My website ranking recently dropping - why?

[dmck]

Hi all,

I am a photographer and do my own website and links etc. Website is: http://www.mckayphotography.com.au

I have enjoyed good google rankings for my main keyword 'wedding photography sydney' for many years, and even recovered after taking a hit from the penguin (may 2012) update.

But the last month has seen a steady drop from around 2nd - 4th down to now 10th. I have analyzed my site using all the moz tools and on most counts eg moz rank and moz trust I am ahead of my competitor sites....but still rank under them on google.

So I would greatly appreciate on advice people could give on getting my ranking back up again!

Thanks in advance

Darryn

[bobjones]

On first sight, this might have something to do with it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nisv0z2fbl5sb2j/Screenshot 2014-01-27 09.56.30.png

[dmck]

Wow thanks for the info that is quite an increase. I have been doing some link building - joining new directories and commenting on other photographers blogs etc.....but going from ~1200 to ~2700 is pretty amazing.

Any way of seeing the new referring pages and whether they are a negative influence?

That said, the drop was happening from around mid November to now, so this doesnt explain the initial slide. Was that around the time hummingbird happened?

[Travis_Bailey]

It appears you got picked up by again.com.au at the time mentioned in the graph. It's a typical broken PHP link directory. The anchor text is partially branded, with your name and includes the keywords where you've lost ranking. Hopefully this helps.

I would disavow it. Here's a how-to.

[dmck]

Hi Travis,

Thanks for the help. I may have joined that directory myself - it's no good then?

[Travis_Bailey]

As a rule of thumb, I don't trust anything with PHP Link Directory in the footer. There's a few correlations here:

1. The anchor text used and the ranking lost are very close.

2. The number of links (and anchor text) from one place shot up dramatically in that time frame.

3. The ***linking site's link footprint appears to be pretty terrible as well.

If you want, you can try Linkdetox Pro for 149 EU a month. Just take a couple of weekends and really sort it out. (I'm not affiliated with Linkdetox.com)