Google Craziness Updates and Insight
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Wow, Google sure has been on a tear lately, haven't they? Blog networks deindexed, Panda slaps, "love notes" sent to webmasters via Google Webmaster tools, rankings tanking..... and on and on.
So, what's going on? What are some things you need to know?
First off, R-E-L-A-X, ok?
I know it FEELS as if Google is our boss, or the law, or whatever when you work online, but they're not.
Let's talk about some of the things going on lately.
About all the blog networks getting de-indexed...
Google has always passed very little link juice/ranking power from links within blog network posts. That's why it took SO many of them to make a dent in your rankings.
Thing is, Google didn't have the resource power to actually send a program out into the Wild Wild Web and de-index all those sites that had a certain footprint to them.
A footprint? Yes, Google tries to do as much as they can algorithmically. It doesn't take much for manual reviewers to pick up on some tell-tale footprints and then the Google algo guys put them into their algo. It's how Google works.
So Google has been collecting these "footprints" of blog networks and finally got the resource power to deploy an "algo" to go out there and get 'em so they can get that junk out of their index.
Also, it kinda is a "tell" that these kinds of links DO work to manipulate rankings in Google, but the keyword is "manipulate" - and that is a no-no with Google.
What Does This Mean To You?
If the majority of the back links to your site(s) were from these types of public blog networks that are now getting de-indexed by Google, you can expect your rankings to drop.
Why?
Because you are losing links. Lost links almost always means lost rankings - especially when those links were the only "power" behind your rankings.
To regain your rankings, you will need to regain links - just don't go the public blog network route to get them (or spammy forum profile links and junk like that). If those rankings really meant something to you and/or your bottom line, you're just gonna have to dig in and get back to work.
What About the "We Found Unnatural Links To Your Site" Message from Google Webmaster Tools?
First off, this message is a warning - not a death sentence.
Google sent out over 700,000 of these "love notes" in the first part of 2012 (yes, seven hundred THOUSAND of them). That's more than they sent out 2010 and 2011 combined.
On one hand, it's good that they're sending these warnings. It's like Google giving you a 'Heads Up' that they are seeing funky stuff going on with your back links so you better be careful.
On the other hand, it's like a 'witch hunt', in my opinion.
Google is trying to get webmasters to tell on their selves. Tell WHO and WHERE they got those links as they beg for mercy and promise to never ever do it again. And yes, you pretty much have to do that when you file a reconsideration request - AND do the best you can to REMOVE those links IF you can figure out which are the "bad" links AND get the site owner to remove them.
Good luck with that if you used some public and popular blog network.
Should I File A Reconsideration Request?
This is a tough one to answer since every situation is different.
However, based on all the folks that have contacted me via Twitter and forum posts, etc, asking my input, I would say that 85-95% of folks that got a 'love note" from Google should NOT file a reconsideration request.
I have had SO many people come to me and say, "I didn't do anything wrong!! All my link building was totally White Hat!!!"
Two things about that:
1) NO link building is considered 'White Hat'. If you build a link with even the hope that it will improve your ranking in Google, it's not totally White Hat.
2) Once I really dug into these sites that people asked me for help with, it was clear that there WERE link networks used at one time, and/or forum profiles or automated comment spam. Even if it was done YEARS ago, that is enough to trigger that 'love note' from Google.
So for most that I've come across, the best idea is to NOT get Google involved any more than absolutely necessary. Get to work building GOOD back links that will, in time, dilute your cr@p links and improve your back link profile.
Remember also, many of these network links are falling out of Google - meaning you are naturally losing these links as each day passes.
Yes, this means your ranking will drop too, but it makes it a bit easier to make a junk back link profile look better in less time.
Was My Site Penalized For Those Links?
If you can't find your site when you do a site:YourDomainName.com search in Google - yep, you can count on the fact that you got the worst penalty of all - your entire site got de-indexed.
Now, total de-indexing is rarely due to ONLY bad back links - it is usually something you did ON your site that violates Google's webmaster guidelines.
It's hard to get a de-indexed domain BACK into Google so you might want to take your loss and move on.
However, you might be suffering from some of your main keywords taking a big dive in Google. For example, you used to always rank somewhere on Page 1 and now your somewhere in the 50's or worse.
That most likely is a -50 penalty (or some sort of penalty). It could be caused by an overly high ratio of keyword anchor text links to your page/site - or it could be another type of penalty. If it's an algo penalty, it will correct itself when you undo what caused it.
If it's a manual penalty, it is time-based. For the most part, these manual penalties are issued by a real live human being who reviews your site and puts you in "time out" for 30,60,90 days or so.
These "time" penalties usually fall off on their own as long as you don't make things worse.
It Seems Like My Entire Site Won't Rank For ANYTHING Anymore!
Right now, a LOT of site owners are feeling that pain when their site just tanks and won't rank for any good keywords anymore.
This most likely is a Panda Penalty.
