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Another google penalty question...

by RossChops
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Sorry if this is an obvious question but I have done all of the usual forum searches and cannot find a definitive answer to my problem.

I write a Blog about Running and Triathlon and review products on my site to generate income through the Amazon Affiliate program.

I published an article a month ago that quickly climbed to first place in Google for my search term, mainly because the review was the first of its kind so there was very little competition.

I built a few backlinks from a variety of blogs, social media sites and article directories to cement my pages ranking in Google.

A week ago for some reason, that article on my blog completely dropped out of Google for one search Keyword and climbed to first first place for another. I hadn't built any more backlinks for the two weeks prior to the page dropping out of Google and so I am at a loss as to why this happened. My traffic has dropped to a very small amount as a result of the pages fall out of Google and I need to get it back to top spot as quick as possible.

Does anyone have any ideas what I have done wrong and how I can quickly remedy this problem?

Thanks

Page - runtheline.com/1113/garmin-forerunner-210-review
#google #penalty #question
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Hey, learn a new seo word! QDF!
    Query deserves freshness!

    This is especially true of many blogs.

    So, either post on a regular basis, or get a static site, full of articles,
    and link the blog to it, and build links to the site.

    Some niches are hard to keep ranking with an old post.

    And remember: the web is not static, but dynamic. You have a lot
    of active competition, undoubtedly.

    Paul
    Signature

    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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    • Profile picture of the author RossChops
      I understand freshness is key but to have a page completely drop out of Google for a subject where there is very little competition instead of gradually dropping down the rankings is very strange indeed don't you think??

      Could it be for any other reason?? Backlink keyword variation not good enough or something??
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      • Profile picture of the author beavboyz
        Originally Posted by RossChops View Post

        I understand freshness is key but to have a page completely drop out of Google for a subject where there is very little competition instead of gradually dropping down the rankings is very strange indeed don't you think??

        Could it be for any other reason?? Backlink keyword variation not good enough or something??
        It happens to new sites the odd time, it could have to do with google's servers. This is just a guess but it is known as the google dance, and sometimes a site will drop BIG TIME for a week or so, then bounce back. Check google webmasters, if there are no messages then you are fine.
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      • Profile picture of the author mad.hat
        Originally Posted by RossChops View Post

        I understand freshness is key but to have a page completely drop out of Google for a subject where there is very little competition instead of gradually dropping down the rankings is very strange indeed don't you think??

        Could it be for any other reason?? Backlink keyword variation not good enough or something??
        No its not, especially if you have not been doing any seo at all. The changes you see in the SERPs come only after a combination of key points have been factored in by search engines. They may have seen that there was no change in your site for one day and it wasn't a problem. But after 5,6 or 7 days or not doing any seo it could be enough to drop you out of the rankings.
        Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author jesus72knight
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      Hey, learn a new seo word! QDF!
      Query deserves freshness!

      This is especially true of many blogs.

      So, either post on a regular basis, or get a static site, full of articles,
      and link the blog to it, and build links to the site.

      Some niches are hard to keep ranking with an old post.

      And remember: the web is not static, but dynamic. You have a lot
      of active competition, undoubtedly.

      Paul
      Thanks for the word. Got something new to add on my IM vocabulary. :p
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      High Quality Resell Rights
      & Resell Rights Products
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  • Profile picture of the author Wesley Atkins
    Difficult to know really what has happened if anything at all...

    Could just be the Google dance and you may find it back again in the results next week...

    Maybe the post is no longer in the sidebar recent posts (less internal links).

    After looking at your page though, one thing I would change in the amount of times your have your keyword in the H2 tag..

    You could have tripped an *over optimization* filter of some kind...

    Instead of:

    Garmin 210 Review – GPS Functionality
    Garmin 210 Review – Training Statistics
    Garmin 210 Review – Battery Life
    Garmin 210 Review– Customisable Laps
    Garmin 210 Review – Interval Training Sessions
    Garmin 210 Review – Water Resistance
    Garmin 210 Review – Heart Rate Monitor
    Garmin 210 Review – Garmin Connect Online Portal
    Garmin 210 Review – Watch Look and Feel

    ...Just use...

    GPS Functionality
    Training Statistics
    Battery Life
    Garmin 210 Review– Customisable Laps
    Interval Training Sessions
    Water Resistance
    Heart Rate Monitor
    Garmin Connect Online Portal
    Watch Look and Feel

    ...There really is no point in having your content structured like this.

    Not only is it bad practice to stuff your keywords anywhere, it's also annoying for your visitors and ultimately this is what Google is concerned about..

    Write your content for...

    Humans first..
    SE spiders second...

    Hope this helps :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      There's an SEO FAQ section at the top.
      Pretty good read. That's why it's there.

      What is the "freshness" factor?

      Search engines such as Google prefer "fresh" (newly updated) web pages and content over stale content. That's why when you first add content to your site - such as a new blog post - this page may sit high in the rankings for a while. Eventually it may sink to a more realistic ranking.

      It's this "freshness factor" that allows your pages to get those higher rankings, even if the ranking is temporary. Thus updating your pages frequently can help push them to the top of the rankings.

      This is one of the primary reasons why you hear people talking about how "Google loves blogs". Google doesn't love blogs, Google loves regularly updated sites.
      Paul
      Signature

      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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    • Profile picture of the author RossChops
      Thanks for the tip, I am making the suggested correction as we speak!

      If that doesnt seem to clear things up would it be worth removing the article, waiting a few weeks and then re publishing it under a new url such asruntheline.com/123/Garmin-210-GPS-Watch-Review.

      I was thinking about removing the article but then I was worried that Google would penalise me for all the dead links pointing to my site as a result of the removal. Am I right to worry?
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      • Profile picture of the author Wesley Atkins
        Originally Posted by RossChops View Post

        Thanks for the tip, I am making the suggested correction as we speak!

        If that doesnt seem to clear things up would it be worth removing the article, waiting a few weeks and then re publishing it under a new url such asruntheline.com/123/Garmin-210-GPS-Watch-Review.

        I was thinking about removing the article but then I was worried that Google would penalise me for all the dead links pointing to my site as a result of the removal. Am I right to worry?
        Never leave dead links on your site... or let Google discover any 404 errors...

        Always make sure they are 301 redirected someone within your website..

        That said, I don't recommend you remove the article and re-publish it under a new URL. This will not help you at all...

        Just tidy up the article... Link to it internally from other pages in your site where it makes sense to do so, then build a bunch of links to this page from a diverse source...

        ...that's all you need to do!
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