Welcome to the Q&A Forum
Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.
You aren't disturbing Marco 
It really isn't uncommon to see discrepancies like this. I see them every day! A 25% drop like this suggests to me that Google is perhaps doing a little bit of a reshuffling.
I would wait just a bit to see if the number of pages starts to increase as there isn't an awful lot else you can do - it sounds like it has all been done.
-Andy
Google rely on links, even no-followed ones, so any link that is given will pass along some information. Google have also said that if you link out to a site as a reference point, then this can be beneficial to you. I have seen pages in the SERPs jump as much as 3-4 places, just after the addition of an external link to a reputable / source.
-Andy
If you change signals, Google will pick them up. They much prefer to see change than content being incorrectly handled.
-Andy
Hi,
Here are 3 resources that I suggest you have a read through as there is lots of great information:
You want to make your images as descriptive as possible, but not spammy. If it makes sense and explains the product, then you should be good to go.
Personally, from the examples you give above, I would go with something like:
---------- white-modern-kitchen-brandname.jpg ALT=Beautiful white kitchen from brandname
That sort of thing.
-Andy
It's very hard to say for certain Bob, without looking at it. It could be that Google is still taking exception at pages in the site, despite doorway pages have been removed.
Presumably you have asked Googlebot to crawl the site again?
-Andy
Hi David,
If Google are mentioning links, then I would do something about them all. There is obviously a reason why they don't like them, and although you consider the Blogroll link to be natural, this is amongst the sorts of links that Matt Cutts has said they don't want to see. They don't know you didn't ask for it.
If you have no joy with requests to have them removed, just disavow and then advise Google again.
If you are worried about the other sites, change the links so they are not keywords (just something like visit me at <url>. You could even go for a mention and remove any direct links altogether? Perhaps see if the links can be no-followed as well, but as these are not your sites, you will need to make the request.</url>
-Andy
Hi Jay,
Anyone know if Panda may target this type of approach even if the quality and uniqueness is appropriate?
No, this doesn't sound to me like Panda at all.
You mention they have microsites and blogs in operation - presumably this has been done to try and rank for additional phrases? I can't see many other reasons why this would be done.
My opinion here is to pull both the microsites and blogs back in and just create a blog on their own site (if they don't already have one). I wouldn't bother 301ing any external sites / posts back to those they might want to re-published on their current site either. You need to be advising them to start from scratch and ditch the chaff. If these external sites have all had a part to play in their current problems, then I would just distance yourself from them altogether.
...they all feature content that's of the same industry and broad topic
When looking at their own site, you need to also be advising them not to create blogs posts for the sake of it. Rather than creating 4-5 articles a week, tell them to create just 1 or two really high quality (and longer) articles weekly.
I hope this helps.
-Andy
"Spin - Free Blogs - Bookmarking - Directories - Article Sites - 30-50 articles per month..."
...do i still have a chance of get hit by Spam actions of Google?
There is absolutely no doubt about this. Everything you have said there is absolutely what should should NOT do when link building.
Link building needs to be handled carefully. You need to think about how you can invite links to your site, or produce content so good, that outreach will be met by authors who are happy to run with a link through to what you have produced.
Think about what you have to offer as a linkable asset. If you have nothing, then you must create something.
Amazing links will come from amazing content.
say a 500 word content for link building & spinning it 3 times & then using it for link building on social bookmarking sites, directory sites, etc. Will this be a good idea?
Absolutely not.
-Andy
Hi Bob,
There are some things that Google understands that can't be changed. If there is a technical spec for a product, I wouldn't be trying to change that because it will probably change the product as well.
With any ecom site, try to focus on the value-add - what can you bring to a page that offers something more than the stock information that you are given.
-Andy
Always an awkward one. First of all, don't rush to kill off the domain. I have done a lot of these and everything can be pulled back. That question of 'if' it should or not though, is only something you can answer.
If you want to know a little about what state your links are in, go to Open Site Explorer, enter your URL and look at the Anchor Text that is used to come back to you. Are most of these 'money' phrases? Is your brand used much?
