The main challenge of the project
In 2 days (December 3–4, 2018) a successful business's traffic fell almost to zero. Links were built only with white methods and there were no manual actions in Google Console — the cause had to be found "blind".
The non-standard solution: the answer came on the Google webmaster forum — the Panda filter for low informativeness. As an exception, we took on the content: we wrote texts for 6 key pages (a native speaker) and integrated them into the design rather than "dumping them at the bottom for the bot".
How does any promotion case usually start?
A client came with a pile of problems.
We — cool SEOs — ran a technical audit and bought links.
The results — traffic and sales.
You can find such a brief description, diluted with pictures and screenshots, everywhere.
I, however, will show you a fundamentally different situation.
A complete traffic collapse in 2 days!
The outcome could have been sad — the closure of a successful business.
Curious what I did?
It gets even more interesting.
A client came to me who already had good traffic and sales.
With a simple goal — to multiply!
The budget for the English-language segment was sufficient.
Budgets of more than $10K per month are offered by clients who already have high results.
Mostly it is these clients who understand that competition in the English-language segment is enormous, and there is nothing to do here on a minimal budget.
Achieving their existing results cost them dearly, but the profit they receive is many times higher than the costs.
For this client I chose promotion using the 4-10 and 11-30 scheme.
4-10 is strengthening positions in the TOP-10 from positions 4 to 10.
Accordingly, 11-30 is promoting positions that come after the TOP-10.
Besides link building itself, on-page SEO was checked.
The site's technical optimization was excellent; the only concern was the low informativeness of the content.
There was practically no text on the site's pages.
And the few that existed were written by a copywriter with poor knowledge of English and even of the site's subject.
All of it was dumped at the bottom of the page clearly for the bot, not for a human.
The main pages that drove traffic had no texts at all.
Except for small explanations next to buttons and modules.
The client refused to redo the design and fill the content with texts, since the site ranks well and sells great as it is.
I was asked to focus on link building.
Which I did.
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The site's topic is "ambiguous" and is not allowed for paid advertising, so SEO is vital for this project.
True, not everything is sweet in SEO here either.
First, competition in this topic is cosmic, and even small traffic delivers super profit.
Second, for such projects it is hard to create many links by white methods, because many sites refuse to link to such sites.
And black methods no longer deliver results, except sanctions and filters from search engines.
At the same time, we are in the same situation as my client's competitors, so there is nothing to complain about.
The strategy for promoting such projects is simple — not to create quantity, but to create quality.
Better to create a few links, but quality ones — with high site metrics.
Guest posting works for such projects, but only with a high rejection rate and an increase in the cost of created content.
After launching the link-creation process, the dynamics were positive.
From October 20, 2018 to December 2, 2018, positions and traffic grew slightly overall.
After all, SEO promotion is a long process.
I deliberately showed the dynamics up to December 2, because starting from December 3 traffic began to fall and finished its drop on December 4.
A business that brings in huge money and fully depends on SEO results fell almost to zero.
There was no doubt — it's a filter!
I created links only by white methods.
But you have to account for competitors — perhaps they ran a link attack.
The only place to check this is Google Console.
And yet there are no filters in Google Console.
Google representatives have repeatedly stated that if no manual action was taken, then there is no link filter.
We had to dig in a different direction.
The site's drop on December 3-4 did not show significant fluctuations on other projects or across the internet in general.
So it was not the result of a fundamental change in the ranking algorithm.
A virus check produced no results.
No changes in user behavior on the site were found.
This issue had to be solved at any cost for the following reasons:
- there was a real risk of the client losing an entire business that had been built over years;
- my reputation suffered, since I do not promote with black methods and had never fallen under any filters;
- my pride was hurt by being unable to solve this issue.
The answer had to be found as soon as possible, because the business began to suffer serious losses.
On December 11 I decided to ask the creator of Google himself for help.
Okay, just kidding — simply on the Google webmaster forum.
I got an answer, and quite quickly!
What's more, this answer was convincing for my client too.
The problem lay precisely in the site's low informativeness and the absence of texts.
The Panda filter was applied to the site, which for many possible reasons had bypassed it earlier and hit it precisely now.
Another problem arose — the client had no copywriter who could write great texts in English.
Moreover, these texts had to be not just dumped at the bottom of the page but integrated into a modern design.
I do not handle content for clients for a number of reasons:
- my main profile is SEO, and trying to do other work shifts focus away from my direction;
- finding a professional copywriter who knows a given topic well can take several months;
- content should be created by a specialist who knows the subject well.
In this situation I made an exception, because it was important to save a great, reasonable client's business.
My company has no goal to grow many clients and not know how to serve them all.
For me it is more important to work with a small number of clients, but over a long period.
So the departure of a large client would hit my business, because replacing any client takes time.
So, the problem is known, next — the cure!
I drew up the technical spec for the copywriter quickly.
Luckily, I have an established team of copywriters, and one of them knew exactly the topic we needed!
She lives in South Africa, originally from Britain, so her English is excellent.
She and I put aside all other tasks and created interesting, informative texts for the site's 6 main pages.
The next stage: with a designer we drew the design accounting for the existing structure and the new texts.
Note. Dumping texts through the site admin onto commercial pages does not inspire trust in either readers or search bots.
When my designer delivered the PSD files, they were immediately handed to the client's front-end developer.
The design was uploaded, and in Google Console the site's pages were re-indexed.
The results?
Here they are.
On December 20, 2018, the business was saved!
Of course, full recovery will take more time.
Today there is a steady upward trend; traffic has exceeded the initial level by 2 times.
After coming out from under the filter, the client and I made many important decisions:
- remove pages that do not represent the main product and bring weak profit;
- focus on the pages that skim the main "cream";
- start a blog with high-quality content to additionally gain informational traffic
and redirect link weight to commercial pages.
Today I continue promoting this site, only with expanded responsibilities.
Besides commercial pages, we promote many informational blog pages, which also convert decently.
So I'm responsible for the blog, content, design and link building.
My fee pays off the non-standard work.
Traffic keeps growing, which is a pleasure.
I gathered all the tips on SEO promotion in the English-language segment in this video. Watch it and expand your project's possibilities.
CONCLUSION
Never give up, no matter what happens.
In SEO there is always a solution, even in the most difficult situations.
Don't create cheap content and don't use copywriters who poorly know the topic.
Texts are the foundation of content; they must look harmonious within the site structure.
Don't promote with black methods — they no longer work.
Don't demand many links from your SEO; ask them to create a small number, but quality ones.
It is precisely quality links that will deliver results — positions, traffic, sales.
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Result
| Stage | Traffic |
| December 3–4, 2018 (Panda filter) | fell almost to zero |
| December 20, 2018 (after the rework) | business saved, out from under the filter |
| Further dynamics | steady growth, traffic exceeded the initial level ×2 |
Source: the client's web-analytics data and Google Search Console (screenshots in the case).
Project team
The project was handled by the SEOquick team:
- Nikolay Shmychkov — SEO strategy (Deputy Director)
Full team and roles — on the About page.
What's next
A similar recovery case: Rehabilitation of the large Lumident site.
Hit by a filter or dropped on an update? The concrete next step is to get an audit and a recovery plan.