn't know exactly what Google have penalised us for.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

We outsource our offsite SEO to a consultant - the problem is that we (and probably he) doesn't know exactly what Google have penalised us for.

That doesn't change my answer.

What sort of answer are you hoping for? Are you expecting people to put in the hours to figure out what your SEO guy did and then analyse it?

If so, you might be more likely to get a useful answer if, instead of asking people to do all that work for free, you gave them the full story.

Also, do you know if you have been penalised? As I said, it may be that he was doing stuff google now ignores - and that your site has fallen to the position it would be if there'd been no SEO done to it.

Steve

 

[ITsoldUK]

Hi All

Can any SEO experts out there help us with our site: emailblasteruk.com On the 18th of Jan we got clobbered by Google's latest update and for our primary keyword of 'email marketing' we went from 11th to 167th - and since then have been unable to recover our position.

We really are at our wits-end with it. If anyone out there can throw any light on possible reason why, I'd really appreciate the guidance!

Thanks

Jamie

Not an SEO expert but I do know that if I pick a ball up whilst playing footie the ref will blow a whistle and stop play no matter how near the goal I am if I ain't the goalie...

...likewise with Google, you need to find out what foul was committed that resulted in the penalty and put it right dude.

 

[emailblaster]

That doesn't change my answer.

What sort of answer are you hoping for? Are you expecting people to put in the hours to figure out what your SEO guy did and then analyse it?

If so, you might be more likely to get a useful answer if, instead of asking people to do all that work for free, you gave them the full story.

Also, do you know if you have been penalised? As I said, it may be that he was doing stuff google now ignores - and that your site has fallen to the position it would be if there'd been no SEO done to it.

Steve

We are not expecting people to work for free - just a bit of friendly advice given in the same way that we do on this forum when people ask questions about our field of expertise. I've always found the great thing about this forum is sharing knowledge with other people - you give it in your field and you receive it from others in their field.

We are fairly sure that we have had some aspect of our offsite de-valued, we know that Google rolled out the latest Panda update on the 18th of Jan. Our drop was so large (11th to 167th) and immediate, that lead us to the conclusion that Google's algo change had changed the way it weighted either our back link profile or onsite content.

Nothing had changed onsite, we add decent content heavy pages quite regularly and always check for dup content and make sure that keyword density isn't more than 3%.

As nothing had changed onsite - we assumed that the issue must therefore be offsite - this is the area that we are completely in the dark with. We had outsourced our offsite to a 'reputable' SEO company to build a decent back link profile.

 

[Normansmith]

Website reviews should not be on here BUT to give you a clue, your backlinks are red flags to Google, many are from the same ip address

 

[2009high]

Hi,

It is definitely worth writing into Google and asking them. They have a pretty good support system and may help - and if they don't, well no harm asking.

Google change the logistics and algorithms periodically and you may find that your key word slowly comes back into place...

What I would suggest is to keep that keyword effort in place and add another perhaps less generic term that describes your business well. Include it in your page title, description and content of course and give it around 6 weeks to do its job.

I have never used an SEO consultant and all my businesses have been placed on page 1 of google without fail simply following this basic rule.... I can extend on this more if it helps.

It isn't easy when your phrase is one that may end up being messed about with - but it does happen and not always for ever, so chin up, it just might crawl back up. In the meantime try the above with another phrase and see how that does.

Good luck and keep going

 

We outsource our offsite SEO to a consultant - the problem is that we (and probably he) doesn't know exactly what Google have penalised us for.

In that case you are in desperate need of another SEO consultant.

 

[Faevilangel]

You need to check your backlinks (using things such as majesticseo etc) which should throw some clues your way.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Hi All

Can any SEO experts out there help us with our site <url removed site reviews need to be in the review area.> On the 18th of Jan we got clobbered by Google's latest update and for our primary keyword of 'email marketing' we went from 11th to 167th - and since then have been unable to recover our position.

We really are at our wits-end with it. If anyone out there can throw any light on possible reason why, I'd really appreciate the guidance!

Thanks

Jamie

As a member
That bit in bold sends alarm bells ringing because there was no actual update confirmed at the time. Google were asked, they denied it. But tests show that there was an impact on keyword rich domains.

That said, there is no way that it would have slapped you like that, and it looks more likely that tyhere is either a server technical issue or a manual penalty imposed on you. The next algo update was 22nd, and that was panda, and unless you have loads of thin pages it wouldn't have impacted you.

As others have said (and I haven't looked) if you have a bad link footprint then that will be enough. Google do still fight hand to hand remember, and many people are reporting others.


As a mod
I removed the URL link as site reviews have to go in the site review area sorry, as long as we are talking generi answers then that is fine, but still had to remove it to stop people wasting time reviewing the site only to see their posts removed

 

[TimG]

The reason for Google's Penguin and Panda updates were to try and stop new websites spamming back links everywhere and getting ranked. Instead they looked at sites that gradually built up back links naturally and had diverse keywords, again naturally.

Basically if your site is good and has valuable content people will share it through friends and family etc. and it will slowly grow from there, that is how a website would naturally rank and that's what Google likes.

