Proxy / Directory sites ranking before our site

[Mishaelo]

Hi,

Couple of days ago our Google SEO traffic suddenly dropped to almost zero. Mainly to the homepage.

When I search google for our hompepage meta title or H1 I see various proxy and directory sites which list our site (with our meta title and h1) who appear before us. Actually our site appears only after clicking the "repeat the search with the omitted results included" link. I never heard about these proxy / directory sites (don't know if I can post the URLs here) which is why we are thinking there is something wrong here.

Few questions:
1. I saw this thread: [webmasterworld.com...] but since it's very old I'm wondering if suggestions there are still relevant or if there are other things we can do to rectify it.

2. I'm assuming our site wasn't penalized since it does appear on the meta title and H1. (even if its only after clicking the "repeat search" link)
Is this correct?

3. Will changing content on the homepage help in any way?


Thanks!

[tedster]

There are two different situations - 1) proxy servers and 2) directories. For proxy servers, the thread you linked to is still the best advice, especially verifying googlebot as was originally described here: How to Verify Googlebot and Avoid Rogue Spiders [webmasterworld.com].

However, being outranked by directories that mention you is a different situation - and here's the bad news. I do think it's a sign that your site has been penalized. In fact, Google cleaned up the proxy situation quite a bit in more recent times, and being outranked by a proxy server is also a sign of a possible penalty. Most penalties do not involve being 100% dropped from the index, and being hidden behind a "Repeat this search..." link is not a good sign.

Hard to say why you might have a penalty - but I'd say more penalties come from backlink issues than on-page issues. Do you have any sense that you've done something that Google would see as manipulative, either on-page or off-site? If so, start by undoing that, whatever it is.

[Mishaelo]

We do regular work in the backlinks department, guess we'll have to check on recent activity there.

Any timeframe for how long back we should check? since the drop happened at once last week.

I also see the crawl stats on WMT dropped in the last few days so I guess that's not a good sign as well.

[tedster]

I'd go back 3-4 months, as well as looking at how new additions may have affected your total profile.

[Mishaelo]

well, good news for now.
all of the sudden (same way it started) things are starting to get back to normal. Ranking for KW we had before are back, we are now ranking first for h1, meta tags etc.

Only change we did was remove a backlink we had from a decent site. Only thing is that the backlink was sitewide (about 40,000 pages) and it might have been disproportional to total number of backlinks to the site (~2000)

Either that backlink made all the difference or just a google "glitch"? any other ideas are welcomed so we can maybe avoid that in the future.

Thanks for the help

[walkman]

When was that link given Mishalo?

[Whitey]

Only change we did was remove a backlink we had from a decent site. Only thing is that the backlink was sitewide (about 40,000 pages) and it might have been disproportional to total number of backlinks to the site (~2000)

Google should be able to handle a sitewide link. Was it on a site related with a theme to your business theme. I've seen sites disappear and return quickly when offending links have been removed. Do it too widely and a site may incur a serious penalty.

[Mishaelo]

@walkman - here's the timeline:
backlink added on Apr 10
SERP drop on May 12
Backlink removed on May 18
SERP back may 22

By this timeline - is it likely the backlink was the cause?

@Whitey - site is relevant to ours and it was a very decent site (we don't do "fishy" looking links) which is why it's strange that it would cause that...

[walkman]

"Backlink removed on May 18
SERP back may 22 "

I doubt it. Too fast for Google to crawl all the pages

[Mishaelo]

So Google glitch is the most reasonable assumption? since we didn't change anything else besides that backlink.
(SERP are still ok... knock on wood)