my 8 year old PR2 site bombed!

[tony20]

So yeah, looks like shit face google updates has also caught up with my local business website! I was ranking pretty well now no where to be found unless you type in the actual URL in to the search.

Funnily enough, my facebook page for the business is now at No3 for my main keyword!

Quick question, does webmaster tools show if you'd been effected by an update or penalty?

Some info on my site:

Its PR2, has lots on info on it, lots of pages, a blog, sitemap, the URL is my company name with no niche topic I the URL, good on page SEO but I would say not excessive, I have pre-bought the domain for 10 years (10 years still to run) thinking that this would help the serp's, I have a twitter (updated often), facebook (updated often and with 141 REAL likes), linked in, Googlwe+ (no black hat here at all) etc etc for my site, I have a listing for all the local directory/citation sites, I have great reviews on lots of sites including Places, Yell etc, no google updated has effected me before, it has my full address, privacy policy etc on it and its generally a clean, safe site that has always converted great!

I have not done link building since 2010/2011. << YES, a lot of black hat links! Well, they where all created manually by myself. A lot of forum links, social bookmarks, article directory's, Angie's and Paul's profiles etc etc. No link wheels though, well I think I might have a Web 2.0 link wheel, I need to check my records.

Webmaster tools is showing 1,346 backlinks from 246 domains "that have links to pages on your site". A huge portion of these backlinks are anchored to my main keyword. One, 3 word keyword! I would guess 90% are like that. A lot of none relevant sites are linked to my domain.
All my local directory/citation sites are linked to my URL or brand name. For example Yell, freeindex, yelp, qype etc...

So my question is.... If I start deleting those shit links (webmaster tools has luckily given me a list of sites linking back to my URL) will this aid the recovery?

What else can I do? apart from buying a new domain name and starting from scratch. The problem is that its my business name in the URL so I'd hate to lose it!

Any help from you experts would be greatly helped!!

Many thanks

 

[archon10]

Removing the bad links will help, but it's a long long long road to recovery.

 

[tony20]

here are the top sites linking to my site!

truckmountforums.com 195 1 (forum)
sitepoint.com 167 1 (forum)
tritalk.co.uk 87 1 (forum)
yell.com 78 1 (local directory/citation )
chime.in 42 10 (bookmark)
warriorforum.com 24 1 (forum)
placeslocally.co.uk 22 1 (directory/citation)
atozdirectory.info 20 1 (directory)
ukclassifieds.co.uk 19 1 (directory)
inscotland24.co.uk 18 1 (directory)
freshome.com 16 1 (blog post)
bigmoneybox.com 15 1 (forum)
technorati.com 15 9
xihalife.com 14 1 (forum or porfile)
designpublic.com 14 1 (blog post)
seoprofiler.com 11 7
womantribune.com 11 1 (blog post)
amazines.com 10 7 (article site)
alternativeconsumer.com 10 1 (blog post)
glosslip.com 9 7
shopedinburgh.com 9 1 (directory)
ewealth.com 9 1 (forum)
oscommerce.com 9 1 (forum)
copub.com 9 1 (profile or forum)
findyourlink.info 9 1

 

[archon10]

I definitely wouldn't want a .in linking to me. Those are all spam sites.

 

[larrydetuvi]

Misunderstood previous post, but I think forum profiles did it.

 

[tony20]

there's a lot of useless forum and blog posts. none relevant..

There's also been a lot of changes to my site recently. All for the good, nothing black hat on the site. All genuine content hand written by me! I also changed the site over from joomla to wordpress a few months ago.

Before that, I had not worked on my site since 2010/2011 and was bringing in a lot of leads!! So annoyed now...

Could this of harmed the site? nothing for ages, then a lot of changes over a few months?

 

[tony20]

warrior forum got over me? I don't understand?

I just created the account there so I could drop my link in the sig.

All those links (and a lot more) where created in 2009/2010 and few in 2011

 

[TheLinkGuy]

I have not done link building since 2010/2011. << YES, a lot of black hat links! Well, they where all created manually by myself. A lot of forum links, social bookmarks, article directory's, Angie's and Paul's profiles etc etc. No link wheels though, well I think I might have a Web 2.0 link wheel, I need to check my records.

