Why traffic to my link has dropped suddenly?

[PeterAlexLeigh]

If you have been subjected to malicious link building towards your site, then most of the time it shouldn't make any difference. As long as you have a good link profile to start with (from reputable trustworthy sources) then adding a load of spammy links shouldn't hurt you. Google recognise that this sort of thing can happen and therefore only normally penalise people who have a 100% spammy link profile.

However, if you feel that your site is affected by this and you have ruled out other things, including any low quality pages you may have on your own site which are bringing it down, I would do the following;

1. Try and get these links removed. Contact the site owners involved and ask for removal

2. File a reconsideration request to google explaining what has happened. Make sure you try and get rid of thse links first and tell google you've done your best to get them removed from linking to your site.

Make sure everything is as legitimate as you can before doing this and all being well, you'll be back on top.

[ClaireH-184886]

hi i think this has also happened to my site, can you explain what you mean by spammy links and also about getting links removed.

I had a site http://www.cardiffhypnotherapy.com which vanished from the first page and we also had a good keyword for that site gastric band hypnotherapy and that keyword came on the first page but now that has vanished.

One of the problems we have is, we have a compeditor who has been playing silly games and trying to make problems for our site, and since they started this our traffic has been reduced by about 80% and we are not sure how they are doing what they are doing.

[irvingw]

I think you really need to take a strong look at your own site. You are using some known spam techniques on your pages and it wouldn't surprise me that Google is finally penalizing you for trying to game them. Also, you may be trying too hard to fit  your keyphrase on the page and the bot may feel that this is a spam technique. For starters, I would get rid of this entire footer:

We offer with Free Advice, Free Consultations and a full guarantee - Weight Loss Hypnotherapy, NLP Courses, Gastric Band Hypnosis, Life Coaching, Business Coaching, Fear of Flying, Stage Fright, Irritable Bowel Syndrome Therapy, Anger Management Therapy, Hypno Bands, Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy, Phobia Therapy, Hypno Gastric Band with full guarantee in Cardiff and the following areas: Aberaeron, Aberavon, Aberbargoed, Abercarn, Aberdare, Abergavenny, Abergele, Abertillery, Aberystwyth, Amlwch, Ammanford, Bala, Bangor, Bargoed, Barmouth, Barry, Beaumaris, Bethesda, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Blaenavon, Blackwood, Blaina, Brecon, Bridgend, Briton Ferry, Brynmawr, Buckley, Builth Wells, Burry Port, Caernarfon, Caerphilly, Caerwys, Caldicot, <a title="Cardiff Hypnotherapy">Cardiff</a>, Cardigan, Carmarthen, Chepstow, Chirk, Cilgerran, Colwyn Bay, Connah's Quay, Conwy, Corwen, Cowbridge, Criccieth, Crickhowell, Crumlin, Cwmbran, Denbigh, Dolgellau, Ebbw Vale, Ewloe, Fishguard, Flint, Ferndale, Glynneath, Goodwick, Gorseinon, Harlech, Haverfordwest, Hay-on-Wye, Holyhead, Holywell, Kidwelly, Knighton, Lampeter, Laugharne, Llandeilo, Llandovery, Llandrindod Wells, Llandudno, Llandudno Junction, Llandysul, Llanelli, Llanfair Caereinion, Llanfairfechan, Llanfyllin, Llangefni, Llangollen, Llanidloes, Llanrwst, Llantrisant, Llantwit Major, Llanwrtyd Wells, Llanybydder, Loughor, Llanfair, Machynlleth, Maesteg, Menai Bridge, Merthyr Tydfil, Milford Haven, Mold, Monmouth, Montgomery, Mountain Ash Mochdre, Narberth, Neath, Nefyn, Newbridge, Newcastle Emlyn, Newport, Newport (Pembrokeshire), New Quay, Newtown, Neyland, Old Colwyn, Pembroke, Pembroke Dock, Penarth, Pencoed, Penmaenmawr, Pontardawe, Pontypool, Pontypridd, Porth, Porthcawl, Porthmadog, Port Talbot, Prestatyn, Presteigne, Pwllheli, Queensferry, Rhayader, Rhuddlan, Rhyl, Rhymney, Ruthin, Risca, St Asaph, St Clears, St David's, Saltney, Shotton, Swansea, Talgarth, Templeton, Tenby, Tondu, Tonypandy, Towyn, Tredegar, Treharris, Tregaron, Tywyn, Usk, Welshpool, Whitland, Wrexham, Ystradgynlais, Ystrad Mynach,We offer our Trance Band Hypno Band all over the UK including: London Hypno Band, Birmingham Hypno Band, Leeds Hypno Band, Glasgow Hypno Band, Sheffield Gastric Band Hypnotherapy, Bradford Hypno Band, Edinburgh Hypno Band, Liverpool Hypnosis Gastric Band, Manchester Gastric Band Hypnosis, Bristol Gastric Band Hypnotherapy, Wakefield Virtual Gastric Band, Cardiff Hypno Band, Coventry Hypnosis Gastric Band, Nottingham Gastric Hypnotherapy Band, Leicester Hypno Band, Sunderland Hypno Band, Belfast Hypno Band, Newcastle upon Tyne Hypnotherapy Gastric Band, Brighton Hypno Band, Hull Hypnosis Gastric Band, Plymouth Gastric Band, Stoke-on-Trent Weight Loss Gastric band, Wolverhampton Virtual Gastric Band, Derby Hypnosis Weight Loss Band, Swansea Hypno Band, Southampton Hypnosis Band, Salford Gastric Hypno Band, Aberdeen Hypno Band, Westminster Gastric Band Hypnosis, Portsmouth Gastric Hypno Band, York Hypnotherapy Gastric Band, Peterborough gastric band hypnosis, Dundee weight loss system, Lancaster gastric band hypnotherapy, Oxford, Newport, Preston, St Albans, Norwich, Chester, Cambridge, Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Lisburn, Chichester, Winchester, Londonderry, Carlisle, Worcester, Bath, Durham, Lincoln, Hereford, Armagh, Inverness, Stirling, Canterbury, Lichfield, Newry, Ripon, Bangor, Truro,  Ely, Wells, St Davids

