Penalized by penguin, what now ?

by lrdc
14 replies
  • SEO
  • |
My site was always 6-8# for a very difficult keyword for years.

I have 90% of backlink density for this anchor (it worked well in the past, so all my SEO was done this way)

So it came the Penguin and now I'm 50-60#.

Everyone would suggest me to continue building links, etc, varying the keyword, "click here", "read more", "exact url", "company name", no more than 20% of density, etc..

BUT.. My site have somewhere near 10,000 backlinks already.. What should I do in this case?

A) Continue building links slowly and being patient

B) Try to build several links per week or per month, to reduce the overall density of my keyword

Thanks!!
#penalized #penguin
  • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
    What's the difference beetween your A and B option? Keep building quality backlinks over your site and avoid your old anchor's in order to diluite the % of same text.
    Signature

    Want Google Page ONE Rankings? [YES] [NO]

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6310878].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author lrdc
      Originally Posted by GodMode52 View Post

      What's the difference beetween your A and B option? Keep building quality backlinks over your site and avoid your old anchor's in order to diluite the % of same text.
      Panda and Penguin stands for natural links. And this includes the timing. You cannot gain 1000 links overnight.

      Option B stands for a speedy link building and A for a natural (slower) timing..
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6310901].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author matt78
    I assumed that after all those years your website have some authority and a PR maybe. And yet it still got hit by Google update.

    I think it's time for you to start doing something that doesn't involve Google and SEO. Relying on search engine ranking is a very fragile foundation for making money online nowadays. Here's an interesting thread that you might wanna read:

    Internet Marketing Without Google
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6310898].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author lrdc
      Originally Posted by matt78 View Post

      I assumed that after all those years your website have some authority and a PR maybe. And yet it still got hit by Google update.

      I think it's time for you to start doing something that doesn't involve Google and SEO. Relying on search engine ranking is a very fragile foundation for making money online nowadays. Here's an interesting thread that you might wanna read:

      Internet Marketing Without Google
      Our company is making money, we have a solid structure and we continue growing even after this hit!

      But, if we could recover our Google SERPS it would be nice.

      We are ranking well for some secondary keywords. This hit was just for our main keyword (which was over-optimized)
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6311026].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Dragontech
    You may try to get some high pr contextual links with generic anchor, actually 2 of my experimental sites did recover gradually (1 lost about 50 spots like yours and another lost 120+) with "only this action" within about 2 weeks.

    However, their backlink profiles are quite diverse and the amount of links weren't even close to 10000 (around 800+), so you may possibly need to do more if your site has been relying too much on 1 or 2 backlink source.

    Hope this helps,

    btw, are most of them spam links?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6311476].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author scottmacair
    Originally Posted by lrdc View Post

    My site was always 6-8# for a very difficult keyword for years.

    I have 90% of backlink density for this anchor (it worked well in the past, so all my SEO was done this way)

    So it came the Penguin and now I'm 50-60#.

    Everyone would suggest me to continue building links, etc, varying the keyword, "click here", "read more", "exact url", "company name", no more than 20% of density, etc..

    BUT.. My site have somewhere near 10,000 backlinks already.. What should I do in this case?

    A) Continue building links slowly and being patient

    B) Try to build several links per week or per month, to reduce the overall density of my keyword

    Thanks!!
    If you want to keep the site you will have to:
    • built trust with links from authority domains
    • dilute the over optimized anchor text
    • build links to the root domain or brand
    • remove as many spam links as possible
    • check your on page SEO to make sure you've not over optimzed
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6311724].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author tylerherman
      Take a look at some natural link profiles and see what you are missing. I don't think spamming 10,000 "click here" links to dilute your anchor text is going to help.

      Spend some money on guest posts, press releases, youtube videos, article marketing and see if you can build out a more natural looking profile while getting a few choice links in the process.

      Penalties like this are the perfect time to consider doing some spring cleaning.

      Go through your content and make sure it is quality. Remove spammy keyword sections if you have any. Check for broken links and do a better job of interlinking pages. Look for longtail and other keywords you might not have hit before and build those up. Add a large chunk of fresh content. Really push your social presence.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6312539].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Certitude
    I see a lot of people reacting to Penguin with the assumption that continuing to build links albeit with varied anchor text will work to restore rankings.

    But surely Google would be smart enough to factor this into the algorithm. If I were Google and I was designing the Penguin algorithm I would factor in the date the anchor text was first indexed and if the anchor text was changed, the date the change was indexed.

    That way, a site with 90% money keyword anchor text in it's backlinks couldn't just go and create a whole bunch of new backlinks with varied keywords to regain lost rankings.
    Signature
    “We Dream And We Build. We Never Give Up, We Never Quit.” ~ Jeremy Renner as Carmine Polito in American Hustle
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6313009].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author masterjani
    Only advice is to create more authority backlinks with your url as anchor. Add some more pages and update the content regularly and create backlinks for inner pages as well. This will dilute the backlinks and give some increase in ranking.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6313032].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author riyadsouza
    Consistent quality backlinking + quality content + No black hat technique + create dofollow+nofollow links on a regular basis.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6313287].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Ettienne
    Check your content for keyword density and edit it to have between 1 and 2% KW density (closer to 1 if you can), then wait patiently while you build more links. Your content should be the first step, not more backlinks.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6313310].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Galyna
    The last option - is to send a request to Google via their Google Docs form that they created specially for sites hit by Penguin. But this if you really believe in your content quality.
    You will have to change a lot on your site though prior doing this. This includes keyword density less than 1%, removing most (if not all) adsense and affiliate links, even improving design, making the site look more like a brand, removing pop-ups optins etc. As for backlinks - do try to request to remove links. Start with sites that got deindexed and low PR.

    When you submit request you should list your long list of improvements you have done. You also should say that you requested from all webmasters to remove backlinks to you and did your best in your efforts.
    Overall, be sincere and don't say stuff like "I lost my business" and "Since it happened I don't make any money". Google care less about your money.

    Then, you just have to wait. If you do everything right, somebody will likely come and look at your site. If it's ok - you will see your rankings came back (maybe even stronger). But there is no guarantee this will happen of course..

    So you just have to evaluate, is the profit you had from this site is worth all the efforts. Or maybe you should just start new website from scratch and play by Penguin rules this time.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6313400].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author mailey
    I would start again, if I was the OP.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6313409].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ramdom123
    I was also effected by this new updates. I have a site which is 10 months old pr2 and i added 10-15 new content every month. Now i am checking with some seo tools and i am losing 5-10 keyword everyday.

    The stuff i will try now is build links to homepage with lot of diversity.
    Keep on adding content so i can traffic from those.
    Build manual link by posting to relevant sites.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6313417].message }}

Trending Topics