13 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
13 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Was I hit by Panda?

by adamcm
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi all,

I have a few sites that were ranking somewhat well and have noticed huge traffic drops of the last little while. Based on the different Panda roll-outs I feel that it could be it, but find it strange that some occurred at different times.

Site #1 - went down to its current low levels from June 21st to June 26th
site #2 - Went down to its current level from June 27th to July 1st, went up a bit around July 10th and went down again around July 17th.
Site #3 - Went down around July 28th and has stayed low ever since

This seems to coincide with the Panda refreshes but I would have thought Site #1 and Site #2 would go down around the same time?

The problem for me as well is I don't know how I was hit by Panda. I have no duplicate content on any of the sites. It was all written by me and should not have any errors.

What else am I missing and should look for on these sites?

Thanks!
#hit #panda
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Originally Posted by adamcm View Post

    The problem for me as well is I don't know how I was hit by Panda. I have no duplicate content on any of the sites. It was all written by me and should not have any errors.

    What else am I missing and should look for on these sites?

    Thanks!
    What makes you think no duplicate content and all is written by
    you with no errors matters? Those things don't amount to
    a hill of beans.

    The internet is dynamic. It changes. Thousands of sites come
    and go on a daily basis. Give google a reason to love your
    site.

    By those two statements above, I'd say you are missing a lot.
    Like, um, the stuff that actually works. But then, no matter
    what you do, there are no guarantees. Too many people seem
    to be following some magical list, I did, I have, so why...

    Hard work, site improvement, linkbait, patience, forgettting
    google, just to name a few. Create something valuable
    for web surfers instead of some list that google could care
    less about.

    Paul
    Signature

    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6823771].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author adamcm
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      What makes you think no duplicate content and all is written by
      you with no errors matters? Those things don't amount to
      a hill of beans.

      The internet is dynamic. It changes. Thousands of sites come
      and go on a daily basis. Give google a reason to love your
      site.

      By those two statements above, I'd say you are missing a lot.
      Like, um, the stuff that actually works. But then, no matter
      what you do, there are no guarantees. Too many people seem
      to be following some magical list, I did, I have, so why...

      Hard work, site improvement, linkbait, patience, forgettting
      google, just to name a few. Create something valuable
      for web surfers instead of some list that google could care
      less about.

      Paul
      From reading around it seems that those were a couple of factors that different websites were mentioning as possible Panda issues. The sites were review sites and to me they provided value, were not regurgitated information from the product site, etc. I guess I just missed the boat with them, but figuring out where I went wrong isn't easy. Plus I don't even know if it is Panda to begin with?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6823860].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author kiliki
    Some of those panda updates and refreshes dealt with link scheming. Check your backlinks and your inlinks to make sure its not out of balance with too many textlinks being all the same. I heard some people who had all original content got scraped and it looked they got dinged as the being the one who scraped content.

    Do you have any ads on your site that is not google adsense. Try taking them down for a bit to see if your site jumps up. Conspiracy theorists in the seo world claim that Google updates are focusing andgenerating adsense revenue for google, but google will never admit it. They hide the real goal by telling the world its content issues or link problems.

    I don't know what to believe, but I test everything I read about what worked for others and make sure you have all your basic seo good practices done.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824011].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author adamcm
      Originally Posted by kiliki View Post

      Some of those panda updates and refreshes dealt with link scheming. Check your backlinks and your inlinks to make sure its not out of balance with too many textlinks being all the same. I heard some people who had all original content got scraped and it looked they got dinged as the being the one who scraped content.

      Do you have any ads on your site that is not google adsense. Try taking them down for a bit to see if your site jumps up. Conspiracy theorists in the seo world claim that Google updates are focusing andgenerating adsense revenue for google, but google will never admit it. They hide the real goal by telling the world its content issues or link problems.

      I don't know what to believe, but I test everything I read about what worked for others and make sure you have all your basic seo good practices done.

      I thought Penguin dealt with link issues? And if i'm not mistaken Penguin came and went much earlier than these sites went down. But maybe I am wrong. Another site I have, same format, similar niche, same theme, etc escaped all Panda/Penguin items and ranks perfectly fine.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824176].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author kiliki
        Originally Posted by adamcm View Post

        I thought Penguin dealt with link issues? And if i'm not mistaken Penguin came and went much earlier than these sites went down. But maybe I am wrong. Another site I have, same format, similar niche, same theme, etc escaped all Panda/Penguin items and ranks perfectly fine.
        Sorry, I should have reference the timeline link where I looked to see if there was anything that could tell what might have affected you. I went to Google Algorithm Change History | SEOmoz to look into the time frames you were affected. The only thing I could tell theorize was that either you were one of the 1% affected during the refreshes that were done, or that an earlier update on June 7th called the May39Pack update might have dinged you when a refresh was done. Are you able to see your webmaster tools chart that shows backlinks detected around that time or just before the updates took affect? I once saw a spike in my backlinks that increased 6,000+ seemingly overnight because a few sites linked to us in their footer. This kind of stuff can obviously have a negative affect, and perhaps you were victim to it.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824312].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author adamcm
          Hmmm I will look into it. I checked my Webmaster Tools, and the first thing that struck me as weird is that I have links pointing to a domain I have registered, added in my cpanl using the add-on domain feature, and have found many links pointing to it.

          The format of the URL in my WMT is: http://mysitename.net/myothersitename.com/

          People are linking to http://myothersitename.com on pages like article directories and blog networks it seems.

          Does that make any sense?
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824588].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author johnben1444
    Panda is mainly targeted at crap content, are you sure you were hit by panda? If yes fix your content and flee from plagiarism.
    Signature
    Grow your social media account, Spotify Streams, YT Views & IG Followers & More
    Software & Mobile APP Developer
    Buy Spotify, Facebook Bot & IG M/S Method
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824635].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author adamcm
      Originally Posted by johnben1444 View Post

      Panda is mainly targeted at crap content, are you sure you were hit by panda? If yes fix your content and flee from plagiarism.
      As I mentioned above, all of my sites passed copyscape. I checked each internal page as well. The entire sites are unique. The timing is what led me to believe it was Panda.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824796].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Nelapsi
        Originally Posted by adamcm View Post

        As I mentioned above, all of my sites passed copyscape. I checked each internal page as well. The entire sites are unique. The timing is what led me to believe it was Panda.
        Copyscape does not mean it isn't crap, it of sites passed that and yet when the updates rolled around where pounded into oblivion.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824851].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author adamcm
          Originally Posted by Nelapsi View Post

          Copyscape does not mean it isn't crap, it of sites passed that and yet when the updates rolled around where pounded into oblivion.
          So what other signals should one be looking for? I've tried to write my content so it is natural so i'm not sure how I would have triggered the crap content filter LOL. Am I professional writer? Nope. But there is far worse content out there ranking.
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6824888].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author kiliki
    There's a friend I know that ran into similar issues of massive traffic drop on a very highly ranked site in a super competitive market. A few of us thought it was Panda or Penguin slaps, but we really couldn't pinpoint the exact reasoning, THEN someone (another friend) took a deep look into their sitemap xml file and noticed it was a mess and theorized that it was really hurting the ranking. Whatever they were using that updated the sitemap file was either broken or just a bad program. They're rebuilding the sitemap file today and we won't know the result till later. This site still adds 2-4 pages of quality original content for its industry, but has dropped from page 1 to page 4 in the first quarter of this year.

    Have you checked your sitemap file?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6844430].message }}

Trending Topics