Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi,

I started a new site for a client: www.berenjifamilylaw.com.  His old site: www.bestfamilylawattorney.com was too loaded up with bad links.

Here's the weird part: when you Google: "Los Angeles divorce lawyer" you see the old site come up on the 21st page, but Google doesn't even show the new site (even though it is indexed).  It's been about 2 weeks now and no change.

Has anyone experienced something like this?  If so, what did you do (if anything).  Also, I did NOT do a 301 redirect from old to new b/c of spammy links.

Thanks.

I have client with an old site - www.bestfamilylawattorney.com - which had a lot of spammy links (and bad rankings).  Instead of fixing those issues, we started a new URL - www.berenjifamilylaw.com - with new content and redesign.

Should I do a 301 redirect from old to new domain?  If the old site was being penalized, would a 301 transfer that penalty?

I just want to make sure I don't end up hurting the new site after doing all the work to start fresh.

Thanks.

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone that has used Yext's Power Listings has experienced any negative (or positive) organic SEO results.  As you know if you've used Yext, it creates a ton of links from directories.  I think they're mainly no-follow links, but wanted to check if anyone has had experience (either good, bad, or neutral) regarding impact on organic results.

Thanks.

Hi, thank you. I probably should have specified my question was focused on Organic, not Local.  I think he's doing fine on local, given that his office is in Pasadena.

I agree with you 100%.  He needs more reviews for his listing.  Most of his reviews have gone to Avvo, as real criminal defense clients don't want to leave non-anonymous reviews.

Thanks again for the excellent feedback.  I appreciate it.

Hi,

I have this site:  http://www.aerlawgroup.com.

It's ranking very well overall for all targeted KWs.  However, I have seen a drop for one main KW:  "Los Angeles criminal defense attorney."  It currently ranks #8 (it used to be as high as #2).  What's interesting is that for similar (yet slightly less competitive KWs, he ranks much better - "Los Angeles Criminal Defense Lawyer."

I'm not trying to be greedy with rankings, but I would love feedback and/or tips regarding any issues that could be contributing to this drop.

Thanks.

One of my clients got hit with negative SEO in the past few days.  Check it out in ahrefs.  The site is www.thesandiegocriminallawyer.com.

Any advice on what, if anything, I should do?  Google disavow?

Thanks.

Hi Adam,

I recently experienced a rankings drop after P3, and here's some of the things I did to correct the problems.  Before proceeding, I know that everyone says that Google must re-run Penguin to see any changes.  However, from my experience, that depends on the way Penguin affected you.

If P3 penalized you by completely removing your site, then you're probably not going to see any recovery until Google re-runs Penguin. On the other hand, if you experienced a rankings demotions, as we both did, then you can take steps to fix it and will see results without Google re-running Penguin.

Obviously, this is an area of HUGE speculation. I know it seems like Google has stated that a Penguin penalty requires that Google re-run Penguin to see that penalty lifted. However, the Penguin algorithm is just one part of Google's algo, so it only accounts for a portion of what Google considers when deciding where to rank your site for a given keyword.

Further, I'm not focused on a P3 penalty, but rather a demotion. A demotion does not necessarily mean a penalty, but instead could indicate (1) links to your site were de-valued, thereby hurting your rankings, or (2) your competition cleaned up their link profiles and were rewarded, thereby allowing them to outrank you.

Regardless, here's what I did and I hope this helps you.

1.  I used CognitiveSEO to go through my link profile. There are other similar tools out there, but I like this one.

2.  After going through my link profile, I uploaded a disavow file to GWT.  If previously disavowed links are still showing in your GWT, don't worry.  They will still show in GWT, but will be marked as "no-follow."

3.  Carefully go through your entire site.  Ask yourself, "Is this a good user experience?"  Be honest with yourself on this point. Is the content good/useful/informative? Is the site nicely laid out? Does the site inspire trust? In short, make it a great site.

4.  Internal linking - huge area of opportunity. I would say carefully go through each page and ask yourself how to improve the user experience by internal linking.

5. Promote via social media. Also, carefully study your competition to understand how they are promoting their sites.

I know this may sound cheesy, but I really believe that Rand is correct when he tells us to "be awesome." If you make a great website and promote it, people will not only come to the site, but also come back to the site. Repeat business is everything.

Although I'm certain I experienced the same panic/stress/anxiety you did when you saw your rankings drop, I realized there was nothing I could except really focus on making a better site: content, U/X, conversion driven design, download speeds, social media, and a link profile that I wouldn't be ashamed of. I believe that if you do those things, you'll see an improvement in rankings.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm happy to see that my site benefitted from Google refining P3 or that a Panda refresh potentially helped rankings.