Panda was released on March 23rd and of all the query spaces I watch and keep an eye on, it seems the damage to rankings occured the 24th-25th of March from this Panda run.
I watch TONS of query spaces and not just ONE site for a keyword search, but the top 20 or 30 so I can SEE what happens in the BIG picture when Google makes changes. These aren't even keywords that I work on either....
I am seeing ranking graphs like this one below ALL over all the spaces I keep an eye on:
There is only ONE WAY out of a Panda Penalty. Fix the issues that caused the slap in the first place and then wait for Panda to be run again and if all is good, the 'slap' will be removed from your site.
Panda is run about every 4-5 weeks. So far, the schedule this year has been:
Jan 18th
Feb 28th
March 23rd
Problem is, figuring out WHAT caused it can be quite challenging.
For the most part, thin affiliate sites that are almost completely "Self serving" are sites that are really getting it. Other than that, there is no "one size fits all" fix for Panda. You'll have to look at the sites in your keyword query space that ARE still ranking well, see what they're doing that you're not....and take it from there.
Last But Not Least
I said this in Live Chat today, but I feel it bears repeating.
With all these thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of network sites being de-indexed, we are going to find a lot of them hitting the market place in the next months and years.
BE CAREFUL when buying an expired domain name. In fact, be careful when buying ANY domain name for the time being. Just because the name you want is available to buy does NOT mean it was never used (and abused) before.
Buying a penalized domain name is no fun. Yes, you MIGHT be able to tell Google via a reconsideration request that you just bought the domain and get some mercy from them, but who wants to deal with all that?
Any questions? Ask away!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Recent Comments
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The bad is, you need Google to get your site out. As long as your site doesn't have repeating visitors and got lots of links or with other words is an authority of some sort, you need google more then they need you. You have to please google with what they want.
But you should build traffic from other sources at the same time as you please google.
I tend to forget google is only best known, but you have lots of other sources, like FB, YouTube, forum, niche social sites, and so on to get traffic from. Dont forget about Bing and building a list.....
Only it is all work, and we forget about the other source as we use google ourself every day to find stuff.
Google loves to stay in the myth and never is clear about anything they do in terms of search. Keeps everyone wonder and others make money of it, by offering "help".
Google feeds people information based on what they want to expose and exactly what they are looking for in terms of content. Often times Google is funnelling gamers with their verbiage they send out on a regular basis.
They want you to march to their beat, but I do believe that sometimes people are lead astray between the things Google says and the things Google does.
Ultimately, you should not be marketing or creating content for Google. You should be building it for the reader, if you can do this, Google will find you. Google is searching for people like this, they are not looking for backlinks, they are not looking for a bunch of keywords. They are looking for quality content, and content that other people like.
The quicker people stop thinking that Google is a robot that doesn't understand human language, the quicker they will be successful with their SEO activities.
Anyways, SEO is a just one facet of traffic out there these days, appeal to a reader and you will be able to leverage all sources of traffic.
"They want you to march to their beat, but I do believe that sometimes people are lead astray between the things Google says and the things Google does. "
WELL SAID!
Fear is Google's biggest weapon. And there seems to be a big disconnect between what they SAY and what they DO.
However, the success of Google depends on the public perception of only the best results returned from Google. That public perception leads to the huge market share of search they have a death grip on. More searchers = more eyeballs on their ads (AND more info ABOUT those searchers to help advertisers).
I could go on and on about this because I am such a Google Geek (they really fascinate me), but instead I'll just say this.
When you're new, or just trying to get started in a keyword/market space - stay in the shallow end. The deeper the waters, the nastier it gets.
Jennifer
Precisely. Google does not care about the advertiser, they care about the person doing the searches and how content they are with the results. If they are not happy with Google's relevancy or delivery of high quality sites, then this poses a big problem. Google will lose visitors and they will move to other search engines like Bing or Yahoo.
Google makes changes looking for the BEST quality, everything else of minor significance. This is what drives their business and always has.
There is another looming figurative search out there, Facebook. They have hired many developers to build our their search capabilities, unfortunately they let Bing (MS) buy a stake in their search years ago which could act as either a nasty battle or limit creativity.
That's exactly what happened to me.
I purchased a domain name which to my surprise had been "sand-boxed" prior to me owning it.
Jennifer, you helped me in the forum here at WA buy doing a search and finding the prior owner/owners articles etc.... thanks again.. because I wouldn't have known how to figure that all out on my own =).
I did send Google via Webmaster Tools a reconsideration request but for all the extra effort I would have had to put into the site, I just moved onto the next.
Google obviously has a lot of clout in all our businesses. I try not to give it a lot of thought or focus on it too much because I don't want it to distract or deter me.
Oh yeah, Google LOVES to scare us to death. Fear is their biggest weapon used in attempt to protect their index.
I am also "guilty" of buying a domain name just because its a) what I want and b) available and NOT doing some quick checks to make sure the domain wasn't used (or abused) before.
At this time now tho, it's a good idea to do that quick check...
