pr 3to 0 and rank gone

by sydneycraig

Posted: 11 years ago 22 replies

trying to figure out why Freelance web designer Sydney - Craig Longmuir. got such a beating in google!?

then i realised i was advised to direct all traffic to my root (as otherwise my links were being spread over 4 'home' pages...

so i added a htaccess file with

### re-direct index.php to root / ###
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*\/index\.php\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(.*)index\.php$ /$1 [R=301,L]

could this be it??!! and if so can i just upload a new blank htaccess file??

i can see anything else that would have caused me to crash so hard...page 1 for "web designer sydney" and "freelance web designer sydney" for years before....

help me pleassssseeeeee!!! thanks all

#3to #rank

UMS 11 years ago

Your homepage (with and without index.php) is still a PR3.
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

ps i updated this file on the 2012-08-22 11:48:16

and i think my google placement went within a week after...

hmmm think i answered my own question! if this is the cause can i just upload the new blank htaccess file or do i need to do something to reverse the issue?!

thanks and looking forward to getting my place in google back
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coolkaboodle
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- sydneycraig 11 years ago
  
  so any tips on the htaccess thing - was it this? have i messed it all up forever?!!!
  
  business depends on this so any tips moooooost welcome
  
  thanks
  
  Thanks
  
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  coolkaboodle
  
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

nobidy know about conicle urls and seo link?!
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coolkaboodle
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ThatAblaze 11 years ago

As you said, you kind of answered your own question. Undo the change immediately, if that is the cause it should return to normal within a month.

As to your question about whether this is a known no-no, it isn't. Probably some quirk of the google crawler code. Only the people at Google are ever likely to know why this would mess with the crawlers. However, you have a pretty good indication that it does, so don't do that.
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InitialEffort 11 years ago

I'm still seeing PR3.
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jansee 11 years ago

PR3 now. not 0
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

but still no rank...a google groups thred suggested that the conicle URL would not make an impact and is best to reinstate that code, which i have...

i have also made the site less spammy as suggested also. less keyword dropping in the code, url's and copy

maby i just need to leave it a little longer and see?? a month was suggested above
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matheusgrafix 11 years ago

Google doesn't like redirects. I did a permanent once and my PR decreased by 1.
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- latestnewsheadline Banned 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by matheusgrafix
  
  Google doesn't like redirects. I did a permanent once and my PR decreased by 1.
  
  I also used redirections, and my PR decreased from 4 to 2. Sad.
  
  Thanks
  
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

i thouht thats what they recommend?!
cant find now but sure have seen it on google before?!
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MikeFriedman 11 years ago

Whatever you were using to check your PR may have just not been working at the time. Especially if you have a toolbar installed on your browser and are doing a lot of browsing. Google may give you a temporary block for so many PR inquiries.
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

ok pr 3 or 0 still no ranking which is the problem!
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coolkaboodle
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lucasbowen 11 years ago

Hi - sorry saw this only now.
Checked your site. Nice design - but I'm concerned about the footer links. Have you always had these? Didn't look much into it but my overall impression is that after P&P - footer links are a no no. Check it out. This is one place to start.
Google Penguin question re: footer links | SEOmoz Q&A

Checked your position of one of your two KWs ""web designer sydney" - found you on pg 18 so still real bad (unless it's been worse of course).

Checking ahref - my opinion - your BL volume seems ok (depends on the KWs you are targeting of course) but you are spread thin - only 75 referring domains!

Good luck to you!
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

ok, so next step is to edit/remove some footer links...

1 blog has a sitewide link "web design by craiglongmuir.com" --- this i will remove the link altogether.

the others are smaller sites (5-20) pages so for these i will change anchor text or remove links...maby 1/2 and 1/2
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Shout Out Digital 11 years ago

Hi sydneycraig, The 301 redirect won't be the cause of this, we did this for many of our clients and not had a problem plus it is a Search Engine guideline to have one specific homepage. I would assume that you got hit by a crawl which penalised some backlinking methods.

Many web designers I know and even some supposedly SEO professionals use their clients websites as a backlink tool, so what they do is put a sitewide footer link in their clients websites. I am not sure if you have done this but if you have then I advise removing site wide links and just change it to only show on one page. This will clear some possible penalties.

Good Luck and I hope you get back up there
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- sydneycraig 11 years ago
  
  hey
  
  thanks. yes i had read this elsewhere that sitewide footer links are no good....i have deleted all the sitewide links (and made homepage only where i can) editing the footer.php in wordpress file is sitewide, so i just make non linking text designed by craiglongmuir.com
  
  lets see how this works over the next few weeks!
  
  thanks
  
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

and yes, "freelance web designer sydney" shows me on the bottom of page 18 (down from 1st on page 1!!) ...

and the page indexed on page 18 is the contact page (the one before i changed it a few days ago to a less spammy URL) so hopefully still a few changes to be recognised....waiting with crossed fingers
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stevejhon1 11 years ago

Its May Be Due To Update In Google Algorithm ( Panda & Penguin ). And Your Website May Hit By This Update.
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stevenukas 11 years ago

PR does not mean you must be be getting any kind of rankings. And out of curiosity: How does PR can affect your business ?
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- sydneycraig 11 years ago
  
  with regard to the sitewide links as mentioned above...i have read this before that they are bad but.....
  
  "freelance web designer sydney" brings up Freelance Web Designer Sydney | Website Design & Web Design as number 1....most of his links are sitewide footer links using keywords
  
  <a href="http://www.deniskoo.com.au" target="_blank" title="Web Design by Denis Koo">Web Design</a> by <a href="http://www.deniskoo.com.au" target="_blank" title="Web Design by Denis Koo">Denis Koo</a>
  
  so sitewide links dont seem to be effecting him?! any ideas?
  
  Thanks
  
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  coolkaboodle
  
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sydneycraig 11 years ago

still no change

thinking i may need to start from fresh??!!
a new domain?
or do i just need to wait a bit longer???

sooooo annoying!
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