Google Delivers Serious Blow

[bfree74]

My company's website has taken quite a tumble since February. Where we were once ranked in the top 10 in SERPs for our main keyword we have dropped 3/4 pages back. The only changes we made for that keyterm was adding a few more keyterms and links, but we did not over saturate the page with our keyword.

Google also seems to be misreading our site in some way and we are not sure why. Google shows our link total at 140. We have more than 1500 links. Google is also showing that we only have 260 pages indexed and we should have over 10,000.

Does anyone have any advice, suggestions or comments. We have sat on this and tried to let Google sort things out, but nothing is getting better and pages continue to fall. We have been using SEO on our site for almost 2 years now and this is the first major hit Google has delivered us and we are kind of baffled.

[arius]

I am actually facing some similar daily ups and downs like yours. I am suspecting that it is happening when I try to streamline my optimization (like changing a word or two in Titles etc...). I think when the page changes a little bit, some time factor pushes down the SERPs.

So to your question, I have no reply but I can say waiting to see what is going on would be best. Since more you touch your pages, you might be digging yourself back in SERPs. Waiting at least untill Google sorts of whatever they are doing now

[schachin]

Without an URL it is hard to say - have you checked to see if your site pages have gone supplemental? We had about 500 pages go supplemental about that time and we are crawling our way back..

[davecskul]

Have you submitted a site map? Are you using the webmaster tools provided by Google to track your links? Are your links one way / relevant or are they reciprocal and sketchy?

[marketing-helpersdotcom]

It really could be for a number of reasons. SOme of your inbound links may have be recently discounted by Google.

This could have happened for a number of reasons. Most of the common reasons are duplicate content or being caught in a link farm/scheme.

Have you tried putting ?filter=0 after your search term? If your pages are showing up there they may have fallen into the supplemental results.

Duplicate content usually ends up there. Sometimes if your IBLs are all the same text in the anchor text then Google will see those links as the same thing and only count 1 instead of 10,000.

[bjbtexas]

How long until someone sues based on this type of evidence claiming Google manipulates the organic SERPs to the benefit of Adwords? Charging Google is purposefully inflating Adwords value by making organic SERPs wildly volatile.

[jazyfko]

Hi bfree74. I believe I am in a similar situation. Google does not see many of my incoming links therefore my ranking fell. I produce websites and my clients allow me to include "Website Production by ..." in their footers. I wonder if Google just figures that this kind of links are less valuable or even "spammy" than the natural links. I dont think it is spammy, but I agree that it is not very natural.

I use Marketleap online Link Popularity Check. On MSN I had 680+ incoming links a month ago. Now I show 0. :(

At least Google sees my links at a consitent low number of whopping 5. I know I have many more out there.

Would it be possible to see your URL?

[marketing-helpersdotcom]

As suggested above, you should install Google site maps on your Web site. Having a G site map will allow you to see a better idea of the links Google knows about.

Using the LINK: operator does not show the true picture of what Google knows about. Those are the "more relevant" pages that link to you.

[ranbik2]

I'm experiencing the same blow from google. I had top serp for top keywords, and now it's completely gone...

However, all my backlinks and number of pages seems to be counted right, I made some changes to my hompage content, added few inbound links but that's all.

It happened to me twice in the past, and it was all back in place (even better placement) after 7-9 days.

site is up for over 6 years... and I have 4-5 years experience with seo.

So far I can't pinpoint to a specific cause - probably many.

Hope this is the case now too....
Any suggestions ?

[jackit_chick]

This may be a no brainer to some but new to others. on google I use 3 different ways to check my links.

Links: http://www.yourwebsite.com
Links: www.yourwebsite.com
Links: yourwebsite.com

But I agree, I check these all often and they range from just a few hundred to over a thousand then back down again. It's very frustrating.

Hope I helped =D

[ranbik2]

Originally Posted by marketing-helpersdotcom

It really could be for a number of reasons. SOme of your inbound links may have be recently discounted by Google.

This could have happened for a number of reasons. Most of the common reasons are duplicate content or being caught in a link farm/scheme.

Have you tried putting ?filter=0 after your search term? If your pages are showing up there they may have fallen into the supplemental results.

Duplicate content usually ends up there. Sometimes if your IBLs are all the same text in the anchor text then Google will see those links as the same thing and only count 1 instead of 10,000.

is there a way to identify a discounted link ?
what is the ?filter=0 where do you put that ?

[marketing-helpersdotcom]

Originally Posted by ranbik2

is there a way to identify a discounted link ?
what is the ?filter=0 where do you put that ?

- Not really you can only see if a page fell into the supplementals. If it did the only way out is to build quality IBLs to that page.

- It is &filter=0 Do a Google search and then add that to the end of the URL in your address bar. That will show you the supplemental results, if any.

[Fitz]

Originally Posted by marketing-helpersdotcom

Some of your inbound links may have be recently discounted by Google.

I'd like to spell that out a bit more if I may. I'm pretty sure that I've read widely about a fairly major Google algo update in Jan (or was it Feb?!) 2007 which - kind of out of the blue although widely forecast as something which was likely to happen eventually - finally discounted ** reciprocal ** links. So, if you have previously relied on these (and I believe they would have worked historically) you may now find that you are only truly benefitting from the much fewer * non-reciprocated * links (which Google identifies easily), particularly those of them which are on-topic and are not spammy.

