What Happened?! Authority Website Crashing and Burning!!!

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN AUTHORITY SITE IN PROGRESS. IT IS BY NO MEANS AN "AUTHORITY" WEBSITE YET.

This is my first stab at a proper "authority" website. The website currently has 32 articles on it that are all unique and very well written by me ranging from 350-750 words per article (average 500). That's nearly 16,000 words of content along with one image or more per article. I have been adding them steadily over the last 6 months. I have seen nothing but positive movement mixed with a little bit of dancing until a couple days ago...

Two days ago something awful happened and everything took a turn for the worst. Almost every keyword dropped 100+ positions into oblivion.

Screenshots (SerpBook & Ezee Rank Tracker):




What I've been doing:
I've been using SubRepo to harvest high pr web2.0 properties, register them and write my own content to link back to individual posts & homepage.
I've also thrown a few social bookmarks at a few of the posts.
I purchased an expired aged pr1 domain in my niche that had some high quality backlinks and 301'd to my website 6-12 months ago.

My thoughts:
I think I should diversify the types of backlinks to my website. I'm thinking of throwing a bunch of quality social bookmarks (~10 per post) at the website.

Additional notes:
No penalties in WMT.
I've probably only built ~5 links over the last 2 weeks.
Latest post was May 1. Ranks started dropping around May 2/3. This may have something to do with it?

I am certainly not new to SEO but this is my first stab at a proper authority website. I wouldn't have any kind of issue if it was a single post that dropped but everything is dropping! I am very patient when it comes to waltzing with Google but this is something I've never experienced before. I had (and still have) high hopes for this website and have

TL;DR: All posts on semi-authority website have dropped 100+ positions. There are only a few that are not in position 100+.


I would love to hear people's comments and suggestions. I will post back in this thread if (or hopefully when) my rankings return to normal. I am extremely depressed this happened and am praying to jebus that my rankings return.

Even though you don't diversify much your backlink profile, it's not something that should get you penalized, surely its some bad ass dance or something...

Kinda scared myself too, used gsa to make 1 verified link daily for my posts and it built 70 in 1 day to a 12 days old post .... scary of penalization but since I add content daily and send social signs every day I hope it doesn't happen.

So waht I suggest you to do is keep adding content

Your linkbuilding looks like junk.

I also doubt your rankings are going to return on their own, that looks like you got smacked across the board.

People confuse "authority" with "size", these are two different things. Just because you got some meat on the site that doesn't make it an "authority".

Yes in general sites that have strong link profiles tend to be large in size as they provide a vast amount of useful information, but always remember it is the quality of the links that make a site an "authority".

spectrejoe said:

Even though you don't diversify much your backlink profile, it's not something that should get you penalized, surely its some bad ass dance or something...

Kinda scared myself too, used gsa to make 1 verified link daily for my posts and it built 70 in 1 day to a 12 days old post .... scary of penalization but since I add content daily and send social signs every day I hope it doesn't happen.

So waht I suggest you to do is keep adding content

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I really need some encouragement because this has really got me down. I've dumped so much time into it. I've heard of a page dancing - but an entire website?! I know it's only been a couple days but I thought it was a bug in my rank tracker. Both rank trackers and manual checks don't lie :\. I may just give the website a few days for Google to figure out it's decision before adding anything.

Something else I'm thinking of is to noindex & exclude from sitemap the "attachment" pages in WordPress. They could be seen as thin content because there is only an image on them that is already on a post. What do you guys think?

Gyuman82 said:

Your linkbuilding looks like junk.

I also doubt your rankings are going to return on their own, that looks like you got smacked across the board.

People confuse "authority" with "size", these are two different things. Just because you got some meat on the site that doesn't make it an "authority".

Yes in general sites that have strong link profiles tend to be large in size as they provide a vast amount of useful information, but always remember it is the quality of the links that make a site an "authority".

Click to expand...

I'm building PR1-4 links on web2.0 pages with handwritten content and linking to posts and homepage. I think these are some really high quality links! Do you have any suggestions for links I should be aiming for?

I have used "authority" liberally in this post. I am equating authority to size. This is a "large" website then.

Thanks for the input. I would be really thankful for more specifics!

I am not sure if there are any Google update because not all of my sites experience this but some of my sites got totally smacked in the last few days, but they are spammed sites though.

As you mentioned, you build PR1-4 handwritten web 2.0, they are high quality links but don't forget those are also a huge footprint if you only build High quality links!

