Top 500 website with high authority and page rank 6 dropping fast in SERPs

13 replies
  • SEO
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Hi,

I am really hoping you can help me figure out what is going on with my website rank dramatically dropping in the Google SERPs, as it is greatly hurting my business that I have been running for over 16 years. I run a very popular video game site, cheatcc.com. We have been around since 1997. We normally get over 400,000 visitors a day to our site. For many years we had ranked in the first spot for most video game keywords that had "cheats", "codes", or "cheat codes" in them until July 1st. On that day, we began all of a sudden losing our first place rank for some popular keywords, like "GTA 4 cheats", "Fallout: New Vegas cheats", "Skyrim cheats", and more. We had held the first spot for those keywords and others for many years. However, overnight we were bumped to the second spot. This affected our traffic by around 3% to 5% over the next couple of weeks.

Nothing much else changed between July 1st and July 18th. Then, early in the morning on July 19th, we were completely delisted from Google. I had no idea what was going on, but after doing some reach, I realized it was because of an ad tag from ExitJunction.com. We had been running that tag on our site for over a year. I had no idea that we were violating Google's guidelines because of that ad tag, but we immediately removed it from the site. We found out that was the problem by reading the "A reminder about manipulative or deceptive behavior" post at Official Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Once we removed that tag from our site, we submitted a reconsideration request on 7/19, and were able to get relisted back on Google on 7/22. Our traffic and rank from Google pretty much returned to normal for a couple of days. However, on 7/25 we received a "Manual spam action revoked" in response to our reconsideration request, even though we had already been relisted on 7/22. We didn't know what to think of it, but later that day we took about a 10% hit to our traffic from Google. It sure seems like receiving the "Manual spam action revoked" message and the hit to our traffic later that day is related, but I obviously don't know for sure.

Over the past couple of weeks since we have been relisted on Google, our traffic from Google and SERPs ranking have continued to drop gradually. We also took another huge hit of 20% of our traffic from Google in the evening on 8/5. We have now lost about a total of 50% of our traffic from Google since the beginning of July, with almost all of it coming after getting delisted from Google.

We provide very high quality content and have been a very popular and authoritative game site for many years. We haven't had any issues with losing rank in the Google SERPs until the very beginning of July. There are no messages in Webmaster Tools from Google saying there are any problems with our site. We have had our site checked out by a couple of people that know a lot about SEO, and they can't find anything wrong with it. We haven't made any big changes to it for quite a while. I don't understand exactly what is going on, but I am hoping you can provide me with some suggestions and ideas of what is going on and what to do about it.

Do you think this entire problem has to do with the ExitJunction ad tag, and we began getting punished for it at the beginning of July and are still being punished for it? Do you think even though we have been relisted and got the "Manual spam action revoked" message that there is still either a manual or automatic penalty against our site? If so, do you think it will automatically fall off? If so, how long would a penalty like this take to fall off? When it does fall off, would we return to our normal rankings or not? If it is a penalty, why are we slowly falling in the SERPs instead of just immediately falling when the penalty was implemented? Do you think we can recover from this?

If you don't think the entire problem is due the the ExitJunction ad tag/delisting. What else do you think is causing it? If you don't know, how do you think I could find out what is causing the problem?

What do you suggest I do about this whole situation? How do you think it would be best to handle it since I have no idea exactly what is going on?

Thanks for reading this post and any help you can provide to me about what is happening and what to do about it.

-Dave
#500 #authority #dropping #fast #high #page #rank #serps #top #website
  • Profile picture of the author Bharathipriya
    When I am reading your post, i was obviously saying yes for all the lines. I am also facing the same situation. My website lost its SERP for the main keywords but not delisted.

    De-listing is absolutely a penalty for your website. If the ad tag was the reason, you might get all your things corrected after re-consideration request. You need to find out whats the main reason.

    My suggestion is to contact google directly or ask some experts from notable seo organizations to review your website completely as a way of SEO audit. Here is a sample how experts are analyzing the website issues step by step - Penguin 2.0 Penalty of DebtConsolidationCare - Link Research Tools

    Hope it helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author cooldave
      Originally Posted by Bharathipriya View Post

      When I am reading your post, i was obviously saying yes for all the lines. I am also facing the same situation. My website lost its SERP for the main keywords but not delisted.

      De-listing is absolutely a penalty for your website. If the ad tag was the reason, you might get all your things corrected after re-consideration request. You need to find out whats the main reason.

