Is this Panda?

[mrodriguez1440]

Hi,

I have a page that has been fluctuating a lot the last few days, here are the results:

5/14:  #17 (this is where it had been ranking for about 2 months).

5/15:  #34

5/16:  #33

5/18:  #9

5/19:  #35

5/20:  #13

5/21: #37

I have only made minor changes to the page, and the link profile seems to look good.  Here's the page: www.thesandiegocriminallawyer.com/dui.html (targeted KW:  San Diego DUI Lawyer, San Diego DUI Attorney).

The page has a lot of high-quality, original, and well-cited content.  Any thoughts on what could be causing so much back and forth?

I should state that none of the other rankings for this site (overall) have been impacted.  Just this page for DUI related searches (San Diego DUI Lawyer, San Diego DUI attorney, San Diego Drunk Driving Lawyer, etc.).

[T-J-I]

Can I ask what method you use to come up with those stats on a daily basis, and how confident you are that they are accurate? .... tom

[mrodriguez1440]

Moz Rank Tracker AND Google it myself with Google Incognito.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

A few things:

1. Unless you scraped all that content, I highly doubt it's Panda.

2. From my understanding, Panda is mostly about content so "the link profile seems to look good," doesn't really matter.

3. Also, I do not agree that your link profile looks good (I do not mean that harshly; I have several pages that are way worse. But, I think you should know). Most of your highest quality links are no-follow and you have a bunch coming from directories. Your anchor text is pretty exact as well.

4. Good news: From everything I've read/heard in this forum or others, when people are hit with Panda/Penguin, they do not fall 20 spaces...they fall like 100. Granted, those are all anecdotal so it could be possible.

5. It's only been a week. Yes, 20 spaces is definitely something to pay attention to, but I'd just monitor it for at least another week.

I hope this helps.

Good luck,

Ruben

[mrodriguez1440]

Hi Ruben,

Thanks for the feedback.  I see ur in the legal industry as well.

Yes, the anchor text is too exact - I'm working on fixing that.

I guess it's good news that it's probably not Panda.  But it's still tough to drop 20 spots on such an important KW.

Ok, I'll keep monitoring it to see how it goes.

Thanks again.

[MibuKotaro]

I agree with Ruben that being only a week it is hard to tell for certain. You had said that you have been checking the rankings also, so what does the first page look like for your terms. Are you the only site seeing this flux?

Again this has been addressed but Panda is content based. Grabbing snippets of your content I only found a slight duplication but that was within your own site. The best indicator of Panda is your organic traffic through Analytics. If your Google only Organic traffic has dropped substantially it is entirely possible that it may be the case.

On the other hand it was only recently announced that the Panda updates were rolling out again and this has been happening for longer. I would watch your rankings for the next two weeks or so, but also the people who are the top 5 organically, since you are already passing them to find you. If after that you still notice you jumping a lot but they aren't maybe its time for a quick competitive analysis to see what they may be doing differently.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

The only reason I would worry about the drop is if it triggers something worse. Actually, dropping 20 spots, when you were already on either page 2 or 3, probably isn't going to hurt you all the match. It looks bad in a report, but, in terms of conversion, I don't think it will effect you all that much.

If I were you, I would focus my energy on local SEO and getting reviews. Granted, I don't spend a lot of time looking into how lawyers rank in other cities, but I have done it some. I've never seen so many review sites trigger for a legal term: "San Diego DUI Lawyer." Not to mention, there is only 1 local result that shows. Perhaps this is a fluke for today, but, man, if it's not, you've got a lot of room to grow there.

[mrodriguez1440]

Hi Sean,

Thank you for the response.  A few sites were adjusted, not just mine.  None of them were wiped out, except for one.

This is a tricky area, as I'm trying to rank an interior page for a category in which a lot of attorneys dedicate their entire practice (hence entire website).

I don't see a decrease in traffic (via GA), so maybe it's not Panda.

I'll keep an eye on the competition.  Thanks again.

[MibuKotaro]

If you have any further questions or want a second set of eyes sent me a PM and I would be glad to assist. Done A LOT of Penalty analysis so recognizing issues is a fun hobby for me

[mrodriguez1440]

Thank you.

Yeah, San Diego DUI Lawyer and San Diego DUI attorney are highly competitive (it's CA, people like to drink and drive apparently).  I'm sure it's similar in Tampa.

I'm working on Local SEO, cause you're right, it's a huge area of opportunity.

[mrodriguez1440]

Hey Sean,

Trying to PM you but the system can't find your username.  Is it Sean Williams?

[MibuKotaro]

I believe its MibuKotaro