Google Disavow and Ranking Help

[kma9090]

Hi,

I have found myself getting more and more confused with Google. I hope someone can help me out.

I run a couple of review sites centered around the same topic. Each review site contains around 100 posts with about 1000 words per review. I and one of my writers spent months writing the reviews aiming to create a genuinely useful website.

Anyway, back in October last year I got hit by an algorithm penalty which saw my traffic drop by 60%.

The penalty caught me and shocked me as I thought for the previous 6 months I had been doing pretty good.

I decided (rightly or wrongly) that the reason for my misfortune must be backlinks. I chose to use the disavow tool and requested to disavow several thousand links.

The links were pointing to my site via a 302 redirect from some expired domains I had purchased. Similar (although not exact niche).

Disavowing the links made no difference so I chose to then remove the redirect completely.

Since then traffic has continued to fall and I just don't know what to do anymore.

I am thinking about redirecting the expired domains back to my site again and deleting the disavow file.
Google has done it's damage. It can't get worse.

What do you think?

[aakk9999]

Anyway, back in October last year I got hit by an algorithm penalty which saw my traffic drop by 60%.

Did you manage to match your penalty with any known Google update? How did your drop look like, was it like falling off a cliff or gradual?

Disavowing the links made no difference so I chose to then remove the redirect completely.

How long ago have you created disavow file and how long ago have you removed the redirect? Has Google had a chance to process this information?

I am thinking about redirecting the expired domains back to my site again and deleting the disavow file.
Google has done it's damage. It can't get worse.

If you have nothing to lose, you could put the things back the way they were after your initial traffic loss and see if this makes a difference in traffic stopping sliding on.

It is also possible that your initial analysis on why you lost the traffic was not correct and by your actions (disavowing, removing redirect) you perhaps did further damage. In any case, prior to any other changes, I would suggest that you firstly try to do a more detailed analysis to see if you can be any wiser as to why the traffic was lost in the first place.

[Planet13]

Can I ask one question:

"I run a couple of review sites centered around the same topic."

Why not merge them together into one site?

"The links were pointing to my site via a 302 redirect from some expired domains I had purchased. Similar (although not exact niche)."

It may not be a penalty per se, but it just might be that google realized it was giving your site too much page rank (based on the 302 redirects from expired domains) and is now ranking your site where it SHOULD be ranked.

Really, when you purchase an expired domain and then do a redirect, NONE of the page rank should flow to your site, and I am pretty certain that is what google is trying to ensure across the board, not just to your site.

Otherwise, what is to stop all your competitors from buying expired domains and redirecting them to their sites?

[kma9090]

Thanks for your replys.

@aakk9999 - It was the 4th October update and it was like falling off a cliff.
The decline has continued month on month sice then.

I disavowed towards the end of October when I realised my traffic wasn't improving.
I then removed the redirect because the disavow did nothing that I could see. This would probably be end of November time.

@Planet13 - My first review site was successful and 'they' say if it works rinse and repeat so I created a totally new site with new reviews however aimed at a different consumer.

I didn't purchase the domains for rank or to game Google. I bought the domains based on the existing traffic that they sent.

[Planet13]

Yes, I can see that, but probably in google's eyes, they MIGHT suspect that you did buy the sites to gain page rank.

If those sites still have traffic, can you monetize the sites without redirecting them to your other site?

"...so I created a totally new site with new reviews however aimed at a different consumer."

How different are the consumers?

[kma9090]

I am redirecting the traffic direct to a sponsor. I don't know if it's converting and it's not ideal because I wanted to send it to my site.