      My suggestion is to contact google directly or ask some experts from notable seo organizations to review your website completely as a way of SEO audit. Here is a sample how experts are analyzing the website issues step by step - Penguin 2.0 Penalty of DebtConsolidationCare - Link Research Tools

      Hope it helps.
      Thanks for the info. When you say contact Google directly, are you talking about a reconsideration request only or a different way to contact them? When you say you think I should file a reconsideration request, are you saying you think I should file another one even though I already filed one and it came back with the "Manual spam action revoked" message? Do you think they still haven't turned off the penalty, even though they relisted my site?
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      • Profile picture of the author helpandinfo
        It certainly does seem as though the ad tag triggered Google's displeasure. However if you had been running it for a year I would've expected them to have noticed that before now.. The Manual spam action revoked message you received would seem to indicate that somebody had manually checked your site before allowing it back into the index and that they were happy with it so there is no logical reason for your dropping in traffic after that event. This is unless Google has a way of temporarily punishing sites (like a slap on the legs) before giving them All the traffic back.. In this case all you can do really is sit tight and hope the traffic comes back. Of course as previously mentioned another option would be to get a professional SEO profile from a reputable company.

        What doesn't help anybody is the lack of direct communication with the people at Google. This has always been a problem and I suspect always will be.
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        • Profile picture of the author cooldave
          Originally Posted by helpandinfo View Post

          It certainly does seem as though the ad tag triggered Google's displeasure. However if you had been running it for a year I would've expected them to have noticed that before now.. The Manual spam action revoked message you received would seem to indicate that somebody had manually checked your site before allowing it back into the index and that they were happy with it so there is no logical reason for your dropping in traffic after that event. This is unless Google has a way of temporarily punishing sites (like a slap on the legs) before giving them All the traffic back.. In this case all you can do really is sit tight and hope the traffic comes back. Of course as previously mentioned another option would be to get a professional SEO profile from a reputable company.

          What doesn't help anybody is the lack of direct communication with the people at Google. This has always been a problem and I suspect always will be.
          From what you have heard or know, does Google punish sites after they relist them like I described above is happening to my site? Is there anything else you can think of that could be causing what I am describing?

          What is the best way to find a good professional SEO company? Thanks!

          -Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Wow, I remember visiting your site probably 10 years ago to get Playstation Cheat codes for my kids, thanks for the codes, lol.

    Looking at the site...
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  • Profile picture of the author RyanGillam
    I sent you a PM (but not in relation to this thread)

    Anyway, there was a thread a while back on GameFAQs which was attempting to get CheatCC removed from the search engines due to copyright infringement of their FAQs. Now, I know absolutely nothing about SEO and all of that jazz, however, is it possible that those people could have done something which affected your ranking?

    Ryan
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    • Profile picture of the author cooldave
      Originally Posted by RyanGillam View Post

      I sent you a PM (but not in relation to this thread)

      Anyway, there was a thread a while back on GameFAQs which was attempting to get CheatCC removed from the search engines due to copyright infringement of their FAQs. Now, I know absolutely nothing about SEO and all of that jazz, however, is it possible that those people could have done something which affected your ranking?

      Ryan
      This definitely doesn't have anything to do with it, as we only host FAQs people give us permission to host. Any time we receive a request to remove a FAQ, we remove it.
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      • Profile picture of the author cooldave
        Originally Posted by RyanGillam View Post

        I sent you a PM (but not in relation to this thread)

        Anyway, there was a thread a while back on GameFAQs which was attempting to get CheatCC removed from the search engines due to copyright infringement of their FAQs. Now, I know absolutely nothing about SEO and all of that jazz, however, is it possible that those people could have done something which affected your ranking?

        Ryan
        Originally Posted by cooldave View Post

        This definitely doesn't have anything to do with it, as we only host FAQs people give us permission to host. Any time we receive a request to remove a FAQ, we remove it.
        Additionally, GameFAQs doesn't own any of those FAQs. They are owned by the individuals who wrote the FAQs.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I'm looking at the wayback here for May 2013 & that link is javascript (search the wayback HTML for exitJunction), so what makes you think that was the problem that caused Google to take action against your site?

    Usually Google doesn't like paid plain HTML links that pass pagerank. Google shouldn't care about your javascript links, they don't pass PR.
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    • Profile picture of the author cooldave
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      I'm looking at the wayback here for May 2013 & that link is javascript (search the wayback HTML for exitJunction), so what makes you think that was the problem that caused Google to take action against your site?

      Usually Google doesn't like paid plain HTML links that pass pagerank. Google shouldn't care about your javascript links, they don't pass PR.
      The reason I am sure I was delisted because of the ExitJunction tag is because of the "A reminder about manipulative or deceptive behavior" post I found at at Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. The ExitJunction tag did exactly what the screenshot shows under that post. Once I removed that tag from my site and submitted the reconsideration request, Google relisted my site and I receive the "manual spam action revoked" message a couple days later.

