Lost Google rankings for the main keywords

[VazMamnya]

Hello everybody,

I love seomoz and was enjoying all the benefits it has, was reading Q&A and implementing new marketing strategies for my website.

I would really appreciate if anyone could explain my situation. The website, to which I devoted last 12 months of my time, was suddenly dropped from it's main keywords to nowhere 2 days ago, it does not look like a "dance" because some of my competitors lost their rankings too. I think its a penalty.

The site http://goo.gl/3VTMq is almost 2 years old, of the highest quality content. I've been adding content slowly over 24 months, building backlinks slowly, the rankings also were going up slowly.

Here are some of the keywords I've been ranking for: car insurance companies - 12, best auto insurance companies - 1, top car insurance companies 1, cheap auto insurance - 16, low cost auto insurance 4,lowest auto insurance - 2, and many more...

According to seomoz, I have no major problems with on-site seo, I have low bounce rate, high pages/visit and high time on site.

There is only one left - incoming backlinks. Google says that it just can't hurt you, but I think this is the only explanation of my problem. My backlinks consist of everything - from high quality contextual backlinks, to lower quality comment backlinks. I used Press Release services too..

This problem is like a nail in my head, I look forward to hearing your response.

Thanks in advance,

Vaz

[Lantec]

Can’t really give you much back without more information but I would finality try and stay  clear from linking with low PR sites and concentrate on higher quality websites.

[VazMamnya]

Thanks.

What type of additional information?

[Aeronet]

I watched your code, maybe you're victim of a hack because there are several spammy links hidden in your page.

Check your wordpress plugins, watch on your ftp in your includes if one has been modified recently, and when it's corrected ask for a  reconsideration in Google webmaster Tools so Google can watch if the problem is gone and re-rank your website.

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[VazMamnya]

Thanks Aeronet a lot, I have never thought about this!

It would be great if seomoz ads such ability - to check sites content for suspicious links.

How do you manage to stay safe from hackers? I have latest WordPress & all plugins updated.

[Aeronet]

You can find many articles on how to secure more your wordpress (for example http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/11-quick-tips-securing-your-wordpress-site/ ).

It could come from the code of your theme, if you download it on a shady wp theme website, it comes with a malicious code in your footer (base64 encode so it doesn't look suspicious).

And as your SEO in general, try to use the H1 on your homepage for SEO and not only for the visual style

[VazMamnya]

I will do my best...

This theme is custom, someone accessed it and changed footer file.

Thanks again, will update thread after reply from Google.

[VazMamnya]

Any tips on filling reconsideration request?

[Aeronet]

You have to verify that you're the owner through webmaster tools (if that's not done yet ^^), and then you can follow the link here : http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35843

Just explain that your website has been hacked, but be sure that the problem is fixed before asking them to reconsiderate.

[VazMamnya]

Hey Aeronet,

The spam backlinks was an issue but the main reason in my case can be a major Google Algo Update. I see that my competitors lost their ranks too, the index is full of "new" spammy affiliate websites with almost no content... this is crazy.

I am losing ranks each day, can't figure whats wrong...

Anyone experienced the same?

[Aeronet]

Hey Vaz,

I didn't see any news about a big update of the Google algorithm recently. The reconsideration request take some time to process, if the hidden links were the cause of your lost rankings, it should come back soon now that you fixed the problem.

Check your (old & new) competitors backlinks via Open Site Explorer or Majestic SEO to see what they did to be ahead of you in the rankings.

If some of your competitors lost rankings too, maybe they were hit with the same problem as you (malicious code/hidden spammy links).

In any case good luck with your website !