Devastated. HELP!!! Page fell from #3 on Google to #14. Adsense earnings destroyed!

[OpenMindsEnt]

Hey:

About 2 months ago I had set up a site. I researched the competition and discovered it had potential. I put all-original, and helpful content on it.

At first, just 2 500-600 word articles, with good on-page SEO.

Over time I added articles, slowly used some social bookmarking, seNUKE, and AMR blasts. I did this smartly, and not all at once.

Anyway, over time the site reached the #7 position on Google, so I added Adsesne.

I kept up with it, and it reached #3 and was pulling in $22 per day.

Then the next day, something happened.

I checked Rankchecker, and it fell from #3 to #14. It made $9 2 days ago, $4.60 yesterday, and only has 50 cents today.

HELP!!! What can I do? I didn't change anything when it was rank 3....didn't blast anything. All I did was add a new page of targeted content! Not keyword stuffed....each page only has 1.5-1.9 KW density!

Any help would be so much appreciated. This is my first Adsesne site, so I am really stuck.

[FraserC]

New sites are given a bonus to get them a chance to find their footing. This new site bonus wears off after two months, so that's possible to explain what happened to you.

It also sounds like you got hit by Panda. Most new sites don't tend to get the kind of backlink profile that an automated tool like SENuke will create, so it's entirely possible that you got caught in their algorithm. If you did get hit by Panda, it's almost impossible to recover. Better to start again, with a valuable lesson learned and make a higher quality site that can pass a manual review.

If you want a brutally honest site review, I highly recommend you check out the Google Webmaster Central Forum.

Post your site there, and they'll tell you exactly what you're doing wrong and how to fix it.
Webmaster Central Help

[JSProjects]

Maybe your old blasts are catching up to you? Though if you didn't do them on a really massive scale I'm not sure if I'd worry too much. Sounds like you're just going through the Google dance. How long were you at #3?

[nicnac03]

Just google dancing. Newer websites have unstable rankings. You'll be fine.

[SuzanneH]

Originally Posted by FraserC

If you want a brutally honest site review, I highly recommend you check out the Google Webmaster Central Forum.

Had a chuckle when I read that.

Suzanne

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by SuzanneH

Had a chuckle when I read that.

Suzanne

Why chuckle?

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by FraserC

New sites are given a bonus to get them a chance to find their footing. This new site bonus wears off after two months, so that's possible to explain what happened to you.

It also sounds like you got hit by Panda. Most new sites don't tend to get the kind of backlink profile that an automated tool like SENuke will create, so it's entirely possible that you got caught in their algorithm. If you did get hit by Panda, it's almost impossible to recover. Better to start again, with a valuable lesson learned and make a higher quality site that can pass a manual review.

If you want a brutally honest site review, I highly recommend you check out the Google Webmaster Central Forum.

Post your site there, and they'll tell you exactly what you're doing wrong and how to fix it.
Webmaster Central Help

Ugh. But what about articles which go viral immediately, and receive thousands of backlinks in a day, naturally? How does Google differentiate those from an modest seNUKE blast, scheduled slowly and for minimal links over a 5 day span or so?

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by nicnac03

Just google dancing. Newer websites have unstable rankings. You'll be fine.

Phew, I hope so! I made a few minor changes to the site, which I kinda regret after reading your post.

[FraserC]

They just look different. Google can tell the difference. Different site profile, anchor text, social profile, etc.

If you think Google can't recognize a spammy network of links designed to manipulate the search results, you're sorely underestimating them. They just never got around to penalizing it until this year, with the beginning of Panda.

[Jerryl]

It happens, don't get too excited over it...just keep adding good content and you'll bounce back

[jgant]

Don't sweat it. I had a site bounce for more than a year. I added boatloads of unique content and built links consistently. There were times I was getting 10 visitors a day. Only during the last 4 months has traffic been excellent and climbing steadily.

It's annoying, but it can happen. Have a long term outlook for the site, don't do anything to risk deindexing, and keep plugging away.

I almost abandoned my site that bounced for more than a year. Now it earns $1,500 to $2K per month and increasing steadily. Traffic is in a nice consistent trajectory.

Hang in there and create a killer site.

[futuremills]

take this as a learning lesson. Do not sweat it. These things will happen. Just continue to build links and add articles. Keep it up and your site will bounce back even stronger.