If you want to rank near the top again look for and outsourcer that advertises them self as penguin and panda safe, that way they will put out back links to look as natural as possible and add in the occasional random keyword, which Google loves.

 

[emailblaster]

Thanks everybody for your comments and guidance to date. Have run a majestic backlinks report - looks like we have some cleaning to do!

 

[emailblaster]

As a mod
I removed the URL link as site reviews have to go in the site review area sorry, as long as we are talking generi answers then that is fine, but still had to remove it to stop people wasting time reviewing the site only to see their posts removed

Apologies OldWeslshGuy - I wasn't aware I had put this in the wrong section.

 

[webgeek]

Yeah, or use linkdetox from Cemper. It'll give you a better picture of the toxic and suspicous links.

Having seen a number of keywords impacted by the Jan 17th update plus your mention of being hit by that update bigtime, I'd take a wild guess and bet that you didn't have a great many backlinks for that keyword, but the ones you had were 50% or more link directories, article directories and free bookmarking sites.

Google has devalued massive numbers of these sites, particularly the ones which automatically publish anything you feed into them, without any editorial review.

Additionally, Google has wiped page rank and completely de-indexed those that it really didn't like

Odds are very favourable that you've lost the support propping up the keyword (or multiple keywords on that same page of your site), and that all you need to do is replace those devalued links with some that are worthy. You'll then swing right back up to, and beyond, where you were.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

We are not expecting people to work for free - just a bit of friendly advice given in the same way that we do on this forum when people ask questions about our field of expertise.

I understand that. However, your question is, "I won't tell you what we SEO we did, but we just lost our positions, what did we do wrong?".

Without knowing what you did, how are people - unless they're willing to do the work to make up for the lack of info provided - expected to give useful answers?

I've always found the great thing about this forum is sharing knowledge with other people - you give it in your field and you receive it from others in their field.

You're not asking for general SEO tips, you're asking for a diagnosis of your individual problem... without giving people the info that could help them easily diagnose your situation.

Just my 2p,

Steve

 

[emailblaster]

I understand that. However, your question is, "I won't tell you what we SEO we did, but we just lost our positions, what did we do wrong?".

Without knowing what you did, how are people - unless they're willing to do the work to make up for the lack of info provided - expected to give useful answers?



You're not asking for general SEO tips, you're asking for a diagnosis of your individual problem... without giving people the info that could help them easily diagnose your situation.

Just my 2p,

Steve

Steve, we outsourced the offsite activities. So it isn't something that we have had any involvement in.

We weren't after a complete diagnosis - just a general steer in terms of where to start looking. We've had some really useful answers from people such as OldWelshGuy and WebGeek - who have given us the steer we were looking for and we now know where and how to start looking.

In the five years that we've been using this forum, it has been a great for exchanging knowledge - both giving and receiving. You can look at any post on here and you'll generally see posts from some really helpful people - but you also get an element that for some reason just want to pick a fight, I've never understood why people do that?

 

[rosaliejenkins]

Well I'm not SEO Expert but I can suggest you some points. Read seomoz blog they have few nice articles on Google penalization. Check your backlinks you might have low quality links and also check your Google Webmaster tool account.

 

[wezza]

Just to throw my quick '2 cents'. Look at your anchor text variety (or lack of).

 

[MarcusMiller]

Well, open site explorer shows 3000+ backlinks from only 50 sites for the term 'email marketing' so I would start there. OSE won't have a lot of low quality link pages / sites as well so the real picture is likely somewhat worse.

Any folks come across this article re the 17th?

http://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/re...devaluation-google-update-on-january-17-2013/

Obviously, it's not gospel fact but there is a lot of interesting chatter regarding the 17th for folks. One guy I have recently been talking to regarding cleaning up his nasty link profile took a hit on the 17th and he is typical penguin fodder (nice content though which is a shame but just outsourced his link building).

OP - it's clean up time and if your current SEO can't tell you why or feedback I would suggest a detailed audit so you have a bit more intelligence to help dictate your next move here.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Link devaluation has been going on for months with Google on a gradual basis as well as Panda sharp shock updates. but it is a gradual thing (I have been meaning to blog about it but haven't had time). Something large changed on the 17th, and my test sites results are telling me that it was about keywords in anchor text linked to domain names.

 

[MarcusMiller]

Sorry, my brain is not what it once was, so... keywords in anchor text linked to domain names. So, like if someone had an EMD and a bunch of exact match anchors?

Interesting stuff. Seen any other chatter about this? Certainly, this chap I am working with saw a big drop across several of his major keywords and some of these are tied to his domain name.

In fact, just digged in to the analytics and lets say the domain is:

mytopkeywords.co.uk (three word domain)

Then 'top keywords' being the second and third words in the domain (the important ones) went from an average position of 38 to 130 looking at a 2 week period before and after the 17th.

Digging a bit deeper, there are other changes, but nothing major and we are talking maybe a loss of a few average positions. Seemingly, where we have the stem phrase + another word that has also been hit so terms like 'top keywords + x' seem to have gone from approx 8 to 17 or 7 to 19 (that kind of ballpark - ballpark, jesus, it's actually nice to be on a UK forum and I will be sure to chide myself for that americanism later).

