Can you "repair" a site that Google dinged?

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My Google rankings for one of my keywords suddenly plummeted. I was on page 1 for years, and within three weeks I'm not even in the Top 500. Interestingly, I'm still ranked high for other keywords, so my site hasn't been completely "punished." It's just the one keyword.

A couple of years ago, I paid for SEO help, and it worked. I asked several times to be sure everything was white hat, but I honestly don't know exactly what they did. I don't know if they did something wrong back then that I'm getting hit with now or if I did something else more recently that Google doesn't like.

So, I'm wondering if there is any way to "fix" or "repair" a problem once Google has dinged you?

My Webmasters Tools show no problems and I don't have any messages from Google.
#search engine optimization #dinged #google #repair #site
  • Kielbaso,

    Are you sure there is even an issue? You said you only lost ranking for the one keyword phrase. Has it been a long time since you have done anything to rank for that phrase? If so, is it possible that other sites have simply outranked you? Also, how are you determining your average position for that phrase?

    It is possible to “fix” a site after it has been penalized but it is a lot of work. Your first obstacle is not knowing what has caused the issue. If you were in fact penalized, you need to find out why so that you can fix it. For instance if the SEO done to your site was questionable, then you need to find that out so you can attempt to undo what was done. Whether you accomplish that or not, you should then submit a reconsideration request to Google stating what happened and what you have done to fix it (it is important that you actually try to fix it on your own). Google has no sympathy for web masters who just want a second chance and have done nothing to repair what caused them to get penalized in the first place. Provide any evidence you can including evidence from the third party SEO that did the work. Did they outsource any work at all? Were they involved in activities that were questionable?

    Keep in mind that this is all a lot of time and energy on your part. If you are only loosing rankings from the one keyword, I would not worry about it too much unless you are losing major revenue as a result. Also, if you have no clear evidence that you were penalized, you may have a tough time fixing anything.

    Hope that helps,

    Shawn
  • It's worth checking for webmaster errors. It's easy to make a small mistake that causes a loss of ranking. Check it all over again with a fine tooth comb.
  • Did you do anything strange in the last few days? For example HIGH number of backlinks? Or maybe posting your website on any blog (like comments!) and use this keyword.. Moreover, which tool did you use to check your ranking? Did you do it manually?
    • [1] reply
    • I hope you are one of my strange competitors, if that's what you are worried
      about. Be very worried about those high number of backlinks. Very, very
      worried.

      Do you people really think there is some person named google going
      around dinging sites? It's all by automation, for the most part.

      People ding their own sites and blame it on google. I could go through a
      plethora of ways people ding their own sites. Change titles, h1's,
      themes, bold text, add more/take away contet, switch domains, add
      more alt text to images that mean squat, change anchor text of
      backlinking to look natural without realizing the damage, count
      "keywords" then take away/add some. The list is so crazily long...
      I can't begin to even list 1% if them.

      Google puts your site where they think at the moment it should be.
      And many times, that's YOUR fault. Google did not penalize you.

      A real penalty is a deindex. Anything else is 99.999% a shuffling of SERPs.

      ROTFLMAO! I just thought if the most common "penalty": Having
      other sites simply outrank you. People forget that.

      Paul
      • [1] reply
  • You can get your rankings where they belong but that may not be where they were.

    Google could have stopped giving you credit for poor links.

    Penalised you for poor links (you can use the link disavow tool to tell them which links to ignore)

    or just your competition has up'd their game and you need to get more links.
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    Can you "repair" a site that Google dinged?

    My Google rankings for one of my keywords suddenly plummeted. I was on page 1 for years, and within three weeks I'm not even in the Top 500. Interestingly, I'm still ranked high for other keywords, so my site hasn't been completely "punished." It's just the one keyword. A couple of years ago, I paid for SEO help, and it worked. I asked several times to be sure everything was white hat, but I honestly don't know exactly what they did. I don't know if they did something wrong back then that I'm getting hit with now or if I did something else more recently that Google doesn't like.