Google seems to be penalizing my site for some reason

[alexhowe]

I recently took control of a website which did have some pretty big SEO problems, duplicate content being one of the main ones!!

Looking back at ranking data the website ranked very well for it's main keyword, #5 for Google, Yahoo and Bing.

The ranking then dropped in February 2012 for Google to #64 but stayed the same for Yahoo and Bing.

I scrapped the dodgy content and completely rewrote it using a Wordpress framework about 6 weeks ago, still targeting the same keywords and 301 redirecting the old pages to the new pages where applicable.

My rankings for Yahoo and Bing are still maintaining their page 1 rankings but Google is still ranking the website on page 5/6.

My question is. Is the website getting punished for something that was part of the old website? If so how can I find out what it is and fix it?

This website ranked on page 1 for Google for most of it's popular keywords but now it doesn't.

I appreciate any feedback

Many Thanks : )

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Alex

Is it possible to get a link so we can review in more detail? Without a link, I can give you some general feedback and I am sure we can try to flesh this out a bit further.

If you had tons of duplicate content and had a traffic drop in Feb then Panda is a likely candidate but if you have removed the duplication and built a new site then that should have resolved those issues.

There is nothing to say you have not picked up another penalty though or have some other problem and Penguin is the next likely candidate to review. So, check your analytics and see if there were further traffic organic traffic drops from Google on  April 24 and/or May 25.

If so, then you likely have external issues (links) that may be effecting your chance to rank.

Action Points

1. Set up a new campaign for the site in the SEOMoz tools and be fastidious in resolving any reported errors

2.  Review the traffic losses in Google analytics and compare against the dates of known algorithm changes here

3. Review any messages and or problems in Google Webmaster Tools

4. Once you have identified any Panda / Penguin problems or any other issues then attempt to resolve them. There are several good guides online and I have a few simplified ones over at my site or check out the posts on Penguin and Panda over at Distilled.

Summary

Ultimately, it is really hard without a link to give a specific review but it sounds like some kind of penalty or devaluation to drop from page 1 to page 6. Likewise, the fact you still rank in Yahoo & Bing would indicate that the site is being penalised. It could be a manual penalty or one of the algorithmic penalties. If you have resolved the duplication issues (check against copyscape and the moz tools) and have no manual penalty (check in webmaster tools for messages) then the likely candidate is external issues so a spammy or manipulative link profile.

Hope this helps and feel free to fire over a link so we can give some feedback specific to your site.

Marcus

References

1. Simple Google Penguin Audit 

2. Google Panda Problems and Solutions

3. Detailed Penguin Audit