Panda slapped me silly....:-(

[mbmehmet]

Hey warriors

Just thought I would share my story.

I have 6 sites that were bringing me a good income on adsense for over 2 years. Up and till yesterday of course. Every single site I own, including ones that were not adsense based got slapped into oblivion.

I was untouched during the first panda update, and I finally got man handled on panda 2.1. On 2.1 it wasn't so bad, i lost about 40 percent of my earnings and positions dropped rather than pages dropped.

As of 23 June 2011 I woke up to find every single one of my sites had been molested by those at google. No message in webmaster tools, nothing at all.

From earning over $400 daily to $3 a day all in the space of 3 months I feel like giving up on my dreams. Yes I hate to admit it, but it feels like im fighting a battle I can never win.

When I was hit on 2.1 I revamped everything. I spent over $5000 on content, fixed every issue as many have said. no index, 301s, seo, whitehat backlinks etc etc etc.

Do I feel I have been slapped unfairly? Yes I do. Am I the only one? no, clearly not.

I taught a few friends of mine how to make adsense sites back in the day when the whole Xfactor thing was going on. I evolved from that, even ditching all those micro niches sites in favour of working with google, not against them.

What's upsetting is those same guys I taught have been untouched, and are in fact earning more than me as there 1 page sites have risen. What makes matters even worse, the content is bad, 250 words, grammar is terrible and there are only a few backlinks from ezine supporting them.

I resorted to comfort eating feeling sorry for myself yesterday, but as of today I have picked myself back up and refuse to let myself get depressed about it. Like others I have a family and wife to support, and even though I am lucky enough to get the support I need from everyone, it pains me to see that deep down inside they feel my hurt too, even though they won't admit it.

As of now, I have no idea. At the end of the day I only have myself to blame. Lesson learnt. I think it's time to let go and hit the job listings. :-)

[rvdp]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

What's upsetting is those same guys I taught have been untouched, and are in fact earning more than me as there 1 page sites have risen. What makes matters even worse, the content is bad, 250 words, grammar is terrible and there are only a few backlinks from ezine supporting them.

Same thing here, my site dropped and low quality sites on top. The rankings as of today just CAN'T be the "final" rankings, as it would be a major turnback quality-wise.

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by rvdp

Same thing here, my site dropped and low quality sites on top. The rankings as of today just CAN'T be the "final" rankings, as it would be a major turnback quality-wise.

Yep, it would seem like that. None of it makes sense at all does it? Do I have to resort to spamming the web with my 1 pages just to keep them happy? If so, not a problem, but in all seriousness...WTF.

How hard were you effect? notice any similarities?

[dp40oz]

I feel your pain guys but I would hope that Google would realize that this Panda 2.2 has done much more harm then good. I would like 1 person anywhere to show me how any of Google's searches are better then they were before Panda. They are different yes, but better... Not at all.

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by dp40oz

I feel your pain guys but I would hope that Google would realize that this Panda 2.2 has done much more harm then good. I would like 1 person anywhere to show me how any of Google's searches are better then they were before Panda. They are different yes, but better... Not at all.

Well here's hoping they fix it. I kinda doubt it though, I have learnt not to expect THAT much from google .

[dburk]

Hi mbmehmet,

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. Please allow me to share some information that may help you going forward.

There are two ways that the new Panda updates could effect your rankings.

1. Panda was designed to employ some new algorithmic methods of recognizing low quality content. If your writing style employs phraseology that triggers low quality scores then your pages will rank lower in SERPs. Try to look at your content from a linguistic angle to determine if your phraseology is at fault.
   
2. If you have been link building from pages that are scored as low quality pages then backlinks that were formerly helping your rankings have been devalued and your own content, which could be excellent quality, is now suffering from a lack of high quality backlinks. Try to update content that you control on backlinks you have previously placed and/or take care to add useful and valuable content with high quality phraseology to pages where you place your future backlinks.

I have noticed that many folks have neglected to consider that their rankings declines could be from either, or both of those reasons.

