My Whole Site Just Took A Big Google Slap!

[zannix]

What the hell just happened?

I'm checking my ranking yesterday morning (actually google analytics) and I notice the traffic has dropped from 50 daily visitors to 8! I noticed the same thing today as well.

I started investigating... turns out my competitor renewed his domain or something, his URL is: joggingbenefits .com and mine is joggingbenefits . net

When I first started, his domain was 'expired' and thus couldn't show his content, so I easily outranked him and soon he dropped out of the results entirely, and after some time, I got to #1 of google for my search term.

So, I noticed he re-activated and is ranking around 3-4 spots behind me on Google atm.

That's 1. thing I noticed - the other thing I noticed is that about 5-6 backlinks that I created were gone missing or deleted (but those were low PR0 backlinks and not many of them so I guess that shouldnt hurt the site, since I had #1 rating without them anyway).

And the third thing I did lately is that I changed a link from my PR2 page to my other inner page. BUT the page I shifted this link to is now not even in the top 250 results! And it used to rank #5 for its keyword (without the inner page PR2 link)!

All of my pages (and I mean all of them) have lost their ranking value. I've done no super-duper backlinking techniques, nor did I do much backlinking at all (1-2 backlinks/week - articles)...

Anyone guessing what this might be?

P.S: This reminds me of Google Dance, but all of my pages dancing at the same time? For a few days? Really?! + All of my pages (except one) are around 4-5 months old.

[Chri5123]

Yes Google does do this from time to time, all you can do is focus on keeping the site updated with fresh, unique content to try and stop it from happening. It doesn't mean Google hates your site - sometimes I have lost PR and my listings have improved!

Chris

[jonnyq888]

It happens all of the time. The only defense is to try to stay on the "right side of the law", which it sounds like you have, and diversify by making more sites in other niches.

It sucks but chances are that if your SEO is solid, you'll come back with even better rankings.

[Justin Stowe]

I recommend 2 things...

1) Keep at it- building links, adding content, etc.

2) Finding other traffic sources besides Google

We all know that big G sends a lot of traffic, but having your entire business rest on Google for traffic is like building a business with just one customer.

If that customer decides to move, change his mind, get sick, etc. then you're screwed.

[Dee Odus]

Don't put all your traffic eggs in Google's basket. Google slap can wipe your entire income, use Google but don't reply heavily on its traffic. There are other quality targeted traffic out there.

[cottonking2000]

PANDA from Google is killing a lot of content re-gurgitators. Best to fix is buy a drip service for 200 bucks for google plus 1

[bretski]

A site that is 4 - 5 months old is nothing so this other site may have age on its side which simply can't be overcome. As far as backlinks... the number of backlinks you're talking about is nothing either. Someone could easily outrank you in a week or two which brings another thought for you.

You just posted in a public forum how much you are getting in traffic from one keyword with links to your site and your niche. I'm not going to jump on it but there are others on here, who probably won't post anything, that would jump on this without a word. Just some food for thought...

PS - and this isn't a "Big Google Slap"... a google slap is when your site suddenly slips to page 50 or some crap.

[cottonking2000]

Originally Posted by Justin Stowe

I recommend 2 things...

1) Keep at it- building links, adding content, etc.

2) Finding other traffic sources besides Google

We all know that big G sends a lot of traffic, but having your entire business rest on Google for traffic is like building a business with just one customer.

If that customer decides to move, change his mind, get sick, etc. then you're screwed.

Building links is BAD unless they are from HIGH VALUE SITES....edu gov and top 20 with articles...

[bretski]

Originally Posted by cottonking2000

Building links is BAD unless they are from HIGH VALUE SITES....edu gov and top 20 with articles...

If this were true then I could Google bowl any competitors site by posting spammy backlinks to their sites and eliminate them as competition.

[davejug1]

It sounds to me like the review panel have been taking a peek at your site and seen something wrong.

Check my thread here for more info

Dave.

[ChrisDouthit]

If you consistently update your site and post new links you will overtake the other guy and get your rank back.

[thekaver]

could be another google dance!

just keep updating the site with fresh unique content and keep adding quality backlinks at regular intervals!

for example if you decide to add say 5 new good quality high pr back links per week then stick with that!

you site will come back quickly if it a google dance and within time if it been penalised!

The trouble when a site gets penalised is the owner then gives up which makes google think "yes this is a spam site"

if however you carry on with the updates and backlinks using only white hat methods you are prooving to google you are a good quality site the deserves to be ranked high!

thanks

[Limekwat]

As everyone else has pointed out, this happens. Don't panic because as long as you're keeping up with your site you'll stay up in the rankings. A lot of people are getting angry with the constant updates like Panda, but Google is actually trying to make their results better. There has been a drastic change in results lately, not for the better in my opinion. But Google is trying to make it more difficult for link spammers and I believe that eventually sites with the best original content that are getting updated regularly are the sites that will stay at the top. Keep at your site and you'll be fine.

