Your sites may come back after the Penguin update

[Mr. E]

This is just to share some info for those that lost their rankings after the last update. I was hit and lost a bit on all my sites and two dropped off the charts. One has come back from the dead and is now on page two. It had been the number 2 or 3 spot for years on the first page. A few days ago it was nowhere to be found.

It is a quality website, at least as good if not better than the sites that are in the top spots now. It has decent natural backlinks from all sorts of sites including .edu sites. It is an EMD. I have no idea why it got hit so hard, I have not done any backlinks to it for ages, it as getting them on its own.

Anyways, I just thought I would share that. I know a lot of us have been hit really hard and are looking for any source of info from others.

So the site is on page two today, maybe in the coming weeks it will get back to the spot where it has been for years. I just wanted to post this for those that are thinking all is lost. Hang in there guys. The dust has not settled yet. Your sites may come back.

[bcruan]

my main site was in 1st position for its main keyword. When penguin hit it dropped to page 15. Now its back on the 2nd page which is better than nothing I guess.

[dracoboar]

thank you both for sharing some positivity in an otherwise bad situation

[Mosa]

So far I've only had one of my sites hit. But that site had some pretty crappy content to be honest. Even though it got hit, i'm still bringing in some decent traffic from it and oddly enough, it still brought in some decent adsense earning yesterday.

[digitaltwist]

thanks for sharing your experience...very encouraging.

[unclebuck]

Just as several have said in other threads, it's too early to panic and start making and rash decisions. Give it a bit for the dust to settle then we will know where things are really at...

[powerboss]

Wow! Nice to hear all these positives.

[hunti410]

Saw my one big site affected by Tuesday - 50% drop in traffic - interestingly, still ranked #2 for main keyword, but as most traffic came from variations of the keyword, it is this traffic that I am still missi9ng, e.g. main KW "Stansted taxi" #2, previously nearly any variation of Stansted Taxi got me a front page position - not anymore.

50% drop in traffic - put this down to over optimisation and a lack of fresh content on the site which has been #1 on Google since 2009.

I am starting to understand the "new game" - just wondered if anyone else has experienced similar drops in traffic for long tail and related keywords [not the main keyword]?

[eurekapsycrille]

I haven't seen any negative changes in my site's SERP ranking. In fact, it went high when I checked it a while ago.

However, this "penguin" update seems giving us some head ups on how we can possibly avoid our site from being considered as "spam". Or how we can fix it if that algo update hit us.

Google Penguin Update: 5 Types of Link Issues Harming Some Affected Websites - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

[webinventaekhlas]

I have no idea why it got hit so hard, I have not done any backlinks to it for ages, it as getting them on its own.

I think this is one of the reason why your site kicked out. When google runs filtering process then their spiders look whether a site has huge backlinks or no backlinks at all in recent days. So at that stage your site was vanished from 1st page. But as you have a respected site, after finishing the filtering process it's back to 2nd page. All you have to do is now to create some new backlinks for your site... And it will be on the first page of google in short time.

[sackboy127]

This Google update is definitely flawed with all the 100% whitehat, quality sites disappearing, so G will surely have to correct it, which means many sites regaining their previous rankings. At least I hope so.

[princee]

My rank dropped page 1 to page 45 just waiting for come back on track.

Any one can please share solution of this updates??

[markowe]

Originally Posted by hunti410

Saw my one big site affected by Tuesday - 50% drop in traffic - interestingly, still ranked #2 for main keyword, but as most traffic came from variations of the keyword, it is this traffic that I am still missi9ng, e.g. main KW "Stansted taxi" #2, previously nearly any variation of Stansted Taxi got me a front page position - not anymore.

50% drop in traffic - put this down to over optimisation and a lack of fresh content on the site which has been #1 on Google since 2009.

I am starting to understand the "new game" - just wondered if anyone else has experienced similar drops in traffic for long tail and related keywords [not the main keyword]?

Yep, exactly the same, my main keyword basically untouched but long-tails hit quite badly. We're talking authority site with NO artificial backlinking. Traffic down 50%. Those LT pages/posts had quite a lot of affiliate links on, and they were fairly short, like 350 words, COULD be a factor but anyway, I will wait this out, not sweating it too much, just interested in figuring it out really.

[hunti410]

Thanks for the feedback - I would love to think that the penguin update could be reversed but knowing Google they will stick at it [I hope I am wrong].

Whilst this update hasn't killed me it does make you think about reliance upon Google and organic traffic with the Big G. Diversity is where I will be heading towards now and I am doubtful that I will ever have ONE BIG site again [just too risky!] - just lots of small, local sites [i am a taxi provider] that I can create genuine, quality content on and target keywords that don't really require too many backlinks to get onto page 1.

I am an amateur at SEO and so I am still reading these pages to see what the experts think we should all do in future in terms of SEO. Clearly Google is now majoring on the concept of "natural" links and votes which by definition means that any link or social votes will take time to achieve - guess that has always been in place!

I am still baffled as to why this update has hit the LT pages though! keep the debate flowing...

[problemchild]

Well, let me just be Debbie Downer, then. My main site is 8 years old, got completely wiped out by Penguin. It had around 200 - 225 backlinks total, zero spam links, nothing black hat, fresh content, nothing duplicative, lots of visitors, excellent quality site, high conversion, no stuffing, no hidden keywords, nothing shady whatsoever. I had ranked on the first page for my main keyword.

Poof, gone.

And no, it isn't back yet. I still can't find it. No sign of it.

Not sure if this "recovery" is ever going to happen. I definitely can't wait four months to find out. We shouldn't all be relying on false hope, we should be applying for jobs at Kmart.