B.t.w., I'd also like a bit more info on the ?filter=0 operator if possible please .... anyone?

[marketing-helpersdotcom]

Originally Posted by Fitz

B.t.w., I'd also like a bit more info on the ?filter=0 operator if possible please .... anyone?

What do you want to know?

[Fitz]

Originally Posted by marketing-helpersdotcom

What do you want to know?

Thanks Marketing-helpersdotcom...
This operator is totally new to me (and others, by the looks of some of the posts). I need an 'idiot guide' probably (!) so excuse me if I'm guessing this all wrong.... From what you've said, I'm assuming that, to find results only from supplementary results e.g. for the phrase 'blue widgets' I'd type something like


'blue widgets'?filter=0

(with the speech marks for the complete phrase). I'm wondering whether there should be a gap before the ? and also whether there are other 'versions' of that operator (e.g. what would ?filter=1 mean... show all results or show results only in the main index?). Please excuse my ignorance on this one... every now and again someone throws something in which completely knocks me off my chair, and you just did it! Many thanks.

[ranbik2]

Originally Posted by Fitz

I'd like to spell that out a bit more if I may. I'm pretty sure that I've read widely about a fairly major Google algo update in Jan (or was it Feb?!) 2007 which - kind of out of the blue although widely forecast as something which was likely to happen eventually - finally discounted ** reciprocal ** links. So, if you have previously relied on these (and I believe they would have worked historically) you may now find that you are only truly benefitting from the much fewer * non-reciprocated * links (which Google identifies easily), particularly those of them which are on-topic and are not spammy.

B.t.w., I'd also like a bit more info on the ?filter=0 operator if possible please .... anyone?

tried many keyword, not sure abou that...
can you show me an example of query url with &filter=0 and point to a supplemental ?

How do I know if I see one ?

What if I see one in the top 10 for a keyword ? all I can see is that some sites has a second page under the mail page is that what you mean ?

[marketing-helpersdotcom]

Originally Posted by ranbik2

tried many keyword, not sure abou that...
can you show me an example of query url with &filter=0 and point to a supplemental ?

How do I know if I see one ?

What if I see one in the top 10 for a keyword ? all I can see is that some sites has a second page under the mail page is that what you mean ?

Yes, that's all it is, it doesn't filter out the supplemental pages. If you "fall into the supplemental" you should still have at least 1 ranking in the SERPs, all the other URLs for your site go there...

[jonpoh]

I tried the ?filter=0 thing and all I get is results with the word "filter" and the number "0" in them.

For example:
I searched deck fasteners?filter=0

and I got a result that said "Make sure that filter 0-rings.........underwater lights, deck lights


Please explain more how to use this tool.

[marketing-helpersdotcom]

Originally Posted by jonpoh

I tried the ?filter=0 thing and all I get is results with the word "filter" and the number "0" in them.

For example:
I searched deck fasteners?filter=0

and I got a result that said "Make sure that filter 0-rings.........underwater lights, deck lights


Please explain more how to use this tool.

1. Enter your search term on Google as normal

2. Add &filter=0 to the URL in the address bar of your Web browser

DO NOT use &filter=0 in ther search box!

DO NOT use a ? use a &

[LinksAndTraffic]

Originally Posted by bfree74

My company's website has taken quite a tumble since February. Where we were once ranked in the top 10 in SERPs for our main keyword we have dropped 3/4 pages back. The only changes we made for that keyterm was adding a few more keyterms and links, but we did not over saturate the page with our keyword.

Google also seems to be misreading our site in some way and we are not sure why. Google shows our link total at 140. We have more than 1500 links. Google is also showing that we only have 260 pages indexed and we should have over 10,000.

Does anyone have any advice, suggestions or comments. We have sat on this and tried to let Google sort things out, but nothing is getting better and pages continue to fall. We have been using SEO on our site for almost 2 years now and this is the first major hit Google has delivered us and we are kind of baffled.

The site: command at google is not always accurate. If you sign up to the google webmaster area and validate your website with them, they will show you a ton of info you cannot get from the public side of google. Important to this discussion, you will be able to see how many pages google actually sees on your domain. Just because the site: command shows 260 pages on your site does not mean that google only sees 260 pages on your site.

Most of the time when I see a discussion like this, everyone is asking the exact same question: What did "I" do wrong?

One poster said that some of your inbound links may have dropped in value. That might be a part of the puzzle.

The real answer to your question is a matter of a few factors:

1) What did my inbound links do? Did those pages disappear? Did the webmaster takes my links off his pages? Did the webmaster on that other site not pay his hosting bill, so the site was offline when google bot last came to visit? Did google change the value attributed to those urls where my links were listed?

2) Did my competitor(s) make some major change to their website(s) or their linking to help lift their site above mine?

3) What has google changed about their algorithm that triggered a softer response towards my own website? If the answer to this question is nothing, then the answer probably lies in the first two questions.

In summation, my main point is that major swings in the placement of your website in the serps can often be attributed to what your competition has done more than what you have done.

[tony]

Without a link to your site it is hard to tell the exact problem.

One thing I noticed about backlinks (google webmaster)is they show "blog backlinks" multiple times from the same site, different articles, which I feel gives a misleading total.

Question...
Is your site set up in themes?
Have you factored in LSI?
Are your themes bleeding?
Do you have good silo structure?