SEO for a Penguin Hit Site

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Hi Warriors,

I'm in the process of SEOing penguin hit website its been almost a month since the new campaign has started (after removing bad profiles and links)

The techniques I have used are:

Tier 1 Links from -
1. Creating external blogs (blogspot, tumblr, wordpress) and adding fresh and unique content to it and linking to website.
2. Bookmarking internal links of the website in 20 sites.
3. Couple of guest posts.

Tier 2 links (to above created blogs) -
1. Create blogs using blog.com, livejournal and adding content (50% spinned) link them to blogspot, wordpress blogs.
2. Bookmark all the article links to 50-60 pligg bookmarking sites.

And the results so far are: (been 23 days since campaign started)

Keywods-- Old Position-----Current Position
key 1 ------10------------- 7
key 2 ------40-------------10
key 3---No Rank-------------11
key 4 ------33-------------12
key 5 ---No Rank-------------13
key 6------ 77-------------14
key 7------ No Rank-------------18
key 8 ------35-------------21
key 9 ------35-------------21
key 10------No Rank-------------21
key 11------No Rank-------------22
key 12------44-------------24
key 13------49-------------24
key 14------48-------------29
key 15------No Rank-------------29
key 16------No Rank-------------30
key 17------No Rank-------------30
key 18------22-------------31
key 19------No Rank-------------32
key 20------No Rank-------------33
key 21------90-------------37
key 22------45-------------39
key 23------58-------------39
key 24------No Rank-------------40
key 25------No Rank-------------41
key 26------88-------------41
key 27------60-------------41
key 28------38-------------41
key 29------No Rank-------------42
key 30------No Rank-------------43
key 31------78-------------44
key 32------68-------------44
key 33------34-------------44
key 34------No Rank-------------45
key 35------No Rank-------------45
key 36------No Rank-------------46
key 37------No Rank-------------48
key 38------No Rank-------------49
key 39------60-------------49
key 40------No Rank-------------54
key 41------No Rank-------------55
key 42------No Rank-------------58
key 43------69-------------80

All the keywords are medium competition keywords and related to taxing software niche.

The reason why I'm posting this thread is because, I wanted to know whether the results I have achieved are "ok" within this span of time? Or may be I could have got better results?

Also, do you warriors have any other suggestions for seo apart from what I have mentioned
above?

Thanks
#hit #penguin #seo #site
  • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
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  • Profile picture of the author praveen1
    Originally Posted by RandySwanston View Post

    Hi Warriors,

    I'm in the process of SEOing penguin hit website its been almost a month since the new campaign has started (after removing bad profiles and links)

    The techniques I have used are:

    Tier 1 Links from -
    1. Creating external blogs (blogspot, tumblr, wordpress) and adding fresh and unique content to it and linking to website.
    2. Bookmarking internal links of the website in 20 sites.
    3. Couple of guest posts.

    Tier 2 links (to above created blogs) -
    1. Create blogs using blog.com, livejournal and adding content (50% spinned) link them to blogspot, wordpress blogs.
    2. Bookmark all the article links to 50-60 pligg bookmarking sites.

    And the results so far are: (been 23 days since campaign started)

    Keywods-- Old Position-----Current Position
    key 1 ------10------------- 7
    key 2 ------40-------------10
    key 3---No Rank-------------11
    key 4 ------33-------------12
    key 5 ---No Rank-------------13
    key 6------ 77-------------14
    key 7------ No Rank-------------18
    key 8 ------35-------------21
    key 9 ------35-------------21
    key 10------No Rank-------------21
    key 11------No Rank-------------22
    key 12------44-------------24
    key 13------49-------------24
    key 14------48-------------29
    key 15------No Rank-------------29
    key 16------No Rank-------------30
    key 17------No Rank-------------30
    key 18------22-------------31
    key 19------No Rank-------------32
    key 20------No Rank-------------33
    key 21------90-------------37
    key 22------45-------------39
    key 23------58-------------39
    key 24------No Rank-------------40
    key 25------No Rank-------------41
    key 26------88-------------41
    key 27------60-------------41
    key 28------38-------------41
    key 29------No Rank-------------42
    key 30------No Rank-------------43
    key 31------78-------------44
    key 32------68-------------44
    key 33------34-------------44
    key 34------No Rank-------------45
    key 35------No Rank-------------45
    key 36------No Rank-------------46
    key 37------No Rank-------------48
    key 38------No Rank-------------49
    key 39------60-------------49
    key 40------No Rank-------------54
    key 41------No Rank-------------55
    key 42------No Rank-------------58
    key 43------69-------------80

    All the keywords are medium competition keywords and related to taxing software niche.