If you are manual reviewed, in the next few days you will received an email from WMT which i hope it wont happen :-ss

Now the only thing you can do is trying to add more content, dilutte your links profile with some lower quality links like PR0 links as well as diversifying it, and see if there is any new changes in the future.

Please report back, interested to know .

Undo the 301 PR1 domain, it may have had a penalty attached to it and thats the reason they let it drop

peterngo91 said:

I am not sure if there are any Google update because not all of my sites experience this but some of my sites got totally smacked in the last few days, but they are spammed sites though.

As you mentioned, you build PR1-4 handwritten web 2.0, they are high quality links but don't forget those are also a huge footprint if you only build High quality links!

If you are manual reviewed, in the next few days you will received an email from WMT which i hope it wont happen :-ss

Now the only thing you can do is trying to add more content, dilutte your links profile with some lower quality links like PR0 links as well as diversifying it, and see if there is any new changes in the future.

Please report back, interested to know .

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response . I tried to play it safe by only building really high quality links. You're right, it could definitely be a footprint. It will be really interesting to see if I receive any kind of message from GWT in the next few days. I am all too familiar with that horrid message. I really doubt it's a manual review because the site was on it's way up and receiving less than 50 visitors a day. Not worth a Google employee's time if you ask me. Many of the keywords were in position 11-20 and were ready to start making money after a bit more elbow grease .

I will definitely update this thread if/when I see anything happening.

I Make Dollars said:

Undo the 301 PR1 domain, it may have had a penalty attached to it and thats the reason they let it drop

Click to expand...

The domain was very legitimate with many quality links. However, I just checked the domain's links in ahrefs and I can see that the number of backlinks to the PR1 domain has dropped significantly. This may have something to do with it.

I would really like to isolate the issue so I will probably apply suggestions 1 at a time and wait in between.

Action plan (thus far):
1. Give it a few more days to gauge what direction the rankings are headed.
2. Remove/NoIndex WordPress attachment pages.
3. Wait...
4. Build some quality social bookmarking links to dilute link profile.
5. Gauge results & wait some more.
6. Remove 301 if rankings are still in the gutter a month from now.
All while adding content regularly and praising jebus.

1. Give it a few more days to gauge what direction the rankings are headed.
2. Remove/NoIndex WordPress attachment pages.
3. Wait...
4. Build some quality social bookmarking links to dilute link profile.
5. Gauge results & wait some more.
6. Remove 301 if rankings are still in the gutter a month from now.
All while adding content regularly and praising the almighty jebus.


Best solution go with it!!

Posted via Topify using iPhone/iPad

32 articles does not make it an authority site.

partymarty4870 said:

32 articles does not make it an authority site.

Click to expand...

My apologizes, it is more of an authority site in progress. That's the goal anyways.

Hey man,

Really sorry for your ranking. For now, I think the following are the 3 things you should definitely try to get your rankings back.

1. If your anchors aren't dilute already, DILUTE THEM.
2. Are your pages OVEROPTIMIZED for your keywords? There's a small chance, but I have seen drastic SERP increases by removing just 1 KW from the page. Read some quality articles like phpbuilt's about KW density and make some changes.
3. Finally, find 2-3 keywords that you like, and throw some really hard hitting High PR links at them (SAPE/Homepage). If the SERPs on those KWs don't rise in the next 2-3 weeks, then it looks like there's a serious penalty on your site, and you should consider dumping the domain and cloning the website.

Let me know if you need more explanation, or any help. All the best! Jeebus saves

I would place my bet on that PR 1 redirection

May 2nd was quite a turbulent day according to http://algoroo.com/

First - I am 100% sure your site is not an "authority site".
Second - Your "quality link building' is not quality just cause you wrote an article and placed it on WEB 2.0 using SEOd anchor to link back to your crappy site

partymarty4870 said:

32 articles does not make it an authority site.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it is more like a cute MFA site.

My newest authority site has over 400 articles on it and I have yet to even consider backlinking it nor moetizing it.

Lay off the backlinking and just build content... no backlinks at all until you get 450 - 500 articles on it. It will come back.

"I purchased an expired aged pr1 domain in my niche that had some high quality backlinks and 301'd to my website 6-12 months ago."

Maybe that sites 301 effect lost its power after 6 months. Read somewhere in the forum 301's have lifespan of 3-4 months.

Listen to the replies above... its all been said. To be honest, I'd leave authority sites apart unless you got a shit ton of time or some good amount of money. Loads of links and very little content leads to nowhere but to penalties.

First: which type of web2.0 you were using ? (i mean how many weeblys/tumblrs/webs)

Send some links from social bookmarks , some nofollow wikis , some inter links.

