Sudden Ranked Drop? Google Algo Update?

Started working on a site lately, and was bemused by the disappearance of some backlinks from Google Search Results with the usual keywords. Was expecting an improvement in rankings and yet saw it fell. Now this explains why... -_- Bookmarking this thread for more updates from fellow peeps...
 
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fasttrak said:
The only thing I am wondering about is 301 redirects.
Click to expand...

I wanted to blame 301 redirect too, but:

THINGS JUST DOESN'T ADD UP HERE!

Yes I have 301 redirect to my website.
I lost about 90% of the traffic. My ranking droped from first page to nowhere, 100+ positions or completely vanished.

Sorry, but that sounds like a PENALTY to me.. for what? for moving one website to another lol? makes no sense does it?
Yes people move websites for whatever reasons. It's completele legal and there is nothing shady about it.

Now if google suspects smth they could devaluate the links.
So in this case my rankings would drop few positions, some of the keywords would drop down to page 2 or smth.

But not 100+ positions!?!?!

That's sounds like penalty. For what?

When I redirected the website I didn't get to choose if I want the link juice or not. That's Googles decision.
It just doesn't make sense.


It would only make sence to penalise the website (100+ posisions) if you use PBN. You create the links yourself - you manipulate the rankings. Ban. Fair play

Just my 2cents
 
flow1988 said:
Wow, and youre recovering back? I hope you recover fully. My site got hit yesterday too as well and hasn't recovered yet. I am in a super comeptitve niche though... So hope this all passes.
Click to expand...
i would not say i am recovering:D it looks like a dance.
 
Some questions i want to ask everyone pertaining to your backlinks:
1. Were there any related keywords within your domain that matches the keyword/niche you wanted to rank? if so, what is the percentage? e.g keywordhere.com
2. Were there any related keywords within the URL string that matches the keyword/niche you wanted to rank? if so, what is the percentage? e.g. domain.com/keyword-here
3. Were you getting majority of homepage links to your homepage money?
4. were you getting majority of innerpage links to your homepage money site?
5. Does your support pages have any links?
6. Are there any toxic backlinks within your backlink profile?
7. How many pages were indexed for your money site?
8 How many pages are indexed now?
9. When checking site:homepage.com does it rank at the top?
 
I read all 6 pages since I last posted here and it seems to me like at least 90% of posts here got hit.

I guess it's expected since those who got a boost usually don't brag about it.


Lauren11 said:
ya there is an update.
https://www.semrush.com/sensor/?db=US&category=
Click to expand...

I think Semrush reads BHW and get their update notices from here LOL

Last time I was log scanning Semrush reported the update icon under their timeline about 7 days after I posted.

ChesterF said:
So content is king again?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. Very clean white hat sites I monitor, with great content and tons of links, got hit.

Sizus said:
I think it’s not targeting only expired domains. Because it didn’t hit some of my sites which are built on expired domains. But some expired ones got hit though.
Click to expand...

I agree it's something else. Can't call yet though.

Googlers have posted some interesting tweets lately. There might be something there.
 
1. Were there any related keywords within your domain that matches the keyword/niche you wanted to rank? if so, what is the percentage? e.g keywordhere.com
NO
2. Were there any related keywords within the URL string that matches the keyword/niche you wanted to rank? if so, what is the percentage? e.g. domain.com/keyword-here
YES, exactly as you mentioned. /keyword to target keyword.
3. Were you getting majority of homepage links to your homepage money?
No, internal pages, but redirected to new pages. (expired domain)
4. were you getting majority of innerpage links to your homepage money site?
No
5. Does your support pages have any links?
No
6. Are there any toxic backlinks within your backlink profile?
Probably. No more than other sites not impacted.
7. How many pages were indexed for your money site?
500+
8 How many pages are indexed now?
Same
9. When checking site:homepage.com does it rank at the top?
Yes


Note: Russian IP.
 
so what i can see now in Ahrefs:
relevant keywords are dropping one by one from top5 to 80-90 serps
new , totally irrelevant shit appearing in 50-90 serps
 
I can´t see any pattern. 1 of 50 sites got hit on monday, CET. But only one of the newest, just 5 months old. Some ranks stayed, some disappeared (90% of rankings gone, 10% still alive, untouched). Some ranks disappeared in keyword niches where it was the only "real " content (500 pages) followed by very badly made spinning sites whatever. User metrics where pretty good. All other factors you can screen are healty, domain was newly registered, has a very modern layout, is fast, is perfectly mobile optimized, is a keyword related domain, merely no offpage: Just 2-3 links. Even yesterday the site went up 15% in indexed pages in search console...So it is just...young.
 
