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The usual, compile the links, disavow them

If you got a manual penalty, submit a reconsideration ASAP.

Find some other traffic sources for the mean time while building better links. You can also start with some other domains as backup.

There's really no way to protect your site from something like that unless you have a really good brand plus a lot of great links.

There was an update 3 days ago. It's not reported but it looks like a big one. Maybe that's it?

I dont think it was Penguin, as my sites that little links but great onpage SEO and branding got some huge increases.

Im still checking the others to identify the common thing.

In your case, it's sounds weird that you will drop even for bing and yahoo AND social. So that's probably not because of google.

• Check webmaster tools - impressions, how much has changed?
• Crawl your site - check problems
• Did you move to https?
• What else, besides link removal, did you do?
• Maybe check your htaccess/robots/were you hacked? Injected by an invisible code? Check Google cache
• Check analytics code are you using the universal code? Or whatever stat tracker you are using, be sure that it's compatible.

Yeah, practically every site out there gets those so I would look at the other reasons for the traffic drop.

If it's really bothering you then just domain:askives.com each of those and submit them.

Has this happened to you yet? If not, dont worry about it.

The penalty doesnt really pass all the time. If your site B is strong enough, you won't even feel it.

If it does happen to you, you will need to find the 301, report it to the registrar to get it off. I don't think there's an easier way at the moment.

What Tim said.

And be sure to add it again on Webmaster tools

What they said. or create another website. Link back to your site.

I'm thinking we got baited in to answering here as it might just be a random post lol.

Mods please check

Hi!

I would look at your www. and non www redirect

OSE is probably counting all your pages for both www and non www  + the blog subdomain.

Plus older pages that aren't there anymore. You might have done a cleanup and removed some old pages. Those might've gotten included in the count as well.

So if I understood this correctly:

• You want to assign a new page per review
• You fear that it's thin content

If so, then it is thin. Very thin.

Google will know if you update your page, much like how pages get new comments.

You are better off putting up a separate review page for every review that page gets but still, I would choose putting it on the same page to take full advantage of it.

Laura's suggestion of doing overflows like amazon is also a good one. Pretty brilliant actually. I would've forgotten about that.

Try checking it out with bing/yahoo and yandex. See what type of pages they were then go to archive.org to check them.

If it's indeed thin pages or pages caused by parameters/searches/sorting then that is usually an automatic algorithmic penalty, usually, panda.

You might also have some good pages with good links, so be sure to check for 404s. 301 good pages as needed. It's a really tricky situation.

You also have to see if there's trouble with internal links and inbound links (just in case there's a mix with penguin. I've seen sites with manual and algorithmic penalties for both wtf)

Try out tools like

http://www.barracuda-digital.co.uk/panguin-tool/

http://fruition.net/google-penalty-checker-tool/

to see when your drops really started. You should be able to identify your algo penalty at least and go from there.

Trello for mapping out plans, strategy stage and discussions

Coschedule for your editorial calendar, getting writers to follow schedule, assigning tasks, discussions per piece.

I hate spreadsheets when it comes to content ideation,creation,launches. LOL

that's the hardest penalty to recover from lol. You never know if you have done enough.

The last time I did it (i just got one to recover recently) I just flat out disavowed all those links. I made sure I got everything, even included yandex results.

I also made "for panda only" improvements.

It worked without talking or emailing anyone.

Hi

That's a lot of indexed pages. What were the bulk of those pages? Categories? Products? Random tags or thin pages?

Did you switch to https recently? Are all versions included in webmaster tools? With a preferred version? How about their sitemaps?

It's possible that it's panda. It's also possible that it's a technical side like a switch to https, improper redirects, etc.

I just find it weird to see a big site like that lose that much indexed content (assuming they were good pages) without incurring an algorithmic penalty or a technical problem.

There's always the possibility that Moz can get featured in the section of the frontpage results, like how google is doing it with other blogs. But I dont think it will for news, specifically.

If your site is qualified to be included then it'll definitely give you some help with SEO.

Hi Rufus,

If it's a minor drop, then it might just be temporary. Are you still building links to your site now?

Like you, I normally ignore scraper sites. They sometimes give me a lot of good links lol

ill gauge it again after 3 months. If it's effect is questionable, then I end up disavowing them right there if it's a really bad looking site. Some scraper sites are really structurally sound and have unique content so I leave those out.

Hi Emerald

Enter both www and non www to webmaster tools

pages like http://www.toursistanbul.com/bosphoruscruises.htm are set to noindex

There are 30+ pages indexed in google right now

It's a mix of www and non www

Webmaster tools treats this as different so you will see a drop.

Go to your webmaster tools and set a preferred version. (which is www.)

If you plan to move to https then you need to  also enter both https (www and non www versions)

BTW, be sure your analytics is using the new code as well.

Good luck!

It doesnt really matter....for now.

Obviously, you'll need to pay more and give more information to get the better certificates so THAT might have an effect in the future. Who knows when.

I'm currently moving some of our sites to different certs to test them in the coming year.

Getting the greenbar, say like Yoast's site or Paypal and many others, it does give you a more secure feel.

For regular browsers, it could mean that it's safer, maybe it could lead to better engagement/conversions

Would you mind posting the IP here? It "might" help.

It's kind of hard to understand this situation but Ill take a crack.

Dont worry about Panda as long as you aren't one of those that squeeze the same grammatically wrong keyword phrases, over and over and over. Optimize the new content for the weaker words -> include those target key phrases -> internally link to the main page you want those to be optimized.

You mentioned SS is your platform. Then it's probably an image/CDN problem.

The image will be given a page, since it will return a 302, it wont get indexed even if it's on the sitemap.

If you have a lot of images on your site, then a good chunk of page wont show as indexed in webmaster tools

Something like that

If it needs a redesign anyways (since it's ancient) then go do it.

Drops will happen. Nobody can tell you exactly what will happen because some experienced big drops. Some, none at all. I've experienced mostly positive with it. Dropping a couple spots but eventually gaining it back

The only thing we know is that there's a lot of work involved.

Just be sure the social branding is changed, make it consistent and be sure the urls are properly directed to the new urls. Let the thin pages die and direct them to a cute 404 page. Be sure to use their list to let their previous clients know.

Just warn them, let them know what's involved, the many hours that theyll need to pay and what CAN happen. Let them sign a contract if needed.

It might even net you some good local PR which will just be great links.