
The SEO Mistake That Wiped Out 80% of My Traffic - amerf1
http://www.ecommercefuel.com/seo-mistakes-organic-traffic/
======
davidroberts
In SEO as in life, if your success depends on gaming the system, you will only
be successful until the system changes.

~~~
hkmurakami
and unlike the government, Google can't be lobbied to have their rules bent in
your favor.

~~~
TheAnimus
I'm not so sure, in the EU they have already had a little bit of pressure[1]
but we have seen them change, 3 years ago, if you put in TSLA.US a
finance.google.com result would have been the top link.

This isn't the case today for google.co.uk

[1] [http://searchengineland.com/eu-antitrust-chief-google-
divert...](http://searchengineland.com/eu-antitrust-chief-google-diverting-
traffic-will-be-forced-to-change-144824)

------
RutZap
I have an irrational hatred towards SEO. People should stop investing money
and time in trying to influence an algorithm that constantly changes and
actually invest that time and money in creating better content or a better
service that people actually want.

It will also make for happier web developers because we won't get stupid
clients come in and ask for us to do some crazy stuff they read in a pdf
somewhere online on a guru's website ... btw.. stay away from whoever calls
himself a guru (SEO guru, code guru .. what-not-guru)

~~~
lenazegher
>I have an irrational hatred towards SEO. People should stop investing money
and time in trying to influence an algorithm that constantly changes and
actually invest that time and money in creating better content or a better
service that people actually want.

The problem with this approach is that it's entirely possible to invest a lot
of time creating wonderful content people want to consume and then have it
fester in obscurity because no-one gets the chance to see it.

~~~
RutZap
I think this is not the case anymore. With facebook, twitter and all the other
social networks people interact more easily and exchange resources and
information. It's a lot easier to publish something nowadays.

Don't confuse marketing with SEO. Marketing, even if sometimes looks dodgy and
it's filled with those awful magic words and phrases, even if most marketeers
tend to be full of sh*t and not really know anything about what they are
doing; marketing is still very important. That is the key of how to get out of
obscurity, not SEO.

I think this is the biggest problem in web development nowadays, clients are
really undereducated and believe SEO is a synonym for marketing. And this is
encouraged by marketing companies who, to earn more business, fill the
clients' heads with crap about SEO and how that is the most important thing
online.

And they do this because with SEO you can't go wrong: \- if the website loses
traffic: "well that is Google changing their algorithm, it's an external
factor, not our fault" \- if the website earns traffic, even if it's because
the content is good, the SEO company will try to absorb all the praise.

That's why I hate SEO.

------
papa_bear
I remember seeing a sales page for a backlink generating script a while back,
before the penguin update. They had a section with the heading "Can this hurt
my traffic in any way?" saying something the lines of "Of course not! If it
could, your competitors could do this to you to destroy your ranking, and
google wouldn't let that happen."

Is this obviously not the case anymore? You could easily cause a lot of grief
to smaller startup websites by setting up a server to constantly generate
spammy links at them. And maybe I should delete this comment before it
inspires someone to be a jackass.

~~~
joemoon
This is called Negative SEO. Matt Cutts discusses the topic here:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HWJUU-g5U_I)

~~~
papa_bear
Ah gotcha, I guess that's pretty much all google can do. They also
unfortunately validate it as a tactic against people/small companies that
wouldn't otherwise realize: 1. They have a bunch of spammy links pointing to
them, 2. That the links are negatively affecting them, and 3. They can do
something about it.

Maybe it would be nice of them to email webmasters to notify them that they're
being punished by spammy links, but I guess this would defeat the point of
punishing it in the first place (as opposed to just not counting them towards
the page rank).

~~~
joemoon
They actually do send an email alert. I didn't find an authoritative blog post
on the subject, but here's a post from a reputable SEO site discussing these
email alerts:

[http://searchengineland.com/google-warning-more-about-bad-
li...](http://searchengineland.com/google-warning-more-about-bad-link-
networks-117079)

------
franze
hi, during summer i'm going to give a talk at a digital media conference here
in austria <http://summit.werbeplanung.at/2013/franz-enzenhofer/>, the tagline
"fire your linkbuilding agency, especially if you are in a competitive
vertical" i'm not going into full detail here as it's mostly still in my head,
but the argument will go something like this (oh, and as an additional
restriction, i won't use any hollow terms like algo-update, pinguin, panda,
caffeine, magic unicorn, mayday, ... as these terms kill all and any serious
discussion)

    
    
        1. for SEO success you need links
        2. but not a fixed amount, but growth over time
        3. paying a linkbuilding agency enables link growth over time
        4. as long as you pay
        5. if you stop paying, link growth will stop
        5a. probably your links will decline
        6. in the meantime you haven't developed any assets 
          (know-how, connections, brand-recognition, internal 
          ressources (people)) that enables natural or do-it-
          yourself link growth
        7. you depleted your ressources (money) for external quick-fixes
        8. you are dependent on your external agency
        9. this is not a healthy business relationship, but something else
        10. called addiction 
    
        solution: 
        a. if you are a customer / addict: go cold turkey,
           start from scratch (link-building wise) 
        b. if you are a link-building agency: change-or-die
    

feedback welcome

~~~
gtt
As I see it solution for the customer is not clear. How do I do link-building
myself if have no expertise in the field?

