Google Panda update - how it affected me

[DesignerRamsey]

The Panda update hurt me BAD. I lost 75% of my traffic AND my Adsense. I'm just about sick about it. My one site that had ranked so well (number one for many many of my keyterms) suddenly fell to numbers 3-5 - on all of them, and it has negatively affected me.

This was my bread and butter site. Now I don't know what to do.

My "Sniper" sites aren't growing - at all - even though I followed their directions - my "Adsense" site - is a big 165 page authority type site, all unique content, it's 4 years old - has PR 3 - good Alexa ranking. And I'm dumbfounded.

What does Google want? The sites that over took me - aren't any "better" than mine. In fact they are more generalized than mine. So I'm very confused. I've asked for a reconsideration.

Anyway, I'm very interested in whether or not it has affected others, and especially in the Adsense income.

PS - it's not my Webmidwife site that was affected - it's another site I have.

[davidjames42973]

Hi Lori,

I checked the website in your signature. If this is the website that's been slapped, I would start by getting rid of the Kontera ads that you have
on targeted keywords. I'm very confident that's why your site was thrown under the bus.

I would then take a ton of those keywords and add backlinks to relevant parts of your website and backlinks to other websites.

Since the Google slap I've been referring to Wikipedia a lot. Why does Wikipedia rank so well? Because it has good quality content, plus has a ton of backlinks that point to other parts of their websites and also backlinks that point to other relevant websites.

[DesignerRamsey]

Thanks.

Kontera was bringing in over $500 a month, which is why I had them.
Now it's down too.

So if google is punishing because of ads - then how are we suppose to make an income?

I have a few Kontera - and like 2 or 3 Google ads - that shouldn't affect it so much.

[Mkj]

There is uproar on Google's own forum:

Think you're affected by the recent algorithm change? Post here. - Webmaster Central Help

I notice things are heating up and there is talk about lawyers and so on:

This pointless thread is a waste of time. If we want justice we need to take legal action. Please talk with local attorneys and advisors about filing a class-action lawsuit against Google for their deception.

googleclassaction | Justice for Small Business Owners

A lot of people with long standing and well constructed websites have been hit really hard; and it looks like very unfairly.

[bfas]

Lori,

I have been seeing a number of 'quality' sites get tanked, only to 're-emerge' a few days or weeks later.

If your site is in fact a 'quality' site - strong, original content, no overt violations, bad practices, etc., had good rankings, and tanked, it is very likely due to your backlinks. One possibility, something that we've seen, are 'strong' sites that have been essentially 'inactive' in their linkbuilding and content. Another possibility is that some of your 'stronger' backlinks are coming from sites that themselves lost authority/standing, or that your backlinking simply isn't diverse, strong, and dynamic enough - meaning your rankings are built on backlink volume rather than quality.

I'd be happy to take a look at the particulars and give you my feedback if you like. The one thing I'd stress is, if it is a quality site with strong fundamentals, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to re-gain, and even surpass, your previous traffic & earnings.

Michael

[yukon]

The problem is your depending on Google for 75% of your traffic.

Diversify your traffic (niche forums, etc...).

Without looking at the site structure or backlinks, it sounds you've just been lucky that another site hasn't bumped you lower in the SERPs before now.

Besides we don't know that you didn't do something to cause the SERP psositions to drop. I've seen plenty of people (I'm talking a lot) on this forum block Google (robots.txt, etc...) or some other crazy stuff, & wonder why Google doesn't cut them a break, when in fact it has nothing to do with Google (most times).

Hard to say without seeing the site.

Originally Posted by DesignerRamsey

The Panda update hurt me BAD. I lost 75% of my traffic AND my Adsense. I'm just about sick about it. My one site that had ranked so well (number one for many many of my keyterms) suddenly fell to numbers 3-5 - on all of them, and it has negatively affected me.

This was my bread and butter site. Now I don't know what to do.

My "Sniper" sites aren't growing - at all - even though I followed their directions - my "Adsense" site - is a big 165 page authority type site, all unique content, it's 4 years old - has PR 3 - good Alexa ranking. And I'm dumbfounded.

What does Google want? The sites that over took me - aren't any "better" than mine. In fact they are more generalized than mine. So I'm very confused. I've asked for a reconsideration.