[tonyalves]

Isn't it a bit too early to panic? Sometimes good sites are negatively affected right after a Google update, but shortly after they bounce back.

If the sites contain good, unique content, I would not worry too much.

I would just keep adding new unique content and building back links and I am sure that they will get their original rankings back, or even better rankings in no time.

[yukon]

Let me ask anyone that follows the panda hype.

Q: When was the last time Google SERPs was static?

A: Never!

[rvdp]

Originally Posted by yukon

Let me ask anyone that follows the panda hype.

Q: When was the last time Google SERPs was static?

A: Never!

Don't pretend like nothing out of the ordinary is going on please.

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi mbmehmet,

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. Please allow me to share some information that may help you going forward.

There are two ways that the new Panda updates could effect your rankings.

1. Panda was designed to employ some new algorithmic methods of recognizing low quality content. If your writing style employs phraseology that triggers low quality scores then your pages will rank lower in SERPs. Try to look at your content from a linguistic angle to determine if your phraseology is at fault.
   
2. If you have been link building from pages that are scored as low quality pages then backlinks that were formerly helping your rankings have been devalued and your own content, which could be excellent quality, is now suffering from a lack of high quality backlinks. Try to update content that you control on backlinks you have previously placed and/or take care to add useful and valuable content with high quality phraseology to pages where you place your future backlinks.

I have noticed that many folks have neglected to consider that their rankings declines could be from either, or both of those reasons.

Interesting. The whole phraseology thing might play a part for my site. The keyword phrases were long and may have been seen as out of place. The content was pretty decent though so I don't know if thats it but very interesting.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by rvdp

Don't pretend like nothing out of the ordinary is going on please.

Don't pretend that Google owes you something, just because your site exist, please.

Anyone that's been around seo longer than a year knows I'm right. The panda hype is just another day in seo, nothing has changed. Backlinks still rule, & on-page seo is a close 2nd.

The SERPs are not static, so don't expect them to be. Just because you ranked yesterday means nothing today... It never did.

[benbro]

Originally Posted by yukon

Don't pretend that Google owes you something, just because your site exist, please.

Anyone that's been around seo longer than a year knows I'm right. The panda hype is just another day in seo, nothing has changed. Backlinks still rule, & on-page seo is a close 2nd.

The SERPs are not static, so don't expect them to be. Just because you ranked yesterday means nothing today... It never did.

Yukon makes a solid point. My advice would be to mix up the variety of links coming back to you and begin to diversify away from articles and more into video, press releases, and podcasts.

[CrimsonTide]

Panda bitch slapped me. I have lost 70% of my traffic and nowhere to be found on Google. Went from earning around $300/day to $15/day. Watch the U.S. economy sink because of this BS by Google. I know a good hundred people who own websites that have been slapped to the back and the big multi million dollar corporations are now at the top.

This is simply a case where the big and rich get richer and the small one's get poor.

This has been D-Day on the internet for me and thousands of others hard workers.

[Cash37]

Time for you to learn paid traffic. Control your traffic. Control your income.

[mbmehmet]

Great points guys.

No disrespect to "Yukon", but you really aren't stating something new. I am sure we are all aware that google isn't static. Come on, seriously?

Everyone expects something from someone in life, that is the sad truth. If this were not the case would we be doing what we do in our everyday lives? Problem is, what is it that google wants? I want to work with them, I really do, but it seems they have different thoughts going by the many folk that have experienced the so called "panda".

Only recently have I changed my way of thinking that backlinks and onpage seo is the answer. As stated before, I am no expert, but I sure as hell know what I am doing. It's google that doesn't have a clue what's going on and me and others have to suffer for it.

Anyway, what's the point bitching about it, in reality i asked to be googles bitch and they treated me and others like a cheap whore. I feel like I payed to get raped.

At least I have learnt a valuable lesson, not that I should expect, but that I need to expect that that everyone has there own motives, including google. Good on you google.

[Jeremy Banks]

Another case that proves it is good to diversify your sites and income. I have atleast 1 site that would do just fine if google de-indexed it completely. It gets enough traffic from referring sites, Facebook and YouTube.

