What happened to my sites?

by timber

Posted: 13 years ago 18 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I'm not sure what in the world happened to my sites, but something nasty has.
I have two sites that were doing okay in the SERP's, averaging just shy of 100 visits a day and on a steady climb, things were going good. One site had been up since march, and the other went up in late April. When I go back and check my stats, I can see a gradual increase in impressions and clicks, and hops/day was also starting to climb. I had even started to make a few sales, 3 or 4 on the first site and 1 or 2 on the newer one.

Then something wierd. I can even see the date it happened because it's that steep of a drop in my analytics chart. August 9th, the visits dried up. About 90% of my traffic came from Google, and I am no longer ranking for any of my main keywords, not even the domain keyword, for either site.

If it was for one of the sites, I'd think it was something to do with the site itself, but the fact that it happend on one day, to both of my sites, that's what's got me confused.

The stats, haven't come back much, just barely climbed a little since the, but as of the start of September, barely anything again.

Needless to say, I'm stumped. I didn't change any of the work I was doing on the sites, in fact, I had stopped adding backlinks about 10 days previous as I was sidetracked with other non-IM work.

I thought maybe the sites were sandboxed, but I hadn't heard of the sites over 2 or 3 months getting put in there. Plus the keywords I was focused on are not "High Traffic" Keywords...

I haven't stopped adding content, and the sites still rank in the top 10 on Bing and Yahoo...

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

#happened #sandbox #seo problem #sites #traffic #traffic problem

guitarjosh 13 years ago

Just to be clear.. these sites are still indexed, correct? If you type site:yoursite.com in google, it shows results?
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653482].message }}
timber 13 years ago

Yes, they are still indexed.
- Thanks
Signature
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653485].message }}

Sojourn

13 years ago

So the ONLY things that have happened are that you stopped building backlinks and you've continued to add content - no change to your site theme, SEO plug-ins, etc?

Is it possible the content you've added is too repetitive/keyword stuffed? Or perhaps your new content is simply being "digested" by Google and you're about to move up nicely? I've often had moves forward follow some dips in Google first.

Also, check the cache date for your home page...is it recent so that Google is still crawling your site regularly or is it aged?

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Free blogging guide with clone site | Currently running: 6 Mos Amazon Affiliate Coaching

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653506].message }}

timber

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Sojourn

According to SEO Quake, my last visit is as of yesterday.
I have not made a single change to the theme or plugin's, in fact, most of the plugin's that I do have installed are actually disabled.

As far as the content goes, I try to make each post target a similar keyword to the main keyword, (LSI), and each post is between 250 - 400 words. I also keep the density of the target keyword for that post around 1.5% - 2.0%. Doing that was what helped me get onto the first page, plus some other SEO basics, as far I understand the best uses of SEO.

Thanks

Signature

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653522].message }}

Sojourn 13 years ago

Hmmm...what about the cache date? And is the last cache date the same for both sites? I forgot this was a two site issue.
- Thanks
- 2 replies
Signature
Free blogging guide with clone site | Currently running: 6 Mos Amazon Affiliate Coaching
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653557].message }}
- timber 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Sojourn
  
  Hmmm...what about the cache date? And is the last cache date the same for both sites? I forgot this was a two site issue.
  
  The cache dates are different.
  
  Okay, I noticed something there, I guess I had been checking the dates while logged into the browswer, as it said "last visit", I'm assuming that means the last time I visited the site, okay, correction there.
  
  I check the dates again while NOT logged into Google's homepage, and got the following cache dates
  
  both sites have the same cache date:
  #1 | PR: 0 | Google Cache Date: Aug 28 2011
  
  I notice that both the cace dates are after the traffic from google died however.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653592].message }}
- mijagi 13 years ago
  
  I have a few sites with almost the same problem you describe above. One of them is a little more than one year old.
  
  At first, the traffic to the site was increasing steadily in the first half of the year. Then I was suddenly cut off from ranking in Google for product related keywords, but still getting some traffic, mostly "info" surfers. Traffic dropped for about 50% and sales went down even more.
  
  Anyways, I pinged one site about a month ago and traffic went up for 50% over the night. Unfortunately, sales didn't follow as the traffic increase was on the account of "info" keywords. I'm still having troubles getting "product" related trafffic.
  
  So, despite the fact that my traffic is at the same level it was before the drop, the sales are not even near where they used to be.
  
