What's going on?

[Jamie101]

Firstly, I just want to say that I don't really care about how my personal site ranks, but I've noticed something strange. Take a look at this:

example 1

example 2

Has my site been slapped or something? I should be 1st for both of those.

The only thing that I can think of is that I blog comment quite a lot, so maybe I've been slapped for using "Jamie Farrelly" as my anchor text too much in blog comments?

Edit - Noticed that my site is nearly impossible to find on Google for loads of things that I should be ranking for. Has to be a penalty, right?

 

[Brassneck]

Firstly, I just want to say that I don't really care about how my personal site ranks, but I've noticed something strange. Take a look at this:

example 1

example 2

Has my site been slapped or something? I should be 1st for both of those.

The only thing that I can think of is that I blog comment quite a lot, so maybe I've been slapped for using "Jamie Farrelly" as my anchor text too much in blog comments?

Edit - Noticed that my site is nearly impossible to find on Google for loads of things that I should be ranking for. Has to be a penalty, right?

Yes, does look as if you should be ranking for some of those. Were you ranking at top before last few days? Did you get any messages in WMT?

Stephen.

 

[philiporchard]

I've got your site at No. 5

 

[Jamie101]

I don't use WMT actually, never have.

I've noticed that it wasn't ranking for search terms that it should be ranking for a few weeks ago but didn't look in to it too much.

 

[Aegean]

If you are going to query what's happening on Google you really should be utilising the info available in GWMT. Its a basic step.

 

[Jamie101]

If you are going to query what's happening on Google you really should be utilising the info available in GWMT. Its a basic step.

Yeah I've been meaning to start using it for a while now.

Might sort that out later.

 

[AuthorityDomain]

Hi Jamie,

Yeah does look like there is some filter applied. Possibly the over optimisation of anchor text. I notice you have lots of backlinks but not a huge amount of referring domains. Possibly too many sitewide links to your site.

 

[Jamie101]

Hi Jamie,

Yeah does look like there is some filter applied. Possibly the over optimisation of anchor text. I notice you have lots of backlinks but not a huge amount of referring domains. Possibly too many sitewide links to your site.

If I do I haven't meant it. I don't try to get backlinks to this site at all. And anchor text would be my name most of the time so I can only assume it's that.

 

[AuthorityDomain]

Hi Jamie,

Contact the blog owners and ask them to change the anchor link to Jamies Blog or Jamies Affiliate Blog.

In fact I think I linked to your blog before. I can change this, my blog only has 65 indexed pages so won't help that much, but I can change it or remove it if it helps?

Cheers

 

[Jamie101]

Hi Jamie,

Contact the blog owners and ask them to change the anchor link to Jamies Blog or Jamies Affiliate Blog.

In fact I think I linked to your blog before. I can change this, my blog only has 65 indexed pages so won't help that much, but I can change it or remove it if it helps?

Cheers

Probably should but I'd feel wrong wasting my time doing that since I've done nothing wrong.

When a site asks for a "name" in my opinion it's spammy to say "Jamie's blog" rather than my actual name.

Is it a sitewide link? If it is then it might be a good idea to change the anchor text maybe. Thanks.

 

[matty281k]

try no indexing category pages + tag pages

 

[AuthorityDomain]

try no indexing category pages + tag pages

+1 to what Matty said. You could be suffering from a bit of dupe content. You will notice if you search for a block of text in quotes from any post that google will have indexed the same content several times.

I always noindex the tag/category pages where this could be an issue in wordpress. Its a simple fix with adding yoast seo/robots meta plugin or all in one seo plugin.

 

[Murray]

try no indexing category pages + tag pages

This search shows how bad it is, good spot.

If you have SEO all in one plugin you can just click noindex categories. authors etc

 

[Jamie101]

try no indexing category pages + tag pages

Thanks, I feel quite silly now.

I noticed this problem on one of my sites a while ago and realised that I probably have the same problem on all my others.

I've just made those noindex (with Platinum SEO) on that site, as well as around 5 or 6 other sites. Would be quite impressive if all these sites start ranking again

 

[Blossom]

You might want to check if any of the dupe pages are ranking instead of/higher than your main blog post URLs and 301 them instead of noindexing them.

 

[Jamie101]

You might want to check if any of the dupe pages are ranking instead of/higher than your main blog post URLs and 301 them instead of noindexing them.

Good point.

Most of these sites are basically dead though so I'll just noindex them. (For my personal site I don't try to rank for anything either, but it's just annoying to know that it has been penalised!)

Should be good to see if this makes a big difference.

 

[Jamie101]

Let's see if he gets back to me

https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/318435619791593474

 

[Murray]

Let's see if he gets back to me

https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/318435619791593474

This search still shows the URLs even though you have noindexed them.

Once google has taken the noindexed duplicated pages out and reprocessed everything then you will be able to judge if that was the problem, as seems most likely, or It's anything else.

 

[boxfish]

Which keyword you want to rank in google top 1 position?
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My Domains List

Please stop bumping old threads in order to post your 'signature' link.

 

[DaveLeeds]

Please stop bumping old threads in order to post your 'signature' link.

I think he's been booted.