Nothing stings more than waking up and seeing a massive drop in SEO rankings or worse, your site(s) banned by Google. I’m not sure what would hurt worse, as the sucker punch from Raider Matt Millen looks painful.
In any event, the update that occurred with Google on Tuesday was a major sucker punch for many SEOs and Webmasters around the world. How bad is it? A lot of SEOs are actually quitting the business. Yes, quitting.
That’s shameful as this is just like any other career you choose … you have to work at it.
Last week’s blog post dealt with Step One in recovery from Panda and we’ll shift gears slightly and discuss what just happened and what you need to concentrate on right now.
Google fried a lot of sites and while a lot of people are talking about the empty blog ranking for “make money online”, I think the more important one is how Pfizer no longer ranks for their flagship product, Viagra … HowStuffWorks does. Wow.
Doing some simple analysis on some of these top sites that were crushed in this latest update, some consistencies pop up:
– far too high on-page keyword density
– uneven anchor text distribution
– low quality links
– internal duplicate content
– duplicate title tags
– slow site speed
– high number of internal 404s
I am not saying the above is the reason for the fall, I am saying these five issues are consistent with sites that dropped. (cough, cough) You might be best served to look at your site and improve these areas.
Remember, Google owes you nothing. They will always make changes to their algorithm and it is up to you to roll with the changes, make adjustments and keep rolling. The worst thing you can do is go into a panic and just start killing off links and dumping domains. Relax, take a breath and look at the SERPs, they are still a mess so more changes are coming.
Check in next week as I dive further into Panda and changes that you can do to improve your sites and campaigns.
Lisa Brown says
Lots of people are having trouble with this update – I guess Google went after more linking things.
Earl says
I don’t think Google even knows what they went after, because there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the results. There doesn’t seem to be anything in common with those that were penalized.
suck sh1t says
You spammers polluting our search results deserve to get run out of business. Suck sh1t losers.
You’re no better than Nigerians.
Bob says
I got totally hammered though I would argue my content is pretty good. My linking could be better. But what’s getting ranked above me now is really odd – lots of Yahoo answers stuff that hasn’t been updated since 2007.
Also – looking closely at ranking for specific terms, it is very hard to avoid the impression that they have given “organic” positions to certain paid advertisers – it’s just too consistent to be an accident.
@suck sh1t says
Dude…
If it weren’t for us losers, you wouldn’t have any search results.
Jerry West says
Winner.
Harlan Kilstein says
My sites actually improved with the Penguin Update.
We went up from page 2 to page 1 for our primary keyword even though…
We never did any formal SEO…
We never linked from bad neighborhoods…
We never posted to article networks.
Etc. Etc.
All we did was content content content and social networking.
:-)
Jerry West says
Any improvement in ranking is always a plus, however, all that really matters is strong improvement in revenue and I hope that was realized as well Harlan.
Pamscape says
Could be a coincidence. Apr 24, I had a pos 3 site that suddenly fell off the radar. I went into google webmaster tools and lo and behold there were suddenly a bunch 404 errors I have no idea where they came from. They weren’t even my links. My guess is that a RSS engine I submitted to when haywire or something, because some of the site titles were almost correct, but something had added or changed some of the orig URL. Still trying to make heads and tails, but that’s what I found so far. I fixed them and the next day, that site was back on page 1, position 7. Position 3 was better, but at this point page one is better than none.
Jerry West says
Pamscape » Probably a coincidence, but more likely than not, what you need are more links. It could be that dozens or hundreds of your links have been reindexed by Google with all the changes they have been doing and that was the reason for the drop. Fixing the 404s is always a good idea, but a reduction of links is a more likely reason for the drop.
toko online says
wow, thanks for sharing tips. I’m bookmark your tips problem google panda.
Regards,
onigi
Ted says
Not only am I disturbed about the way the SERPs look now for a lot of keywords, I am also very much disturbed over how good sites got taken out with the bad. This update represents a major shift in the way Google will be conducting business going forward in my opinion. I am really beginning to wonder how much this has to do with keeping people dependent on the Adwords program. I hate to think that way, but it honestly does look that way to me.
On a side note- thanks for the laugh with that photo. Anytime I see someone from the Patriots, recent or old, getting punched in the face, it makes my day. It would be funnier if it was Bill Belichick getting slammed after that playoff game where they invented the Tuck rule.
Jerry West says
Ted » Yeah, the SERPs are a mess right now but I am hopefully things will shake out and the good sites return.
Regarding the Tuck Rule, if Gruden has some balls and went for it in 4th and 1 instead of punting, the Tuck Rule would have never been mentioned.
Jack says
I posted the funny picture for getting rapid-fast links like Mr. Cutts told me to do but I can’t see a good result from it. Can you tell me about if Google is devaluing the funny-picture links?
Jerry West says
Jack » So you took Matt Cutts’ advice and it didn’t work … and you are surprised? Welcome to the world of SEO my friend.
Jamie Lewis says
I have 3 sites that were on the 1st page and were having a lot of traffic but after may 7th It disappear all at the same time. I removed some things that might cause it but up until now nada!
Jerry West says
Jamie Lewis » You need to give it time. Google has to go and reindex not only your site, but remove the connection between you and the other sites and then recalculate. That doesn’t happen in a week.
Jimmy says
Hi Jerry :)
Original post was April 26, and had this “Check in next week as I dive further into Panda and changes that you can do to improve your sites and campaigns.”
I was hanging on every word and waiting for next post….. Is it delayed because of the cluster F that was penguin and the penguin updates?
Just looking for your updated assessment …
Jerry West says
Jimmy » Yeah, Penguin hit and it screwed up that plan. We are still testing options. A Cluster F is exactly what it was. I’ll get an update out soon. Sorry for disappearing on this one.
essay writing says
Regarding the Tuck Rule, if Gruden has some balls and went for it in 4th
Jerry West says
Yeah, and if you had some balls and actually used your real name that would have helped too Mr. Essay Writing.
Dave says
I like the line remember Google doesn’t owe you anything. This is so true. I’m not sure why everyone is getting so upset.