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Spammy links include things such as link directories, link farms and generally any domain that appears to be a directory. There are other forms of spam link, but you generally have to look at your links and make a judgement call on whether a site linking to you looks spammy or not (not all directories are spammy, so you need to make a judgement call on this as well).

One measure I use is how many links a domain has going into it vs. the amount of domains these come from. If the number of links is many, many times higher then it could be a dubious site.

Regarding your cardiffhyno site, Vitalscom is correct in his advice, it wouldn't surprise me if a google algorithm has picked up on things like your footer and devalued the site.

[RobertFisher]

Well put by Vitalscom. He went to the site, looked it over, and diagnosed the problem. This is just overkill with keywords, etc. Follow the advice given, make the content readable, etc. for example: http://www.cardiffhypnotherapy.com/Anger-Management-Therapy.html

In the first paragraph there are two sentences with three internal links (anger management therapy appears twice, anger management classes once) back to the same page where the links are all for the purpose of stuffing keywords/links into the paragraph. In the first three sentences you say the same phrase five times and the titles before and after those three sentences are also Anger Management Therapy.

Here is what a response to this question would look like using the same methodology of writing:

SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions

SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions about the questions you have regarding SEO because SEOmoz Contributros Answer Questions to help you. If you have questions about SEO, SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions quickly and efficiently.

SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions if you Have Questions.

OK, would you really want to read that????? Think about it. Content really is king. Content really is king. Content really is king..... Just kidding there

Good Luck, Good Question,

[KeriMorgret]

Quick note to the reader that this is answering a comment from another answer, not the original poster's question (though a great answer).

[KeriMorgret]

Have you checked your Google Webmaster Tools account for any messages from Google that are warning you of anything? That's the next step that I would take.

[KeriMorgret]

Diane, can you ask this in a separate thread please so we can move the answers to that question? It's a little confusing to the reader right now when the original question is about an email site and the first answer is about a hypnotherapy site. =]

[ShoutOut]

yeah i have checked , there is no message there

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Santosh - Check out this blog post regarding a link profile tool - It may help you track down your 'bad' links

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-profile-tool-to-discover-linking-activity

[RobertFisher]

Thanks Keri,

I caught this later and should have edited. As to the original though.....how many times can you say rediffMail......

To me, this type of content - and this one by using instructions does it better than most - with the constant keyword repetition is just a poor way to try and gain ranking.

[Dr-Pete]

Are there specific keywords you were ranking on that drove traffic to this page. I don't see that this page has many direct links, and it's not optimized for any popular terms, so I'm surprised that login form was getting much direct traffic.

Is it possible your internal link architecture changed? Maybe you're pulling a ton of search traffic to the home-page, but it's not getting pulled through to the deeper page now?

I'm also a bit confused, because Rediff.com is an outside site service. If you can explain what you were ranking for and dig into the specifics, that would certainly help.

It also appears that you had some pretty strong social signals to that page. It's possible that those gave you a strong short-term rankings boost, but that it faded over time. The social signals aren't as long-lasting as permanent links.