Recovered a Penguin hit site. Simple, but worked.

Adam718

Adam718

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I was hired to do SEO for a website that was penalized (the client didn't know it was penalized), so instead of turning the offer down, I decided to take a look into what's wrong. The on-page seemed to be fine, with no copied content anywhere, and no over optimization. So I assumed it was a penguin hit, because the client said he used an SEO company for this site in the past.

After taking a look at the backlink profile on ahrefs, I saw that almost half of the backlinks were no-follow, and there were 2 sitewide links (each sitewide link covered 2k pages). Luckily, the sitewide links were just links that were stuck in the "Recent comments" sections of dead websites - So I just made a few comments on both sites, which pushed the links out of the "Recent comments" section.

After taking care of the sitewide links, I put out press release (built a tier 2 to each release), and built ONLY do-follow .edu and .gov to raw URL of the home page + about half of the inner pages (there were a lot). At the same time, I installed wordpress to thewebsite.com/blog and fed it three 500-700 articles a week. I also built some good social bookmarks to each article (about 40 to each post). The amount of links you build depends on the number of backlinks pointed at the site already.

The website was back up in the SERP, penalty free, in about 1 month.

So to sum it all up:


  • Removed 2 sitewide links.
  • Press Release on high authority websites -> Tier 2 of web 2.0's and Social bookmarks.
  • Do-Follow .Edu and .Gov using raw URL to home and inner pages -> Tier 2 of web 2.0's, Wikis, and Social bookmarks
  • 3 500-700 word unique articles added per week - > High quality social bookmarks to each article.

Sorry if this post looks sloppy, as I live in New York City, and we're going through a hurricane crisis at the moment, so I'm 'battening down the hatch'.

These steps worked for me, and I'm hoping it will work for you!
 
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Expertpeon said:
The site was not hit by penguin most likely...
Click to expand...

It wasn't hit by panda, as all of the on page factors were completely fine. It's a legitimate business with a good site.

It wasn't hit by the EMD penalty, because it's not even close to an EMD.

It was hit by penguin, and I'm 100% sure of this.
 
Adam718 said:
It wasn't hit by panda, as all of the on page factors were completely fine.

It wasn't hit by the EMD penalty, because it's not even close to an EMD.

It was hit by penguin, and I'm 100% sure of this.
Click to expand...

So, you think Panda = on-page
EMD = only EMDs
Penguin = recoverable prior to a filter update

Yeah, you're wrong on all accounts.
What precise DATE did it drop in the SERPs?

I had sites struck by Panda that had beautiful on-page factors and hundreds of pages of completely unique content.
 
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Expertpeon said:
So, you think Panda = on-page
EMD = only EMDs
Penguin = recoverable prior to a filter update

Yeah, you're wrong on all accounts.
What precise DATE did it drop in the SERPs?

I had sites struck by Panda that had beautiful on-page factors and hundreds of pages of completely unique content.
Click to expand...

I don't think Panda is about on-page, I KNOW panda is about on-page. Everyone in the world of SEO knows that Panda is about on-page. Everyone in the world of SEO knows that Penguin is about off page AKA backlink profile.

Yeah, the EMD penalty targets EMD's. That's why its called an "EMD Penalty". The only reason non-EMD's were hit is because there were other penalties being thrown out at the same time.

This is SEO 101, and I'm not sure why you're arguing the simple fact that this was a Penguin penalty.

Also, I don't know exactly what date it dropped in the SERP, because this client just gave me the website and said "Here's some money, take care of it."

I took care of it.
 
I thought this was a quick easy and useful post. Thanks for posting! I may try some similar stuff.
 
It's not exact science what is what. Either way OP had a solution for a penalty, thanks for sharing that!
 
Adam718 said:
This is SEO 101, and I'm not sure why you're arguing the simple fact that this was a Penguin penalty.

Also, I don't know exactly what date it dropped in the SERP, because this client just gave me the website and said "Here's some money, take care of it."

I took care of it.
Click to expand...

Because it's not. As someone who's dealt with the Penguin update since the beginning, and monitored thousands of sites hit by the update and subsequent updates...

Panda is not only about on site factors, EMD sites that were partial EMDs were hit as well... Penguin updates apply negative link juice to a site... Yes, the precise date the site fell matters an absolute crapload if "you taking care of it" was about Penguin or you took care of another problem.

I'm basically certain you took care of "another problem" which is fine, but it's not Penguin. For instance, adding content to a site, doesn't move Penguin at all. Penguin when applied to a site will actually LOWER the site's indexing speed...
 
Great share and good to hear that you fixed it.
regarding panda, i feel its just not about onpage but its more on overall quality of site content, structure, user experience
EMD was meant to target low quality thin sites and not all EMDs
Penguin is mostly about off-page, linking patterns, unnatural link profile etc
 
I was looking for a simple idea like this, since I have several sites but not all are hit though. So, I'm starting to implement this and see what happens.
 