  There is another site that I have problem getting it ranked in Google. It is more than 2 years old, and every now and then I hit the first page for a couple od days, and then it goes back into the nowhere for months.
  
  All the sites are still indexed. We'll see what the time will bring I guess.
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653607].message }}
Sojourn 13 years ago

Without seeing the site, I'd normally suggest you go back to building backlinks and continue adding content but you've been adding content for a month and not really kicking out of it so I think it's a smart move to pull it apart a bit and ask the question.

Are the posts added after the cache dates indexed in Google?

Also, any change in bounce rate right before the drop? Just trying to give you some things to look at to help figure out the problem.
- Thanks
Signature
Free blogging guide with clone site | Currently running: 6 Mos Amazon Affiliate Coaching
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653625].message }}
murtuza 13 years ago

keep adding content and get more links on steady and constant basis every day. This will get it back on track. Also get some no follow links probably from yahoo answers, this should get it back on track. Google somehow tests you whether you are doing some black hat to boost your link building or is it natural.

Once it drops you for temporary basis and if you stop adding content and building backlinks this makes it more natural for google to realise that you're doing all this in a non-natural way just to boost your ranking. But if you continue doing what you were doing before you will get your sites back on track.
- Thanks
Signature

Want to know my true story & how I got started with my internet business? What kind of problems I faced to get started & how I finally cracked the internet code? I have also prepared a 30 day blueprint for you to get started. No signup is required, just rush in to check out pure content ==> how to start an online business - And yeah, if you like what you read don't forget to 'like' & 'tweet' it. All the best :0)
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653854].message }}
blend 13 years ago

It's google being google! ad a few more posts to your website to let google know your updating it etc...

your bounce back for sure!
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4653930].message }}
shuvo 13 years ago

That really irritating.Google sometimes dont show any respect to the real sites or real hard work.

OR sometimes they test those sites.

Typical Google.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4654267].message }}
- skibbz 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by shuvo
  
  That really irritating.Google sometimes dont show any respect to the real sites or real hard work.
  
  OR sometimes they test those sites.
  
  Typical Google.
  
  very true, alot of us felt the wrath of google with the panda farmer algorithmn
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4656006].message }}

Sire

13 years ago

I'm having the same problem with my lotto site. I had got it to page two on Google and then it suddenly disappeared. And yet its on page one of Bing and Yahoo for the same keywords.

I just continued building my back links and building content but things just haven't improved

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4654305].message }}

poker princess

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Sire

Is this a broad based whipping by Google for gaming related sites? I have had the same slapping for 3 of my gaming domains. Keywords disappearing, and Page Rank dropping...anyone else having these things happening to them?

Thanks

Signature

Poker Software
Poker Blog
Life is GOOD! :)

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4654467].message }}

Focused Action 13 years ago

I had the same problems with a bunch of sites - I am in the process of adding fresh content to each site every month (or more) - my guess for my sites is that I was building backlinks to sites that did not have much fresh content - who knows with google
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4654646].message }}

timber

13 years ago

thanks for all the input. I'm just worried that if I started adding content and backlinks again, suddenly, wouldn't that look just as suspusious to Google as if I was doing anything black or even grey hat?

I wasn't doing anything of the kind when it dropped, I had just stopped using SE Nuke about 7 weeks before but I'm thinking about giving it another try. Or is SE Nuke considered Greyhat?

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4655919].message }}

Sojourn

13 years ago

Originally Posted by timber

If you have more content to add on the topic that will bring in new traffic and be useful, add it. Go back to building good, quality backlinks and spread your content around. The only thing Google will think is that you're site is serious about its topic and should be shared.

The ride to the top through SEO is a marathon-style roller coaster. Plodding on through the downtimes is usually rewarded by a higher ranking and more traffic afterwards.

Thanks

Signature

Free blogging guide with clone site | Currently running: 6 Mos Amazon Affiliate Coaching

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4655983].message }}

danadana 13 years ago

Every time when you change something in your site will be going down in SERP.This is happen with my blog too..from 6th position(where I was for 1 month) is now on the 6th page.I think google doesn't like changes...maybe
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4655941].message }}

What happened to my sites?

Trending Topics

How do I effectively build and nurture an email list for affiliate marketing purposes?

Are billboards still effective in driving customers?

Are Solo ADs the Most Cost Effective Way to Promote your Product?

Been a while! Any of you Old Timers here?

How much does the rebranding affect CR ?