Help - Lost Ranking - What did I screw up?!

[AaronHenry]

Hi,

We're working with a local service provider with a location specific keyword (not a real example: "orlando plumbing contractors").

Background:
In recent history the client updated a new site design and upgraded from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5.  Of course there were duplicate content issues which have been resolved with the help of AceSEF. Duplicate content, title tags, and other content issues are handled as soon as they appear in GWT or MOZ.

Additionally, a high number of backlinks were lost when the latest Google update hit.  Many of these sites were of sites that no longer existed or were spammy and flushed out.  Some were lost due to the previous SEO firm literally removing backlinks and switching them to their new client (seo firm was putting all of the work the client paid for under their name to control everything).

Current Situation: The backlink loss seems to have been stopped (hopefully) because we are using a new strategy that relies solely on the quality of the links, surrounding text, varied anchor text, relevancy, etc.)  However, we tried an experiment on just one of the clients keywords.  That experiment seems to have blown up in our faces evidently.

The landing page for the location specific keyword  has dropped from the index completely (it seems), but only when searching broad.  When using exact match with quotes like the example quoted above ("orlando plumbing contractors") the landing page appears, but several ranks lower.  We were ranked yesterday 6/23/13, but as of today 6/24/13 are no longer ranked.

On broad matches, non-relevant sites and even a site that shows only a broken server configuration is outranking the client (they appear for the broad search, but the client does not).

What Was Done
We recently created a press release for and posted it on a press release site.  We then created a link back to the landing page (exact match anchor text).  We posted the PR article to several social sites (Google plus, folkd, delicious, twitter, stumble upon, diigo).

We also created a blog article (on-site) on site for that, creating links back to the landing page (the links all had exact anchor text).  We posted that blog article to social news sites (facebook, stumble, delicious) and included a ping.  The PR article was manually rewritten and posted to the PR site (we had to make 2 versions of the PR; one for the blog and one for the PR site).

The Result
The client ending up dropping off the broad search rankings, but only slipped a few for "exact match" (with quotes).  The PR article that was created is now ranked on page 3 for the board keyword and is still beat by non working sites.

We suspect that the exact anchor text could be causing this problem.  Anyone else have an idea (we're scratching our heads and trying not to freak out at the same time).

[toddmumford]

Hi Imedia, thanks for explaining your situation. Hopefully I can be of help:

Inbound link profile

1. In terms of inbound links, my concern would be the quality type of links that can be 'pulled and re-plugged'. Generally, it is difficult to do this with links that are earned or naturally given, as they usually only relate to one client and assets and resources that client has (great web design, awesome guides, white papers, blog posts).

I would focus on first ensuring that the back link profile is natural and correct. Here is a great guide in my opinion to removing poor links and disavowing them. Remember to always first contact webmasters and request irrelevant and low quality links removed first. Google wants to see that you have acted on links.

2. If you want to rank in Google Local: Build local citations. Darren Shaw from Whitespark has plenty of fantastic knowledge published on the Internet and on his blog. Mike Blumenthal is also highly qualified in local.

3. I would recommend staying away from anchor text in press releases altogether. My take on press releases is that the value of the link is really directly proportional to the quality / newsworthiness of the story itself. Great stories are shared and linked to, improving the social signals and engagement signals and inbound links to that piece. Using exact match anchor texts in press releases is probably not necessary and might be working against you because it makes it more difficult to assess over-optimization issues if they happen.

Try and ensure any exact match links are in natural, editorial content, so that you can try to rule out which particular pieces might be counting for and against you when diagnosing over optimization and position drops.

4. Also linking internally with Exact Match can do double damage to rankings if particular thresholds are reached. Because Google updates its complex algorithm a lot, it is difficult to understand what those thresholds are. You might consider utilizing a different internal anchor text in this situation and testing it over a long period. You might also consider changing the press release link if possible. However, it is important to understand that changing links can also send signals to Google that can cause ranking flux (commercialize anchor, effect in SERPs, change in anchor = another net change)

A safe bet for internal links is to rarely use exact match internal anchor text, and opt for natural text, mixed brand and mixed commercialized text, and anchor to text that isn't commercial at all (click here, buy it here, learn more here) Focus on building internal links that are driven from content within the website that is well linked to.

In my opinion this also should apply to inbound link anchor text profiles as well, but you will want to study the top 10-20 competitors in this niche (with a close eye on 1-2-3) in order to better understand both individual and aggregate anchor text usage.

Hope this helps!
-Todd

[Cyrus-Shepard]

I get suspicious anytime I hear about exact match press release links. In my experience they can do little to help you, and everything to hurt.

Whenever I submit a press release I always use url links (example.com) or generic anchors, never a "money" term. This is because Google views press releases as non-editorial, and tends to devalue most links they see coming from these sources.

If that exact match link that you embedded in your press release is widely distributed across multiple sites and distribution platforms, then you're in even deeper.

There's been some talk by Google of late that the newer class of penalties and algorythmic filters can act more at the page level (whereas before they tended to be applied broadly to the entire domain.) This means if you're trying to clean things up, you can start by addressing the one page with the over-optimized links and working your way out from there.

I'd start by trying to remove the links, then possibly using the disavow if you aren't successful. Finally, if the page doesn't have a very strong backlink profile you can simply remove it and serve a 404 or 410 status code, and then remove it from the index using the Remove URL tool in Google Webmaster Tools.

Not sure if this relates to what is happening on your site or not - it's pure speculation on my part. Regardless, I hope it helps in some small way.

Cheers,

Cyrus

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Google just updated thier link scheme document:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en

Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites. For example:
There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.

[AaronHenry]

Todd,

I really think you're right on every point there.

1.  We have been looking at the backlink profile pretty good.  It appears that the first SEO company was just starting out with this site so I see a quite a few paid link directories that were popular a few years back.  Fortunately, a big chunk of them have stopped out of violation and the links are slowly being de-indexed altogether.  I imagine that the both the quality and loss of the links is hurting us while things sort and readjust.  Once all of the links are removed from the index, I believe we can cross this portion of the list (for now - must remain ever vigilant).

2.  In progress - takes a bit of time.  We're also trying to make sure that the citations are built on local IPs as well.

3.  I agree - fortunately the anchor text is varied so I believe that we will be ok here as well.  We are updating any gregarious usage of exact match anchor text as well.

4. This was one of the few things that the last SEO company did correctly.  The internal link structure is definitely varied.

Thanks for your help on these suggestions.  Our client has a pretty good decent branding scheme so its a nice way to build links with that anchor text and variations to use.

[AaronHenry]

I just saw that as well - good eye!

[AaronHenry]

I also wanted to put in a little update that we've noticed in this niche particularly.  When we follow the basic outline of the strategy above, we notice that the onsite article gets ranked quickly, while the target landing page drops off out of results for about half a day.  No later than the next day is the landing page back in place and the onsite (blog article if you will) is removed from rankings.

I suppose this is just the Google shuffle or something similar happening.  Fortunately we've removed all but 8 errors (out of 3000) and we're just waiting for GWT to update to reflect that information.