[webdevpro]

Normally new sites got high ranking in Google search results for few days. Now your site might go under what is called sandbox effect and probably will remain there for couple of months. In the mean time keep on link building and adding more stuff. Once its out from the effect you probably will start earning decent money again.

[yukon]

OP, whatever you do don't give up on that keyword!

Pulling in $22 a day on your first site/page is very good, considering that was when the page was sitting at position #3 in the SERPs. I wouldn't be surprised If position #1 in the SERPs for that keyword hit $40+ per day.

1) Build a few more internal pages (5 or so) & point internal keyword anchor-text links at the page that was ranking in the SERPs at position #3. Make the new pages include the keyword you used on the old page be included in the new page titles/URLs.

2) Build 10+ high PR5+ external backlinks at the old page that was ranking at position #3.

3) Build a few quality links pointing at the new supporting pages.

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by yukon

OP, whatever you do don't give up on that keyword!

Pulling in $22 a day on your first site/page is very good, considering that was when the page was sitting at position #3 in the SERPs. I wouldn't be surprised If position #1 in the SERPs for that keyword hit $40+ per day.

1) Build a few more internal pages (5 or so) & point internal keyword anchor-text links at the page that was ranking in the SERPs at position #3. Make the new pages include the keyword you used on the old page be included in the new page titles/URLs.

2) Build 10+ high PR5+ external backlinks at the old page that was ranking at position #3.

Thanks for the info! How would any PR5 site accept a link from me? I haven't checked, but I am guessing I am a PR0 since the site is so knew.

Also, build 5 more internal pages? Or 5 total? I already have 6 internal pages, all with 500 or more words of content and nicely optimized without KW stuffing.

Thanks so much!

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by webdevpro

Normally new sites got high ranking in Google search results for few days. Now your site might go under what is called sandbox effect and probably will remain there for couple of months. In the mean time keep on link building and adding more stuff. Once its out from the effect you probably will start earning decent money again.

Thanks for the info!

[yukon]

Originally Posted by OpenMindsEnt

Thanks for the info! How would any PR5 site accept a link from me? I haven't checked, but I am guessing I am a PR0 since the site is so knew.

Also, build 5 more internal pages? Or 5 total? I already have 6 internal pages, all with 500 or more words of content and nicely optimized without KW stuffing.

Thanks so much!

You have a few options for getting quality links. You can buy them, or you can dig in & do the research yourself, which does take time.

Whatever you do, don't settle for crappy links, especially If your paying for links.

A few guys on this forum use "Build my rank" for backlinks. I'm sure you can find someone on this forum that sells quality links, just don't settle for crappy links, otherwise you'll just be spinning your wheels.

However many pages you have on your entire site, add at least 5 more new pages, make the new pages like I said in my last comment.

Google likes multiple pages on the same site that are related to each other. Make each individual page 100% unique, don't spin the content.

The only purpose of the 5 new pages is to support the page that once ranked #3 in the SERPs, still they need to be quality content.

Again, point keyword anchor-text from the 5 new internal pages at the old page. Keyword included in the new pages title/URLs + plus a few quality external links.

[yukon]

BTW, If that keyword is getting $22 at position #3 in the SERPs, I would make it a point to own that first page, If it was my site/keyword.

That keyword is something you definatly want to expand on.

Don't settle for a small MFA site, go all out with a larger quality site. You'll thank me later.

[RevSEO]

Does sound like a Google dance, but regardless there's some valuable feedback in this thread.

One thing this should point out though, DON'T put all your eggs in one basket. Because when things like this happen, you don't want to have the lights turned out.

I learned this the hard way a while back when I had a money site lose its rankings. Ouch!

Now I diversify as much as possible.

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by yukon

You have a few options for getting quality links. You can buy them, or you can dig in & do the research yourself, which does take time.

Whatever you do, don't settle for crappy links, especially If your paying for links.

A few guys on this forum use "Build my rank" for backlinks. I'm sure you can find someone on this forum that sells quality links, just don't settle for crappy links, otherwise you'll just be spinning your wheels.

However many pages you have on your entire site, add at least 5 more new pages, make the new pages like I said in my last comment.

Google likes multiple pages on the same site that are related to each other. Make each individual page 100% unique, don't spin the content.

The only purpose of the 5 new pages is to support the page that once ranked #3 in the SERPs, still they need to be quality content.