------
sergiotapia
So tl:dr; don't be a scumbag with SEO and build quality websites with relevant
content.

------
parennoob
Pop-up ad offering a download of an ebook by the author within a minute of
viewing the site.

I'm not so sure this guy has learned 'how not to be spammy'.

~~~
spiredigital
Hey! OP of the article here. And good call - you may be right.

HOWEVER, if you download the eBook and don't think it's one of the best free
resources you've ever received, let me know and I'll send you $10 via PayPal
for the hassle. ;-)

But, again, point taken. I could probably make more tactful use of the popup.

~~~
joemoon
I just wanted to chime in and say that I also found the popup very disruptive
and annoying. I didn't download the ebook. I bet putting it at the end of the
blog post will get you better results (you should A/B test it and do another
blog post).

After all, the people that read all the way through the entire blog post are
your target audience. These are exactly the type of engaged readers you want
to capture.

~~~
spiredigital
Good, valid advice. Thank you. For now, at least, the pop-up has been
disabled.

~~~
krichman
It looks like you had been downvoted, so I upvoted your comments for being
civil in the face of criticism and open to their suggestions.

~~~
parennoob
Yeah, I did too. Thanks for responding to criticism in a prompt, civil, and
understanding manner. :)

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te_chris
I work with a very good online marketer who runs an agency between New Zealand
and the UK at my co-working space. With their UK clients they saw a lot of
flagging over a year ago so adjusted their practices and moved on, this hasn't
happened much in NZ yet. He predicts a massive amount of bloodletting here in
NZ as google are only just starting to pay attention and flag sites for doing
dodgy link building and, apparently, that's what most local SEO's here do.

~~~
Negitivefrags
Are you saying that Google applies these algorithms differently in different
geographical locations?

~~~
tea-flow
Google has confirmed on multiple occasions that this is the case. Different
languages and geo-graphic regions require tweaks I am sure. US English != UK
English.

See - [http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/04/high-
qual...](http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/04/high-quality-
sites-algorithm-goes.html)

For an example of Google announcing that the Panda update was now launching
globally (as opposed to the US the prior month)

~~~
franze
also UK sometimes is a test market, why? (nearly) the same language as in the
US, but not as a dominant market as the US. (the same reason why we german
natives test new websites with switzerland)

------
mike_ivanov
A POPUP pane with a book ad just have interrupted my reading. My reaction?
Immediately closed the tab, will never come back.

------
smalboy
Am a SEO guy here- been doing this thing since 2-3 years ago. To myself from
what can be seen from the post itself it appears that the SEO company that the
OP's been using is actually doing a pretty good job- Drop on 80% of traffic
with anchor texts that don't vary that much. What the SEO company have
probably done is probably to just go ahead and blast links directly at the
site with automated tools[SeNuke and the likes] It could have been easily
averted had there been layering and tier-ing of links done and varying anchor
texts and keyword variations. Your aim of getting links that also drive
traffic is actually a very good idea, since it'd definitely boost the
credibility of the site itself.

However I see people on here clobbering the idea of having link farms. Of
course nowadays Google have been on a roll de-indexing major link networks
(ALN, BMR and the likes). Public link networks can be used, but they cannot be
seen as a long-term solution. A more sustainable option would be to build your
own blog farms and link those to your main sites as funnel. Those could also
serve as a very good platform of tier 1 links to do automated blasting to.

Just sharing my link strategy. And OP good job at doing a relaunch. Did you
manage to use the Disavow link to take away the similar links with similar
link anchors?

Nice to see a SEO article around here from time to time.

~~~
bmilleare
Please don't call yourself an "SEO guy" and then tell the OP to build what is
effectively a very poor, easily identifiable, link wheel.

If you think that's a 'sustainable' tactic then I suspect you won't still be
in the SEO industry in a further 2-3 years time. All you'll be doing is
waiting for the next Google algo update to kill your clients rankings.

~~~
smalboy
Linkwheel? Did I tell him to interlink any of his web properties? It's a
pyramid structure that have always worked for me, and of course I do vary a
lot more factors that I have listed here. I am, however, really curious on
your definition of a linkwheel.

~~~
bmilleare
It's pretty telling that of everything I said, you get hung up on the
definition of linkwheel.

It's still a crap tactic regardless of whether it's a pyramid or a wheel.
Here's an idea - why don't you work on providing actual value to your clients
instead?

