Hubba
Elite Member
- Feb 6, 2010
- 1,652
- 775
Here's the scenario:
Site is 8 months old with all original content. New content is added every 3 weeks or so. Everything is well optimized. The site uses Wordpress, and does show blurbs from new posts on the homepage.
The site had been ranking on page 1 for several months for a very competitive keyword. The site has a very diverse backlink profile from blogs (posts, not comments), articles, press releases and other sources. I haven't built any links using xrumer or SB. This site is very "clean" by BH standards.
Last week the site took a huge nose dive. I had not been doing any excessive, or different, link building.
G quit showing my homepage for nearly all search terms, and instead started showing posts and categories for the terms (way lower in the SERP.) G will show the homepage (very low) for terms that used to showing inner pages (homepage is not optimized for the terms.)
I have seen this happen before with sites G penalized from MASSIVE blog comment runs from spammed sites. But, this is the first time I've seen this for a site that has a clean link profile.
MY THEORY:
I think someone is slamming the site with xrumer and SB to bring it down. I KNOW this is possible with young sites.
MY ACTIONS:
I immediately started ramping up article marketing with varying anchor text and increased blog post syndication through various networks. I'm linking to the homepage and inner pages with varying anchor text.
RESULTS:
It has been 5 days since the drop. G STILL doesn't show the homepage in the SERP, except for unrelated search terms. For the site's main search term G is showing a category at #90+. For other terms G is showing strange results such as: domain/page/2. None of these categories, or page2 results used to show in the SERP.
I have not received in "messages" in the Webmaster tools account and the site is function properly (server responses, speed, etc.)
Have you guys seen this before (especially not showing the homepage), and what could cause this? What is a good solution?
I have another site this happened to 1 year ago from a HUGE spammy blog comment run. If I do build a lot of links from blog posts and articles G will show that site's homepage high in the SERP for a while, but then will start showing categories for the main search terms. It never really recovered from the comment spam.
I would really like to save this site since it is well constructed with all unique content. It was rock steady in the SERP for at least 4 months prior to this.
I welcome your advice and experience. Thanks!
Site is 8 months old with all original content. New content is added every 3 weeks or so. Everything is well optimized. The site uses Wordpress, and does show blurbs from new posts on the homepage.
The site had been ranking on page 1 for several months for a very competitive keyword. The site has a very diverse backlink profile from blogs (posts, not comments), articles, press releases and other sources. I haven't built any links using xrumer or SB. This site is very "clean" by BH standards.
Last week the site took a huge nose dive. I had not been doing any excessive, or different, link building.
G quit showing my homepage for nearly all search terms, and instead started showing posts and categories for the terms (way lower in the SERP.) G will show the homepage (very low) for terms that used to showing inner pages (homepage is not optimized for the terms.)
I have seen this happen before with sites G penalized from MASSIVE blog comment runs from spammed sites. But, this is the first time I've seen this for a site that has a clean link profile.
MY THEORY:
I think someone is slamming the site with xrumer and SB to bring it down. I KNOW this is possible with young sites.
MY ACTIONS:
I immediately started ramping up article marketing with varying anchor text and increased blog post syndication through various networks. I'm linking to the homepage and inner pages with varying anchor text.
RESULTS:
It has been 5 days since the drop. G STILL doesn't show the homepage in the SERP, except for unrelated search terms. For the site's main search term G is showing a category at #90+. For other terms G is showing strange results such as: domain/page/2. None of these categories, or page2 results used to show in the SERP.
I have not received in "messages" in the Webmaster tools account and the site is function properly (server responses, speed, etc.)
Have you guys seen this before (especially not showing the homepage), and what could cause this? What is a good solution?
I have another site this happened to 1 year ago from a HUGE spammy blog comment run. If I do build a lot of links from blog posts and articles G will show that site's homepage high in the SERP for a while, but then will start showing categories for the main search terms. It never really recovered from the comment spam.
I would really like to save this site since it is well constructed with all unique content. It was rock steady in the SERP for at least 4 months prior to this.
I welcome your advice and experience. Thanks!