I think people should build many different styles of sites, use many different monetization strategies and build lists ( traffic on tap)

If you are making $500 a day then start working on a real business. Don't leave ALL your income in the hands of google who could squeeze and crush your empire over night.

[Jeremy Banks]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

Great points guys.

Only recently have I changed my way of thinking that backlinks and onpage seo is the answer. As stated before, I am no expert, but I sure as hell know what I am doing. It's google that doesn't have a clue what's going on and me and others have to suffer for it.
.

What kind of content and backlinks did you have? What PR were your sites? What quality of backlinks? Were your sites and posts getting shared on social networking sites?

[drvosjeca]

Why im I only one who doesnt care about panda???

I just keep my work going on and dont look at this panda BS. Yes sites are sometimes going up and down, but i dont care...

[sparckyz]

Originally Posted by yukon

Don't pretend that Google owes you something, just because your site exist, please.

Anyone that's been around seo longer than a year knows I'm right. The panda hype is just another day in seo, nothing has changed. Backlinks still rule, & on-page seo is a close 2nd.

The SERPs are not static, so don't expect them to be. Just because you ranked yesterday means nothing today... It never did.

That's some pretty straight shootin! tellin' it like it is...

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Banks

What kind of content and backlinks did you have? What PR were your sites? What quality of backlinks? Were your sites and posts getting shared on social networking sites?

Hey Jeremy

All of my backlinks were a mix of social bookmarks, contextual links from relevant sites, press releases and forums (non spammy, relevant forums). A few article dir (high pr).

The usual 101. The lowest PR I have is 1 and that is across 3 sites. Out of 23 sites they are all 2 and up with the highest being 3.

A few times social networks shared our posts, facebook fanpage for one site has over 830 followers.

[TBInternetMarketing]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

Anyway, what's the point bitching about it, in reality i asked to be googles bitch and they treated me and others like a cheap whore. I feel like I payed to get raped.

So I'd be interested to hear your views on what you thought you did wrong? Perhaps others could learn from it?

[Jeremy Banks]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

Hey Jeremy

All of my backlinks were a mix of social bookmarks, contextual links from relevant sites, press releases and forums (non spammy, relevant forums). A few article dir (high pr).

The usual 101. The lowest PR I have is 1 and that is across 3 sites. Out of 23 sites they are all 2 and up with the highest being 3.

A few times social networks shared our posts, facebook fanpage for one site has over 830 followers.

Damn homie! Not the typical response from someone who lost every site in their portfolio. You must have been doing something google didn't like. Now I know why some guys use separate ip's and hosting accounts.

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by TBInternetMarketing

So I'd be interested to hear your views on what you thought you did wrong? Perhaps others could learn from it?

Boy, thats the problem, I don't even know where to start. None of it makes sense at all.

High quality content - check
High quality, relevant backlinks (consistent) - check
Low bounce rate - Check
Easy user navigation - check
Sites that people actually come back to - check

I could go on and on. I am lost, truly. It's enough to put the fear in me to never touch another website in future lol

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Banks

Damn homie! Not the typical response from someone who lost every site in their portfolio. You must have been doing something google didn't like. Now I know why some guys use separate ip's and hosting accounts.

Bro, I was the same. I have been earning that amount for over 2 years. I used to read stories and say exactly the same thing. But trust me, I have been playing this game so straight I am just as surprised as anyone else. But remember, I am not the only one.

Only those that have suffered the wrath will understand, and that is the sad reality. But yes, i did do something wrong, relying on them and being under assumption that if i play it straight they won't have a problem.

Time to spam the web with my 1 page niche sites. That is the only thing that makes sense to me right now as the results seem to be favouring them.

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

Bro, I was the same. I have been earning that amount for over 2 years. I used to read stories and say exactly the same thing. But trust me, I have been playing this game so straight I am just as surprised as anyone else. But remember, I am not the only one.

