Help me decipher the reason behind all these delisted sites.

by orvn
9 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Friend of mine comes to me with a problem, most of the 60 or so sites on his shared server (same dedicated IP) appear to have been penalized.

I agree to check it out, access his webmaster tools, check out code, inbound links (and external links for that matter), compare sites to one another, etc.

Code is similar, since they're based on the same template, but by and large the copy on the sites is sufficiently unique (aside from the home page, which is mostly based off of one large image).

None of the sites have been SEO'd correctly. Can't find a concrete reason for this apparent penalty. This has been going on for over three weeks, I'm told, so it's more than just a dance.

Let's take a look- shall we?

IP = 199.27.180.233,
Sample Domains =
Brucyne Sud, Sales Representative | Index
Douglas Gubitz, Sales Representative | Sales Representative, Chestnut Park | Toronto:|:Index
Andre Kutyan | Andre Kutyan, Sales Representative
(reverse IP to see more)
Googling for their names ('Brucyne Sud', "Douglas Gubitz", "Andre Kutyan", etc.) doesn't bring up their domains. They're still indexed however, as demonstrated by googling the domain or using the site: operator.

Doesn't occur with all sites (albeit most) on the server however similar in code. Example = Google John Fortney

Ideas?
#decipher #delisted #penalty #reason #sites
  • Profile picture of the author orvn
    Admittedly the titles are eerily similar. I'm still having trouble rationalizing this as a duplicate content issue though.

    Webmaster tools not reporting a single hitch, no malware either.
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  • Profile picture of the author Karen Barr
    I experienced a similar problem with some of my client's sites and it turned out that a manual spam penalty had been applied by Google, although nothing showed in WM Tools.

    I sent a message through WM Tools asking for Google to check into it and they came back within about 10 days and confirmed it was manually flagged as spam and told us we could file an appeal for reinclusion, which was granted.

    All you need to report a website as spam to Google is to go to the spam report page, and I think we'll see more of this kind of shit from competitors as Google makes things tougher and tougher on SEOs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Karen Barr
    It's also possible that one of the sites on the same IP has been comment spamming or similar, perhaps. Just another thought.
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    • Profile picture of the author orvn
      Thanks for the input, I'll look into that. So far it's the most plausible thing I have to go on.
      I think they did mention a spam backdoor a few months ago, but I checked the server and it was clean.

      How long did it take after you filed the appeal?
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  • Profile picture of the author Anurag Pareek
    @orvn, I took a look at the sites, dint find anything unusual. It could be a manual penalty as pointed out by Karen. I dint find any backlinks on ahrefs or seo spyglass - that ruled out my initial thought which was of a ranking loss due to link loss or a ranking loss due to -ve seo/link building.

    If we could have some history about what seo work has been done would make things a bit clearer. If the sites were never ranking and they got bumped even further I dont think its a penalty, but just that competition has been building more backlinks.
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    • Profile picture of the author orvn
      Originally Posted by Anurag Pareek View Post

      @orvn, I took a look at the sites, dint find anything unusual. It could be a manual penalty as pointed out by Karen. I dint find any backlinks on ahrefs or seo spyglass - that ruled out my initial thought which was of a ranking loss due to link loss or a ranking loss due to -ve seo/link building.

      If we could have some history about what seo work has been done would make things a bit clearer. If the sites were never ranking and they got bumped even further I dont think its a penalty, but just that competition has been building more backlinks.
      Little to no SEO done on these sites (as I mentioned earlier). No common links- these aren't actually my sites.

      The only thing they used to rank for is the name in the domain. Now they're no where to be found, suggesting a penalty.
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      • Profile picture of the author Anurag Pareek
        Originally Posted by orvn View Post

        Little to no SEO done on these sites (as I mentioned earlier). No common links- these aren't actually my sites.

        The only thing they used to rank for is the name in the domain. Now they're no where to be found, suggesting a penalty.
        I did some more digging around and found this:

        preferred-clients | Brucyne Sud, Sales Representative

        The page below has 537 words matching 91% of the page, as highlighted below:

        directory | Janine Sheeres, Broker

        --

        preferred-clients | Brucyne Sud, Sales Representative

        The page below has 127 words matching 22% of the page, as highlighted below:

        Preferred Client Program | Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage

        --

        selling-your-home | Brucyne Sud, Sales Representative

        The page below has 606 words matching 95% of the page, as highlighted below:

        selling | Armin Yousefi, Sales Representative

        --

        selling-your-home | Brucyne Sud, Sales Representative

        The page below has 607 words matching 96% of the page, as highlighted below:

        Andre Kutyan | Andre Kutyan, Sales Representative

        --

        selling-your-home | Brucyne Sud, Sales Representative

        The page below has 594 words matching 94% of the page, as highlighted below:

        selling | Elise Kalles, Broker

        --

        Besides, the copied content and I was not able to find the site in google with domain.com + keyword, I believe its been hit by a penalty.

        I think the sites have been hit by Panda - observations: high % of duplicate content, low amount of original content, high amount of pages with low amount of original content.

        Hope this helps!
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        • Profile picture of the author orvn
          Thanks, it does help, I see the content similarity and I've never really had any post-panda or penguin problems due to my organic methods.

          I'm still having trouble justifying this as a duplicate content issue. The content on some pages is somewhat similar.. but not horribly so.

          I do know the sites had spam issues at one point. Maybe Google will tell me. Thanks for the help.

          Any idea how long it takes to reinclude a manual penalty after resolution?
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          • Profile picture of the author Anurag Pareek
            Originally Posted by orvn View Post

            Any idea how long it takes to reinclude a manual penalty after resolution?
            It would take a lot of cleaning up I think..re-doing the content would be the first step. Building some quality relevant links and I think you should see some +ve movement. I have seen such sites recover when the data refresh happens which is atleast twice a month, I believe so in time you should see some results.

            I don't think this ranking drop would be a result of a manual review - just my guess.
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