Used SEOMOZ top 100 Directories, my site ranking lowered, what can we do to fix this?

[deanpallatt]

We have made a big mistake.... So what can we do to fix this?

A trainee member of staff has used the seomoz 100 top directories and added to sites from PR10 to PR6 approx about 25 sites, using keywords were possible instead of using the website URL "which i now was stupid!.

Our website ranking have been lowered big time for all keywords used!, eg from 1st to 10th and even disappeared from the top 100

We are contacting all directories asking for the Title link to be changed to the URL instead of a keyword.. Will this help?

I understand that Google give sites a penalty for this!!, but what can i do to put this right and how long would this penalty last for?

Any advice would be highly appreciated...

Thanks

Dean

[RyanKent]

Hi Dean.

If you used the SEOmoz directory list, it is unlikely your ranking drop was related to any links you earned from those directories. Google can penalize you for paid links, but I am unaware of any directories in the SEOmoz list which violate Google's terms.

The only advice I would offer in using the directories is to vary the anchor text. It is not desirable to use the identical anchor text as those appear quite unnatural. Google obviously understands directory links are not the same as natural links, but it can still be an issue with their algorithmic penalties.

If your staff member varied the keywords, then his efforts are fine. If he or she used the identical keyword or phrase, I would only suggest adjusting it a bit.

While the above is accurate, it does not explain your ranking drop. What other changes have been made to the site? Dropping from 1st to 10th is quite a drop. When exactly was the last time you saw your site at #1 for the keyword? Is it possible there are other issues for which you may have been penalized? Has there been other SEO changes in your site? Or perhaps you were looking at a different search engine?

Without knowing your site URL, the keywords and pages involved we are left to guess.

[nwinternetmarketing]

You could be experiencing what is known as the "Google dance".  I've noticed many sites will drop several ranks or even pages, only the next day to see they jumped forward 5-15+ ranks from where they started.

[deanpallatt]

Ryan

Thank you for responding..

We are running 4 Sites and 3 have had the same issue apart from one, it seems that only the home pages have been hit on all 3 sites.. internal pages are fine, This happened at the begging of August and the keywords was varied between 3-4 keywords..

We have done nothing different apart from accruing these directories, I have read in previous questions they had penalties for buying these directory links?

At first i though it maybe a panda update? Then i read about penelties for paid directories?

Any advice would be highly apprenticed, as i have come to a standing block?

[deanpallatt]

Jacob

Thanks for repsonding

This happened at the begging of August 5th to 10th.. I have experienced this "Google dance" before but only dropping for a couple of days to a week at most and then an increased in ranking, but iv not experienced this for over a month?

I don't think this is the case... ?

Dean

[RyanKent]

Thanks for the additional details Dean.

I need to be absolutely clear regarding "paid" directories. There is a line separating "good" and "bad" directories. Paid directories such as Yahoo, BOTW, Business.com and a few others are perfectly legitimate for Google. These are high quality directories who charge customers for reviewing their site. They have quality standards, and they reject some sites as not meeting those standards. They also do not offer refunds.

Any directory which charges to be listed, guarantees a listing, or offers a refund if you are not listed falls under the category of "paid directories" which would incur a penalty from Google.

With the above understood, is there any possibility your employee included any paid directories? I would suggest reviewing the receipts for any payments made to any directory companies. I suspect one or more directories may have been included which are not on the SEOmoz list. Alternatively, if I recall correctly that list is a few years old and some changes may have occurred with the business practices involved for any given directory service.

I took a brief look at your site and notice many signs of good SEO work, but I also notice many opportunities for improvement. A few quick tips:

• many of your footer links are spammy. "Moving boxes", "Removal boxes", "storage boxes", "packing boxes", "cardboard boxes", "boxes for moving", "packing boxes for moving" are all anchor texts in your footer, and all of the links point to your home page. I would suggest removing all of them.

• you are cannibalizing your keywords which has a negative impact on SEO. For example, you have a page on your site /storage-boxes. That page is clearly optimized for the term "storage boxes" yet your footer link points that term to your home page.

• you are serving your images from a secure server. I believe that causes the images not to be cached which ultimately leads to slower page loads

• your images for "verified by visa" and "godaddy secured" should be linked images. Users should be able to click the images and verify your site is indeed trusted in those areas. Providing images which are not linked properly is a sign of fraud and should be avoided. If your site has earned those credentials, allow your visitors to easily verify your status by using a properly linked image. If your site has not earned those credentials, remove the images.

[deanpallatt]

Ryan

We are going to change all the directory links to the url names..

Thank you for your SEO improvement suggestions...

1.footer links = remove

2. cannibalizing your keyword

3. images from a secure server (i will look into this)?

4. verified by visa" and "godaddy secured i will add link to godaddy SSL certificate..

I will make these changes and holpfully see if this improves things..

Do you think it could be something to do with the panda update?

If you think of any thing else that could be knocking us down please let me know...

Thanks Again

Dean

[RyanKent]

Do you think it could be something to do with the panda update?

My clients are based in the US and Canada so I am not up-to-date on the Panda rollout status in Europe. Hopefully others can offer feedback on that topic.