One of our clients was hit hard by the Google Panda update. For about 2 months their rankings were down 350% from average. It was bad. Even worse though was trying to figure out why.
We had reduced the amount of content so all that remained was essential, well in advance of the update. Along with original videos and some quality backlinks, we though nothing of a possible issue.
The problem is, way back when the website began there were some non-relevant backlinks and obvious link building. In addition, the location and ownership of the shop changed a couple times, which along with some of the links may have raised a red flag with Google and the ‘trust factor’ they discuss.
Compared to leading competition in the industry. our site was above grade. Many competitors get links through blog comments and obvious blog spam without a clear focus and stuff with odd links (some next to port). These site were not hit and are as good as ever. One would think that these sites would get hit by Google soon but thus far they are good to go and some still sitting in the top 10 for competitive search terms.
The rankings on our clients site are finally back to normal. If this type of thing happens to you, content is the first thing to look to. Make sure your content is valuable and not spam. After that, check your links it may surprise you what links are associated on your site, especially when you link build late at night (standards can drop with fatigue).
We’ve almost given up on ‘traditional’ link building practices. Getting links naturally is possible, it just takes some creativity, hard work and a lucky break. Working with a client who is passionate about what they do and being successful helps too. In fact, it is essential. A web marketing company can get you rankings by force feeding content and emails onto the web. But without natural promotion and interest those SEO companies will continually need to get paid to keep them. Considering 98% of web companies use traditional link building techniques, it’s something worth keeping in mind when looking for and SEO company to drive web traffic.
