Detective needed to investigate a mystery lack of ranking

[whis]

My URL is: www.graduate-jobs.com/graduate-schemesAfter ranking on page 1 for the search term 'graduate schemes' for over 4 months, the page then disappeared completely from the SERPS for over 6. I've been assured it isn't a Penguin/ Panda problem, as this is the only page on our site that has seen this sort of drop. When checking backlink profiles of the ranking pages, our page is as strong if not stronger and it receives a good amount of traffic with decent user metrics.If anyone could take a look at the page and have a guess at why it isn't moving anywhere, it would be really appreciated.Thanks.

[joseph.chambers]

Well - you're loosing more back links a day than gaining: https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/backlinks-new/prefix/www.graduate-jobs.com%252Fgraduate-schemes

link velocity is important but you prob. lost those one or two back links that pushed it to where it needed to be.

[whis]

Hi Joseph,

Thanks for getting back to me. It is a bit worrying to see that amount of backlinks being lost, I wasn't aware of that!

Could you give me any more clues as to why that would be happening/ how to prevent it?

Thanks.

[JustinTaylor88]

I don't think the backlink profile to that page looks particularly natural and i think thats where your problem lies

OSE shows 19 backlines ahrefs shows 30, but looking through them, you have two infographitcs (with no social shares) a couple of links from .ac.uk (which are good links), directories and a number of very questionable looking links such as www.librerio.com/search/jobs/40

You also have some exact match anchor text

All of the above suggests to me that you have been hit by Panda/Penguin and the loss of links mentioned previously most likely suggests that you had questionable links that have been removed or the sites they were coming from have been shutdown (again a good indicator of poor backlinks)

To me, it looks like you are going to have to do some work on building some good links and adding a bit of content to your site to get your rankings back

Also you are on an exact match domain "graduate-jobs.com" which may be contributing

I'm sure its not what you want to hear, but I think thats where the problem most likely lies.

I hope that helps

[whis]

Hi Justin,

Thanks for your response and I really appreciate the detail and the honesty!

I get what you are saying about the questionable backlinks. None of them were actively obtained by us but that doesn't change that there are some suspicious sites linking to that page in particular. Would you recommend trying to get some of those links removed?

I suppose what confused me was that the Moz PA ranking is much healthier than some of the sites ranking on page 1 of the SERPS. So perhaps a Penguin/ Panda demotion is the most obvious answer (Ouch that hurts to say out loud!)

Thanks.

[joseph.chambers]

There is nothing you can do to prevent it and really, you're not loosing a lot either. It may have been just that one back link. Webmasters change their sites. Domains expire. You just need to build links.

This is an awesome tool: http://www.link-assistant.com/buzzbundle/ - and you can learn how to use it here: http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/buzzbundle-review-how-i-drive-traffic-to-my-blog/

I would look in webmaster tools to see when it changed.. I dont know what exactly else could have caused it without really looking into it. What I would do if I were you is change the title and description a little bit. You really don't need to use graduate that much.

[joseph.chambers]

but when did it happen? what day? it could also not even be you but the sites you got backlinks from.

Take a look here: http://www.linkdex.com and it will be the best way to get this fixed. When you disvow these links, add comments and group things together. i.e. #possible link network - emailed webmaster joes@email.com - for removal.

#link directory - emailed webmaster@somesite.com

You dont have a lot of back links - and if you do disavow the links and need help qualifying them than reach out to me with the list you come up with.. or post them here. I'm sure we can help you qualify them.

[whis]

Hi Joseph,

Thanks for the tip I will definitely check out that tool.

I see what you are saying about modifying my meta info, I think we stuff graduate a bit too much site-wide, which is something I've started working on.

I suppose I (like most people) was hoping it was a technical error with a quick fix but (like most people) I'm now realising it all comes down to good ole' fashioned link building.

Thanks.

[joseph.chambers]

..and just building a better site. you always need to try to maximize the value of a click. What do you want them to do when they land on that page? Where do you want them to go? What are they asking for when they come to that page?

Each page - has a purpose. You want them to sign up to the site? building leads to new jobs? Why not have a form where you send them new types of jobs when you have them posted.. Take a look at http://www.shoemoney.com - he thinks like this: sending out a email is like going to the bank.

build your email list.

GOOD LUCK!

[whis]

Hey Joseph,

You are absolutely right.

Our main aim is always to get registrations to the site and build our database and we try and do this by advertising good jobs that make people want to sign-up!

Thanks for all your help on the matter, if you think of anything else, don't hesitate to let me know.

Cheers.