Will see if I have any other people who fit this bill and will take a dig in to see if I can supply any more evidence but man, that's a great observation, I just about done gone and learned me something today folks.

Time to get some work done!

Edit - Interestingly, keywords tied to long'ish tail blog content seemed to get a bit of a boost but as I said, this guys content is pretty solid really, shame he got tied up in this link building mess before getting on the content marketing train.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

You have grasped it dead on, exactly that. I beleive Google brought a sub algo that checks anchor text against domain names and devalued. I haven't noticed brands being hit, but it is fairly easy to protect brands.

Previously google were not worried about this, they let it go, but logic dictated they would always do it.

 

[emailblaster]

Any folks come across this article re the 17th?

http://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/re...devaluation-google-update-on-january-17-2013/

Obviously, it's not gospel fact but there is a lot of interesting chatter regarding the 17th for folks. One guy I have recently been talking to regarding cleaning up his nasty link profile took a hit on the 17th and he is typical penguin fodder (nice content though which is a shame but just outsourced his link building).
.

Thats a really useful article - thanks. We sound exactly like the guy you were speaking to. We put allot of quality content on our site on a regular basis - the content is really for the purposes of helping our client base use the software that we sell. None of it is written purely for the purposes of SEO.

I think our problems are based around our offsite and the people that we have used were using a technique that worked perfectly well pre penguin/panda - but now has been kicked into touch in a big way. Repairing the damage from this seems to be a monumental task.

 

[LianneF]

Hi OWG
Would you be able to give an example of this, as we were hit on the 17th but am thinking it's to do with links being lost. Our domain is a brand but has teddy in it, which is also part of our keywords, so is that what you mean?
Thanks
Lianne

 

[emailblaster]

This thread has been an education for us, thanks to everyone that has taken the time to throw some light on our issues.

We've gone from being pretty much in the dark as to why Google drop kicked us out of the park, to having an understanding what how to identify the problem, isolate the offending issues and take steps to recover.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Hi OWG
Would you be able to give an example of this, as we were hit on the 17th but am thinking it's to do with links being lost. Our domain is a brand but has teddy in it, which is also part of our keywords, so is that what you mean?
Thanks
Lianne

Hi Lianne, you have been hit again? it took months to sort it out last time and now they hit you with this one

Sorry to say, I never give out the urls of my test sites, they are not even registered in my name to protect their integrity.

Our domain is a brand but has teddy in it, which is also part of our keywords, so is that what you mean?

yes that is exactly what I mean.

E.G. your site is readyteddygo, you could build links for that exactly as it is, and you will be fine (as long as the links are acceptable quality of course), build the same amount for 'ready teddy go' and you would be hit by this change, you have 3 words in your domain the most competitive is teddy, so that is the one to watch out for. It is difficult to see exactly what the algo does, we can only measure the outcomes.

 

[LianneF]

Hi OWG
Thanks, wasn't expecting you to mention the urls of your test sites just an example of what you meant, but understand now thanks for the example. Yes been hit again but not as bad as before. They aren't all teddy keywords, so am thinking its more to do with devaluing of links which I didn't know about or google thought were fine before. 2 keywords were big drops and some are a page or so. I'm trying to build brand and url only links now as that seems to be what the sites above me have.
Thanks
Lianne

 

[JoeFletcher]

Reading this post hurts me!!! SEO 2013 isn't it fun!!! Being completely honest without repeating what people have previously said I can't add more into this thread but wish you all luck with regaining rankings. Remember though be smart set up a blog or gain yourself a social presence and you may find the hit in traffic might not be so bad in the long run.

 

[webgeek]

Any folks come across this article re the 17th?

http://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/re...devaluation-google-update-on-january-17-2013/

Yes, if you got hit on the 17th, it's highly likely you'd find link directories, article directories and social bookmarking - the primary free spam sites that are unmoderated and indiscriminately linked anywhere, as a key part of the backlink profile.

At least it's not a penalty or glass ceiling, but rather an erosion of the foundations.

Build some brand mentions and naked URLs pointing to the page in question or partial match anchored links pointing there and recovery is doable. Think links with trust and authority...

 

[terryuk]

I spoke to two people who disappeared for their primary keyword around that date

But I would ditto what Webgeek said about branding after reading; http://www.seroundtable.com/google-jan-17-brands-16261.html

A definitely look at adding your +1 profile to your website

 

[LianneF]

Nearly every search I do now has the big brands on page 1 whereas before they never ranked, which I guess if you think about it then they should be there as they have more links etc but if google is giving them more natural rankings then surely they won't be spending as much on adwords and the small businesses will be forced too but probably won't last the distance.

 

[webgeek]

This one's been cooking for quite awhile.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

So then the question is did google turn the dial up on KNOWN brands, which impacted on unknown brands, as in 'you called Boots, you don't sell boots, but anyone searching for Boots must want Boots the chemist' so you can have as much anchor text for 'boots' as you want.

You are ridingboots.com even though you sell boots you are NOT boots as a brand, we don't recognise you as being a brand,. so YOUR anchor text is going to be scrutinised.