The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • My Q&A
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. SEO and Digital Marketing Q&A Forum
    2. Categories
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Please help me with your advice

    Please help me with your advice

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    17 4 348
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • Guest
      Guest last edited by

      This post is deleted!
      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • Webdeal
        Webdeal last edited by

        Thanks Charles for your time...

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MarieHaynes
          MarieHaynes last edited by

          When EMD hit on September 28, I asked for people to send me domains that had been affected so that I could see if there were any patterns.  I had over 100 domains sent to me and the vast majority of them actually had Panda issues.  Then, a few days after EMD, Google announced that they had also done a Panda refresh on September 27.

          In all of the domains that I analyzed I would say that one of them was likely a true EMD candidate.  This was a one page site with very little content and several affiliate links.  It previously was ranking well for a competitive niche.  The only reason it was ranking well was because of its domain name.  EMD was designed to take the ranking benefit away from sites that ONLY ranked because they had keywords in their domain name.  It doesn't punish a site simply because there are keywords in the domain name.

          You've mentioned that your pages are 100% unique.  Do you have thin pages?  If you have a section of your site that has pages with very little content on the page then this can cause Panda to affect you.  But there are other possible reasons as well.

          Webdeal 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • Webdeal
            Webdeal @MarieHaynes last edited by

            Hi Maire, thanks for your answer site got over 300 unique pages...

            MarieHaynes Webdeal Dr-Pete 11 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Dr-Pete
              Dr-Pete last edited by

              If this is really related to the EMD update, then I'd agree with Charles - starting over is a bad idea. My best guess is that the EMD update wasn't a penalty, per se - it was more like Google lowered the volume on EMDs. In other words, having one isn't bad now - it's just that it's not as good as it used to be. There's no way to fix that really (you can't turn the volume back up), but the risks of switching domains would probably far outweigh the benefits.

              To back up Marie, though, a lot happened right around the EMD update, and it's really tough to diagnose. I'd definitely look at Panda factors, like "thin" content. Try to look at the site from Google's POV - what you view as unique doesn't matter, frankly. You could be spinning out URL-based duplicates, for example, and not realize it - that's more of a technical SEO issue (you're not doing anything devious, but the site may still be giving Google problems).

              The other issue to consider is whether your EMD has caused you to really pile on exact-match anchor text, especially keyword-loaded anchor text. This could trigger Penguin or similar problems. This is often correlated with EMDs, even though it wouldn't necessarily be a result of the EMD update.

              If they've really just turned down the "volume", then you have to get other ranking factors in play - build more relevant, authoritative links, increase your social signals, etc. In other words, focus on aspects of SEO beyond simple on-page ranking factors.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • MarieHaynes
                MarieHaynes @Webdeal last edited by

                The number of unique pages doesn't really matter when it comes to Panda.  You could have 300 unique pages, but if there are also 50 pages of copied content then this can trigger Panda.

                But the other question I had was about thin content.  An example of thin content would be a page that has say, a product photo, a bunch of template text that is the same from page to page a few ads and then only 1 or 2 lines of text.

                Another example of a thin page would be if you had a section of definitions and each one had its own page.  They could possibly be considered thin.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Webdeal
                  Webdeal @Webdeal last edited by

                  I really appreciate your knowledge , but the site has nothing to do with Panda as it got 300 pages with unique and  well written content

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Dr-Pete
                    Dr-Pete @Webdeal last edited by

                    Keep in mind, too, that a lot of duplicate content is accidental. Google doesn't care about pages, per se - they care about unique URLs. So, if you have 300 unique pages, but something about your CMS translates that into 5,000 crawlable URLs, then you could definitely have problems.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • Webdeal
                      Webdeal @Webdeal last edited by

                      I will appreciate if you will explain it bit more in details....

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Webdeal
                        Webdeal @Webdeal last edited by

                        the site got only unique urls, by pages i meant urls too

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • MarieHaynes
                          MarieHaynes @Webdeal last edited by

                          The thing is that if you lost 90% of your traffic at the end of September (i.e. Sept 27/28) then the issue is very likely either EMD or Panda.  If you have a good site with 300 well written unique pages then in my mind EMD is almost impossible.  So, I would go investigating Panda issues. Duplicate and thin content are the top culprits but there can be other factors.

                          There are other possibilities though including a change in urls, DNS problems, hosting problems, malware issues, robots.txt problems, accidentally noindexing, a competitor ramping up their SEO etc. etc.

