Dramatic drop in SEO rankings after recovering from hacking
-
A few months ago my client's website was hacked which created over 20,000+ spammy links on the site. I dealt with removing the malware and got google to remove the malware warning shortly within a week of the hacking. Then started the long process to do 301 redirects and disavowing links under Webmaster tools over these few months. The hacking only caused a slight drop in rankings at the time.
Now just as of last week the site had a dramatic drop in rankings. When doing a keyword search I noticed the homepage doesn't even get listed on Google Maps and for Google Search instead the inner pages like the Contact Us page show up instead of the homepage. Does anyone have any insight to the sudden drop happening now and why the inner pages are ranking higher than the homepage now?
-
OK, so if your homepage is completely deindexed, then there has to be a technical issue or a manual penalty. I'd say that a technical issue is much more likely.
To look for a manual penalty, go to Google Search Console --> Search Traffic --> Manual Actions.
If there is nothing there, then I'm happy to take a quick look if you want to PM me the url or better yet, send me an email at marie at marie haynes dot com.
-
Your right. I don't feel it's an error with redirects and disavowed links since the homepage is accessible nor is it being blocked by robots.txt. or not being indexed.
Besides minor website content updates none of which was done to the homepage the only change that has been done is that I disabled and removed several unused plugins that are no longer being utilized on the website.
Doing a site:yoursite.com search does not list the homepage. Only the inner pages.
-
It's hard to say without knowing the URL, but my guess is that this drop is not because of the hacking unless somehow you made some errors in instituting redirects or disavowed some good links. Still, it would be a bit odd for you to only be noticing the drop now.
Although Google's always changing the algorithm, there have been some relatively big changes this week that have caused a number of sites to drop. We don't really have specifics to chase, but in most cases now when an algo change causes a drop it's due to on-site quality.
With that said, if your homepage dropped out of Google maps as well as organic search there may be a technical issue with your site. Make absolutely sure that it hasn't been noindexed or blocked by robots.txt. Also, have you added any new plugins or tools to the site? Sometimes those can accidentally noindex a page.
If you do a site:yoursite.com search, does the home page appear anywhere?
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Bad Grammar's Effect on Rankings
Mozzers, I have a client who's brand style guide dictates that they write in all lowercase letters. Do you think this will hurt rankings? Nails
Algorithm Updates | | matt.nails1 -
Diluting your authority - adding pages diluting rankings of other pages?
I'm looking after a site that has around 400 pages. All of these pages rank pretty well for the KW they are targetting. My question is: if we add another 400 pages without doing any link building work, holding DA the same, 1) would the rankings of those 400 previously good pages diminish? and 2) Would the new pages, as more and more new ones are created, rank less and less well?
Algorithm Updates | | xoffie0 -
Drop in Traffic from Google, However no change in the rankings
I have seen a 20% drop in traffic from google last week (After April 29th). However when I try to analyze the rank of the keywords in the google results that send me traffic they seem to be the same. Today (6th March) Traffic has fallen further again with not much/any visible change in the rankings. Any ideas on what the reason for this could be? I have not made any changes to the website recently.
Algorithm Updates | | raghavkapur0 -
Recovered from penguin/panda but which one?
So the good news is that for the first time since April 24th, one of our websites is back in the search results as of around December 12 but I am still unsure as whether it was panda or penguin (or both) that was impacting the site?? Note this was not a manual penalty. I diagnosed it as a penguin issue (drop on April 24th, aggressive on-page optimisation, around 10% of links from spammy directories like addyourfreelinks.com with anchor text built by a questionable agency), but on further advice it was thought that panda was also an issue because it is a hotel microsite so there was duplication with our own brand site and across third party travel sites and there were a number of pages with bare content. I figured it was a good time to clean everything up to address both. Here is a summary of actions taken: submitted disavow file on October 24th with all questionable links including actions taken and comments. Since then I have cleaned up some content so it is less aggressively targeting certain keywords. Amended several third party listings with duplicate content No follow,indexed pages that were directly duplicated with our brand site and over the last month have built a few good quality links. Cleaned up 404's in webmaster tools over the last week I have searched to see if there were any algorithm updates around December 12 but cannot find any mentions. Thoughts?
Algorithm Updates | | jay.raman0 -
Poor rankings in Bing/Yahoo
Hello, A site I'm working on ranks well in Google, but does poorly in Bing/Yahoo. Is there anything I should look at? Thanks,
Algorithm Updates | | PLP0 -
Are multiple domains for my website hurting my Google ranking?
Hello, I currently have two domains showing up in google search: shwoodshop.com shop.shwoodshop.com These domains are currently ranked in the #2 and #3 spot, however my page is much more trafficked than the current #1 ranking. I am wondering if the fact that I have two domains competing for the #1 spot is hurting my search ranking. If so, what is the best way to remedy this issue and get back my #1 spot? I'm rather new to SEO and teaching myself as I go, so I appreciate the feedback!
Algorithm Updates | | shwoodshop0 -
SEO for a starter
Hi I operate in a rather competitive market (IT and project management related training), and my focus is the UK market. I've recently started focussing on SEO. I have been creating content, albeit slowly. I have completed writing a book on my target subject, which is due to go out in a couple of weeks (I've received very positive feedback so far). And I have a decent PPC campaign. To get to decent ranking on Google etc., my plan is 1. Focussing on quality content and publishing on my site (I have about 15-20 articles in the pipeline). Reaching out for guess posts is next, but creating this much content is hard. 2. Get external SEO help for link building and off-page SEO. This is somewhat confusing for me, as I've got offers ranging from blog posts, BMR etc. I have some budget for this, but don't exactly know what to target. 3. Gradual focus on on-page optimisation. I haven't done anything on social front, on FB, Twritter. I do have a solid LinkedIn profile (personal). I have one full time resource available to help me out. What should I focus on? What am I missing? Cheers.
Algorithm Updates | | feneris0 -
Bounce rate and rankings
I have believed for years that a high bounce rate (from search) could lower your rankings over time. Makes sense; if users bounce right back to search after looking at your page Google should think that page wasn't very useful and will push your down the SERPs. But, how do they determine this? If a user comes back after 30 seconds that's a bounce? Or is my premise incorrect and Google does not take bounce into account? Erin
Algorithm Updates | | ErinTM0