Only those that have suffered the wrath will understand, and that is the sad reality. But yes, i did do something wrong, relying on them and being under assumption that if i play it straight they won't have a problem.

Time to spam the web with my 1 page niche sites. That is the only thing that makes sense to me right now as the results seem to be favouring them.

So you literally lost all 23 websites? Not 1 survived. That sounds like more of a webmaster tools or host ip slap then a Panda slap. I mean thats really insane.

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by dp40oz

So you literally lost all 23 websites? Not 1 survived. That sounds like more of a webmaster tools or host ip slap then a Panda slap. I mean thats really insane.

Yep you could say that, all rankings, all gone. I find it just as hard to believe untill speaking to a few others who were effected on the 23 june. Yes, I have 1, just 1 site that is bringing me 2-3 dollars. Thats from the homepage of a 2 page site that was work in progress as I have over 70 pages of content ready to upload.

During panda 2.1 they all took a slight dip in rankings, on estimate 3-4 position drops with some going to page 2-3. By the time panda 2.2 came, it's like they finished me off.

All sites indexed, no webmaster penalty messages,

[jrafique]

Ok Do 3 things:

1. Change the IP address on which your sites are hosted. I recommend you to use dedicated IP and the one that is never been used before. You have got good number of sites a VPS from knownhost will work great for you.

2. Put facebook like button, Twitter Button and Google +1 Button

3. And give links to your site using your URL as anchor text.

I am hopeful this will work for you.

[TBInternetMarketing]

Well all I can say for now is at least give it a few weeks to see what happens. I had 2 sites which were on about page 4 both jump right onto page 1 yesterday. I thought it was really odd. I'm not holding my breath yet though because both sites are only a few months old. You never know though, my sites may drop down again, and yours may come back.

Out of interest, were all sites hosted on the same account (i.e. same IP address)? Could definitely have something to do with it if they were.

Hang in there for a few weeks at least and keep an eye on things....and keep us posted.

[thebitbotdotcom]

This is a very weird thing, friend. Please keep us posted in this thread. Maybe, together, we can figure this out.

Would it be possible to add more content, not that you buy, but that you write yourself, to one of the sites along with some new relevant backlinks and see if you can snap it out of its funk?

I would definitely try focusing on one just to see.

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by jrafique

Ok Do 3 things:

1. Change the IP address on which your sites are hosted. I recommend you to use dedicated IP and the one that is never been used before. You have got good number of sites a VPS from knownhost will work great for you.

2. Put facebook like button, Twitter Button and Google +1 Button

3. And give links to your site using your URL as anchor text.

I am hopeful this will work for you.

Hey jrafique

Thanks for the tips, although I have covered all those steps apart from the VPS. I guess that is worth giving a go, will have to give that a try.

Will keep the thread updated for sure with any new developments.

Many thanks

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by TBInternetMarketing

Well all I can say for now is at least give it a few weeks to see what happens. I had 2 sites which were on about page 4 both jump right onto page 1 yesterday. I thought it was really odd. I'm not holding my breath yet though because both sites are only a few months old. You never know though, my sites may drop down again, and yours may come back.

Out of interest, were all sites hosted on the same account (i.e. same IP address)? Could definitely have something to do with it if they were.

Hang in there for a few weeks at least and keep an eye on things....and keep us posted.

Yeh your right buddy, best thing I can do is sit and wait it out a bit. I think there are a lot of changes happening right now. Yes, all sites were hosted on same IP, which I guess might have something to do with it, will def look more into this as that seems to be the only commonality.

Will keep you updated via this thread as time goes on for sure.

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

This is a very weird thing, friend. Please keep us posted in this thread. Maybe, together, we can figure this out.

Would it be possible to add more content, not that you buy, but that you write yourself, to one of the sites along with some new relevant backlinks and see if you can snap it out of its funk?

I would definitely try focusing on one just to see.

Your telling me lol

Well I was writing my own content beforehand untill the effects started taking place. Having all that extra spare change I didn't scimp on hiring quality writers, insuring all pages were 600+, videos, pics etc. I am in the process of starting a fresh new site and will be tracking all I do in the hope maybe I can get some answers. Here's hoping.

