Penalized by Penguin 1.1 Release

[RyanKent]

I'm still trying to figure out why I exactly got penalized.  It's a mystery that I don't seem to understand.

This article answers that question: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/identifying-link-penalties-in-2012

At some point in time either you or someone working on your behalf built some bad links to your site. An example is: http://christianprotocol.com/bbs/view.php?id=cpiboard01&page=14&page_num=20&select_arrange=hit&desc=&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&keyword=&no=630&category=

The above link is one of many links you have from asian websites which are pages full of links related to viagra and other spam. Web pages like this one are not helpful to users. They have little reason to exist other then to manipulate search engine rankings. In short, placing links to your website on such pages violates Google's Guidelines. The Penguin update is designed to penalize websites which practice in such behaviors.

How to fix the issue? At a high level, it is a three step process:

1. Compile a complete list of all URLs linking to your website. Do not simply use the list from Google Webmaster Tools as that list generally only captures about half the links to your site.

2. Every site needs to be visited. A determination needs to be made if the link is "organic" (meaning it complies with  Google's Guidelines) or "inorganic" which means it is a manipulative link.

3. The webmasters of each inorganic link need to be contacted with a request to remove the link.

The above solution assumes your self-diagnosis is correct.

[MattJanaway]

Thumbs up...

However, Im not sure the self-diagnosis is correct as the sites still rank for their domain name etc... I would like to see more information on the search terms which have dropped rankings.

[kevinyu1029]

Thanks for your help.  When I went here:  http://onlinealley.com/seotools/googlebannedchecker/  I entered www.onbetterterms.com and it says it's been blacklisted.  Is there another more legit website that you check?

So would you say the solution is to try and hunt down the domains with the anchor text of "debt eye" and kindly ask to remove it?

[kevinyu1029]

About 3-4 Months ago, I focused heavily on doing a lot of keyword research analysis, and cherry picking keywords I could rank for using SEOmoz's tool.

I would say that I was moderately successful, but the funny thing is that literally almost EVERY SINGLE keyword that was ranked just fell off the earth.  I always wrote unique content.

But some articles that weren't specifically targeted for SEO purposes maintained their rank (for the most part)

[MoosaHemani]

Thanks Ryan, the reason i suggest Google Webmaster tool for extracting the link profile is because its a good point to start! then yes one can go deep in to links using other software...

[MattJanaway]

OK so you built links specifically to the landing page of your new content? Or to your home page?

Where did you get these links from? Did you buy them or build them?

[kevinyu1029]

I never really went too deep into building links to the new SEO articles I wrote...I did a few internal links within my blog, but NEVER went crazy.. maybe just 1-2 at the most...

I never in my life bought any links

[RyanKent]

Kevin,

It seems your www.onbetterterms.com site has been redirected to another site. If you have a penalized site and redirect it to another site, you run the risk of penalizing the other site.

Regarding the onbetterterms.com site, do you have any idea how the following example links were created?

http://cafe.familynet.or.kr/cafe/board/view.php?bbs_id=gamicafe&ss%25252525255Bfc%25252525255D=1978&S_CafeNum=107&doc_num=29876

http://christianprotocol.com/bbs/view.php?id=cpiboard01&page=14&page_num=20&select_arrange=hit&desc=&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&keyword=&no=630&category=

There are other links which appear manipulative like the ones above.

[kevinyu1029]

Hi Ryan,

First of all, I appreciate all your effort and input.  Can't thank this community enough!

I have no idea on how those links were created.  All our links were from personal finance blogs or mainstream media sites.  I never bought links or hired anyone to do link building for us.

If you don't mind me asking, how were you able to find these links?  Are you using open site explorer?

[RyanKent]

Yes, those links were on the first page of OSE.

In order to properly diagnose your issue, a trained SEO would need to evaluate your website along with your Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools account.

For the purposes of this Q&A, I will accept your diagnosis of a Penguin "penalty". The purpose of the Penguin algorithm update was to stop sites from manipulating their ranking based upon unnatural links. Taking a quick look at the links to your site, there seems to be at least some valid reasons for Google to believe your site engaged in manipulative linking.

Did anyone else own the domain before you? Are there others who helped you with the site? An SEO, developer or employee who may have built these links?

Either way, the links need to be cleaned up.

[NainaGola]

There is no signal of this website's (www.onbetterterms.com) getting penalized.  But still this URL has been redirected to a different one. My advice, concentrate on your onpage optimization techniques, instead of running after and checking for page penalty. Stick to the natural ways of seo and promote your website through quality contents, maintain a keyword density of maximum 1%,  things must be fine in the next two catches by Google Bot.

Don't mind but I feel that you have mentioned the URL ie. www.onbetterterms.com here, only to get some traffic to your website, which you have actually got. Nice trick..., but not good for the community.