Site dropped from 1 to 5 - even with domain name

[bushib]

Hi,

I have a 5 years old articles/tutorials based tech site which worked well for many years but since the panda update its going down and down. Since the last 2 weeks my site dropped its position in Google even with domain name.

Also the inner pages have dropped their positions dramatically in the last few days.

Can anyone tell me please what's going on?

Any tips to recover site's position in Google.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Regards
bushib

[Planet13]

...but since the panda update its going down and down.

Do you mean the FIRST panda update in February 2011? Or a subsequent update?

Since the last 2 weeks my site dropped its position in Google even with domain name.

How exactly are you searching for the domain name?

Are you using:

mydomainname
mydomainname.com
my domain name (assuming you have more than one word in the domain name).

Also, have you tried searching for a unique string of text on your home page? (try using both with quotes and without quotes around the unique string of text) Maybe people are scraping your site?

Also, as best as you can tell, when exactly did the drop happen? Can you look at your anaytics and see if there was a date when traffic took a dive?

i don't think there is a -4 penalty (maybe there is, who knows?). Hopefully someone with experience dealing with pandalized sites will chime in and let us know whether it is common for a Panda victim to lose rankings for its own domain name.

[bushib]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

After the first Panda update in February 2011, my site was affected but after that no major decline was seen for many months. However in the last few days I noticed a worst decline in the history of my site.

I use the domain name of my site (domain name) and its on the fourth position in Google. It was used to be on the first position since the site is launched. Also many other keywords lost their position. It seems like the end of something but I don't know the reason behind it.

I don't know its the continuation of panda or what. But again after the first major panda there was no major decline for many months and the current situation happened few days ago.

Can anyone experienced with this issue help?

Regards
bushib

[brinked]

if searching for the root domain name itself such as website.com, if that does not come up as #1 where it previously has either:

1. google sees you have other inner pages that are more important/useful to visitors

2. over optimization penalty.

[bushib]

Hi,

Its about searching with the keyword in the domain name.

Ranking lost with the keyword in the domain name.

Any suggestions please?

Regards
bushib

[bandwith]

Sounds like over-optimization to me. Was the drop in traffic sudden? Or a gradual drop over time.

Usually if you search your domain name with one of your more prominent keywords, you should be #1, along with any subpages that rank for that keyword. This immediately tells me you've been penalized due to an excessive amount of non-qualitative links like directory submissions, rather than focusing on content-rich links like blog articles.

I would suggest focusing on your content and making sure it doesn't look over-optimized - good way to tell is if it looks spammy and the keyword is everywhere you look.

[bushib]

Hi,

The site is not over optimized. Its simply html based site with more than 500 pages. It was badly affected by first panda (like many other sites on the web) but worked smoothly with constant traffic for many months after Panda.

Are there any good tools/resources to find out the exact cause of this issue?

Looking for more help.

Regards
bushib

[tedster]

You can sometimes get a clue by using the Google Search Tool called Verbatim Search [webmasterworld.com]. It removes all the personalization and semantic "adjustments" from the results and gives you a strict interpretation of the SERPs for your query term.

My suspicion is that a true penalty will still lower your rankings in the Verbatim Search results. But if your site lost rankings due to a change in the algorithm [especially the kind of "mind reading" that search engines do today, then Verbatim Search often shows your page near the position you saw before the ranking loss.

[brinked]

It sounds like your site is just being re-evaluated. Doesnt necessarily have to be any sort of a penalty. With panda and all the other google updates, many sites are taking a hit. Are you experiencing a major traffic loss?

[bushib]

Hi,

Thanks again for all replies. I did Verbatim Search and found my site at the number 1 position in Google with my site name (keyword keyword).

I have been experiencing a major traffic loss every week and every day. My inner pages are also losing their rankings.

It seems to be that my site is hit by more than 1 penalties that causing traffic loss constantly and it will reach 0 traffic one day.

I want to identify the exact causes of this problem and solutions.

Any help will be appreciated.

Regards
bushib