Again, point keyword anchor-text from the 5 new internal pages at the old page. Keyword included in the new pages title/URLs + plus a few quality external links.

Thanks so much for the info! Very, very helpful. I will indeed do these things. Just another question:

With these 5 new pages of content, do you recommend them being 500+ words? Or could a few of them be less, like maybe 300? And how frequently should I post them? Right away, or over a week or a couple weeks?

Currently, all 6 pages i've made have about 550 plus words, with a KW density of 1.5-1.8 or so, sometimes a bit over 2%. And I make about one post a week.

Thanks!

[OpenMindsEnt]

Also, could anyone recommend some proven, honest, successful and reputable backlink services to buy these higher PR links from? Maybe with some evidence from other threads on this forum with lots of positive feedback from buyers.

Thanks again all, much appreciated!

[SuzanneH]

Originally Posted by OpenMindsEnt

Why chuckle?

I recently started hanging out at that forum and they are *brutally honest*. Thin-skinned people and/or MFA sites should not post there.

Suzanne

[yukon]

Originally Posted by OpenMindsEnt

Thanks so much for the info! Very, very helpful. I will indeed do these things. Just another question:

With these 5 new pages of content, do you recommend them being 500+ words? Or could a few of them be less, like maybe 300? And how frequently should I post them? Right away, or over a week or a couple weeks?

Currently, all 6 pages i've made have about 550 plus words, with a KW density of 1.5-1.8 or so, sometimes a bit over 2%. And I make about one post a week.

Thanks!

I'm not a believer that a page has to have a massive amount of text. The thing you need to do is make it quality content. Mix it up, don't make it look like every page is the same, 300-500 is enough per page.

The keyword mentioned once or twice is more than enough regardless how much text is on the page. Mention the keyword once with a anchor-text hyperlink pointing at the old page that ranked #3 in the SERPs, maybe once more towards the bottom of the content.

The page title + url should both include the keyword or something very relevant to the old page root keyword. You want to create relevancy between the new pages & old page.

I would drip-feed/publish the post over a week.

[FraserC]

@SuzanneH - I love the GWC forum. I've learned more about SEO there than any other resource on the internet. You see so much denial. I try to be as gentle as I can with people, but many others there are totally brutal.

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by SuzanneH

I recently started hanging out at that forum and they are *brutally honest*. Thin-skinned people and/or MFA sites should not post there.

Suzanne

I figured...I made a post including my site link there, but within 3-4 minutes or so I felt uneasy. Because my site is MFA, but it does provide some value too. But I just got scared someone from the Google team would see my post, check out my site and flag it.

[OpenMindsEnt]

Originally Posted by FraserC

@SuzanneH - I love the GWC forum. I've learned more about SEO there than any other resource on the internet. You see so much denial. I try to be as gentle as I can with people, but many others there are totally brutal.

That is great to know! I will use it for my business site, but avoid using it for the MFA ones. Thanks!

[SuzanneH]

Originally Posted by FraserC

@SuzanneH - I love the GWC forum. I've learned more about SEO there than any other resource on the internet. You see so much denial. I try to be as gentle as I can with people, but many others there are totally brutal.

I can see where they're coming from sometimes, but, yeah, I try to be a bit more gentle for some things. As an example, I've seen how a newsletter pop-up form can significantly increase your signups, whereas some of the contributors are totally opposed to a pop-up. It must get really frustrating for them wanting to help somebody, only to find it's an MFA site. I know that's happened to me over there (getting frustrated with MFA sites).

++++++
Apologies to the OP for getting off track! I'm more of a "building an authority site/building a business" kind of person.

Suzanne

[FraserC]

Yeah, I'll stop the derail.

Focus on your authority site. Make a wonderful website that you'd be proud to show the folks at Google. Make yourself immune to all future algorithm shifts by working with Google and not against it.

[JamieSEO]

Rankings are not just about YOUR site...

Check to see what your competition is doing - did a new site overtake you? Did a site that was not in the top 10 before suddenly target your keyword too? Did any of them have a boost of new content or backlinks?

Obviously you need to check your site, but your ranking can change depending on the actions of your competition too

[mynameisabhijit]

Hi friends, The google dance caused me also. I had my site in 2nd position in Google with a long tail keyword but suddenly I dropped to 12th page within a day. OMG! but now I am recovering.

One suggestion for you, don't use softwares too much to create large amount of backlinks all at once. Just try to build some good quality backlinks from authority sites or edu sites.

