Rank dropped suddenly. Ways to bounce back?
-
So, like million threads out there I lost my rank for a particular page and is looking to bounce back. However there might be something different in my case, hence the thread.
1. The rank drop was an after effect of design change, where we merged two pages together. Page A - which was ranking for Keyword A and Page B which was ranking for Keyword B. So we merged it together in the sense that both had similar content and design except the meta tags and page title (I wasn't involved in this project so...) and Page B gets kicked out of Google web index. Page A still remains number 1 for Keyword A.
2. There was some shady link building contract that was implemented some 3 months back (again me not involved, I joined later) and there were an unnatural number of links created with a striking artificial anchor text pattern from low quality "built for link building" blogs. I presume this also affected page B. as this effort was done only for Page B and not A.
So now, I managed to clear all the pages for duplicate content, implement a better page structure where I deleted out possible similar pages, redirected them (301) to main pages, and created a new page for Page B, like Page B1 with different content. Implemented a better internal linking profile too where terms related to Page B (Keyword B, Keyword B1, B2 etc) links to Page B.
Its been two months now, and Page B ranks for Keyword B1 but not the original Keyword B. I suppose the "penalty" still remains in Google.
Any clues how I can get around this?
What I want to achieve is to get ranked for Keyword B for Page B, if not the first result, at least start all over from a lower rank but at least break out of the penalty.
-
Sorry if I misunderstood at all but here's a shot.
1. If you merged both pages I assumed you changed the url of at least one of them. Did you delete the old 'b' page? It may of had links to it that were helping you rank for it. Also, make sure the page titles are still as relevant as the old ones.
2. If the links were to page b and page b was deleted it won't really help unless you 301 it or create it again.
I see you recreated them, did you keep the original url structure or did you change it? I would make sure that you have all the pages 301'd to the new ones you want to rank. If you really were penalized you would get a notice in webmaster tools, otherwise it's just the algo change. Google also changed a lot of things in the past two months so it may have to do with that more than with the changes you made.
Overall, just make sure that all your pages are redirected properly and hopefully you'll gain back those rankings. If you have any really shady links I would try to get them removed if not, it isn't a huge deal.
Good luck!
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
-
zero ranking keywords
My website, pescoonlinebill.com, shows many queries in console but there are zero ranking keywords in MOZ dashboard.
Link Building | | realdy0 -
Sudden spike in backlinks - should we disavow?
A kitchen remodelling firm in Australia has noticed a big increase in spammy backlinks to their website since April this year. Majestic shows that referring domains and backlinks during that period have gone up from 400 domains (10,000 links) to 1,070 domains (47,000+ links). About 100 are sitewide links. The vast majority are "follow" links directed at image files on the site - ending in .jpg. Ahrefs now shows the number one anchor text (23%) is a period (full stop) "." Most of the links come from .us domains, eg: cowboysr.us
Link Building | | Adab1
blackphoto.us
alldpic.com Google Search Console isn't showing any of these links, there's no penalty on the site and there's been no noticeable change in rankings (if anything organic clicks went up over May, June, July) ... so we're wondering what action - if any - should be taken. Are these links likely to have a negative impact on the site and homepage? Should we disavow these links? Appreciate any advice. Thanks.0 -
How does a business have a link back where I can't see the anchor text?
So, I'm running competitor websites through Open Site Explorer and following the link from Moz to where their link is coming from. It has the anchor text 'Christmas Gifts'. When I go to that page there is no mention of this anchor text. No mention of that persons website. No display ad's that could be providing that link. How is this link pointing to their page?
Link Building | | Byron_Bay_Gifts0 -
The better my blog gets, the lower my rankings!
