2 replies to this topic

[dmagal]

So I was ranking pretty well for my EMD keyowrds and after the new google update i'm nowhere near the top page for those keywords. To add insult to injury, i'm also no longer ranking for 60-70 other keyowrds I used to rank for. I assume that was a punishment for using some shady SEO practices (bad backlinks etc). I'm a complete beginner so I didnt really realize the consequences of what I was doing.

I'm trying to figure out whether I should bother keeping my site or just switch to another domain and start trying to rank organically from scratch.

Thank you for your help!

Edited by Jill, 07 October 2012 - 02:31 PM.
Website removed as per forum rules

[Jill]

Sounds like you need to beef up the site so that it is much more high quality and has lots of other authoritative sites that recommend it.

Exact match domains in general didn't get nailed, only those that Google felt were low quality.

[1dmf]

I like many others was seriously hit with Penguin, I went from 200+ hits a week to 30!

Jill gave a little advice, (though I still defend it wasn't keyword stuffing, poor copy perhaps, but hey since when was Google predudice against those with disabilites and a lack of english literature skills?)

I went up to @ 70 hits after making the changes Jill recommended and now it's dropped back down to @ 30-40 , even 20 on occassion.

There are no warnings in GWMT either!

I have never taken part in, stealth, link building , spamming, keyword stuffing or any other black hat practices, and apart from the 'no accounting for taste or personal preference', my site does exactly what it says on the tin and provides quality and unqiue content. Yet I still seem to have been totaly and utterly hammered by the Penguin!

I give up and don't use Google anymore, its SERPs are the worst I have ever seen in many years, I search for the keyphrases I no longer rank for and most of the results is total and utter dross, nothing but sites made for adwords, or not offering the 'free' it claims to be, diabolically poorly designed sites, bad layout, awful navigation, certainly not sites you would consider good for the searcher nor would you recommend them yourself to anyone other than your worst enemy.

Of course YMMV, but from what I have experience as a webmaster and a searcher, Google tottaly sucks these days!

Does this mean I'm going to shut my site and start again, no way, why , because my site if for people, real people, and not for poxy search engines that keep screwing up their algorithm!

Of course I want Google to stop the black hatters and remove the junk, but in my opinion Penguin has completely failed to achieve this and has made the SERPs worse.

I don't earn money from my site, so I have no financial interest to gain higher rankings and visitors nor have I lost any revenue for me to be so peeved about!

However, I certainly don't make Google any money from my site either, ahh, perhaps this is why I rank so much lower than the made for adwords sites that now dominate the SERPs.

So unless you know you have deliberatley taken part in Black Hat SEO, employed dodgy SEO companies who have created bad links for you or added you to link farms and such, do not stop what you are doing!

Answer this simple question, are you creating unique quality content for real people for the right reasons?

If the answer is 'Yes', then it is Google with the problem, not your site!