If you have noticed a negative shift in your web traffic recently, there is a good chance that the reason for it is related to your SEO practices. The best way to confirm that your traffic issue is related to the content and the way it’s indexed by search engines is to look at the search results only, isolating the traffic you get from manual searches from the traffic obtained through links on other domains. Once you’ve done that, any apparent drop that is still visible is coming from the way the search algorithm interacts with your pages.

 

Diagnosis

Generally speaking, there are a couple of major violations that result in the search engine penalizing your pages. Integrated IT Solutions recommends checking first for any notifications in your Search Console. These notifications will typically have detailed descriptions of the violation which help you to isolate it and remedy it. Afterward, submitting a reconsideration request will get your page analyzed by a trained professional and, if the errors are gone, it will get re-approved.

If you have no messages, then your issue stems from the use of Google’s sorting algorithms, Penguin and Panda. Broadly speaking, Penguin related issues stem from links that run to your site from other sites, and Panda issues stem from thin content on your site.

 

Identifying and Correcting Link (Penguin) Issues 

Whether you were manually notified of your SEO issue or you unveiled it through investigation, the steps to correct the problem remain the same.

Use a combination of your Search Console and related tools like Open Site Explorer to run multiple reports on your incoming links.

Remove duplicates to get the best master list possible.

Check for links that come from advertising, links from “doorway” pages, and links you paid to have included on other sites. Also, make sure that your site is not indexed in more than 1 or 2 of the most important web directories for your industry.

For links from ads, adding the “nofollow” attribute takes care of the issue by assuring the Google bots that you are not trying to spam them.

For other links, you will need to reach out to the owners of the pages and request removal.

If any pages refuse to remove your link or fail to respond to three attempts, then Google has a disavowal tool that allows you to correct the issue through them.

If your list of incoming links doesn’t have anything suspect in it, meaning it does not have any links from countries where you don’t operate or links that you paid for, then the next step is to look at your content.

 

Identifying and Correcting Content (Panda) Issues 

Thin content is another issue entirely, and one that can be remedied quickly once you know what Google views as “thin” content. As you review your pages, remove, rewrite, or redesign around the following issues:

 

Ad-heavy pages. These are pages that have excessive advertising as defined by Google, and their own guidelines need to be consulted for the most up-to-date rules.

Pages with scraped content. These are a major problem for Google, an often times they are also violating copyright or other intellectual property laws.

“Doorway” pages. Pages that serve to convert people to ecommerce sites and for no other real purpose are penalized. Reviews are one thing, but direct conversion pages are another.

Poor product descriptions. Ecommerce sites that only list basic manufacturer-supplied information in their product descriptions are penalized.

Unmoderated user content. If you have reviews or comments, make sure you prune out any spammy or otherwise poor-quality contributions to keep your own site sharp.

 

Following through with these basic SEO diagnoses and troubleshooting recommendations will solve most of your algorithm indexing issues. It can take some time for the algorithms to re-index your site, but once you have fixed the problems, it’s just a matter of waiting that period out before your performance will be restored.

Ever since last year, when Google first announced the rollout of its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, questions about how this new technology will affect search results have been fast and furious. With the search giant promising wide implementation as quickly as possible and news outlets adopting the AMP as a way to speed access to mobile devices, it’s easy to see why. Here at Integrated IT Solutions, we decided it’s important to take a minute to sort through a few of them, particularly the ones related to how Google AMP will affect search results.

 

How AMP Displays in Organic Searches

In the early days of the project, the only place that AMP pages were indexed was in the “Top Stories” carousel on Google News. This made sense during the pilot phase, because it was news and media sites that were driving the adoption of the new platform and benefitting from it, with some 4.2 million pages of AMP content per day going live. Now, as the program expands to organic results, it appears that the choice has been to place them side by side in the listings.

This means that when a site has AMP support set up, the familiar lightning bolt icon that Google already uses will show in its results, right next to the blue link.

 

How AMP Changes Search Results

Google insists that the rollout of AMP is not designed to change search results, but this only means that the algorithm is not being tweaked to privilege them. It’s important to remember that, because there is a difference between the algorithm being changed and user behavior that changes rankings. While the company did not design or intend for this new platform to change organic search rankings, it most assuredly will, even if it is regular user behavior that instigates the change.

The scenario looks something like this:

Google AMP supported content works six to eight times faster than alternatives.

Users realize this through their contact with AMP in media sites.

Users begin to choose accelerated sites over others for their enhanced experience.

As AMP rolls out to other sectors, user knowledge transfers.

Automated Landing Pages customers realize this and integrate the technology more competitively.

Search rankings change to reflect new user preferences.

While user experience is not necessarily the only factor driving consumer behavior, it is still a factor, and so any disruption that has the potential to greatly shift that order is one worth understanding.

 

How to Get the Most Out of AMP Adoption

First and foremost, moving to support AMP content is not necessarily a good move for every company. There are costs associated with it, and one has to consider the size of a company’s audience and the relative level of competition for services they face as part of any cost/benefit analysis on the topic. That being said, for companies that are on the fence about whether or not to implement it, there is a strong case to be made for putting it in place. Before you do that, standard web optimization practices should already be put into place and followed. In short: Write engaging copy. Use graphics that support your page organization and content. Optimize for performance across all devices. Then, once you have a stable and engaged SEO practice that is showing you results, it’s time to move into AMP adoption.

There are new best practices to follow to get the most out of AMP, and Google has created a site for developers who are interested in following through with adoption at ampproject.org, making it easier for companies to identify the key differences and follow through with them. Out of the box, the performance increase is fantastic, and with optimization, early adopters of this new platform stand to gain a significant number of page views. When that happens, get ready for changes in the rankings.

If your site has been penalized or see a negative impact on your rankings, you need to start the recovery process immediately. If your rankings dropped on October 4th it was due to your link profile. Below are several steps you need to take to recover from this mess.