10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Opinions - Attempt Recovery OR New Domain

by Tspringer
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
The Google EMD and Penguin updates last week crushed my sites rankings. I went from 490 daily to 5. The page is an authority site with over 150 top quality articles on topic. The domain dates to 2002. The site however is only PR2. I began building content late last year. There is no advertising on the site at all and no affiliate products. The content is top quality professionally written.

The site is intended as an authority site on the topic to serve as a front end resource and home page for the product - a web application aimed at specific needs within the niche to be offered via a membership site. I was set to launch the paid app and membership site later this month - now all the traffic is gone.

I am getting some help with strategies to move forward to recover - but I have one fundamental question I wanted to gather opinions and information on so I can understand the implications better.

The web application and membership product - lets call it - WidgetHelp. Branding efforts for the product are focused on that name. All my social media accounts focus on that name. I also do own the domain widgethelp.com - but my plan was to use that to host a sales page.

The site domain currently is like - www.keyword-combo.com with both words together being a primary keyword. So it is an EMD for my keyword. Deeper pages are structured like - www.keyword-combo.com/next-keyword for all the longer tail keywords and articles for the topic.

The question is - Given that for example my previously #1 best ranking page where I was ranking #5 I am now #178 - and all my other best ranking pages are also crushed - am I better off moving all the content to the new domain that is the product name I am using for branding?

The domain could be my product domain - so it would be more like -

widgethelp.com/keyword-topic for all the deeper pages.

1. If I moved everything to the product focused domain - would not google consider the content duplicate? Or penalize it because was previously indexed under the original domain? I see no way around the fact that articles that were originally indexed at one domain would seem to get treated a duplicate content if moved to another domain?

2. If a 301 redirect was done for all the original domain pages to redirect to the new domain location - what impact does that have? Previous link impact? Duplicate content impact? I honestly do not understand the implication of how that would work?

3. What are the pro's and con's of either attempting to recover the existing site and domain vs moving it all to the newer domain?

4. Is giving up the aged domain a major issue?

5. Given that my keywords are VERY Difficult - attempting to outrank inner WebMD pages and such - would not a new domain face basically an impossible task?

Any input and thoughts are welcome - I hope this makes sense. As for exactly why the rankings tanked - it looks like it is my own fault, I screwed up using keyword laden anchor text too much and the backlink profile is now a mess.


Terry
#attempt #domain #opinions #recovery
  • Profile picture of the author realseowarrior
    If you are hurt by penguin i think its time to start a new site. Untill now there is not a single convincing story about the recovery from penguin. So dont waste your time start over i know its tough but its the best option right now.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7136484].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Tspringer
      Originally Posted by realseowarrior View Post

      If you are hurt by penguin i think its time to start a new site. Untill now there is not a single convincing story about the recovery from penguin. So dont waste your time start over i know its tough but its the best option right now.

      If starting over - does that mean all new content from scratch? Have all 150+ top quality articles on the site now completely re-written from scratch?

      What about using the same articles and doing a 301 redirect from the old URL's for each page?

      Would not Google recognize the content as the same from the previously penalized page and thus penalize any new page as well regardless of new domain?


      Terry
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7136530].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author sdlive
    So, you're gona start a new site with the same spam farm theme with "UNIQUE" content?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7136548].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author realseowarrior
    Dont use 301 redirects it passes the penguin Penalty, You have to start over again. It is sad that you have to rewrite that much of articles but you an alternative, if your articles are not syndicated on other sites you can take all of them down and after some time, may be few months when Google de index those article you can post them again on your site. They will be like fresh content again.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7136592].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Nelapsi
    Here is the thing... I know you state professional written content but some where along the line you and Google differ on this description. Just like you state authority site, yet those were not hit so again you are Google differ. Google did not hit sites just because it was an EMD, they hit EMD sites that served no business being ranked high in the SERP generally. Now I have not seen yours but I haven't seen an example yet that tells me they over reached on this, in fact some slipped by for some reason.

    Lets first assume all this is good info, only because in the eyes of Google which you are trying to rank with.. it might as well be gospel.

