hi, i have another post going but it sort of went off track. So i want to start over and ask about the last 3.5 update on 04/19..

i lost lots of traffic to several sites. Some sites lost a few spots while others lost everything.. And i can't figure out what the problem is.

Recently i read an article that this update penalized database driven websites. And mine are db driven. However not all are down, so i dont know if this is the problem. Any suggestions or advice?

On a different article, they suggested getting a new domain and starting over. Because there is no way to fix it if you've been hit. Is this true?

thanks for the help..

Hi,

There's an awful lot of bad advice out there; especially post panda and penguin, but for me both were just a ramping up of filtering over-optimisation in a link profile (especially anchor text I think), a tightening up in links' value, and on-site there's a close look at over-optimisation, duplicate content and I have a strong feeling bad english will be penalised too.

At the same time there may have been a de-emphasis in the boost that an exact match domain used to give you.

So with so many possibles and maybes who can say for sure but my gut feeling is that links from loq quality sites eg scrapers sites, spammed blogs just aren't working any more and poor english grammar is often a signal of an automated site as well as being a poor user experience too.

I also so some very broken SERPs results with blank pages ranking well and viagra serps full of malware sites, so you can't rule out a problem with the new algos either!!

I think any of the above can be fixed and I wouldn't throw any domains away just yet.

Cheers,
Paz.

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10.3 million entries for Hotels in Turkey but I'm still chipping away.

Paz - do you mind if i PM you a website to look at? I'll give you access to webmaster tools and have no problem paying for your time invested.

Also, i have another question about a different website. I got a unnatural link email from G, it's a new domain and i did a 301 redirect from old site. It's showing the old site linking to new site with 13 million pages. (old site didnt even have that many pages)
Question is, how long should i leave the 301 setup?
And since the site is still ranking well, should i do the reconsideration request?
thanks

Send me a PM and I'll spend half an hour or so on it for free



I have no idea to be honest; this isn't an everyday SEO scenario if you think about it. I would say that not all GWT warnings result in outright filters immediately but most do a couple of weeks later. I know you are ranking well now but I can't help feeling you are on borrowed time to be honest. As I say I don't know your scenario, but my feeling is that you should try and ride it out with the 301 redirect in place (if you really think it's the sole reason why you are ranking well) but make sure your new site is otherwise 100% squeaky clean and healthy with no duplicates warnings in Google indexed pages, Webmaster Tools etc.

If your two weeks are up and then you do get a traffic slump I'd take the redirect down and only then do the reconsideration request.

The reason why I say you can try and ride out the Webmaster Tools warning is that I have a client who got the same links warning, but at the same time went from 500 "valid" pages to 4,000+ junk pages indexed in Google after a disastrous development update. His traffic tanked, but as we are cleaning up the site, his traffic (not rankings yet) are returning, with the old links in place. If we hadn't have had that dev disaster, I'm pretty sure we could have ridden out the warning!

Cheers,
Paz.

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10.3 million entries for Hotels in Turkey but I'm still chipping away.

Hey Paz, did you get my PM?

Sorry, just looking now!

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10.3 million entries for Hotels in Turkey but I'm still chipping away.

Paz - hi, i sent you a couple emails. Let me know if your interested.

Well you've had 25 mins; I'll give you another 5 - check your pm please

__________________
10.3 million entries for Hotels in Turkey but I'm still chipping away.