I had a few questions about recovering from Penguin that maybe some of you experts could help me answer. My site used to be in the top 3 for my competitive keywords. After Penguin updates, it is now on page 8 for my main keyword and about 16 for my secondary keyword. It has no manual penalty or messages. In addition, it comes up as number one for my brand name and has a PR of 4. So I believe my site is not banned just being hit by the Penguin algo. My site has similar banklinks to my competitors, however, it has more links than any of my competitors and it also has links from one or two hundred directories. In my judgement, this is probably what is causing me the grief. So I'm finally getting around to embarking on the arduous task of contacting each of these directory websites and asking that me links be removed. This leads me to a couple of questions. 1)I have read that if you don't have a manual penalty, then your SERPS are because of Penguin and that the algo may be automatically penalizing you. If one addresses all of the problem areas will Penquin's algo immediately reflect this or do you have to wait until the next Penguin update? I read somewhere you have to wait til the next update, but if it is strictly algo driven that doesn't make sense. 2) I also read that if your site does not have a manual penalty, you should never use disavow. However, it is clear to me I have a algo penalty and I full expect most of my requests to webmasters to remove my site will be ignored. Won't I have to disavow those or does disavowing links not help with the auto Penquin algo. 3) Finally, has anyone actually had success in getting their SERPS restored from a Penquin hit and how long did it actually take once you cleaned things up? I'm not interested in hearing about manual penalties, that's a whole different issue.
What is the conclusion of a penguin?? Robert: Penguin has hit many sites and while they are not banned, their rankings have dropped. Continuing to add content and giving value to the user is a good place to start. Also, there are many other places than Google that can get you traffic (other search engines, social media, etc.).
What is is you want to hear ? If they are some push button solutions ? Yes start adding content that provides value is a good start, and another one is to start building some authority backlinks steady, without screwing your backlink velocity. 1. Unfortunately, fixing the problems will not reflect immediately, and it can take months IF you recover. Only 10-15% recover after a hit, but it is different from a case to case and without knowing the exact details I can't give you more in depth information. And yes in most cases you will wait until the next update. At least that is what my numbers show, in most cases the improvement come after the next algo refresh. 2. The disavow tool will in fact not help in every case, it can even harm you instead. From what you told you rankings aren't that bad considering most sites drop from top 100, and that is not the case with your site. So I would first try to build some strong authority backlinks and wait some weeks and see if any movement is made before even touching the disavow tool. 3. I can't really give you a proper answer here. I had 2 sites that where restored immediately, and to be honest I'm not sure if it was the disavow tool or not that helped them to restore immediately. Most sites I have recovered did so after the next algo refresh, and of course some haven't even recovered at all. It is very hard to guess what exactly will happen or even if it will be some improvements. We have so little data in our hands, and that makes it really hard. I don't know how important the site you want to save is for you. If you have invested a lot of money and time to build it, or if it provides some income to you. If that's the case, and from what you wrote above that you rankings aren't dramatically dropped. I would take the change, because as I see it there is a big change you will recover very easy. In the other hand, if this is some spammy affiliate site, and you could easy build a new one, my experience has showed that it's faster and cheaper to build a new one instead of trying to save the old one. Cheers
it's not so bad if you're site in the 8th page , just focus on fresh content & your rank will be back soon ( BTW , i don't recommand more backlinks )
No, what I was looking for is more along the line of your response and other's experience, not regurgited Matt Cutts—useless. Thanks for your thoughts and ideas. No this is not a spam site, it's a legitimate business so my interest is in getting it back to page one.
Nadir thanks. Yes, I've already changed some content, removed all of my link pages and poor quality outgoing unrelated links. Now I just have one focused consolidated resource page. I have additional plans for content changes in the words. Today I see my site moved up fro page 8 to page 6. Not sure if this is just google fluctuation or because of my changes. Anyway, for my business which is really competitive I need to be on page for. I have many of the same type of quality incoming links as my competitors but unfortunately I also have lot's of directory links which I think are hurting me.