    The reason why I'm posting this thread is because, I wanted to know whether the results I have achieved are "ok" within this span of time? Or may be I could have got better results?

    Also, do you warriors have any other suggestions for seo apart from what I have mentioned
    above?

    Thanks
    It might be also that sometime when you add fresh content then it takes time to cache and so the rankings take time to get adjusted in SERP.

    But, in your case as there are lot of keywords jumped drastically at good positions, so ur working strategy looks effective. But you can also add some more in ur working scheme like RSS Syndication as you have blogs and regular content, so this might work in better way and also try to operate one blog network with Infographics...


    I hope it will increase your site's visibility more....

    Thanks
    Praveen sharma
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    • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
      Originally Posted by praveen1 View Post

      It might be also that sometime when you add fresh content then it takes time to cache and so the rankings take time to get adjusted in SERP.

      But, in your case as there are lot of keywords jumped drastically at good positions, so ur working strategy looks effective. But you can also add some more in ur working scheme like RSS Syndication as you have blogs and regular content, so this might work in better way and also try to operate one blog network with Infographics...


      I hope it will increase your site's visibility more....

      Thanks
      Praveen sharma
      Thanks for your insights Praveen,

      I will try to inculcate RSS in my strategy.

      I am using Tumblr for infographics, and pinning it to Pinterest.

      But the rankings are fluctuating like crazy, its never been stable since a week. :-p
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      • Profile picture of the author praveen1
        Originally Posted by RandySwanston View Post

        Thanks for your insights Praveen,

        I will try to inculcate RSS in my strategy.

        I am using Tumblr for infographics, and pinning it to Pinterest.

        But the rankings are fluctuating like crazy, its never been stable since a week. :-p
        Buddy relax a bit, give some time to google as well as to ur inbound networks. Do not increase your rate of link building. Just operate on content, RSS, if possible try to attach some high quality networks with each other.

        After 15 days, then do again survey of 7 days that ur rank is fluctuating or not ?


        Thanks
        Praveen Sharma
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  • Profile picture of the author Dead Body
    Always do some high pagerank blog links to get reasonable positions..
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    Let's recap: you had a site that ranked well? Then it got hit by 'Penguin.'

    Then you removed the links.

    Now you're adding them back?
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    • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
      Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

      Let's recap: you had a site that ranked well? Then it got hit by 'Penguin.'

      Then you removed the links.

      Now you're adding them back?
      Yes, the website was ranking well for quite a lot of keywords, the company had hired some crappy seo firm which ruined everything by creating spammy links like forum sigs, link farms etc. We came know about this and canceled the contract with them, and later found that we were hit by penguin. Then we started to do seo ourselves. We contacted as many webmasters as we can and we were successful in removing quite a lot of links.

      Now we have started a fresh campaign for the website and trying hard to gain back our positions in SERPs.
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      • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
        Originally Posted by RandySwanston View Post

        Yes, the website was ranking well for quite a lot of keywords, the company had hired some crappy seo firm which ruined everything by creating spammy links like forum sigs, link farms etc. We came know about this and canceled the contract with them, and later found that we were hit by penguin. Then we started to do seo ourselves. We contacted as many webmasters as we can and we were successful in removing quite a lot of links.

        Now we have started a fresh campaign for the website and trying hard to gain back our positions in SERPs.
        Your best bet it to forget the Web 2.0 strategy and find High PR related links to send into the most important pages. That's a much faster recovery strategy.
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        • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
          Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

          Your best bet it to forget the Web 2.0 strategy and find High PR related links to send into the most important pages. That's a much faster recovery strategy.
          Thanks, You mean to say Guest blogging? I'm already doing it. Any other ways of getting high pr back links apart from GB?
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          • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
            Originally Posted by RandySwanston View Post

            Thanks, You mean to say Guest blogging? I'm already doing it. Any other ways of getting high pr back links apart from GB?
            Even guest blog posts don't have PR when they're first created.