[unlimitedmarketing]

You are giving him a link on here with that FULL url, make sure you deactivate the link, so you're not building his link juice.

[Steve Peters Benn]

maybe I am misunderstanding - your saying his domain was expired and you didn't buy it when you could???

[zannix]

Well I was just starting the IM business, didnt really know I could buy aged domains nor the worth of such domains etc, and Im not really sure it was available. I just know the site couldn't be reached...

But this site HASNT outranked me, its below me on Google. And I write solid, quality content, my content is (and I'm sure of it) better than the competing sites, and my keywords are FAR MORE RELEVANT. Most of the competing pages are 'benefits of jogging' targeted, whilst I'm strictly jogging benefits. That's why I was #1 I believe...

What happened - I don't have a clue...

[JamesGw]

Sounds like Panda to me.

[shuvo]

I hope your site will be back on ranking for its keyword.

But in the recent times I have found some of my sites are also facing such problem.Few of them back after few days for its targeted keywords.But some others yet not get its ranking back.

Nowadays Google is really doing too much with their algorithm that really sometime hurts.

[bretski]

Originally Posted by zannix

But this site HASNT outranked me, its below me on Google. And I write solid, quality content, my content is (and I'm sure of it) better than the competing sites, and my keywords are FAR MORE RELEVANT. Most of the competing pages are 'benefits of jogging' targeted, whilst I'm strictly jogging benefits. That's why I was #1 I believe...

What happened - I don't have a clue...

I'm not entirely sure of what you are freaking out about then. So you normally get 50 visitors a day and then one day you got 8? Am I understanding you correctly?

[Steven Miranda]

Don't give up. Google recently admitted that they tend to change their algorithm around 2 times per day 365 days of the year. Maybe that could be why ?

Keep building content, keep building links.

[Daniel Evans]

Press on, you'll pick back up.

It's unfortunate when you lose PR but it's possible to regain.

[zannix]

Originally Posted by bretski

I'm not entirely sure of what you are freaking out about then. So you normally get 50 visitors a day and then one day you got 8? Am I understanding you correctly?

You got it sir! Not one day, my 50 days are over. My rankings have dropped dramatically.

[Steven Wagenheim]

From what I am reading, it's been exactly 2 days that you're getting 8 visitors
a day.

2 days? Really? And you're having a cow after 2 days?

Just keep doing what you're doing. Add content, backlink naturally, make sure
each page is optimized and relax.

2 days is NOT the end of the world.

[zannix]

Hey, thanks Steven.

Yeah - it's been 2 days, this is my first and only site so I've never faced stuff like this before. That's why I posted the thread to see if someone had a similar experience and if so, how did they fix it and how long it took. Obviously quite a few people turned out to be familiar with this.

[TheFBGuy]

Originally Posted by zannix

Hey, thanks Steven.

Yeah - it's been 2 days, this is my first and only site so I've never faced stuff like this before. That's why I posted the thread to see if someone had a similar experience and if so, how did they fix it and how long it took. Obviously quite a few people turned out to be familiar with this.

Welcome to SEO, lol.

[Chris Sweeney]

Perhaps you were initially ranking highly because of the "freshness factor" of your new site and content. One part of Google's algorithm is called "QDF", or "Query Deserves Freshness". You'll rank higher for your search term during this phase, then you'll drop down the SERPs to where Google thinks your site actually belongs. Sometimes QDF lasts for a few hours/days, and sometimes it lasts for a few months; it all depends on the phrase, the competition, etc. Your site is relatively new, so this could be the explanation. But hey, either way, I know the feeling. When you go from having a good amount of traffic in a day to getting what feels like nothing, it can be discouraging. But like everyone else is saying, keep at it and you'll be back where you wanna be in the SERPs.

[zannix]

Thank you all for helping me out with this

It's a lot clearer to me now.

[zannix]

Update: My site came back on its original ranking position and my traffic is back to normal! It really does seem that this was a some sort of a Google dance, with my entire website, after 6 months!

[sweetheater]

Originally Posted by zannix

Update: My site came back on its original ranking position and my traffic is back to normal! It really does seem that this was a some sort of a Google dance, with my entire website, after 6 months!

WOW great Did you do anything special.. or you left for the site to come back ?

[rafiseo]

Its not happening to only you. I am facing a crappy google dance last few days. My site is rolling like a small boat inside of big wild hurricane! I was asking to lots of warriors how can I stop this dance. Everyone is recommending getting backlinks from quality webpages. And that is the real tough job for me..

[virtualgeek]

Don't panic and stay on track. Some people who experience this might panic and do mass backlinking and that would really hurt some more. It's just natural and happens almost to everyone.

[umrbd]

I guess you actually need some quality backlinks. The dance happen due to modification in the algorithms and rankings of some sites fluctuate. You can prevent the site from dancing by making your base strong build some backlinks from organic ways and make viral links on the social networks

[focused]

A good lesson learned - don't let a day or 2 of reduced
traffic force you to press the panic button.
Stay on course, and let google come back into alignment.