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Penguin: Better Rankings, 0 Revenue! Why??

by fashiononline
19 replies
  • SEO
    • |
When the Penguin rolled out, we saw great improvements in rankings all across our keywords. We've also seen a great improvement in organic visitors.
However, for some odd reason, our Revenue from Organic visitors has suddenly turned to 0!
Out ecommerce conversion rate for organic visitors has fluctuated from 0,3% to 1,66% week-for-week the past year. But suddenly, from the first week of November, it went to 0%, and has stayed there ever since.
Any idea why this is happening, and any tips on how to fix this?
(Edit: our sales from other channels (Referrals, Direct and Social) are still good, so there's nothing wrong with the shop itself.)
#penguin #rankings #revenue
  • Profile picture of the author AndresNWD
    That is really weird. I guess you have tested your site and purchase process in an anonymous browser to see there's nothing wrong so I don't really know. Checking your site from a different machine and IP would be good to see if there's some malware.
    Or, more simply: could be that there's a new competitor over you in search results that is simply cheaper?
    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    Originally Posted by fashiononline View Post

    When the Penguin rolled out, we saw great improvements in rankings all across our keywords. We've also seen a great improvement in organic visitors.
    However, for some odd reason, our Revenue from Organic visitors has suddenly turned to 0!
    Out ecommerce conversion rate for organic visitors has fluctuated from 0,3% to 1,66% week-for-week the past year. But suddenly, from the first week of November, it went to 0%, and has stayed there ever since.
    Any idea why this is happening, and any tips on how to fix this?
    Are you selling the products directly or via an affiliate program? If it's through an affiliate program, make sure your affiliate links are working. If it's directly, make sure your shopping cart and order form are working properly. The drop in your conversion rate is not related to penguin.
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  • Profile picture of the author fashiononline
    Sorry for not clarifying better.
    We're an ecommerce shop, so we're selling directly.
    Also failed to mention that our sales from other channels (Referrals, Direct and Social) are still good, so there's nothing wrong with the shop itself.
    It's just the organic sales that have dropped to a constant 0. Pulling my hair!
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Site sucks perhaps?
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      • Profile picture of the author fashiononline
        Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

        Site sucks perhaps?
        If you read what I wrote, you'd see that we are still having great conversion on referrals, direct, and social. It's just on organic all conversions stopped..
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        • Profile picture of the author nik0
          Banned
          First solid answer in this thread:

          Maybe you rank for other non converting keywords now?

          I have one site that receives nearly 300 unique visitors / day, it only brought in $17 so far cause it ranks for some crappy product that was probably quite popular but not for sale for a long time already, and those idiots keep on searching instead of calling it a day and buying a similar product.

          I have other sites as well where main keword traffic went down big time but longtail increased huge and those longtails ain't converting cause they have no commercial value as Google tanked all monetized pages and gave a boost to informative non monetized content, sucks but that kind of things do happen some times.
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          • Profile picture of the author danielmav
            Originally Posted by nik0 View Post

            First solid answer in this thread:

            Maybe you rank for other non converting keywords now?

            I have one site that receives nearly 300 unique visitors / day, it only brought in $17 so far cause it ranks for some crappy product that was probably quite popular but not for sale for a long time already, and those idiots keep on searching instead of calling it a day and buying a similar product.

            I have other sites as well where main keword traffic went down big time but longtail increased huge and those longtails ain't converting cause they have no commercial value as Google tanked all monetized pages and gave a boost to informative non monetized content, sucks but that kind of things do happen some times.
            I agree with nik0.

            May be your website is ranking for low converting keywords, as nik0 has mentioned. From Webmaster tool you can pull all the data. Also from analytics tool you can keep track of users behaviour.
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
          Originally Posted by fashiononline View Post

          If you read what I wrote, you'd see that we are still having great conversion on referrals, direct, and social. It's just on organic all conversions stopped..
          Your conclusion that you could not have any on site issues is flawed. Many sites will have conversion problems based on credibility that warmed up traffic (traffic that is previously introduced to them on a social network , direct referral) will not have.

          For example many people at WF have sales pages I would NEVER buy from if I had not known them from participation here.

          May have nothing to do with it but the idea that because some channels convert there are no on site issues is often wrong.
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          • Profile picture of the author fashiononline
            Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

            Your conclusion that you could not have any on site issues is flawed. Many sites will have conversion problems based on credibility that warmed up traffic (traffic that is previously introduced to them on a social network , direct referral) will not have.

            For example many people at WF have sales pages I would NEVER buy from if I had not known them from participation here.

            May have nothing to do with it but the idea that because some channels convert there are no on site issues is often wrong.
            I see what you're saying, but that wouldn't explain why Organic has had good conversions for a year, up until the first week of November, when it suddenly went to 0%.
            The site has good product info, good photos, it's running on Shopify with a good design, and nothing changed in the first week of November.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    Has your site been hacked?
    Have you checked the exit links of your visitors, server logs, themes, plug-ins?
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    Double check the links. If you promote Amazon for example, check if the links are the ones you should promote. If it's an e-shop, check if the payment could be done (and also the RETURN option -> the page where your visitors return after they pay!)
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  • Profile picture of the author cchandran
    Check the landing page of the website. It may have some issues. Try to recover them. The problem will be there in the website, check each and every page till the exit page. This will gives you a great idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    All you said was that you saw great improvements in rankings. Define that.

    Moving up from #85 to #12 might seem like a great improvement, but you still are not going to get traffic from that kind of jump.
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    • Profile picture of the author fashiononline
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      All you said was that you saw great improvements in rankings. Define that.

      Moving up from #85 to #12 might seem like a great improvement, but you still are not going to get traffic from that kind of jump.
      What I meant with improved rankings is what you say here (moving up positions).

      But in addition to that, Organic Traffic has increased with 30% (1.Nov - 18.Dec vs Previous Period).
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  • Profile picture of the author bleachersrights
    There might be errors on your site prevention completion of orders?
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  • Profile picture of the author js088
    The only way you would know is if you checked your keywords through to the landing pages and then try to order what you had originally searched for. Do this for every keyword and then see which of your products are left out. You might also have to do another keyword research.
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  • Profile picture of the author FranksToys
    Maybe you were focusing on the wrong keywords? It's possible that your rankings went up for keywords that aren't buyer intent keywords and research type of keywords. Possibly the rankings for the buyer intent keywords (which you aren't tracking) went down while the pointless keywords went up?

    Have you compared traffic from today vs. last year? Maybe the the season is over for your business.
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    • Profile picture of the author fashiononline
      Originally Posted by FranksToys View Post

      Maybe you were focusing on the wrong keywords? It's possible that your rankings went up for keywords that aren't buyer intent keywords and research type of keywords. Possibly the rankings for the buyer intent keywords (which you aren't tracking) went down while the pointless keywords went up?

      Have you compared traffic from today vs. last year? Maybe the the season is over for your business.
      This could be a good point, thanks!
      I'm trying to check out the keywords, but as always, it's over 90% "(Not Provided)" in analytics. Any way to find out?
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      • Profile picture of the author nik0
        Banned
        Originally Posted by fashiononline View Post

        This could be a good point, thanks!
        I'm trying to check out the keywords, but as always, it's over 90% "(Not Provided)" in analytics. Any way to find out?
        I never use analytics but install Statcounter and look at Popular pages, then you at least have an idea where your traffic go's. Maybe analytics also has such funtcion.
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