It's weird cause during 2.1 update my longtails were effected mostly, with main keywords being the same. As of 23rd, it's like they finished me off with the final blow. The gods that be google.

[Fernando Veloso]

This is all part of the game: people doing this were hit, people doing the opposite were hit too. And all the others in between doing nothing others did, were hit too. Result: Everybody doesn't KNOW what happened, and doesn't KNOW how to fix it.

And this is exactly what Google wants: confusion. There is only one solution for this: diversity of sites, income streams and diversity of methods.

[Jeremy Banks]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

Time to spam the web with my 1 page niche sites. That is the only thing that makes sense to me right now as the results seem to be favouring them.

Hey, if what your doing isn't working, do something different! I would do a Botox research and testing though first and see if there is a way out for your best earning sites. You only fail if you quit or give up.

[mbmehmet]

Forgot to mention something of importance that I experimented with yesterday.

One site, I performed a 301 redirect of the home page to a new domain. as of this morning it popped up back on the first page, then few hours later bounced to 5th then completely dissapeared.

Through the advice of some other webmasters I performed this redirect to get the back link juice from site a to site b. Site B having a new rewrtten piece on the hompage, same keyword , diff design etc etc. I assuming this one is doing what many call a google dance. But who knows. It's like the search engines update a hell of alot faster than they used too.

I religiously check my rankings at least 4 times daily. You could say I saw the slap happen in realtime on the 23rd lol. 9 am fine, 11am fine, 2pm....well, thats when it happened.

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Banks

Hey, if what your doing isn't working, do something different! I would do a Botox research and testing though first and see if there is a way out for your best earning sites. You only fail if you quit or give up.

Yes very true. And I intend to. I see by your signature you are doing well with adsense. How did your empire fair? I have heard more than once from many that it's the older sites being treated like this, a lot of rumblings from experienced webmasters over at webmasterworld have there theories about this.

How long have you been doing this for? What are your sites like? Packed full of content or targeted niche sites?

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

This is all part of the game: people doing this were hit, people doing the opposite were hit too. And all the others in between doing nothing others did, were hit too. Result: Everybody doesn't KNOW what happened, and doesn't KNOW how to fix it.

And this is exactly what Google wants: confusion. There is only one solution for this: diversity of sites, income streams and diversity of methods.

Yep, and it's working well lol

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

Your telling me lol

Well I was writing my own content beforehand untill the effects started taking place. Having all that extra spare change I didn't scimp on hiring quality writers, insuring all pages were 600+, videos, pics etc. I am in the process of starting a fresh new site and will be tracking all I do in the hope maybe I can get some answers. Here's hoping.

It's weird cause during 2.1 update my longtails were effected mostly, with main keywords being the same. As of 23rd, it's like they finished me off with the final blow. The gods that be google.

That is the stench of the manual review IMO. What connected all of these?

Adsense? Analytics? Important note, it doesn't have to be GA. They can track any analytics code identifier...not directly, of course, but indirectly...It doesn't have to be GA...????

[RevSEO]

I've been trying to figure out the real reasons behind Panda and what exactly the algorithm decided they don't like.

A few questions:

1. Do you have any social buzz (not social bookmarking) but Facebook likes, tweets, things of that nature?

2. What does your on-site linking patterns look like? Are you linking via anchor text to other pages via the sidebar or a category page?

3. Do you have duplicate content in titles? Something that's repeated across all of your site?

[mbmehmet]

Originally Posted by RevSEO

I've been trying to figure out the real reasons behind Panda and what exactly the algorithm decided they don't like.

A few questions:

1. Do you have any social buzz (not social bookmarking) but Facebook likes, tweets, things of that nature?

2. What does your on-site linking patterns look like? Are you linking via anchor text to other pages via the sidebar or a category page?