~~~
smalboy
Aha. White-hat all holy guy detected.

I care about value as much as you do. Value is important as far as things
goes, but if one does go all holy about providing value and "somehow" the
visitors will come, forget about it mate. They won't unless you pay through
your teeth for PPC/PPV traffic or you do SEO. White hat SEO? People say that,
but do they really know what "white hat" means? White hat means you do nothing
more than spreading your links on social networks. If you do ANY form of
linkbuilding it's grey/black. No two ways about that mate.

~~~
bmilleare
Where did the colour hat conversation come from? I didn't mention anything
about white/grey/black or whatever. It has nothing to do with it. There are
lots of innovative black hat (according to Google) tactics that are killing it
right now, but they're a million miles away from anything you're talking
about.

The fact remains, you're advising somebody to use poor tactics that will only
lead to wasted time and eventual loss of rankings.

And as for this: "White hat means you do nothing more than spreading your
links on social networks". You serious or just trolling? I really can't tell.

Either way, this conversation is getting boring. You continue doing your
2008-esque blog pyramids and let me know how that goes for you.

~~~
smalboy
As a matter of fact it works really well. 2008-esque? I really don;t care
mate. They word pretty damn well for me with link diversity. It's not the how
you build links, but what kind of links you build, and the anchor text and the
sort of links. It's all just making it look natural. You're probably just
trolling here so I don't really care. Good riddance.

------
nkorth
I don't know much about SEO; is "over-optimized" just a euphemism for
"spammy"?

~~~
spiredigital
OP here. And not necessarily. You can be "over-optimized" without being
spammy.

Over-optimized refers to having your SEO optimized to rank for a very
specific, targeted term. Take "trolling motors" as that's the site of mine
that was penalized.

Even if I built all my links via white hat, legi methods - but the anchor text
of all the links to my home page said "trolling motors" - I'd likely be
penalized. That's because in a naturally linking backlink profile, people
would link with a wide variety of different words, not just "trolling motors".
Because the concentration is so focused, it's almost a guarantee that someone
was trying to game the system. Google algorithm updates like Penguin have
really started cracking down where's it's obvious the owner is trying to rank
for a word by optimizing the links, title, headings, copy in a way that
appears dramatically non-natural.

Often, however, spammy link campaigns are also over optimized as well.

Hope this helps!

------
xpose2000
Essentially the moral of the story is to pay attention to SEO and do it the
right way. Cheating the system may work now, but the next iteration of Penguin
may end up getting you.

~~~
RutZap
1\. And what would the right way be? Is there a right way to influence a
search engine's results? I find it to be wrong/deceiving from the very
beginning. The only acceptable things in my opinion are:

* using clean urls, for ease of typing/reading/sharing

* using proper semantic html tags to structure content. I don't really know if search engines look for them but having content neatly structured will help people get the most of a website (especially people with disabilities; screen readers and other accessibility enhancing software)

2\. Penguin update... what about other search engines? Shouldn't a SEO "guru"
tackle other search engines as well? What if google "dies" tomorrow? I know
it's very unlikely, but as programmers we strive to cover all possible
issues/scenarios/errors.. why don't SEO "gurus" do the same?

I'm sorry if I come across as offensive but I really don't understand this
hype regarding SEO, and more importantly why clients chuck their money towards
something that in my opinion is superfluous.

Also, how would you quantify the success of a SEO campaign, how do you
differentiate from traffic/sales/success generated by the content of your
website and the one generated by a SEO campaign? (I am not being a smart-ass
here, I am genuinely curious as I have no idea how you would do that!)

------
austenallred
I worked for one of the largest SEO firms in the country; we built almost all
of our links using BuildMyRank (a super-spammy service that thought it was
invincible). When BMR went down, I looked at the books I was working with and
realized I was personally responsible for the plummeting ranks of companies
that had paid about $1 million over the past year for SEO work. All of that
was pretty much worthless now.

Account managers promised that they would get the ranks back, and then we went
to work building more links. Using Linkvana, which is basically the exact same
thing. I didn't last long at that company.

Be very, very careful outsourcing SEO.

~~~
smalboy
Lol BuildMyRank and LinkVana. Good old days huh when you could just buy links
from public networks. Nowadays people are getting hung up on SAPE and the
likes. The best way that's the safest way IMO is to build your very own link
network for provate use only. These would most definitely serve as a solid
tier 1 of links and then do the blasting and whatnots to those. Makes the
entire structure more stable

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enigmabomb
This is a prime example of a concept called "marketing debt." Your link
building efforts didn't match the risk profile for your business and you got
burned. For a better explanation, <http://joshuaziering.com/why-marketing-
debt-is-expensive/>

