SEO Local #1 on G B Y, but vanished from Google

by Geek3
8 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hello,

I have a mystery that I'm trying to get to the bottom of.

Our site was #1 on Google, Yahoo and Bing for years for our local keyword. Until a few months ago, our site on Google vanished.

Here is what I've found:
- all pages visible when I site search "site:****3.com" (you can replace "****3" with my username)
- no manual action on webmaster tools
- This occurred around September 2013
- Site still #1 in Yahoo & Bing
- A RBL lookup found my web server IP was blacklisted (not my site IP, just the hostgator reseller server IP)
- when I search main keyword (Gainesville Computer repair), I don't see home page at all, even past page 20. I may see some subpages, but only after page 15 or so


Something else that could be entirely irrelevant. We've been using a UPS store for our business address, since we have a box there. UPS always said we could use their address for a business address. Google in 2011 took our Google Places site down without any reason, though it was still showing in the admin panel. Our site was never interrupted from the #1 position in Google SERP. It wasn't until Sept2013 that I found it was all because they didn't like the business address. I fixed the address and Google support resurrected the site... but around the same time that's when this all happened.

Also, I've been using services for the last 5 years from trafficplanet and warrior (link building, blog writing, etc..). I know this is likely the reason, but I can't explain why no manual action is showing in my WMT.

I'd appreciate any feedback. I'd even be willing to hire help, but don't know where to start. Thanks in advance.
#google #local #seo #vanished
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Originally Posted by Geek3 View Post

    Also, I've been using services for the last 5 years from trafficplanet and warrior (link building, blog writing, etc..). I know this is likely the reason, but I can't explain why no manual action is showing in my WMT.
    If you were using low quality link services (which pretty much every single one of them on this forum are), then you probably got caught in the Penguin filter. It's not manual action taken against the site. It is an algorithmic penalty.
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    • Profile picture of the author Geek3
      I think you all are right. Are there any measures I can start doing to reverse this? Perhaps even a service I could buy to help do this for me? Thanks in advance!
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      • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
        Originally Posted by Geek3 View Post

        I think you all are right. Are there any measures I can start doing to reverse this? Perhaps even a service I could buy to help do this for me? Thanks in advance!
        Took a peek at your link profile. Majestic SEO gives you fairly low Flow Metrics scores for the number of links you have. And there seems to be at least some obviously low-quality blog comment links. Whatever you've been doing in this space you need to stop.

        Have you had spam or even porn infestation on your forum recently? Not entirely sure about that, but there's some pretty weird backlinks.

        First you need to check your backlink profile. I'd try either Ahrefhs or Majestic SEO, but Google Webmaster Tools should help too. Learn to spot a weak link. Read something about the disavow tool and see if it could work in your case.
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        Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
        Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

        What's your excuse?
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        • Profile picture of the author Geek3
          Thanks. Yes, we stopped about a while or so ago. I've been reading a lot about the disavow tool and thinking about hiring a service to help me with that. I found a site called "disavow this" that I asked to help me spot a weak link. I'm just very busy with work, overwhelmed and embarrassed a bit with all of this, so trying to gather a little help.

          WMT says I have 3,500 links. Over 1,000 of those are from a couple forum websites where I made legitimate comments and my link was in signatures. I removed the links last night thinking that would be a small step in the right direction. So that leaves 2,500. I don't want to just clean house and kill all links because I don't want to hurt my Yahoo & Bing positions (currently #1). Like you said, I'll need to learn to spot a weak link.
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          • Profile picture of the author yukon
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Geek3 View Post

            Over 1,000 of those are from a couple forum websites where I made legitimate comments and my link was in signatures.
            I haven't looked at your links but that's most likely not a problem. I have a few thousand same niche forum links that I've had for years, my pages still rank. The forum links I have are targeting direct traffic & 100% legit comments. There's a huge difference between relevant & spam links.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnben1444
    In most cases, if your site disappear from Google and still ranks well on Yahoo/Bing then you may have been slapped by Google penalty.

    Like Mike said, it's most likely a algo crackdown and not manual penalty.

    You will need to choose your backlink source very carefully.
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  • Profile picture of the author submitinme
    In addition to removing badlinks to rank for local keywords/serps NAP consistency is a must. Found inconsistent information
    Business Name
    Geek 3 Inc.
    Geek 3 PC & Mac Repair
    Geek 3 Computer Repair
    Phone No
    (352) 872-5333
    (352) 328-3333
    Another red flag is gainesvilleweddingvideo .com has same address/suiteno

    So remove/disavow bad links, make consistent citations, this should bring back lost traffic/rankings
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    • Profile picture of the author Geek3
      submitin, thanks. Yes, our phone number changed from the 872 to the 328 since the number better matched our business name. I'll try to update the number wherever I can find it. And yes, the wedding site is using the same address, but that's no big deal to remove.
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