3. Do you have duplicate content in titles? Something that's repeated across all of your site?

1. Yes on a few sites, tweets, facebook etc.

2. I did yes, and I assumed this was one of the main causes of the slap but still not sure.

3. No duplicate content in titles or descriptions, made a point of triple checking. Tedious task.

[mbmehmet]

http://www.youtube.com/embed/BMH3QJxIzJk

If only it were true......

[App Developers]

You just have to keep on going and re-build. many were slapped. You have to adjust and move forward. best of luck to you.

[mbmehmet]

Ok. Update.

Just gone through webmaster tools and checking diagnostics. I fetched googlebot and it returned with "unreachable" The last time it was a success was may 6, which was around the time I was slapped first.

Any ideas why I am getting this error? I t appears all effected sites coming back with same query.

[miker501]

Nearly all my 30 or so sites were hit too, gone from $150 a day adsense down to $50 a day. All sites had original content and were on a mix of static and wordpress sites.

My top site was making $1100 pm, with 20 or so of 60 pages on page1. For some reason, G have left my main page at No1 where it was, all others hit into the 5-600's. Same for 2nd best site, with 100 pages+ of content, amazon reviews setc.

Interestingly, I have noticed for some time, particularly on two new sites I built, it was (and still is) almost impossible for me to rank any pages. I am good enough at KW research to be pretty confident that I would hit page 2 pretty quickly, but no, I've been linkbuilding for a couple of months on them, adding freash content and they don't move up at all. The only places I am seeing upward movement these days is on Yahoo and Bing, but not enough traffic to earn much.

My big hit came on 16/17 June, although, with hindsight, I think I was seeing some pages falling in May, but improvements on others had kept earnings steady. I started on Adsense in 2009 and had seen increases EVERY month, until February /March, then static however much I built. June was looking good until this hit.

No WMT warnings, but it seems weird that almost EVERY page was deemed poor apart from the the No1 homepages on two sites.

I appreciate what people say about being owed nothing, but it is plain to see for most of us that the replacement sites are generally poor quality. Some are just ecommerce with almost ZERO content at all. OErhaps G has decided to support 'business' through these times of austerity!!

I hope things will bounce back, but I am not going to put all my eggs in one basket again. Diversification is a must, and kind of exciting, but I'd rather have done it AND be able to afford to feed the kids!!

Good luck

[cctvinstallers]

I also got slapped on some sites that targeted longtail phrases, my opinion is that we often forget Google is a business that wants to make money, unfortunately they have such a position of power that if they alter the algorithm slightly, lots of people will suddenly have to use adwords to get business in.

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by miker501

My top site was making $1100 pm, with 20 or so of 60 pages on page1. For some reason, G have left my main page at No1 where it was, all others hit into the 5-600's. Same for 2nd best site, with 100 pages+ of content, amazon reviews setc.

Funny enough my main site has a similar thing. Every page got spanked to the 600's but for some reason 1 page ranks nice and high for 1 term. For the life of me I can't figure out why that page is spared and what makes it different.

[mbmehmet]

Yep. I had the same thing happen when I was first hit. Then only recently did they take me out completely. I hate to say it, or even assume it, but I reckon you might be taken out completely on the next update. Hope to god not, don't need more people adding to the misery. But this is the same pattern many are reporting before they get totally sent to F*CK

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by mbmehmet

Yep. I had the same thing happen when I was first hit. Then only recently did they take me out completely. I hate to say it, or even assume it, but I reckon you might be taken out completely on the next update. Hope to god not, don't need more people adding to the misery. But this is the same pattern many are reporting before they get totally sent to F*CK

Sorry I meant on 1 website. So all the pages on 1 website got hit except 1. Not all my websites got hit. I have 12 out of 13 still standing. Lets hope it stays that way.

[Dumkist]

Here you Guys Go..this will make you want to kill yourself tonight..watch the video below..but before you do !... lock up your guns and flush the key down the toilet..I must warn you this will shock you.

How Google's Panda Update Changed SEO Best Practices Forever - Whiteboard Friday | SEOmoz

[emigre]

The seomoz video mentions "quality raters" - who on earth are these people.