Either way, it was a great learning experience that resulted in me improving the back link profile while improving the onsite user experience.

Thank you again for all your feedback.

Hi,

You've had some great responses above. I did a quick search of your business name + address. I quickly found some inconsistencies that you want to fix asap.

For example, your YELP listing has the wrong zip code: http://www.yelp.com/biz/guyettes-contracting-montgomery (little things like that, especially from a trusted source, can really hurt you.)

Take a moment and review your listing using: https://moz.com/local/search. This is a great tool to discover any problems with your online listings.

Good luck!

Hi,

Without knowing the particulars of your listing, I'll attempt to answer your questions:

"(1) what are some of the most common reasons listings might be removed,

(2) shuffled around,

(3) increased or decreased in ranking, etc."

(1) Removal could be due to spamming the description (keyword stuffing), though lately I have seen highly over optimized listings that are not being removed. In the past, a listing could be removed if the business owner attempted to keyword stuff the business name, but again this seems to be allowed now (it's referred to as a "descriptor."). Is it possible they have duplicate listings?  That could be causing a removal.

(2), (3) --> I see the shuffling around with my clients all the time. This is influenced by the keyword, where the search is being conducted (meaning where Google thinks you are when conducting the keyword search), and other factors that I do not think Google discloses. I have noticed that at different times of the day my clients appear higher or lower in the local rankings.  Perhaps Google shuffles around the results to see what gets better click-through-rates (and in theory creating a better user experience.)

Increase/decrease in rankings can be influenced by the user's location.  Then again, what kind of increase/decrease are you talking about? A few spots? Totally common. 20 spots? Tough to say.

You mentioned that the listing is not in the local pack, but appears when you click on "Map results for [Insert Keyword]." I have seen that too, but cannot tell you why that happens. There has been speculation that it has to do with either onsite optimization or GMB over-optimization, but I don't know if anyone outside of Google really knows. What I can tell you is that this happened to one of my clients. His listing would disappear from the local pack, but be #3 in the map results. Within a few weeks this stopped happening, and now his listing is consistently in the local pack.

If you would like, PM the listing in question and I'll take a look.  Good luck.

UPDATE - Cleaned up links and now see rankings restored to their pre-P3 numbers.

Thanks again to everyone who responded.

If anyone has any questions about what/how I did it, feel free to PM me.

Hi,

Can you PM me your PM name?  I tried both your actual name and name listed above, but neither worked.

NVM - I figured it out.  PM sent.

Hi,

Thanks so much.  PM sent.  I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Most of what I have read online regarding Penguin penalties involves a substantial hit.  However, I have seen some folks discussing slight drops.  As Andy said above, that could be due to competitors cleaning their profiles and moving up.  It's so hard to say with a 3 - 4 spot drop, especially when you're still on the same page.

What actions, if any, do you recommend?

By building, I meant earning.

Excellent point!  I didn't even think of that.  So you think such a slight drop is not likely any sort of Penguin penalty, but rather that my competitors received a boost from cleaning up their profiles Hadn't even considered that.

Thank you for your response and for your original post alerting us that Penguin had rolled out.

I saw slight drop yesterday after the penguin rollout, about 3 - 4 spots lower on targeted KW's.  However, I'm still on first page for those KW, just near the bottom as opposed to near the top.

I'm wondering if anyone else experienced, or has experienced with past Penguin updates, a "slight" dip in rankings.

What actions did you take, if any?  I'm inclined to simply focus on building better links rather than disavow given the lack of severity.

With that said, I would love some feedback or suggestions from anyone who experienced what I would consider a "less severe" penalty (3 - 4 spots, still on first page).

Have you checked out either Genesis or DIYThemes?  I'm using DIYThemes, and find it to be great.

Hey Sean,

Trying to PM you but the system can't find your username.  Is it Sean Williams?

Thank you.

Yeah, San Diego DUI Lawyer and San Diego DUI attorney are highly competitive (it's CA, people like to drink and drive apparently).  I'm sure it's similar in Tampa.

I'm working on Local SEO, cause you're right, it's a huge area of opportunity.

Hi Sean,

Thank you for the response.  A few sites were adjusted, not just mine.  None of them were wiped out, except for one.

This is a tricky area, as I'm trying to rank an interior page for a category in which a lot of attorneys dedicate their entire practice (hence entire website).

I don't see a decrease in traffic (via GA), so maybe it's not Panda.

I'll keep an eye on the competition.  Thanks again.