Look at the Linking Domains. Do you have many that are coming from sites with high Domain Authority? Do you have sites that are linking back to you from more than one page?
When you look at the overview of your site, what does it tell you for your stats? Is everything very low?
Of course, this is only a short peek at what's going on. If you are still unsure, drop me a message and I'll be happy to do it for you.
-Andy
Hi Ankit,
All is not lost, but it all depends on the time you have to put in to correcting it.
Have you ever tried to fix the issues with Panda? There is a wealth of information available out there - here are a couple of Google ones to read:
Remember that Panda focuses on thin and duplicate content, which translates to low quality, so if you think that you have ways to correct this, there is no reason you can't pull the traffic back.
-Andy
You are looking at links from the wrong way now.
Have a read of this article in MOZ as it is a great starter resource.
-Andy
Hi Alick,
Traffic is always good and referral traffic would be quite interested if they click through from a product that is being offered.
I wouldn't worry about the number of links because I suspect they are nofollowed - and even if they aren't, you can easily disavow at a domain level if they are causing you concern. There you get the best of both worlds - no worry about unnatural links and still get referral traffic.
-Andy
It sounds like there were some big changes on the site, so I would guess that the sudden jump and then subsequent loss might be Google deciding where it should be indexed. Has it been removed from the SERPs altogether or just dropped down to a lower position?
It wouldn't strike me as being anything else, but things to check...
-Andy
Is it a good move to pick 10 free blogging sites to build links
No is the simple answer really. Google is targeting these types of link building practices so I would be looking to create amazing content and the performing your outreach from there.
By Amazing content, I don't mean that you should write 500 words and how that will suffice - because for the most part, it won't. If you want to really succeed with link building, then you need to create content that takes you past what most others are doing. If you can create 10 articles in a couple of days, then you are't doing enough.
Take your time - spend a number of days creating something that is fully researched, very in depth and answers many questions. You will have a really good chance of this being picked up by a number of reputable sources.
-Andy
Get the low down from 90 experts here
https://blog.ahrefs.com/white-hat-link-building-expert-roundup/
-Andy
Hi Isabelle,
The general rule of thumb here, is that if a page has moved, you should always 301 it to it's new alternative, but only if there is one - don't try and match pages unless they are very similar, or as in your case, just moved to a different URL.
If you have internal links to the old URL, this should be updated to reflect the new page. A rebuilt sitemap should be given to Google once this has all been done.
With regards what to do with pages that get no traffic, that it a bit of a different question. My feeling on dead pages is to try and make them better than remove them to get traffic. No need to get rid of a page if there is a chance to use it.
-Andy
Hi Issa,
There are actually very few reasons to noindex / nofollow pages these days as most issues can be handed though 301 or canonical, so if there is an option that allows this, do it.
From what you are saying, and as long as I am understanding correctly, this is just like an e-commerce site that has page 1, page 2, page 3, etc of the same product, and they all rel=canonical back to Page 1 - which is the right thing to do.
This tells Google that you know there is duplications and not to pay any attention to them, so while they are open for Google to see, it means that you won't get penalised.
So you have Job 1, Job 2, Job 3, etc, with a rel=canonical back to Job 1.
Here is a little extra reading from Google:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en
I hope that helps?
-Andy
Hi John,
As these are nofollow, I wouldn't worry about this at all. A nofollow flag is essentially what you get when you disavow a site through Webmaster Tools (Search Console).
There is no harm in disavowing these links if you feel there is a potential to switch to dofollow, but by the sounds of things, this probably wouldn't happen - even if it did, it sounds like a spammy technique that wouldn't cause you issues. Google would probably see hundreds (thousands?) of links all of a sudden appear with a dofollow tag and just ignore them.
-Andy
Hi,
This is quite common for sites that are hacked and you then end up with these really strange spam links pointing to you.
The good news is, this won't do any harm to you. The bad news is, it's virtually impossible to stop someone else linking to you - especially so if it's a hacked site.
I would advise just keeping an eye on them and if you think it's a problem, just disavow the sites that are linking to you.
-Andy