Is Google hurting you? Real world results you can learn from

I am excited to write my first post for Wordtracker and thought what better topic to launch with than the one that haunts us all…

Google Updates

Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird and Pigeon are just the latest in a long line of Google updates over the years.

Understanding what Google is looking for is vital to keeping your site on top of the engines results page, which of course is vital for your exposure and business growth.

If you are thinking “oh another Google algo article, been there, done that” – think again!

Today I am not sharing abstract ideas; instead I am going to dive in and outline some real world lessons.

We all know that business owners online have to contend with a lot these days in order to grow brand awareness, search engine traffic, social media engagement and ultimately revenue.  In the midst of trying to create that growth, site owners live in fear the dreaded Google update and the fallout from that.

There are multiple ways you can be impacted by a Google update:

1. You may be penalized – which means manual intervention from a Googler who has red flagged your site for a “flagrant foul” (basketball fans out there?  You’ll appreciate that little reference).

2. You may be algorithmically adjusted – meaning Google’s regular algorithm determined that your site doesn’t meet their quality standards and they adjusted your site down in the search engine results.

3. You may be filtered out by Panda or Penguin – which are filters designed to skim sites off the top that trigger a warning for them, which reduces the low quality sites in the SERPs.

4. You may be collateral damage – which means you experience a shuffle in your positioning because of the fallout, general chaos and movement when a large update runs.

The first and most important thing you need to determine is which of those 4 possible scenarios is applicable to you and then you need to focus on the quickest path to recovery.

Now, let’s look at some real life examples…

Site A hired an SEO firm about 6 years ago and let them implement a “comprehensive SEO program” with little understanding of what the company was doing, or why.  Fast forward to April 24, 2012, also known as the launch of Penguin, and their traffic plummeted.

   BEFORE                                                                                           AFTER

The Fix

We started with a Link Audit, which should always be the first step if you suspect you’ve been hit by Penguin.  Based on the drastic decline and the precise date of the decline, we were reasonably confident that it was a direct hit by the filter.

Once we ran the Link Audit, it was clear there were major issues caused by the SEO firm that had done work for him.

The next step was an Analysis of those links, because you never want to blindly trust a software program, human review is essential to make sure you don’t remove links you don’t need to.  Once we determined which links were actually toxic to the site, we set up a campaign to try to have the links removed.  All efforts were documented.

At the end of a few tedious months of removal, we had successfully removed about 55% of the offending links.  That is pretty good considering link removal is out of our control - meaning we can’t force someone to remove a link to you and many of the garbage sites aren’t even monitored or maintained so there isn’t anyone to really respond to your request.

The next step was to look at the remaining offending links. We decided a Disavow with Google was warranted. Please note, if you aren’t sure what you are doing, be very careful with this since you can inadvertently remove good links and hurt your site.   When you disavow links, you always include data about the removal efforts so Google can see that you’ve tried and are not relying on their Disavow to clean up your mess.

In addition to the removal and Disavow, we focused on adding quality content to the site, reviewing and refreshing the on-page optimization and ramping up social media.  Remember that once the filter runs again and your site is cleared of the wrong-doing, you are going to have fewer links and run the risk of now being adjusted down algorithmically.  You kinda can’t win, eh?

So to try to combat that, we wanted good “social juice” and strong on-page work, so Google would see the quality and value in the site.

It is important to know that because Penguin is a filter, you can’t truly recover until they run the filter again and see the improvements you’ve made.  In this case, it actually took 2 updates of the Penguin filter for the efforts to be recognized but we did see recovery for this client.

Lessons Learned:

1. Don’t blindly trust an SEO company, make sure you are aware of what they are doing and make sure it sounds ethical to you.  Check their references and past results and be sure you are working with a quality company.

2. Check your link profile if you haven’t done it.  Back then we didn’t know it was going to be a problem.  Now we are all very aware of Penguin and the need to stay on top of link profiles.  Just because you haven’t been hit yet doesn’t mean you won’t be.  They are constantly evolving and updating their filter and you don’t want to get hit.  Be proactive.  Ignorance is NOT bliss when it comes to links and Google!

3. Don’t just focus on links, the search engines look at the big picture and so should you.  Focus on quality content, strong and clean on-page optimization and social media.

Site B knew they had their links under control and knew they had survived tons of Panda updates and were feeling pretty good.  Traffic was decent and their conversion rate was good.  They didn’t seem able to grow beyond a certain level but at least they hadn’t taken a hit like many others. Then whamo – (literally never said whamo in my life, but it seemed to fit here, don’t you think?) a Panda hit!

Out of nowhere.  The furry little guy had been leaving the site alone and suddenly he (she?) had issues!  

May 20, 2014 (Panda 4.0 or 27, depending which naming convention you are using) was the day it all went down.

In general we know that Panda is looking for low quality sites – sites with “thin content” (low quality, just there as a vehicle for keyword serving), sites that are spammy and blatantly keyword stuffed.

The Fix

The client came to us, hat in hand and said they knew they did something wrong but weren’t sure what it was.  First thing we did is an Analysis (my tagline is: success is in the data and the details, so starting with the data and details is always the first step).

Keyword stuffing? Nope

Thin content? Nope

Lots of errors and broken links? Nope

High bounce rate or click through rate from the SERPs? Nope

So what is wrong with this Panda guy (girl?)??

Then we saw it – so blatantly obvious.  They had what we call “boilerplate” elements all over the site.  Boilerplate elements are little blurbs of content that are repeated over and over on the site.  You know the ones we mean; we often seem them on lawyer sites, something like:

We serve: This county, that county, your county, my county, every county within 20 miles from here. Plus we service City A and City B and City C.  We offer great services too – need a divorce? Have a custody dispute? Want to enforce child support?  We can help because we offer all services related to Family Law.

The engines don’t like this because it’s thin content (in this fake example and on many real-life sites), and because it serves no real purpose.  Plus the repetition on every single page feels like an attempt to manipulate Google.

We cleaned up the site, removing some instances of the boilerplate content totally and in other instances we altered the text so it added more value and was different from other pages.

We had to wait a couple months but we did see the results improve.  Once we saw things start to increase, for good measure, we added some extra (high quality) content to the site and saw things increase even more.

Lessons learned:

1. Google tells us it can take 2-3 months to recover from Panda, so be sure to allow enough time for them to respond but not too much time in case you haven’t actually corrected the issue.

2. Always do a thorough Analysis – it can be hard to believe that one little thing can impact a site but clearly it can.

3. As much as possible, try to avoid the wrath of Panda.  A preventative audit of your site can help you avoid a world of pain.

I hope these examples helped you learn a little more about the effects of Google updates on real world websites. By understanding that there are multiple ways you and your clients site can be impacted you can begin to analyse, locate, rectify and improve.

Feel free to share your Google update story, and please do stay tuned as I share more info and real world tips.