      I obviously would never have had that ad tag on my site if I knew this would happen, but I had no idea I would get in trouble for using it on my site, especially since I had it on my site for over a year.
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  • Profile picture of the author jinx1221
    It seems to me that "manual spam action revoked" is a good thing, not that they changed their minds and removed you again.. your notice probably said something like this:

    Dear site owner or webmaster of http://www.
    We received a request from a site owner to reconsider http://www. for compliance with Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
    Previously the webspam team had taken manual action on your site because we believed it violated our quality guidelines. After reviewing your reconsideration request, we have revoked this manual action. It may take some time before our indexing and ranking systems are updated to reflect the new status of your site.
    Of course, there may be other issues with your site that could affect its ranking without a manual action by the webspam team. Google's computers determine the order of our search results using a series of formulas known as algorithms. We make hundreds of changes to our search algorithms each year, and we employ more than 200 different signals when ranking pages. As our algorithms change and as the web (including your site) changes, some fluctuation in ranking can happen as we make updates to present the best results to our users. If your site continues to have trouble in our search results, please see this article for help with diagnosing the issue.
    Thank you for helping us to maintain the quality of our search results.
    Sincerely,
    Google Search Quality Team


    So you were relisted, and then got the "revoked" notice a few days later, but disappeared again because you are now in the midst of a reshuffle (google dance). I don't think you have anything to worry about

    Originally Posted by yukon View Post

    Wow, I remember visiting your site probably 10 years ago to get Playstation Cheat codes for my kids, thanks for the codes, lol.
    Me too, only for N64 codes lol! Made me especially want to help!
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    • Profile picture of the author cooldave
      Originally Posted by jinx1221 View Post

      It seems to me that "manual spam action revoked" is a good thing, not that they changed their minds and removed you again.. your notice probably said something like this:

      Dear site owner or webmaster of http://www.
      We received a request from a site owner to reconsider http://www. for compliance with Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
      Previously the webspam team had taken manual action on your site because we believed it violated our quality guidelines. After reviewing your reconsideration request, we have revoked this manual action. It may take some time before our indexing and ranking systems are updated to reflect the new status of your site.
      Of course, there may be other issues with your site that could affect its ranking without a manual action by the webspam team. Google's computers determine the order of our search results using a series of formulas known as algorithms. We make hundreds of changes to our search algorithms each year, and we employ more than 200 different signals when ranking pages. As our algorithms change and as the web (including your site) changes, some fluctuation in ranking can happen as we make updates to present the best results to our users. If your site continues to have trouble in our search results, please see this article for help with diagnosing the issue.
      Thank you for helping us to maintain the quality of our search results.
      Sincerely,
      Google Search Quality Team


      So you were relisted, and then got the "revoked" notice a few days later, but disappeared again because you are now in the midst of a reshuffle (google dance). I don't think you have anything to worry about



      Me too, only for N64 codes lol! Made me especially want to help!

      I did receive that exact message you listed above, but why would I keep dropping after they relisted my site and I got that message? It doesn't seem to make any sense why I would have lost almost 50% of my traffic from Google since I was relisted a couple weeks ago.

      Is there really supposed to be a Google dance that would drop my traffic by that much after I am relisted? Do you think something else is causing the problem? If not, how much longer do you think this could go on for? How much more traffic do you think I may lose? Is there anything else you would suggest doing? Thanks!

      -Dave
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      • Profile picture of the author jinx1221
        Originally Posted by cooldave View Post

        I did receive that exact message you listed above, but why would I keep dropping after they relisted my site and I got that message? It doesn't seem to make any sense why I would have lost almost 50% of my traffic from Google since I was relisted a couple weeks ago.

        Is there really supposed to be a Google dance that would drop my traffic by that much after I am relisted? Do you think something else is causing the problem? If not, how much longer do you think this could go on for? How much more traffic do you think I may lose? Is there anything else you would suggest doing? Thanks!

        -Dave
        I didn't think about how long it's been and the gradual decline..

        Your site is huge. Was that ExitJunction tag on every page? What criteria are you asking in terms of "dropping".. that is, like, you're main homepage is dropping from the search term "playstation cheat codes"? Or specific pages are dropping, like "Skyrm cheats"?

        My guess is that, with such a huge site with so many pages, it's going to take a long time for the pages to update simply because of the size of your site. It has to figure where to put each page again.. and much of the strength of your homepage is coming from those pages, and the links to those pages as well. Once all of your pages get remixed back in where they will, your site should hopefully rise back up again.
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