Hit by the penguin update

[pensionadvice]

Hi,

My site @ www.mortgageadvicecenter.co.uk has been hit by the penguin update. I cannot be found at all in google for certain keywords such as mortgage advice where we ranked page 2. We still rank for certain keywords. I really don't know why we have been penalised and what to do. I have plenty of brand links and nothing out of the ordinary link distribution.

This obviously affects our bottem line so do you have any idea's or time scales?

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks

Ryan

[wrttnwrd]

Hi Ryan,

First question: Did you receive a warning notice about unnatural links? Google's been sending those out to most Penguin victims. I still see you at #1 for your brand name at:

http://portent.co/MDY6Qy

Normally with a Penguin penalty I'd expect to see you buried for your own name.

It's more likely you got caught up in an onsite, content-related update. Although there are some fairly suspect links in your profile, like this page:

http://www.hasenchat.de/chat-verzeichnis/index.html

It also happens to be your highest-DA inlinking page.

[RyanKent]

** I really don't know why we have been penalised and what to do. I have plenty of brand links and nothing out of the ordinary link distribution.**

Actually, your link distribution is quite unnatural. Here is your links as seen in OpenSiteExplorer filtered for only external, followed links to your root domain: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=www.mortgageadvicecenter.co.uk&sort=page_authority&filter=follow&source=external&target=domain&group=1

If you wish to see what a natural link profile looks like, here is the same query for Google: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=www.google.com&sort=page_authority&filter=follow&source=external&target=domain&group=1

Your anchor text is not natural, indicating your company controls these links. The natural way most people link is simply by copying and pasting your URL. When anchor text is used, it varies substantially as seen in the Google query above.

Also, your link sources are unnatural as well. Your top links as shown in OSE are as follows:

1. http://www.hasenchat.de/chat-verzeichnis/index.html. You are a UK site with your #1 link being offered from a German web page. You do not offer any German content and I otherwise could not evaluate this page.

2. Dmoz. A great link to have and it has value.

3. http://contentking10.typepad.com/blog/2010/10/ballon-d-or.html. A pure link page. Very unnatural.

4. http://www.genuinemortgageadvice.com/. Link cannot be located on website.

5. http://www.directoryworld.net/index.php?c=65&s=41 Free directory, does not comply with Google's guidelines. Manipulative link.

6. http://www.articleblast.com/Business_and_Management/General/Get_best_Mortgage_Advice_by_the_expert_Mortgage_brokers_UK/

Article submission site, very low quality article designed to manipulate PR.

In summary, your site's links are an ideal example of the links Penguin was designed to penalize. To resolve this issue you need to perform a 100% solid scrub of every link to your domain. If any inorganic link cannot be removed for any reason, a detailed explanation along with contact dates needs to be provided to Google.

[RyanKent]

I agree with Ian's advice as well. Your site still have a very spammy link profile which Penguin was designed to penalize, but there may be other issues affecting your site's rankings.

[irvingw]

Google got it right. Remove all of these spammy links and humbly file for reconsideration and tell them you won't do it again. You're lucky it's only a few hundred, the domain can be salvaged

http://www.lesverts21.org/“mortgage-advice-center”-helps-you-in-getting-best-uk-mortgage-deals-by-offering-creditable-mortgage-advice/

http://bbs.arab.91.com/member.php?u=60467

[pensionadvice]

Unfortunately, I paid 'credible' seo professional's to do the work!!! I suppose once upon a time these techniques were to an extent white hat but things change and I can see that it is for the better.

Very frustrating from an seo perspective as I am sure in the past relevant content and popularity did not count as much for seo until the arrhythms change.

At the end of the day we provide a great service to our clients and are very relevant to what is being searched for. We provide mortgage advice from our own office and have done so for years and have an established domain that has also been verified for google places.It is very frustrating when you see companies that are ranked higher than us that are only lead aggregators that sell information on.. ie. money supermarket and the emergence of more and more lead generators.

At the end of the day not much has changed as it is still the companies that pump the most money into seo that will win.

This is not a rant just my opinion from a business that provides great service but cant afford to put thousands of £ into seo to get to the top of the rankings.

[pensionadvice]

Thank you for your response.

Well this is the problem. I have no messages in webmaster tools or any issues flagging up.

Do you think it is down to the links as I am still ranking for certain keywords and for my brand.?