How can I recover from a link-building penalty?

Hi - I recently set up a website for my friend's wedding band. It's a new domain and to help it get found I added it to a number of directories/listings (over 10 different ones) a day or so after launching it, and used the same description copy each time. Despite being a web designer and understanding technically how build a site for SEO I'm pretty clueless about things such as link-building campaigns so didn't realise you can get penalised for overdoing this. The site is currently ranking very badly (even searching for the band name finds the site pages down) and I'm pretty sure it must be due to a penalty, as on Yahoo it does very well and there's not much competition for keywords.

So to try and remedy it I've gone back to the directories and varied the copy and keywords I've used, I've also revisited the copy and titles I've used on the website so I'm not being so niche with the keywords.

In short is there anything else I can do? Have I done enough to resubmit and get this penalty lifted?

Any help would be fantastic. Thanks in advance

Kat

Yes you have done enough. Now its just a matter of waiting.

Google wont actually penalise you for link-building. They will just ignore many of the new links if they think they have been built artificially.

Build steadily and use variations of tags. Best is to just let people link using whatever text they like. Then they will be varied but will converge around certain phrases over time.

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Thanks for your reply. So doesn't this sound like a Google penalty? Even if I search directly for the band's name in quotes (which is quite unusual) and adding in other niche keywords then I have to look pages down for it.

I was just wondering if I need to resubmit for reinclusion or if you think this is a waste of time and I should just wait? Incidentally I put the site live back in April, but have only made these changes to the directory listings and the site itself in the last week.

From what you have said there is zero chance you have a penalty. Your problem isn't too many links too quickly its not enough links of high value.

Directory links are virtually worthless hence your site not ranking.

Developing quality content that is best of web and attract links naturally is the best form of SEO. It's not easy however and can take time to master.

That being said if the site is operating in a very uncompetitive niche you may be able to gain some rank with low value links. Take a look at the link building section of the forum and read the stickies they are a great place to start.

Hi Kat,

Im not an SEO but thought id say something I seen.

You have changed the title tag on the home page i think you should be careful changing this as it is the single most important element to a web page.

It affects you ranking in the serps and to be changing it on a new site i don't think is a good idea (unless it is completely wrong of course).

I think you should really get it right and then leave it.

Directory links are usually not counted as backlinks in 1 day so I would think you fit into what lewis is saying. It takes some time before Google or any search engines assign value to your links let alone for the directories to actually add them to the site (not always true though).

How old is the site? Was the site ranking well before you built the links? This could also be a result of the freshness factor Google assigns to new sites. Google sees you as a new resource so they give you decent rank out of the blocks if you have done half way decent SEO to the site. If you do not maintain the site (create content, build links, etc.) you lose that rank.

Just another thought....

Thanks again for your comments.

I launched the site back in April of this year. I also just wanted to make clear that adding my site to these directories was not an attempt to achieve good page rank through backlinking but seemed the only way I could drive traffic to the site. Within one day I managed to achieve a first page presence with my desired keywords via these directories (and these directories still rank well today - in fact I would probably have had no traffic without these).

So really I'm just trying to find out if I have been the subject of a penalty and not really questioning why these directories alone haven't provided me with the decent pagerank.

I'm just surprised that as my area is really uncompetitive that it's not even ranking in the top 10 pages of google. There's another very similar site which ranks on the first page for the specific keywords and doesn't seem to have any other online presence. And as i say Yahoo ranks my site really well.

Anyway I'm probably repeating myself but just frustrated as don't know what to do next other than look at writing linkable content on my site (which seems over the top as other similar sites haven't needed to do this)

Many thanks again

Hi Kat,

Just wanted to say a couple of things that I hope will help....

1, in the above Kat I am guessing you are thinking pagerank plays a big part in ranking the site it does not many low pr rank much higher than high pr sites.

2, as you in a niche Kat have you had look at your competitors link profiles? check out there links it might be an easy way to get a boost in such a niche as "Bristol wedding bands"


what are the keyword you are targeting Kat i think you might need to research to get the correct keywords for the site.


IE if your after "Bristol wedding bands" more people are searching for "wedding bands Bristol "

what are you keywords for the site Kat?

I think you must obtain good links to your site and it's better to vary a lot the anchor text because Google can detect this type of comportment and can penalize the site. Just do a link building campaign and try to not exagerate with the same anchor text.

I think links 99% from directories are useless, don't loose your time, try to obtain relevant links from relevant sites...

Hi there -

Yes I've had a look into what the competitors are using - although to be honest there is very little competition. There's only really one other site I can really see up there - the other results are mainly directory listings (added by myself and this other band).

I guess I need to look at how to attract these decent links coming in, and in the meantime I'll just have to rely on these directories providing the route to my site. At least there is a presence for the band just a shame it's the not the actual site url that's appearing high up.

Thanks for everyone's help and for confirming it's not a penalty.

Kat

Well, What was your position on google earlier? As your site is newly launched so if that rank earlier and then dropped then using same description can not be reason but the same happens with all new websites. Initially they rank well and soon drops their ranking. So Now keep on building quality links to get your ranking back and also it will be good to have variation in your title or anchor text more than changing descriptions.

Since launching the site back in April it has never appeared well in Google. I just figured that after 7 months it would have started to appear on some niche keywords/phrases.

My first recommendation would be to add pictures of the band, perhaps a little profile about each member (if not done already). I see you already have an area to sample some of their music which is good. Perhaps you can start capturing video at these gigs and add clips of those to the site so potential customers can see the band in action and get a better feel for their presence at a wedding.

A few ideas to think about.

Actually I've just done a search on the band's name and it appears 25 pages down! That can't be right surely? Even if i stuck up a page and wrote the bands name on it it'd appear better than that wouldn't it? I can't believe that this low google ranking can just be down to limited back-links.

I'd understand it if i was trying to compete on 'Mortgages' 'Jobs' 'Loans' but surely I should be able to appear higher than result 250 for the band's actual name (and combining it with the word 'band')!

Most of what appears before it completely irrelevant.