35 replies to this topic

[Dasick]

HI all,

I run a website to promote my business, [removed]. Recently, (April 20th, 2012 is roughly when this started) my website went from being on the 1st page of Google for my keyword to being on the 7th, which is quite a drop ( that's seven pages, not positions).

I recently switched from 'http' to 'https' because my new payment processing pipeline requires me to get card numbers from my customers, and I figured that the 'padlock' will make them feel more comfortable punching the numbers in. I've already redirected all the old links to the 'https' domain, and my website got re-indexed by Google shortly after the switch, it's just that some keywords started dropping real soon afterwards.

I don't really know what's causing this, so I would really appreciate any help.
Thanks

Edited by Jill, 25 June 2012 - 02:02 PM.
removed site and keyword as per forum rules

[Jill]

Could be Penguin. Got any paid links and keyword stuffing going on?

[Dasick]

0.o
Penguin can knock a website from first page? What a vicious little critter...

Umm... that's a maybe for both of these.

I used to run a blog about my industry, but had a hard time coming up with content so it kind of got turned it into a three-way link exchange farm. Former blog links to Site X and Site X links back to my website.*

As for keyword stuffing, I have a gallery, which I update pretty frequently. The alt text for these is pretty formulaic - "adjective keyword sign(s)", where 'keyword' is one of the three keywords.

*EDIT: I don't do that any more since it's kind of pointless, but it's still there

Edited by Dasick, 25 June 2012 - 03:20 PM.

[Jill]

There ya go. Fix those things and it could help.

[Dasick]

Thanks for such a fast response! Really appreciate it.

But.. How do I go about fixing that?

For the link farm, would it be enough for me to just pull the plug on the site? I mean, it will then be just a bunch of unrelated websites linking to my site. Is that alright or do I need to contact the webmasters and ask them to remove the link?

As for the gallery, I have the keywords in the text below each image, in the alt text and in the name of the image itself. Even if I have more unique descriptions for each one, that's still three times I've used that same keyword.
Also, I recognize that it's kind of spammy, but the images are showcasing previous jobs I've done, and the keywords do describe them. There are only so many ways I can describe something without using the most obvious word, and I have a lot of pics in the gallery (328 at the moment, with a script to add one more each week). Should I just leave the adjective and only use the keywords every once in a while?

[Jill]

do I need to contact the webmasters and ask them to remove the link?

Yep.

Should I just leave the adjective and only use the keywords every once in a while?

Is the keyword even necessary?

[WPMuse]

What I've found on several sites I work with is that tightly niche sites -- where the keyword phrase is the keyword phrase -- it is what it is -- lost rankings. Due to perceived keyword stuffing? These are sites that meet all of Google's "guidelines", are well aged, no advertising and credible, didn't pay for links and have great social signals. What they don't have is the luxury of other words or alternate ways to describe their products or services. In some cases doing so (misspellings, incorrect hypenation, terms an "expert" wouldn't use) does not sound naturual and reads like you *are* catering to search engines which a site owner is not supposed to do.

Theses sites still rank well for other long tail terms but have lost their great rankings on the primary term that they are about to only be replaced by outdated, low quality and less credible resources.

All you can do is try to clean house, be creative and remove redundancy as much as you can... I would be curious as to what other are doing in similar situations as well.

[Dasick]

do I need to contact the webmasters and ask them to remove the link?

Yep.

I deleted the links coming from the link farm, but mailing every webmaster that we exchanged with is going to be very tedious :S . Is Google really penalizing a site for content it has no control over?

I've also been posting my product in directories and classifieds, and most of them allow me to make a link to my main site. Is that considered unnatural and spammy links as well?

Is the keyword even necessary?

Well, like WPMuse said, the keyword is what it is. If I have a picture gallery of my main product, how else can I describe each picture?

For now I've de-activated the alt text and the on-page text with the description. I still have the keywords in the picture names, but changing all this is also a lot of work, and I need to think how I'm going to change it.

Thanks for your response Jill, at least now I have a clue as to what's going on

[Jill]

I've also been posting my product in directories and classifieds, and most of them allow me to make a link to my main site. Is that considered unnatural and spammy links as well?

Could be. Mostly if the anchor text is a keyword rather than your company name.

[charto03]

try to remove the https and go back to http and see if the rankings come back if all else is equal than you would know that its not from your farm but rather from your security tightening. Thats a suggestion nobody mentioned here.

[piskie]

In this day and age, I wouldn't dream of removing https security from Payment card gathering.
If you thought this could be an issue, just secure the Payment Processing pages maybe by containing within their own directory if the aren't already.

[WPMuse]

Could be. Mostly if the anchor text is a keyword rather than your company name.

Ah... but there's the rub.... What if the keyword IS part of your trademarked company name?

[Jill]

Well it depends. And that's the problem with those who chose to create a keyword company name rather than a more branded one. But it's hard to say without knowing all the facts involved in this particular instance and what else has been done to/for the site.

[WPMuse]

Hey, Jill...

I understand where you are coming from being what you do everyday and what you see on some of the sites you are asked to work on. However,

And that's the problem with those who chose to create a keyword company name rather than a more branded one.

That is emphatically not the case for the site I am referring to. Search engine rankings were not even a thought when the company name was chosen.

Because you have a keyword in your trademarked company name does not mean, nor should it be assumed that you did so purely for SEO reasons. Nor should you be penalized for such an incorrect and inaccurate assumption or far reaching algo.

That's my concern.... In reading everything I can on this topic as of late it seems there are a healthy supply of sites that can be considered collateral damage. But very few who are willing to honestly take that topic on. Is Google's algo perfect -- all the time?

Are we saying that if a site lost rankings it is 100% without a doubt the site's fault? That there is *no way* that the big G's algo could cause collateral damage to sites that really did not comit any mortal sins equal to the loss of rankings -- especially when compared to the affiliate, outdated, homebrewed and litearlly no content sites that replaced them?

But it's hard to say without knowing all the facts involved in this particular instance and what else has been done to/for the site.

I do understand... Even still -- it must have been "what else has be done to/for the site". It's never Google?

[Jill]

I've so far usually found things that the sites weren't doing well enough or quite right. But feel free to pm me the site in question and I'll take a quick look.