            There's a time element involved in SEO.

            The best links for faster placement come from:

            1) Pages that are already indexed in Google.
            2) Pages that are thematically related to your page.
            3) Pages that have PageRank already. The higher the better.

            The links you're building all follow the same pattern:

            1) You create the page.
            2) You link to your money site.
            3) Eventually the 'juice' from somewhere trickles down to the new page and pushes down to your money site. However, this means usually you have to 'build links' to those Web 2.0's to get that juice in the first place.

            As you can imagine, the time difference between the two methods is HUGE.
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            • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
              Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

              Even guest blog posts don't have PR when they're first created.

              There's a time element involved in SEO.

              The best links for faster placement come from:

              1) Pages that are already indexed in Google.
              2) Pages that are thematically related to your page.
              3) Pages that have PageRank already. The higher the better.

              The links you're building all follow the same pattern:

              1) You create the page.
              2) You link to your money site.
              3) Eventually the 'juice' from somewhere trickles down to the new page and pushes down to your money site. However, this means usually you have to 'build links' to those Web 2.0's to get that juice in the first place.

              As you can imagine, the time difference between the two methods is HUGE.
              Hmmm, yes I agree with your comments.

              I'll try to figure out how I can find relevant backlinks.
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            • Profile picture of the author online only
              Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

              Even guest blog posts don't have PR when they're first created.

              There's a time element involved in SEO.

              The best links for faster placement come from:

              1) Pages that are already indexed in Google.
              2) Pages that are thematically related to your page.
              3) Pages that have PageRank already. The higher the better.

              The links you're building all follow the same pattern:

              1) You create the page.
              2) You link to your money site.
              3) Eventually the 'juice' from somewhere trickles down to the new page and pushes down to your money site. However, this means usually you have to 'build links' to those Web 2.0's to get that juice in the first place.

              As you can imagine, the time difference between the two methods is HUGE.
              So you are saying that when (seo)moz publishes a post (or any other auhtority site) and adds you link to it's article it's worthless since the PR is N/A ?

              It's still VERY powerful link. Not mention it probably gets PR3 after the PR update.

              This gives you instant boost, it doesn't matter if it doesn't have PR. Furthermore, PR is outdated anyway.
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              • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
                Originally Posted by online only View Post

                So you are saying that when (seo)moz publishes a post (or any other auhtority site) and adds you link to it's article it's worthless since the PR is N/A ?

                It's still VERY powerful link. Not mention it probably gets PR3 after the PR update.

                This gives you instant boost, it doesn't matter if it doesn't have PR. Furthermore, PR is outdated anyway.
                I'm pretty sure that's not what I said at all. No where in this discussion was the almighty Moz mentioned.

                The OP isn't 'guest posting' at Authority sites. He's doing link building on 'tiers.' His plan will not work - at least not in the near future. My plan will.

                The only people who think that 'real PR' is useless or 'outdated' are missing a few major points. Ultimately the PR of target pages has a huge impact on rankings.

                Now, if this guy has a lot of time on his hands, he can prepare 'guest posts' on so-called 'authority sites' all day. To me he didn't seem like the type of guy who was interested in going that route.
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            • Profile picture of the author nik0
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              Originally Posted by PerformanceMan View Post

              Even guest blog posts don't have PR when they're first created.
              Not so true as the guest blog posts gets hosted at the homepage with the link visible on the homepage in most cases. And the homepage is already indexed so it's temporarily a link from an indexed page. That's what makes private blog posts, guest blog posts so effective.

              By the time the post rolls off the homepage the new url should be indexed as well.

              You'd be surprised btw to see how long the rankings last even after the post rolled off, assuming we are dealing with a site where we don't submit new posts all day long, I always try to post max 15-30 times a month per site and make the sites not to overcrowded.
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              • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
                Originally Posted by nik0 View Post

                Not so true as the guest blog posts gets hosted at the homepage with the link visible on the homepage in most cases. And the homepage is already indexed so it's temporarily a link from an indexed page. That's what makes private blog posts, guest blog posts so effective.

