Sitewide drop in rankings - Suggestions please...

[tj_inreality]

Until 2 days ago I was sitting pretty with a dozen pages holding #1 spots on Google. Another 20 pages had top 10 rankings. The rankings were REALLY stable and they have held their spots for a year.

Then on Friday, ALL pages suddenly dropped 50 spots or more.

Recent changes I made:
1. Started using BMR (build my ranks)
2. Started using ALN (authority link network)
3. Started varying anchor text for backlinks (up until now I NEVER varied anchor text)

That's about all I've done recently. Other than that, I just create steady backlinks using SeNuke and have been doing that for 2 years.

So I'm looking for suggestions from anyone who's been through this type of thing before on how to get back on top as fast as possible.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

[SEOExpert999]

I don't know what tools you are using but you need to look at the top 5 or 10 competitors backlinks and anchor text. They maybe doing something different or your backlinks accounts have been identified as anchor spamming using the same anchor text and/or using the articles that or not aleast 30%-50% unique. i would stay more on the 50% unique and good content. You can look at your competition using Market Samurai or IBP Pro.

[azmanar]

Hi,

I suspect you're being penalized for using BMR.

However, I think you realize that everyday, millions of FRESH pages are being scanned by G.

Therefore, your ranking might have dipped due to the FRESHNESS scale on the same niche.

[Johnny Optimo]

A lot of people have been reporting similar google activity in the recent weeks, maybe it's just temporary. or it could be completely unrelated.

I had some big drops a few weeks ago for a few keywords but I did some fresh link building to a few pages and they're pretty close to being back where they were before.

[ichl13]

You could check your links from the article networks to see if any of them have dropped PR or deindexed. Have you had any downtime recently?

[tj_inreality]

Thanks guys.

@ichl - no downtime recently. I know this can cause you to lose your rankings temporarily.

@johnny - thanks, I hope it's just a temporary thing too. And looking at this forum it does seem like other people are going through this too. That's why my plan is to keep link building and try not to freak out.

@azmanar - I'm curious why you think BMR might have something to do with it? I am a bit suspicious of BMR too but decided to try them since many other marketers seem to have a lot of success using them. Maybe I'm building links too fast with BMR. I was doing the max 10 posts a day. I'm going to scale back or lay off BMR next week.

@seoexpert - That's good advice. I'll take a look at what anchors competitors are using and use this as a guideline.

[Targeted Traffic]

As per Panda Update...Google has suggested that companies affected, can take the following actions:

1. Add quality unique content

2. Move “questionable" content to another domain or prevent that content from being indexed by search engines.

to protect your site in the future:

- build good quality unique content that actually adds value. If you’re a reseller, then add information beyond what the manufacturer provides. Get really good at soliciting client user generated content.

- do not try to generate large volumes of content that is low quality as this will jeopardize the rankings of the good quality content.

get good links to each of your pages of content, as this is a signal to Google that content is ‘quality’.

- ensure content is social media optimized, meaning that sharing buttons are prominently displayed on each page to encourage sharing of the content, to increase the likelihood of submission to social media sites.

- be wary of too many ads (eg. Google AdSense) on your pages … again a signal of poor quality content.

- And finally,make sure users extract some value from each page and won’t wish to “block” the site from appearing in future search results.

[tj_inreality]

@ Targeted - thanks, that's all good advice and I actually follow most of them. The couple things I could do is 1. add social media sharing buttons and 2. Try to reduce the number of ads.

As for #2, I've started using no follow tags for my affiliate links. Not sure if this makes a difference but I heard it helps.

[tj_inreality]

You know guys, there was something else I did recently which I forgot to mention. I hired some SEO guys here to build links for me using SeNuke. One of them create a slew of crappy unreadable articles that linked to my site. This is the opposite of the method I use, which is to create unique, original articles.

I just figured I'd never use that service again and forgot about it, but now that I think of it, this might be the cause of my recent drop in rankings... what do you all think?

[futuremills]

did you have adsense for all of the sites that dropped and were you using BMR for all the sites that took a hit? Adding 10 posts per day isnt that bad. Some ppl add 100 per day. Were you adding new content to your sites

[tj_inreality]

Originally Posted by futuremills

did you have adsense for all of the sites that dropped and were you using BMR for all the sites that took a hit? Adding 10 posts per day isnt that bad. Some ppl add 100 per day. Were you adding new content to your sites

No adsense future. I've used BMR on a couple sites, but my main one was the one that dropped. The other ones were only getting 2 posts a day, though.

Get this -- I just now noticed a site ranking #4 while mine is ranked in the 50s (I used to rank #1 for this keyword until 2 days ago)...and the site ranking #4 is a blatant ripoff of my site...similar content, similar layout, similar bullet points, similar design, etc. It's a brand new page too. And somehow Google decides that this page should rank 50 spots higher than my site which has been around for 7 years. How depressing.