As always, thanks for the great info. I've been looking for more information about the latest Google update.
I have a question about one of the terms you use - you refer to 'blog networks'. I've heard this term before but I'm not entirely sure what these are. Are these sites that syndicate articles? Are the web 2.0 properties? How does one get on them and how does one avoid them?
Also, what tool did you use to get the chart of your rankings?
Thanks again for the great post!
Hey Aaron!
Blog Networks (as referred to in this post) are services such as Build My Rank, Authority Link Network, etc.
Basically, you either pay a fee or add sites to these networks so they receive the member articles too and then you are allowed to automatically submit many posts to all the blogs in that network. In those posts you are allowed to put links which helps your rankings.
To get on them, you sign up and use them. To avoid them - don't sign up and don't use them ;)
I got my rankings shot above from a rankings program I have been testing. So far, I like it...but he still has some bugs to work out.
Jennifer
Thanks for the info when you say be careful when you buy an expired domain name. How do you know it is an expired one ? Also, what do you mean by be careful, how do you check if it has been abused, or is this a game of chance? :)
I answered this in the comments below, but here is a copy/paste of my answer:
1. How do you know if a domain has been used/penalized before?
2 ways to do a quick check:
1) go to archive(dot)org and see if there is a record of the site being built out before. Archive(dot)org (the WayBack Machine) takes pictures of sites over time. If it was built out, they will most likely have a snapshot of it.
2) go to Google and put the domain name in quotes into the search bar and then look thru the results. If it was indexed before, many meta/directory sites will have links to it (and maybe a snapshot of it too)
Great info Jen! Due to all the recent changes and hearing first hand how many members here at WA suffered the Google slap, this info helps to calm the fears that many are having in regards to "playing nice" with Google. Thanks for sharing!
What is the way forward for we newbies because most of us don't seem to understand all these that Google is doing. If big names, big sites are being affected, HOW DO WE NEWBIES THAT ARE JUST COMING TO THE INDUSTRY SURVIVE?
Yep, I hear ya - it sure sounds scary. Thing is, dealing with Google is part of life in the fast lane 'round here. You'll get used to it =)
Just avoid anything that does massive automated links for you - don't spam blog comments or forums....and keep your nose down and work to create the best site and content you can.
Most of the time you won't need to worry about Google and what they're doing. Unless you're involved in dodgy practices (like PotPieGirl mentions, spamming/auto links etc).
I can find reading these sorts of 'scary' news articles about what Google and co are doing can paralyse me and my IM efforts. Don't let it scare you into inaction. If you're building a good site and writing good content (as is taught here at WA) 95% of the time you won't need to actively worry about what Google is doing. Mark.
Great post Jen. 2 questions for you:
1. How do you know if a domain has been used/penalized before?
2. Would the websites Jay show's us during the WAbinars be considered a "thin" site? If so, would it be a matter of adding more articles on the site to build it out more?
Thanks,
Leo
Thanks, Leo!
1. How do you know if a domain has been used/penalized before?
2 ways to do a quick check:
1) go to archive(dot)org and see if there is a record of the site being built out before. Archive(dot)org (the WayBack Machine) takes pictures of sites over time. If it was built out, they will most likely have a snapshot of it.
2) go to Google and put the domain name in quotes into the search bar and then look thru the results. If it was indexed before, many meta/directory sites will have links to it (and maybe a snapshot of it too)
2. Would the websites Jay show's us during the WAbinars be considered a "thin" site? If so, would it be a matter of adding more articles on the site to build it out more?
This is tough for me to answer since I haven't seen all of the sites Jay has shown in the WAbinars. However, I *feel* like he shows example sites or beginner sites - not fully built out sites as his examples or case studies (Jay correct me if I am wrong).
For the most part, "thin" doesn't really mean the size of the site... it is more to do with the content itself. Does the content add value other than just trying to get someone to click your aff link or AdSense ad? Are all the posts hyper-focused on one specific keyword or keyword group? Are the only links OFF the page self-serving? Things like that are more 'thin' than the actual page count of the site.
Does that help any?
I understand that dealing with Google is like dealing with the IRS...say the least amount possible so they don't get more involved than necessary. Why are you confident that the next step of Google is not to ban the sites if the webmaster/owner does not submit a reconsideration request? It's scarey that Google is sending 'love notes' for errors done years ago.
Yes, asking Google to look at your site is like asking the IRS to check how your accountant did on your taxes...lol!
I am not 100% confident that it won't happen to ANYONE, but history has shown that simply getting a 'love note' implies nothing more than a warning.
However, if a webmaster REALLY needs that site to get back to normal, they need to get in there and do all they can to clean up as much as they can (and give all the details of what they've done in an attempt to clean it up). This can be a very long,tedious, frustrating, and painful process...
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Thx Jennifer you've done it again ! Take a complex topic, boil it down, put several pounds of content (does content weigh itself in pounds?) in so the article is dense, and make me a happy better-informed reader. BIG thanks !