Abhijit...

[Cyber Rankings]

It usually means that your website has just been hit by the Google dance like other members have stated. However there is one thing you must continue to do and that's build links.

But quality links...

Take a look at some of the competition for some competitive keywords and you will be suprised at the results. I have seen websites with 300 odd backlinks outrank a site with 15,000 backlinks. The reason being is most of those 15,000 are worthless and are actually just holding the website back.

One thing to remember is to never underestimate Google. If you wish to use software to build links make sure that the backlinks are not from spammy, random domains. Create a list of websites that are actually worth something and this won't happen again.

Do not panic your website will get back to the top again it just takes time, patience and hard work.

[mynameisabhijit]

Originally Posted by Cyber Rankings

It usually means that your website has just been hit by the Google dance like other members have stated. However there is one thing you must continue to do and that's build links.

But quality links...

Take a look at some of the competition for some competitive keywords and you will be suprised at the results. I have seen websites with 300 odd backlinks outrank a site with 15,000 backlinks. The reason being is most of those 15,000 are worthless and are actually just holding the website back.

One thing to remember is to never underestimate Google. If you wish to use software to build links make sure that the backlinks are not from spammy, random domains. Create a list of websites that are actually worth something and this won't happen again.

Do not panic your website will get back to the top again it just takes time, patience and hard work.

I agree with you my friend...

Abhijit...

[anwar001]

Over the past few days, I have seen some of my sites fluctuating in rankings. I don't know what is causing this. I heard Google has released one more major update to its ranking algorithm. I am wondering if this recent fluctuation is a result of the new update or because of latest experimentations by Google?

[xnice]

Dont worry, add more backlink with your speed, I think you need to add blog network links and blog comments link. Remember you build link today for your ranking next week or next month, this will not show the results at tomorrow .
If you have many sites, you will feel this is normal .

[dame016]

Reading this thread has given me tips. I have read that article submission can really get your rankings up. I'll try this in my websites. All good points.

My site may have been a victim of Panda Algorithm. My Alexa rank went up. Like consistently for a week. That is just sad.

[Cyber Rankings]

Originally Posted by dame016

Reading this thread has given me tips. I have read that article submission can really get your rankings up. I'll try this in my websites. All good points.

My site may have been a victim of Panda Algorithm. My Alexa rank went up. Like consistently for a week. That is just sad.

Just keep concentrating on producing quality content and quality links and the rest will come my friend. Patience in internet marketing is a virtue

[BudgetSEO]

Start building 'quality' and not quantity links, also focus on child keywords

[MikeFriedman]

Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, do not try learning SEO from Google Webmaster Central or anything else run and monitored by Google.

Google has no interest in you ranking well. It is in their best interest not to give you all the information you need to game their algorithm. If Google gave you all the information you needed for top rankings, their AdWords business would take a hit.

For technical stuff, like how and when you should do a 301 redirect or dealing with canonical issues, Google is an okay resource. For anything else, forget it.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, do not try learning SEO from Google Webmaster Central or anything else run and monitored by Google.

Google has no interest in you ranking well. It is in their best interest not to give you all the information you need to game their algorithm. If Google gave you all the information you needed for top rankings, their AdWords business would take a hit.

For technical stuff, like how and when you should do a 301 redirect or dealing with canonical issues, Google is an okay resource. For anything else, forget it.

Lol!

I've always found it comical how some folks confuse business with friendship.

Google is just like a guy selling cars offline, he is your best friend as long as your writing him a check. After he gets the check, he could care less If you exist.

[cagliostro]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, do not try learning SEO from Google Webmaster Central or anything else run and monitored by Google.

Google has no interest in you ranking well. It is in their best interest not to give you all the information you need to game their algorithm. If Google gave you all the information you needed for top rankings, their AdWords business would take a hit.

Mike, excuse the OT, but do you think we should also stay away from Analytics ?

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by OpenMindsEnt

Ugh. But what about articles which go viral immediately, and receive thousands of backlinks in a day, naturally? How does Google differentiate those from an modest seNUKE blast, scheduled slowly and for minimal links over a 5 day span or so?

Pretty easy - kind of links. Senuke gives almost no pages with PR. People tend to forget Google rates pages for various factors including authority and popularity. PR N/As have no authority so its pretty easy for them to degrade Senukex links.