[ASHLEY999]

I also experienced a drop in rankings for my site but I think it is because I neglected building links to my site (been busy with non-IM stuff). I guess this notion of passive income is a complete fallacy with regard to making money online.

[36burrows]

Originally Posted by tj_inreality

You know guys, there was something else I did recently which I forgot to mention. I hired some SEO guys here to build links for me using SeNuke. One of them create a slew of crappy unreadable articles that linked to my site. This is the opposite of the method I use, which is to create unique, original articles.

I just figured I'd never use that service again and forgot about it, but now that I think of it, this might be the cause of my recent drop in rankings... what do you all think?

Yep, I would say this is what happened.

Stay the **** away from SeNuke and spun garbage content people, it's complete trash.

[tj_inreality]

To the extent possible, I'm going to track down all the spun garbage pages, log in and delete them. Has this happened to you before 36burrows? And if so how long did it take to recover?

[rimam1]

Same thing happened to me after I added the Search Terms Tagging 2 plugin. It creates a bunch of tag pages which are considered duplicate content.

My page 1 rankings are now either on page 2 or bottom of page 1. My long-tail keywords that were on page 3 or 4 are not even in the top 100.

It's only been 2 weeks, but I'm building more links to see if the site comes back up.

I'll try to update this thread with new info.

Raza

[futuremills]

Originally Posted by tj_inreality

No adsense future. I've used BMR on a couple sites, but my main one was the one that dropped. The other ones were only getting 2 posts a day, though.

Get this -- I just now noticed a site ranking #4 while mine is ranked in the 50s (I used to rank #1 for this keyword until 2 days ago)...and the site ranking #4 is a blatant ripoff of my site...similar content, similar layout, similar bullet points, similar design, etc. It's a brand new page too. And somehow Google decides that this page should rank 50 spots higher than my site which has been around for 7 years. How depressing.

this is common, google likes fresh content and new sites. Alot of times when someone creates a new site it will move up in the rankings to the first page for a couple of days and then bounce right out after google algorithm determines the value of your site. Keep creating links and you will be back
Also check his links in the yahoo siteexplorer and see what kind of links he is building. He might have better quality links then you. Also check your links to see if anything fishy is going on, IE someone sending viagra links or porn links to your site.

[MaverickUK]

[quote=36burrows;4756876]Yep, I would say this is what happened.

Stay the **** away from SeNuke and spun garbage content people, it's complete trash.[/QUOTE

Sorry but please don't offer advise on usage of a software you don't have a clue about. If used correctly SENuke can be an excellent tool, if you think it's a pile of garbage then more fool you.

Originally Posted by tj_inreality

@azmanar - I'm curious why you think BMR might have something to do with it? I am a bit suspicious of BMR too but decided to try them since many other marketers seem to have a lot of success using them. Maybe I'm building links too fast with BMR. I was doing the max 10 posts a day. I'm going to scale back or lay off BMR next week.

With all due respect to azmanar, I wouldn't read too much in to what he said. BMR is an excellent tool that I've been utilising for many months now and it works amazingly well. I usually stick to 5 article per day per site and haven't had any adverse effects.

Seriously, I don't expect you to listen to my advice above others, but ignore what anyone says about BMR being a cause for concern - its a great tool and don't allow yourself to be fooled in to thinking otherwise.

[tj_inreality]

Originally Posted by futuremills

this is common, google likes fresh content and new sites. Alot of times when someone creates a new site it will move up in the rankings to the first page for a couple of days and then bounce right out after google algorithm determines the value of your site. Keep creating links and you will be back
Also check his links in the yahoo siteexplorer and see what kind of links he is building. He might have better quality links then you. Also check your links to see if anything fishy is going on, IE someone sending viagra links or porn links to your site.

Thanks for the idea Future, I checked this new competitor's backlinks and he does have good ones but after looking at them closely I'm 99% sure they are all BMR links. So it appears Google really rewards links from BMR.

Maverick - I tend to agree with you about BMR. Thanks for your feedback and confirming that BMR is an effective strategy for you. I'm going to continue using them.

[Waxdk]

I think it's just google dance or panda. You just have to continue build link and wait.

[raghu123]

you nedd build back links continuously and you do not play any cheap tricks.

[TopGun38]

I agree with a lot of the comments here. My take is to make sure you build quality backlinks and stay away from any kind of mass building anything with any softwares.

BMR is no problem but my advice is to build backlinks accelerated. What I mean is you can start building a couple of links per day for example for a week or two and then increase to 5 or so per day and see where your ranking stands. Increase the number of backlinks as necessary to increase your ranking.

Hope that helps and feel free to hit the thanks button.