Why did this fabric site disappear for "fabric" and why can't we get it back?

[katandmouse]

Beverlys.com used to rank on the first page for "fabric."

I'm trying to get the date of their demise, but don't have it yet so I can't pinpoint what Google update might have killed them but I can guess. In doing a backlink analysis, there were hundreds of poor quality, toxic sites pointing to them. We have carefully gone through them all and submitted a disavow request. They are now on page 9 from nowhere to be found a week ago. But, of course, that's not good enough.

They are on page 2 for "fabric online" and "quilt fabric." So Google doesn't completely hate them. But doesn't love them enough even for those terms.

Any suggestions? They are rebuilding the site to use a different ecommerce platform with new content and new structure.  They will also be incorporating the blog within the site and I've advised them on many other ways to attract traffic and backlinks. That's coming. But for now, any suggestions and help will be much appreciated. Something has got to be holding them back for that one gem of a keyword.

Also, I would like to know what experiences others have had with the disavow request form. Does Google absolutely hold you to making every attempt you can at getting those links removed? ANd how does it know? No one responds so it seems to be such a waste of time. And many now actually charge to remove your links.

Thoughts?

Thanks everyone!

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey

This kind of thing will never be quick and there are many factors to consider

1. Google has stated that to recover from a penguin penalty that the algorithm must run again after everything has been cleaned up, links disavowed etc. Unfortunately, the Penguin algorithm has not ran in some time (1 year+)
2. Even if this is all done it can take Google many months to re-crawl and re-evaluate all removed and disavowed links so it may need a period of time after the clean up work is complete and then a Penguin update.
3. What is the story with the rest of the link profile, brand, marketing etc?
4. Is there a manual penalty shown in webmaster tools? Has a reconsideration request been processed and accepted?

At a guess (working with what you have given) it just sounds like a typical penguin problem: lots of spammy links with over optimised anchors. Damage to the site for very specific pages / keywords whilst some others do okay still.

From experience I would manage your clients expectations and let them know that it took a long time to get into this mess during which they benefited more than they likely deserved to, therefore, it will likely take a long time to clean this up. Additionally, these bad links may have played a big part in that top spot for the term fabric so who is to say where they will sit when all negative equity is removed.

Google has also stated that some sites simply can't be recovered and starting again with a new site on a new URL is the best approach. For brands this is often not so easy so it's hard to advise without more details on the brand as a whole. In your case, with the limited information I doubt this is the case but still you could be looking at an extended time period with maybe one or more likely a few penguin updates needed to get out of the hole.

Hope that helps! 
Marcus

References

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-recovery-required-19115.html

[Andy.Drinkwater]

**"Does Google absolutely hold you to making every attempt you can at getting those links removed? Add how does it know? No one responds so it seems to be such a waste of time. And many now actually charge to remove your links." **

Ah, that old chestnut

Do Google know if you have been trying to contact sites to try and get links removed? Simple answer is no. They have no way to tell this. They can't base this on any successes you might have, because as you said, most never reply, or hold you to ransom.

I have completed a lot of disavows now and the vast majority of these are clients just wanting the disavow file creating and then uploading. Of course, there is a fair bit of work in doing this, because you don't want to get rid of god sites, but even so, I have had a huge amount of success in fixing Penguin and manual penalties without having to go out and chase sites for a link removal.

Could it be anything else? It's possible, but as you said, there are a lot of very poor links, so this is certainly where I would be looking to start.

However, don't just stop there. After the disavow, you should be creating new site content, linkable assets and heading out to complete some outreach and gain them some good quality links to offset what was there previously.

-Andy

[Kingof5]

While you're going through the disavow process, make sure you're building new quality links. You won't get your rankings back just by disavowing, you need new links to improve.

[katandmouse]

Thanks everyone. All great advice and exactly what I'm doing and have planned. So the advice I hear here is, be patient, and tell them they need to be too!

I'm curious what you all think about this page:
http://www.beverlys.com/fabric.html The word fabric is there 71 times. I know "density" isn't supposed to matter, but over optimization does. Could that be construed as such even though there is a valid reason for those to be there?

Their top 3 competitors' fabric pages are different: 
http://www.joann.com/fabric/ 48 times
https://www.fabric.com/ 29 times
http://www.hancockfabrics.com/ 30 times