That is your problem right there, shitty links are killing rankings regardless of when they were built.

One of my sites sounds oddly familiar with your history, no links built for years but similar style links and it tanked with the latest algo update.

You need to remove the links and clean up the backlink profile if you want to rank well again.

 

[Goal Line Technology]

If I start deleting those shit links (webmaster tools has luckily given me a list of sites linking back to my URL) will this aid the recovery?

Yes, and it is not a maybe, this is a must before reconsideration your next move,
and I dont think you need to consider new domain (301 or otherwise) yet!!!

Also, I assume you have all the lcoal seo plugins on WP, (clean up your onpage SEO)
and get new FRESH links from more UK and Scottish sources,
make them relevant and current to Edinburgh (if thats what your site is about)
Good Luck

 

[archon10]

One of my sites sounds oddly familiar with your history, no links built for years but similar style links and it tanked with the latest algo update.

I thought you said in another thread that you were going to continue to own Google. I guess Google pwnd your site, so were you thinking you were going to take over Google in the future? Please suggest me. I don't understand.

 

[tony20]

I'm f***ing scared to get backlinks relevant, white hat or otherwise now

 

[archon10]

I'm f***ing scared to get backlinks relevant, white hat or otherwise now

You should be. None of the spamming people here suggest is safe. The people who know how to buy links aren't posting it publicly.

 

[pompano]

remove the bad links and start building good ones. That is your best bet, I have seen some clients have the same problem. They had spam links built by someone in 2010 and it got them this update.

 

[TheLinkGuy]

I thought you said in another thread that you were going to continue to own Google. I guess Google pwnd your site, so were you thinking you were going to take over Google in the future? Please suggest me. I don't understand.

One website tanked that I was banking on for 3 years without any linking and simple linkspam?

I'd say I raped Google well enough. All my other sites are ranking well. GG Matt Cutts, you bad troll.

 

[Goal Line Technology]

You should be. None of the spamming people here suggest is safe. The people who know how to buy links aren't posting it publicly.

thats not entirely 100% true...


I understand what you are saying, but there are good quality BST's in BHW,
which perhaps OP should also consider?

 

[topdown]

What's your targeted anchor text ratio? Even though you have the backlinks mentioned earlier, if they're targeting the same keywords is what it has triggered a penalty. Usually people when they link out naturally they won't use targeted keywords, more of "here", "link", etc your job is to simulate all that sh*t if you're building the links.

 

[amerriaz]

never get backlinks a worst way to damage your website

 

[Moosey]

Yes, and it is not a maybe, this is a must before reconsideration your next move,

and I dont think you need to consider new domain (301 or otherwise) yet!!!

Also, I assume you have all the lcoal seo plugins on WP, (clean up your onpage SEO)
and get new FRESH links from more UK and Scottish sources,
make them relevant and current to Edinburgh (if thats what your site is about)
Good Luck

This, exactly.

never get backlinks a worst way to damage your website

Lol WHAT? I think you need to reconsider your IM knowledge.

 

[tony20]

thanks guys. So first step is to remove all those crap links. I'll start tonight.

So I presume I'll have no mention of a penalty in webmaster tools?

And me updating the site a lot recently after years of not doing anything has not harmed the site rankings?

I know this is the million dollar question but what are regarded as good/safe links these days?

The good thing is my completion is total crap! I mean some of the sites I am competing agenst are very poor in links and design.

The site at No1 is a emd in the form of >> this-is-his-domain.co.uk

My keyword density on the homepage is 2.05%. Is this too high?

 

[Duffers5000]

I would advise you to chill out and wait for the algo to finish. That might be another two weeks. If you start deleting links now then you may as well turn yourself in to google.

I have a site with similar stats that disappeared completely. I don't expect it to just re appear but I will wait to see what sort of recovery it makes in the next 10 days before I start doing anything drastic.