    1. Have you tried really looking at your site and back links? Finding if anything doesn't add up?
    2. If you really think you are right, attempted getting your site reconsidered? This does work, I know one of my sites was hit as a parked domain (If you recall this update) and that is all it took for my site issues to get resolved.

    Starting from scratch could just drag your previous issues over to your new site, think about what a wasted effort that will turn out to be if it holds true.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7136654].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Tspringer
    No - the content REALLY IS absolute top quality. The articles are among the best on the topics available online - multiple experts have expressed this opinion. Not SEO experts - but doctors and medical researchers who really know the subject matter.

    I do think the EMD update hit me some - but I think this was magnified greatly or the real hit was the new penguin update. The bottom line is - I screwed up. I was not careful enough with my anchor text and my backlink profile has far too many keyword specific anchor text. After looking at some reports showing all this - it is much clearer to me that the real reason my site was hit so hard is due to this screwed up backlink profile.

    But is that something that can be recovered from?

    If 301 redirects do nothing but pass on the penalty and all the content would require being totally re-written, the delay and costs associated would probably lead me to just say screw google and buy traffic.

    Problem is - I am not enough of an expert to really know what the best course of action is.


    Terry
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7136720].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Nelapsi
    I personally haven't been hit by the updates.. but I do have a theory on if I got hit by it this is what I would do. Obviously as you have discovered, you have far to many backlinks under a single anchor text and this is my understanding of how it works as well. Most people tend to try and get rid of backlinks to even it out. Why not do the reverse? Add more backlinks just with different anchor text to create a better ratio.

    I am unsure if anyone except Google can say if this would work or not but in theory if removing backlinks work to create a better ratio, then adding links would work to do the very same thing. Depending on how screwed up your current ratio is would be how many new links needed.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7137568].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Tspringer
      Originally Posted by Nelapsi View Post

      I personally haven't been hit by the updates.. but I do have a theory on if I got hit by it this is what I would do. Obviously as you have discovered, you have far to many backlinks under a single anchor text and this is my understanding of how it works as well. Most people tend to try and get rid of backlinks to even it out. Why not do the reverse? Add more backlinks just with different anchor text to create a better ratio.

      I am unsure if anyone except Google can say if this would work or not but in theory if removing backlinks work to create a better ratio, then adding links would work to do the very same thing. Depending on how screwed up your current ratio is would be how many new links needed.
      That is pretty much the conclusion I am coming to - though I have not made and final determinations on action yet.

      One interesting thing - one of my pages on the site that was EMD and was ranking 11 or so is now ranking 18. That particular page, the keywords are such that using them as anchor text is awkward - rarely reads correctly - and thus in my backlinking for that keyword and page I had (not necessarily on purpose) used a much broader range of anchor text. That page has not been penalized much.

      My primary traffic page - more competitive keywords - I had used the keywords and variations as anchor text FAR too much now that I have seen some reports showing details. I thought I had been mixing it up ok - but facts are facts and it is clear I had not. That page was ranking #6 - now it is like #178. But - it is still ranked.

      So at this point - I tend to think the site and main pages can be recovered, its worth a shot. Using the same article syndication I have been doing - but with greatly varied anchor text - I plan to starting building lots more backlinks. I also plan to add entirely new types of backlinks and greatly expand the # of referring URL's and buy a bunch of permanent high PR backlinks also with varied anchor text. WE have also identified a bunch of on-site SEO stuff that is really a mess.... considering some of the on site errors its something of a miracle the site was ranking as well as it did before.

      Anyhow - that is how I am leaning. A concerted new effort to correct the backlink profile - more high PR backlinks, on-site SEO work, greatly vary the anchor text and expand the type of backlinks and # of referring URLs. I also am going to re-do some of the content and make more videos. I hope it works....

      Terry
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7137716].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Focused Action
    I suggest you seek out an SEO expert to discuss the situation and not rely on a forum whereby you have limited knowledge of the people giving you advice. Maybe it costs you an hour of consulting time, but you have far more invested in your existing site.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7160432].message }}

Trending Topics