Lost 50% google traffic in one day - panic?
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Damn, it's the penguin update...
http://searchengineland.com/the-penguin-update-googles-webspam-algorithm-gets-official-name-119623
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Google provides a form where you can them that your site was hit by error: http://searchengineland.com/penguin-update-peck-your-site-by-mistake-googles-got-a-form-for-that-119698
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After a very hard night and a lot of thinking, I've an idea.
We are using a lot of "keyword links" on our site.
It's - by the way - http://www.schicksal.com - an astrology site. We have lost 72% visibility - according to figures of sistrix.com.
So, we are doing this:
Zodiacs
Description of Zodiacs
Now a list with zodiacs
Aries (longer, descriptive title
short description of aries
In that case the "aries" keyword in the description is getting the link to the article.
I think, google doesn't like this after pengiun.
So, what is better:
a)
Aries
description
b)
Aries
description ... read more
What do you think?
Best wishes,
Georg.
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i dont think what you have is wrong at all. nor do i think the google example affects you.
Do not use read more, as you want to pass relevant link text to the page.
I think Bobs advice is need edhere, dont panic.
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I wouldn't be surprised Alan looking at his website that a lot of links were built naturally by people linking to his site as it looks like a good resource.
I've got a website were I built some links to gain a good position and left it, over a few months that exposure built tons of new links without me knowing from all over the web.
Now if those little sites have been hit, lets say a fair amount had been wiped out then I can see how rankings could be lost.
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no one has actually said to do anything but wait, I will go against the fold and say strip out all those adsense units down the left and maybe even dump that sharing tool bar at the bottom of the page, you already have a load of social sharing buttons on each page and that bar at the bottom looks like its holding up load times.
Go into webmaster tools and request a crawl.
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More info about penguin at search engine land - Google Penguin Update Recovery Tips & Advice
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The update he is refereing to is for un-natural text, keyword stuffing, i dont think he has anything to worry about there, un-natural in-links is another story
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Hi Josh,
it's www.schicksal.com
I've altered the source code meanwhile, I've removed some keyword links. I will report this later on.
Best wishes,
Georg.
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Hi,
now I've removed a lot of seo onpage tweaks. We will see if this would help something. I will write a detailled report later on.
Best wishes,
Georg. -
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Just want to let people know that I believe this is just an overall quality control form. It's worth a try, but I don't expect they'll take action on individual sites (I could be wrong, but don't get your hopes up, in other words).
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It's hard to tell without seeing your copy, but it sounds like you're talking about internal links within your own site. Google is talking about outbound links. Internal anchor text (linking within your site) is rarely penalized.
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Hi Josh,
thank you very much for your analysis!!!
How do you find out if a page / domain is "spam flagged"? Do they harm our site?
Best wishes,
Georg.
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Hi girls + boys,
after being so frustraded about this penguin update, I've started a blog today: The SEO Stories (@SEOStories)
I will there report my activities to bring my site back to the top rankings. I would be glad about some support...

I hope, you will like my kind of humour...
http://www.seo-stories.com/post/21985421183/google-called-the-25th-april-2012-ranking-update
Best wishes,
Georg. -
Hi Dean - not sure we could (or would want to) segment Q+A or the blog/YOUmoz to create a sub-section specifically about sites being penalized by Google spam updates. However, it sounds like some folks in this thread, like Georg below, may take this upon themselves (which is awesome).
Little known story - SEOmoz's more prominent focus on community began in earnest after a large exodus of members from another forum way back in 2004.
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You must remember, that those that have been penalized, have been taking ranking from those that have been doing the right thing, If you rankings came from spam tacktics, you may not have deserved the #1 rankings you had.
If you had come to this forum over the last few years and taken the advice given, you may not have been penalized.
If you really believe that you have done nothing wrong, then you need to talk to google.