                By the time the post rolls off the homepage the new url should be indexed as well.

                You'd be surprised btw to see how long the rankings last even after the post rolled off, assuming we are dealing with a site where we don't submit new posts all day long, I always try to post max 15-30 times a month per site and make the sites not to overcrowded.
                I assume he was talking about a guest post at an authority site. In those cases, they post quite a bit. On a slow-moving PBN, you're right.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    From what I've read in OP you got rid of junk forum links & replaced them with semi-junk links, because none of those links on new domains (2.0, etc...) are going to do much of anything. Bookmarking isn't going to do anything, the pages are either indexed in the SERPs or they're not, If their not indexed on their own, somethings wrong...
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    • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      From what I've read in OP you got rid of junk forum links & replaced them with semi-junk links, because none of those links on new domains (2.0, etc...) are going to do much of anything. Bookmarking isn't going to do anything, the pages are either indexed in the SERPs or they're not, If their not indexed on their own, somethings wrong...
      Actually the website is more than 4 years old and was ranking well for many years until we got into the pit. All the pages of the website is indexed by Google... And I'm just using Blogger, Wordpress and tumblr for web2.0 properties, I'm adding content to them on a weekly basis, to my surprise these web2.0 sites are also popping up in serps along with the website for most of the keywords.

      You meant that the web2.0 linking is semi-junk links, So apart from this what do you suggest I can do?
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  • Profile picture of the author affilorama-portal
    I would have to disagree on scraping out web 2.0 properties. They are still of value and can be a good mix of backlinks for your site. Evne let's say these web 2.0 sites are not that good seo-wise compared to sites for guest posting, still you may get direct visits from web 2.0 sites (like hubpages and squidoo) if your content is really that good.
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  • Profile picture of the author webmasterchick
    Hey Randy, looks like you're still stuck in 2012 when it comes to linkbuilding! You need to change your whole approach and avoid what everyone else is doing...

    Ask yourself this:

    'Does what im doing look natural?'

    Here are dead giveaways that your site is using unnatural methods:
    - Creating new web 2.0 sites with no history, with only one post and your link
    - Creating lots of new social bookmarks on new accounts with no history
    - Sudden influx of new links, when no changes or new posts have been added to your site, or your site hasn't had any prominent mentions or social signals.

    You need links from existing, established sites. If you can't find aged 2.0s, create your own! For one of my sites I made 30 niche specific 2.0s and just built content on them for several months, and THEN I started gradually including posts with links on them.

    This is why you should build sites that are worth the investment you're going to have put into them. If this is too much work, find sites that will accept your posts/links. It's good to hire one person that'll spend all their time doing this. Write a template email, and then go on oDesk and look for someone who can find sites in your niche and contact them for you.

    Focus on quality rather than quantity. I've stopped building automated links, including comment links, wiki links, social bookmarking links - instead I'm hand picking where every link goes.

    I almost forgot, work on your site content! This is so important. Either write good content, or get someone to do it for you. I've ranked sites with nothing but good content and a high quality link from an authority site. When Google sees your site has a low bounce rate, and people are spending time on your site and visiting different pages, it will play a huge part in how well they rank your site.

    These are just some ideas off the top of my head. Hope you found my first post useful!
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  • Profile picture of the author Voasi
    Putting one piece of content on a Web 2.0 and putting just one link back to your website still works just fine.

    It's the "tiered" links that most people don't get.

    If you're going out and getting a bunch of spammy links going to your Web 2.0 blog, well... were's the authority? It's easy to see that all the links are low quality, thus the power of the pagerank being passed upwards is going to be "low link juice".

    When I build Web 2.0's, I'll push 20 PR2/3 links to my Web 2.0...and it works fantastically!

