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Last month Google reported my backlinks as over 8000. I believe the exact number was 8301. Now after the last update a few days ago, my backlinks has dramatically been reduced to about 1000. There is no way I lost 7000 links in one update cycle. As a matter of fact, I actually obtained some very good links over the last month. I doubt that sites linking to me can hurt me, but something certainly happened this update…
My site is still ranking well for most of the search terms I usually do well on. However, my site used to appear top 10 for 100's of other keywords relating to specific models of widgets. After the last update, my site can not be found anywhere in the top 100 pages for a specific widget model. Sites w/ much lower PR are actually doing a lot better than my site.
I have not made any dramatic changes to my site or layout. I did add some iframes to increase functionality to my site. Also, I do have an affiliate links box on the footer of every page (like many sites). Could the iframes or off-topic affiliate links be hurting my SERP so dramatically after the last update?
My page rank has stayed the same (PR 7), but I now do terrible for many of the keywords that I used to do well on over the last few months. I certainly am not doing anything spammy, or illegal in Google's eyes. I am very confused, and would welcome some ideas.
Did I manage to trigger some sort of penalty or Google filter? Can sites linking to me hurt me in any way? I checked all the sites I link to, and most have a Toolbar PR of 3 or above. So, I am not linking to any penalized sites or bad neighborhoods. Frankly, I have not done much to my site in terms of SEO in the last few months, as I was doing pretty well. Now I am in oblivion, and I am at a loss... How did my site go from doing well w/ Google to doing very poorly when I changed nothing on my site?
Could someone have written a negative email to Google to affect my SERP? One of my competitors? How can I find out if this is the case?
Also, when searching for a specific widget in the past my site would come up as "domain.com/page.html", but now the only listings I see are "subdomain.another-domain.com/page.html". My actual domain name is not found in most of the listings for obscure terms I used to do well for (specific widget names). Rather, I see a link to a subdomain for my hosting company that links back to my site.
To wrap it up, I am not sure what to do from here. I mean If I was penalized, wouldn’t my PR have dropped?
Also, why is my site ranking so poorly for a lot of keywords I used to do really well for? I still do rank good for some 2-3 KW phrases that I have done well with in the past. It’s strange that I do very well on some phrases, but non-existent for some of the very specific KW phrases I used to do well on; there are literally 1000’s of these.
What happened during the last update that affected my site so dramatically, and where do I go from here? Anyone, please help; I am at a loss…
[edited by: Marcia at 6:37 am (utc) on Mar. 22, 2004]
All the content on my pages (about 80) is different and some of them have lots of text providing detailed, technical information.
I have 23 links on my links page most of which are reciprocal. Alltheweb currently reports 158 inbound links, many from authority sites.
OTOH, I'm looking at over 40 sites, some stable, most down but all built in a similar manner. Some by hand, most not. No recip links. All sites PR 4-6
The ones which are still doing ok have diverse incoming links from off-topic high PR sites and manual optimisation.
Many people have had directories hit. Directory pages usually look the same and are generated by a computer. Our sites that got hit are similar.
I've no answers here btw, just trying to figure this out.
J
Once I did that the next step was to work out how to improve rankings. I had done both those things and I have had a reasonably successful year for my efforts.
Now my PR has virtually disapeared. I wonder how much quality control Google has done in order to see the effectiveness of their changes? And I wonder, apart from the feed back of threads such as these if they are aware of the effect it is having on the small..and fat ..business man such as myself.
I would just say as well that you can have a great informative, useful service, beautifully visual site, but if no one can access it or find it then youre all dressed up and nowhere to go. I suggest people put their spanners and slide rules down and get vocal.
I am quite happy to start a new thread in order, hopefully, to provoke a larger discussion but it might have a little more kudos coming from a longer standing member with a better grasp on the technology and jargon.
It's been said umpteen times before, but if you are a commercial site, there is always ppc.
I have been penalised too, and I am happy that I have a good advertising campaign set up, so I hardly noticed.
Lost 1000's of Backlinks - Same PR
Greetings,
Herenvardö
I would actually be glad if SERPs disappeared altoghether and I could concentrate on getting the best bang-for-buck on ppc.
Right now it's just too tempting to try to get free listings!
Anyway back to the topic under discussion.....
That's cool. Just don't rely on them for traffic, in that case. ;-)
Well, I hope you are one of my competitors then ;)
Put your site in your profile then we'll know whether or not we are!
Let's be honest about this. If you have a site that sells something commercial (and I stress commercial) then PPC or Adwords may be appropriate but there are many of us who are not in that position. If you are one of us trying to scrape a living from the Internet then you will know what I mean. Would that I could even consider this.