                          If the traffic drop was a little later, like October 5 then Penguin is a possibility.  Penguin is related to overoptimized anchor text in your backlinks among other things.

                          Sometimes when a site is affected on a Panda date but doesn't seem to have Panda issues it is possible that sites linking to your site were affected by Panda and as such you have lost some of your link juice.  But it is unlikely that 90% of your traffic would go because of this.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Webdeal
                            Webdeal @Webdeal last edited by

                            all top 10 positions were dropped in mid of november 2012.
                            I said 90 % ...i think the statment has been exaggerated....but  65% for sure

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • MarieHaynes
                              MarieHaynes @Webdeal last edited by

                              Ah!  I was thinking it was end of September because you said you were a casualty of EMD.  If this happened mid November then it's definitely not EMD.

                              There were Panda updates November 5 and November 21.  If the drop doesn't coincide with those dates then it is not due to a major algorithm change.  (By major I mean Panda/Penguin as Google is constantly tweaking the algorithm.)

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Webdeal
                                Webdeal @Webdeal last edited by

                                But Panda...as far as know looking for duplicate content....and we are very careful with that for all our sites....Content is 100 unique and never been spinned, written by humans....

                                so i am confused more...

                                This is the article by M.Cutts I remeber i read it

                                http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2214115/Google-Warns-of-Upcoming-Exact-Match-Domain-Algorithm-Change

                                date 3 october 2012....

                                after that day our site started to loose the trafic...not in 1 night but slowly..slowly...than
                                up to mid nov 2012 it lost about 65% ..this is why i have concluded from the begging that it was EMD

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Dr-Pete
                                  Dr-Pete @Webdeal last edited by

                                  I have a post on the subject here - it's very long, because it's a complex subject:

                                  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-in-a-post-panda-world

                                  We're not saying this is definitely the problem - just that you should be aware of how complicated it can get. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell without really looking at the site. A lot can happen to hurt a site's rankings, and the EMD update was just one piece of the puzzle.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • Webdeal
                                    Webdeal @Webdeal last edited by

                                    Thank you...I will appreciate if you will give me 10 mins of your time....i sent site to your PM

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • 1 / 1
                                    • First post
                                      Last post
                                    • Help with homepage SEO please
                                      Millermore
                                      Millermore
                                      0
                                      4
                                      352

                                    • Please help with some content ideas
                                      Hannah_Smith
                                      Hannah_Smith
                                      0
                                      4
                                      190

                                    • Please help with creation of slideshare
                                      SorinaDascalu
                                      SorinaDascalu
                                      0
                                      2
                                      100

                                    • Please, help me to understand these Google results
                                      fablau
                                      fablau
                                      0
                                      13
                                      193

                                    • Traffic down 60% - about to cry, please help
                                      julianhearn
                                      julianhearn
                                      0
                                      16
                                      346

                                    • Please Review and Advice!
                                      Chris.Menke
                                      Chris.Menke
                                      0
                                      2
                                      167

                                    • Domain advice needed, please
                                      Grumpy_Carl
                                      Grumpy_Carl
                                      0
                                      4
                                      491

                                    • 1st Campaign - Advice please.
                                      jsturgeon
                                      jsturgeon
                                      0
                                      5
                                      956

                                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                                    Start my free trial
                                    Products
                                    • Moz Pro
                                    • Moz Local
                                    • Moz API
                                    • Moz Data
                                    • STAT
                                    • Product Updates
                                    Moz Solutions
                                    • SMB Solutions
                                    • Agency Solutions
                                    • Enterprise Solutions
                                    • Digital Marketers
                                    Free SEO Tools
                                    • Domain Authority Checker
                                    • Link Explorer
                                    • Keyword Explorer
                                    • Competitive Research
                                    • Brand Authority Checker
                                    • Local Citation Checker
                                    • MozBar Extension
                                    • MozCast
                                    Resources
                                    • Blog
                                    • SEO Learning Center
                                    • Help Hub
                                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                                    • How-to Guides
                                    • Moz Academy
                                    • API Docs
                                    About Moz
                                    • About
                                    • Team
                                    • Careers
                                    • Contact
                                    Why Moz
                                    • Case Studies
                                    • Testimonials
                                    Get Involved
                                    • Become an Affiliate
                                    • MozCon
                                    • Webinars
                                    • Practical Marketer Series
                                    • MozPod
                                    Connect with us

                                    Contact the Help team

                                    Join our newsletter
                                    Moz logo
                                    © 2021 - 2026 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                                    • Accessibility
                                    • Terms of Use
                                    • Privacy