Anyway, I'm very interested in whether or not it has affected others, and especially in the Adsense income.

PS - it's not my Webmidwife site that was affected - it's another site I have.

[DesignerRamsey]

Thank you!

Michael - thank you! According to Yahoo - I have 411 backlinks. The site - stages-in-pregnancy.com has 165 pages - and I stopped with the backlink building thinking I had enough - a while back. I've been blogging on it - up until a week ago, so I've been building fresh content.

I'm currently going through and making sure I have enough words per page (most do) and making sure the description tags have at least 120 characters.

Do you think I need to remove Kontera? Some days I earn more with them than with Adsense - but the prior months, I've had record traffic, ranking and Adsense numbers, up until April 12.

I'm just a work at home mom, this is my bread and butter site. I'm trying with other sites - and my web design biz, but this site was my biggest earner. So this has hit my home very hard.

Any suggestions are very welcomed. I'm open to advice that works.

[mejohn]

Just add new original content to your sites regularly and Google should like you again.

None of the recent Google updates have been hurting any of my sites. If anything, they have been gaining in ranking. My main philosophy is good, original content, with some steady backlinking. So far, that strategy has proven good through all updates.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by Mkj

There is uproar on Google's own forum:

Think you're affected by the recent algorithm change? Post here. - Webmaster Central Help

I notice things are heating up and there is talk about lawyers and so on:



A lot of people with long standing and well constructed websites have been hit really hard; and it looks like very unfairly.

WOW! Some of the comments in that Google thread are simply stunning.

I don't know if the Farmer update helped or hurt overall relevancy after reading some of those comments.

[GardeniaShrub]

Originally Posted by DesignerRamsey

Thank you!

Michael - thank you! According to Yahoo - I have 411 backlinks. The site - stages-in-pregnancy.com has 165 pages - and I stopped with the backlink building thinking I had enough - a while back. I've been blogging on it - up until a week ago, so I've been building fresh content.

I'm currently going through and making sure I have enough words per page (most do) and making sure the description tags have at least 120 characters.

Do you think I need to remove Kontera? Some days I earn more with them than with Adsense - but the prior months, I've had record traffic, ranking and Adsense numbers, up until April 12.

I'm just a work at home mom, this is my bread and butter site. I'm trying with other sites - and my web design biz, but this site was my biggest earner. So this has hit my home very hard.

Any suggestions are very welcomed. I'm open to advice that works.

I had a look at your site, and it might be down to the placement of the Adsense block rather than the Kontera.

Google have changed their Adsense layout guidelines. see the following:

google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=132575&sourceid=twitterEN&m edium=tweet&subid=tweet2011-04-21

They don't want you to push the content below the fold. Perhaps remove the adsense from the content and put it in the right sidebar and see what happens.

[StoneWilson]

Originally Posted by GardeniaShrub

I had a look at your site, and it might be down to the placement of the Adsense block rather than the Kontera.

Google have changed their Adsense layout guidelines. see the following:

google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=132575&sourceid=twitterEN&m edium=tweet&subid=tweet2011-04-21

They don't want you to push the content below the fold. Perhaps remove the adsense from the content and put it in the right sidebar and see what happens.

Ads or ads placement against Google Adsense won't influence website's rank, what are you guys talking about?

[goldhome]

Thats exactly what Im thinking. How could using Kontera would make Google flush down your rankings. Seems like mere absurdness to me.

[Ayekami]

Thanks for sharing the Google thread now i know that a lot of people dont like google but still have to follow their guidelines for getting traffic.

[Nail Yener]

I guess Google will end up at some point where building your own backlinks
will not make any sense anymore. I stopped building backlinks to my sites
with the previous update and focused on creating more quality content.

Because, creating hundreds of artificial backlinks will not help you at all if
Google decides to take your site down manually or algorithmically.
On the other hand, spending your time on creating hundreds of
quality/informative/helpful content pages will definitely help in the long term.

Now, this update once again reminds us not to depend on Google
for anything (traffic, leads, income, etc...).

[James Schramko]

Google is a small slither of available traffic and confining
yourself to one traffic source is plain dumb.

[nakmuay7]

i personally believe that google will keep loosing users everytime they do things like this and this will facilitate either yahoo or bing to overtake them in the not too distant future.

it is however only a personal opinion. but consider google were late comers to the market and right now dominate all.