    Not only does the Web 2.0 rank for all sorts of keywords (I've literally taken over entire keyword results in Google... all 10 spots), but the Pagerank I'm passing from the PR2/3 to the ONE link in the Web 2.0 is MUCH MORE POWERFUL then low quality blog comments, wiki links, forum sigs, etc...
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    • Profile picture of the author dannyl
      Originally Posted by Voasi View Post

      Putting one piece of content on a Web 2.0 and putting just one link back to your website still works just fine.

      It's the "tiered" links that most people don't get.

      If you're going out and getting a bunch of spammy links going to your Web 2.0 blog, well... were's the authority? It's easy to see that all the links are low quality, thus the power of the pagerank being passed upwards is going to be "low link juice".

      When I build Web 2.0's, I'll push 20 PR2/3 links to my Web 2.0...and it works fantastically!

      Not only does the Web 2.0 rank for all sorts of keywords (I've literally taken over entire keyword results in Google... all 10 spots), but the Pagerank I'm passing from the PR2/3 to the ONE link in the Web 2.0 is MUCH MORE POWERFUL then low quality blog comments, wiki links, forum sigs, etc...
      Hi,

      Whereabouts do you get all of these PR2/3 links to fire at your web 2.0 site? Your own blog network?
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  • Profile picture of the author MonitorScout
    We do quality SEO and no spamming at all, but in spite of that we're hit. Most of our targeted keywords are beyond 100s now.

    It is not just something that has happened to us. I did an analysis which shows that many high quality website sites has been affected. Even the websites which were used to rank in no 1 or 2 position in Google for past 5 years has been sent back to beyond 100s.

    It is really unfortunate for the marketers as we don't know what Google actually wants from us.
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    • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
      Originally Posted by MonitorScout View Post

      We do quality SEO and no spamming at all, but in spite of that we're hit. Most of our targeted keywords are beyond 100s now.

      It is not just something that has happened to us. I did an analysis which shows that many high quality website sites has been affected. Even the websites which were used to rank in no 1 or 2 position in Google for past 5 years has been sent back to beyond 100s.

      It is really unfortunate for the marketers as we don't know what Google actually wants from us.
      Google couldn't care less about you - or any of us. What type of 'quality SEO' have you been doing? Drops to the 100s generally indicate a major devaluation of your incoming links or a penalty. Did you receive a warning notice from Google?
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    • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
      Originally Posted by MonitorScout View Post

      We do quality SEO and no spamming at all, but in spite of that we're hit. Most of our targeted keywords are beyond 100s now.

      It is not just something that has happened to us. I did an analysis which shows that many high quality website sites has been affected. Even the websites which were used to rank in no 1 or 2 position in Google for past 5 years has been sent back to beyond 100s.

      It is really unfortunate for the marketers as we don't know what Google actually wants from us.
      I wonder whether Google knows that by itself.
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  • Profile picture of the author seojims
    HELLo

    To recover from penguin 2.0 what you should be doing is diversified your keyword. Use generic keyword like(click here.).
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  • Profile picture of the author Theeban
    I would recommend NOT to stop your newly created web 2.0 blogs just with one post - Keep on contributing those blogs and promote those blogs and drive traffic to those blogs - That may help you to get good referral traffic at the same time a valued back-link to your money site.
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    • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
      Originally Posted by Theeban View Post

      I would recommend NOT to stop your newly created web 2.0 blogs just with one post - Keep on contributing those blogs and promote those blogs and drive traffic to those blogs - That may help you to get good referral traffic at the same time a valued back-link to your money site.
      Nope, I am writing and adding content to all the web 2.0s on a regular basis. Let me run the campaign for some more days and see the effects.

      Thanks for all your inputs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brian Lett
    My suggestion is to do 1-2 press releases a month with known press release platforms such as PRWeb, WebWire, MarketWire, etc.

    Yes, there are costs associated, but this will work wonders for your website.
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    • Profile picture of the author RandySwanston
      Originally Posted by Brian Lett View Post

      My suggestion is to do 1-2 press releases a month with known press release platforms such as PRWeb, WebWire, MarketWire, etc.

      Yes, there are costs associated, but this will work wonders for your website.
      Yep, just a couple of days back, released a Press Release through PRweb a $100 basic pack and submitted the same PR to some free release sites. Lets see how it goes.
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