Well it took a while. In my previous post I mentioned the issues with outbound links. Having removed the offending item it should have been a swift journey back to the top of the search results.
Unfortunately we watched the the site move from 700+ to 800+.
Then the email we had been waiting for… Google saying we have reconsidered your site. Great. Then the site fell out of the top 1000.
I was left scratching my head.
However, now a week after the email the site is back to the top.
Finally.
I have been completing some SEO work with an ecommerce company recently and during our work the site plummeted from position 1 to 600+ in Google SERP. ‘What the hell’ was my first comment. Especially as none of the other Search Engines were penalising the site at all.
Anyway, we went back through the basics just to make sure we hadn’t overstepped the mark. Removed some recently added products, just in case the balance of keywords had been thrown. And we waited … position 700+. Not good, we were moving backwards rapidly.
I had gone through and checked that each of the links from the home page connected to sensible content using Microsofts internet explorer. What I should have done, and as a tip to those focusing on Google, was to use Google Chrome browser to review the sites. It turns out that one of the links connected to a site containing malware links. Only when I opened the site through Google’s Chrome browser was a warning displayed regarding the problem.
Links are removed and a reconsideration submitted, just waiting for the Google bods now.
Michael Bates - Director - MSI Commerce for SEO