Fraser is dead wrong though. It is not even close to impossible to recover from Panda. A few weeks ago I helped bring back a few sites with nothing more than links with PR and low OBL plus a few textual changes.

You can disregard the advice that you have to start all over.

[TheFBGuy]

FraserC: Not attacking you, I commended you on your thread of ranking without any backlinks and what you have done with your universe today website. But... terrible advice in this thread, it's not "almost impossible" to recover from Panda or any algorithmic change Google makes. Furthermore, NO ONE is immune or will always be immune to Google's crazy and unpredictable algorithm.

Also that Google Webmaster Central forum is a terrible place to be if you are an "internet marketer", and for that reason alone, I wouldn't advice anyone to people seek counsel there, lol...

OP: Welcome to the Google Dance, you are sitting on a little money maker so continue building links!

[bluez]

hi guys,

im just wondering whenever anyone mentions about adding new page wt new contents , or perhaps using targeted anchor text to point to the page that you would like to rank for...do you do it by adding a blog post or simply write and submit articles to the directories?

[ExploringInfinity]

Originally Posted by FraserC

They just look different. Google can tell the difference. Different site profile, anchor text, social profile, etc.

If you think Google can't recognize a spammy network of links designed to manipulate the search results, you're sorely underestimating them. They just never got around to penalizing it until this year, with the beginning of Panda.

lol this guy is funny.

[dagaul101]

It could possibly be that some of your backlinks have been devalued, and you have been punished by association, just try and do what you did in the beginning to see if things change

[Domsa]

Nothing to be alarmed about.

The only mistake you can do is to give up now. Add 2-3 articles in the next 2 weeks (not at once) and build links at a slow but regular pace. I suggest you use BMR or a similar service. Just focus on article backlinks right now, and you're site will come stronger than it was before

[FraserC]

@TheFBGuy - Good point, noted. I've looked at a LOT of sites hit by Panda it seems difficult to rehabilitate a stricken site, but if your experience is different, I'm happy to go with your experience instead.

Regarding GWC, totally disagree. I'd say that group is the most capable technical SEOs around. They can diagnose canonical errors, robots.txt, duplicate content, etc. and have very good advice.

If your site has taken a huge drop, it could just be a technical SEO problem with an easy fix. So they would be the first community I'd reach out to.

[JRemington]

Originally Posted by FraserC

@TheFBGuy - Good point, noted. I've looked at a LOT of sites hit by Panda it seems difficult to rehabilitate a stricken site, but if your experience is different, I'm happy to go with your experience instead.

Regarding GWC, totally disagree. I'd say that group is the most capable technical SEOs around. They can diagnose canonical errors, robots.txt, duplicate content, etc. and have very good advice.

If your site has taken a huge drop, it could just be a technical SEO problem with an easy fix. So they would be the first community I'd reach out to.

What makes you think it's hard to rehabilitate a stricken site?

There are many that got hit 1 month ago that haven't recovered yet. I'm talking about sites that have never engaged in dodgy linkbuilding strategies and are rich on original content.

What is it that makes you think they are not "dolphins caught in the fish nets" and will find it difficult to somehow recover?

[Greenfatman]

Yes Fraser is right....

If would be easy come back from the panda strike, it wouldn't be a lot of people complaining, it wouldn't be alot of fuzz and comments all around the net.
So please guys don't try to be smatter here, but realistic.It's hard if not impossible to reach back again.

I've never been on webmaster tool forum, but why in the earth they wouldn't like to help you????

Google wants you make right things on your site, so people can come in constantly, enjoy your site and click on the ads and google will make money....

So I agree again with Frase.

Regards,

[MikeFriedman]

Originally Posted by Greenfatman

Yes Fraser is right....

If would be easy come back from the panda strike, it wouldn't be a lot of people complaining, it wouldn't be alot of fuzz and comments all around the net.
So please guys don't try to be smatter here, but realistic.It's hard if not impossible to reach back again.

Actually, it's not that hard, it just takes more work than using some push button SEO system or blanketing the internet with garbage for trashy backlinks.

Originally Posted by Greenfatman

Google wants you make right things on your site, so people can come in constantly, enjoy your site and click on the ads and google will make money....

That is complete and utter bull****. Google could care less if your site ranks or not. In fact, the more people struggle to gain rankings, the more likely they will turn to PPC ads instead which is where Google really makes their moeny.