Thanks for the strategy suggestion, looks like the sitewide backlinks and lack of diversity in the backlinking is what really did them in in the first place--good work

And LOL: Category 1 hurricane and the entire NE seaboard is shutdown.

I don't have much room to laugh, though; the same thing happens here in Texas when any snow falls.
 
Expertpeon said:
Because it's not. As someone who's dealt with the Penguin update since the beginning, and monitored thousands of sites hit by the update and subsequent updates...

Panda is not only about on site factors, EMD sites that were partial EMDs were hit as well... Penguin updates apply negative link juice to a site... Yes, the precise date the site fell matters an absolute crapload if "you taking care of it" was about Penguin or you took care of another problem.

I'm basically certain you took care of "another problem" which is fine, but it's not Penguin. For instance, adding content to a site, doesn't move Penguin at all. Penguin when applied to a site will actually LOWER the site's indexing speed...
Click to expand...

I didn't just add content, I built good links to that content, which increased the quality of the sites backlink profile. More links spread across more pages is something that can certainly help.

Also, it could be that adding the articles wasn't what helped the site. I'm just going over everything I did in order to give BHW my full experience.
 
Adam718 said:
I was hired to do SEO for a website that was penalized (the client didn't know it was penalized), so instead of turning the offer down, I decided to take a look into what's wrong. The on-page seemed to be fine, with no copied content anywhere, and no over optimization. So I assumed it was a penguin hit, because the client said he used an SEO company for this site in the past.

After taking a look at the backlink profile on ahrefs, I saw that almost half of the backlinks were no-follow, and there were 2 sitewide links (each sitewide link covered 2k pages). Luckily, the sitewide links were just links that were stuck in the "Recent comments" sections of dead websites - So I just made a few comments on both sites, which pushed the links out of the "Recent comments" section.

After taking care of the sitewide links, I put out press release (built a tier 2 to each release), and built ONLY do-follow .edu and .gov to raw URL of the home page + about half of the inner pages (there were a lot). At the same time, I installed wordpress to thewebsite.com/blog and fed it three 500-700 articles a week. I also built some good social bookmarks to each article (about 40 to each post). The amount of links you build depends on the number of backlinks pointed at the site already.

The website was back up in the SERP, penalty free, in about 1 month.

So to sum it all up:


  • Removed 2 sitewide links.
  • Press Release on high authority websites -> Tier 2 of web 2.0's and Social bookmarks.
  • Do-Follow .Edu and .Gov using raw URL to home and inner pages -> Tier 2 of web 2.0's, Wikis, and Social bookmarks
  • 3 500-700 word unique articles added per week - > High quality social bookmarks to each article.

Sorry if this post looks sloppy, as I live in New York City, and we're going through a hurricane crisis at the moment, so I'm 'battening down the hatch'.

These steps worked for me, and I'm hoping it will work for you!
Click to expand...

Excellent info

Reinforces the idea that removal of bad onsite and offsite SEO elements, followed by adding content and sensible linking gets results.
Not sloppy writing at all. Well put - and good luck with the hurricane mate.

Scritty
 
I believe the Anchor Text variation helped a lot in this case. And about the Hurricane, Do take care :)
 
Didn't the client give you access to his analytics? You should be able to tell exactly when their site was hit by an iteration by looking at the traffic data. If you see no drastic downtick in the traffic then there is a good possibility that the site was never hit. Merely assuming the site was hit by Penguin without solid data can be problematic.


How did you come to the conclusion that the website was even hit with a penalty? Simply looking at ahrefs is only going to give you link data.
 
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jstover77 said:
Didn't the client give you access to his analytics? You should be able to tell exactly when their site was hit by an iteration by looking at the traffic data. If you see no drastic downtick in the traffic then there is a good possibility that the site was never hit. Merely assuming the site was hit by Penguin without solid data can be problematic.
Click to expand...

They just told me that their site used to rank quite high, then were booted off of the SERP completely and they fired their SEO company. So it's fairly obvious that that their SEO provider at the time ranked them well until they got hit. There's no other reason that a site would rank well and get good organic traffic, then fall from the serp completely.
 
jstover77 said:
Didn't the client give you access to his analytics? You should be able to tell exactly when their site was hit by an iteration by looking at the traffic data. If you see no drastic downtick in the traffic then there is a good possibility that the site was never hit. Merely assuming the site was hit by Penguin without solid data can be problematic. How did you come to the conclusion that the website was even hit with a penalty? Simply looking at ahrefs is only going to give you link data.
Click to expand...
Analytics tells only WHEN was the drop. You can't do much with that unless it was a big update that Google made a statement about. I monitor about 100 sites and see penguin related movement every 2 weeks. They announce only big updates.
 
Looks legit. I usually build backlinks for all the url's on the penalized domain with more related keywords as anchor text for targeted url's. But, haven't tried the press release. Thanks OP.
 
What was the do to no-follow ratio before and what was it after you seen the rise in SERP? I am trying to recover a site myself, I have already seen some changes adding more content. The no-follow links are out of control, about 1 do-follow to 2 no-follow links
 
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