Tip: don't use word "authority" for a that type of site.
(those posts by senior member might have been some thing helpful , if you might have not used word "authority" )
-=-

Alright guys... It's not an authority site yet. This is my "authority site" project and the goal is that it will become one in the future. I clearly used the term too loosely. If you could please look past my misplaced adjective and provide something useful I would really appreciate it.

Phobos said:

Hey man,


Really sorry for your ranking. For now, I think the following are the 3 things you should definitely try to get your rankings back.


1. If your anchors aren't dilute already, DILUTE THEM.
2. Are your pages OVEROPTIMIZED for your keywords? There's a small chance, but I have seen drastic SERP increases by removing just 1 KW from the page. Read some quality articles like phpbuilt's about KW density and make some changes.
3. Finally, find 2-3 keywords that you like, and throw some really hard hitting High PR links at them (SAPE/Homepage). If the SERPs on those KWs don't rise in the next 2-3 weeks, then it looks like there's a serious penalty on your site, and you should consider dumping the domain and cloning the website.


Let me know if you need more explanation, or any help. All the best! Jeebus saves

Click to expand...

1. The anchors are naked urls and generic anchors.
2. My pages probably have 1-3% keyword density give or take. I don't think on-page is the issue.
3. I could try this later but I've become scared of buying links from a blog network or sape.


Thanks for the response!

asap1 said:

I would place my bet on that PR 1 redirection

Click to expand...

This will definitely be something I address now. I didn't realize that the link could have become negative over time.

SkyrocketSEO said:

First - I am 100% sure your site is not an "authority site".
Second - Your "quality link building' is not quality just cause you wrote an article and placed it on WEB 2.0 using SEOd anchor to link back to your crappy site

Click to expand...

The links are aged PR1-4 web2.0s. I usually place 500-1000 words of content on them. My anchor texts have been 90% naked or generic. I understand that I could be building better links but I would consider these far from volatile. I appreciate the response and suggestions are welcome!

BassTrackerBoats said:

Yeah, it is more like a cute MFA site.


My newest authority site has over 400 articles on it and I have yet to even consider backlinking it nor moetizing it.


Lay off the backlinking and just build content... no backlinks at all until you get 450 - 500 articles on it. It will come back.

Click to expand...

I agree the website is far from authority. It's an authority-in-progress. I'm definitely going to cease fire on the web2.0s and focus on content.

berkay1907 said:

"I purchased an expired aged pr1 domain in my niche that had some high quality backlinks and 301'd to my website 6-12 months ago."


Maybe that sites 301 effect lost its power after 6 months. Read somewhere in the forum 301's have lifespan of 3-4 months.

Click to expand...

I will remove the 301 redirect after I've tried a couple things first.

Reyone said:

Listen to the replies above... its all been said. To be honest, I'd leave authority sites apart unless you got a shit ton of time or some good amount of money. Loads of links and very little content leads to nowhere but to penalties.

Click to expand...

This is my first stab at an authority site. It's likely going to become large over time if I can fix the rankings. I'll still throw content at it. I really haven't used loads of links though - I doubt any of my posts have more than 20 backlinks each.

prab1996 said:

First: which type of web2.0 you were using ? (i mean how many weeblys/tumblrs/webs)


Send some links from social bookmarks , some nofollow wikis , some inter links.


Tip: don't use word "authority" for a that type of site.
(those posts by senior member might have been some thing helpful , if you might have not used word "authority" )
-=-

Click to expand...

I've been using blogspot, weebly, tumblr, livejournal and overblog. I have some some very light social bookmarking but have mainly kept the linking strategy focused on web2.0s. I'm going to start throwing some social bookmarks at the individual pages after I let the rankings settle a little bit.

I really did make a mistake using the word authority. It really derailed the conversation because at least 5 people so far had to point it out instead of offering insight :\.


Thanks for all the replies guys! I don't mind a little tough love but lets keep it constructive!

If you have been penalised then theres not much chance the site will recover. By penalised I dont mean an actual warning in webmaster tools but an across the board devaluing of your site....which is what appears to be going on here.

If you have the time to sit it out you could wait and see but I would be inclined to start fresh with a new domain. You could possibly re use the articles if you rewrite them but my advice is to research your keywords and write related articles for each keyword and keep building the site with fresh content. You could be looking at hundreds of articles but theres no such thing as too many articles if you really want your site to be an authority.

I would also turn off the serp trackers until I had the site built and populated the way I want it. Looking at those things daily is a stress nobody needs.