Jesus.. This update reminds me on the first Penguin one in 2013. So many sites got tanked hard.

Nice Christmas present Google. You found a time when to release it...
 
To add - all my sites pages are still indexed and come up position 1 when searched for. All still show their various SERP enhancements, i.e. FAQ's, Heading/site links etc and still appear as results in People Also Ask. BUT THE PAGE IS NOT IN THE TOP 100..... arghhhh

Same for all of my sites effected by this update/shambles
 
I see so many posts claiming to have whitehat sites. If you've ever paid for a link, no matter how whitehat it looks, you don't have a whitehat site. That site you paid for a link has probably sold links to others as well. Google could just compile a list of sites that sell links (believe me, they know) and penalize all the sites they've linked out to in the past xxx months/years. It's very easy.

What I would like to know is... Has anyone had a site penalized that only has links from a completely private personal PBN, with no niche edits, guest posts, and other paid links?

It's time you guys started looking into your backlinks, since there's no correlation in terms of content, niche, CMS, or monetization strategy.
 
assaultclass said:
I see so many posts claiming to have whitehat sites. If you've ever paid for a link, no matter how whitehat it looks, you don't have a whitehat site. That site you paid for a link has probably sold links to others as well. Google could just compile a list of sites that sell links (believe me, they know) and penalize all the sites they've linked out to in the past xxx months/years. It's very easy.

What I would like to know is... Has anyone had a site penalized that only has links from a completely private personal PBN, with no niche edits, guest posts, and other paid links?

It's time you guys started looking into your backlinks, since there's no correlation in terms of content, niche, CMS, or monetization strategy.
Click to expand...
my affected sites are old untouched expired domains, no linkbuilding at all
 
assaultclass said:
I see so many posts claiming to have whitehat sites. If you've ever paid for a link, no matter how whitehat it looks, you don't have a whitehat site. That site you paid for a link has probably sold links to others as well. Google could just compile a list of sites that sell links (believe me, they know) and penalize all the sites they've linked out to in the past xxx months/years. It's very easy.

What I would like to know is... Has anyone had a site penalized that only has links from a completely private personal PBN, with no niche edits, guest posts, and other paid links?

It's time you guys started looking into your backlinks, since there's no correlation in terms of content, niche, CMS, or monetization strategy.
Click to expand...

To be honest I do believe it can be smth to do with the links too...

PBNs, Guest Posts, Niche Editts...

Otherwise our websites wouldn't tank so badly...

We just need more info..

Google might just keep those pbns indexed to confuse us...

There is no reason for them to deindex websites who sell guest post or niche edits.

Now im wonderng how many websites that bought guest posts or niche edits got penalised....
 
assaultclass said:
I see so many posts claiming to have whitehat sites. If you've ever paid for a link, no matter how whitehat it looks, you don't have a whitehat site. That site you paid for a link has probably sold links to others as well. Google could just compile a list of sites that sell links (believe me, they know) and penalize all the sites they've linked out to in the past xxx months/years. It's very easy.

What I would like to know is... Has anyone had a site penalized that only has links from a completely private personal PBN, with no niche edits, guest posts, and other paid links?

It's time you guys started looking into your backlinks, since there's no correlation in terms of content, niche, CMS, or monetization strategy.
Click to expand...

1 of mine is completely natural, no link building.
 
assaultclass said:
I see so many posts claiming to have whitehat sites. If you've ever paid for a link, no matter how whitehat it looks, you don't have a whitehat site. That site you paid for a link has probably sold links to others as well. Google could just compile a list of sites that sell links (believe me, they know) and penalize all the sites they've linked out to in the past xxx months/years. It's very easy.

What I would like to know is... Has anyone had a site penalized that only has links from a completely private personal PBN, with no niche edits, guest posts, and other paid links?

It's time you guys started looking into your backlinks, since there's no correlation in terms of content, niche, CMS, or monetization strategy.
Click to expand...
uhm no no no

My expired website that dropped is kinda the cleanest out of all my sites.
Others that have PBNs, niche edits, web2s even a bit overoptimized anchor profile are doing just fine.
 
Anyone from Germany who got hit?

I built my money sites mostly on expired domains, bought guest posts, built links from my own PBN, did 301 redirects and I'm in the health & beauty niche.
Rankings? No movement at all for ALL of my websites. 10 Moneysites, no ranking changes. I wonder if the update didn't arrive in Germany yet or if I'm just lucky af.
 
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