My blog was hit by Google Panda on July 21. My rankings dropped dramatically overnight. Nothing I do is helping. In fact, the day my guest post was published on one of the biggest blogs in my niche (DA over 70) my Google impressions dropped to an all time low and then got worse. (250 impressions and 12 clicks) You can see the first drop and the second drop in these screenshots and yes Google Webmasters and Google Analytics match. http://tinypic.com/r/2dvtvlj/5 http://tinypic.com/r/4u83t4/5 I am getting more fans, subscribers, traffic etc but my Google traffic just gets worse. I would really like to get some organic traffic! But I have no idea why this is happening. I checked manual actions and there is nothing. I cleaned up crawl errors and duplicate content. I get several backlinks a week within my niche from high authority sites. I just don't get it and I am very discouraged. What should I do?
Link Building | | 2bloggers0 -
How is it possible that Interflora can bounce back from a Google penalty so quickly - is that normal?
As far as I understand it Interflora was removed from Google organic search results on February 20th. I guess no one knows for sure why they were delisted other than Google but I have heard theories such as giving flower bribes to bloggers in return for links 🙂 How sweet - and placing paid follow links inside advertorials within local newspaper sites. Whatever the reason for their de listing it seemed Google must have wanted to send out a strong message since even a branded search wasn't ranking. Fast forward 13 days to today and I now see Interflora ranking not only for their brand but also for flower delivery London etc etc... How is it possible that they managed to get back in the SERPs so quickly? Is it normal to get a penalty and be back up and running at position 1 in less than 2 weeks? Is that normal for a penalty? I was under the impression that being caught gaming Google to the extent where they delisted you was something far more serious and had much longer term repercussions?
Link Building | | Clicksjim0 -
Can't rank with certain keywords for the life of me
I have a website http://www.freescrabbledictionary.com in which functions as a scrabble dictionary lookup and word finder for scrabble. There are many keywords that rank well for this niche but the main ones I target are Scrabble Dictionary Scrabble Cheat Scrabble Word Finder Scrabble Help I used to rank well for all these keywords, I am 4th with scrabble dictionary currently but with the other 3 am no where near the top. On March 24th I dropped off the map for scrabble cheat, scrabble word finder and scrabble help. I actually dropped to 9/10th for scrabble dictionary on that date as well but since then I have been able to hold on steady to 4th. I can't figure out why I can't rank for those other keywords anymore. Its almost like Google has penalized me for those keywords. I have contacted Google a few times to ask if I have any penalties and they have told me that I don't. Even though in my backlinking I have targeted these keywords I can't seem to rank for them no matter what I do. The only idea I have come up with is that Google has re-associated those other 3 keywords in a group and separated scrabble dictionary on its own. I have other sites I have created in the same niche and I have noticed if the URL contains "word", "Finder" and/or "cheat" I can rank in the 3 keywords within about a week all the way up to the second page. My main site FSD has the highest DA and PA compared to my other sites. Any idea why I can't seem to rank for those other 3 keywords anymore?
Link Building | | cbielich0 -
SEOmoz's ranking of links on competitor question..
I am Perplexed about SEOmoz crawl for new links on a competitors website. When I looked at a company who received very high ranks for the links...on SEOMoz...such as. 95, 96, 97 etc..... I couldn't figure out how they ranked so high. One company bought 20 links for a couple hundred dollars and all of them were ranked very high on SEOmoz but when I used the page rank tool on them individually they were either "0" or "1" and none were over a 2. I was debating submitting for those since I am just starting out and wanted to get our name listed in the internet world. Are the high rankings by SEOmoz related to something else? Would I be better off buying a listing in some of the premium directories instead. Like Yahoo or BBB or Manta. ( After I get my site optimized first) Thank you, Greg
Link Building | | Boodreaux0 -
Does anyone use Adgooroo to manage Back links?
One of the top guys here is a friend of Matt Cutts and makes sure your links meet quality tests, etc. Also helps you find quality sites to get links from. I'm sure a lot of you manage links for your clients and and your own site. Any users out there or know of someone who uses it and gives you feed back/ Thanks
Link Building | | joemas991