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Hey there and thanks for looking into it. I'm aware of the algo update that happened in December (and that it correlated very closely with my drop in rankings)

by santah 6y ago

Hey there and thanks for looking into it. I'm aware of the algo update that happened in December (and that it correlated very closely with my drop in rankings). However, in my experience - even though jumps or drops in ranking are almost always triggered by such updates - there is a good reason for it to happen. But you're right, what is happening here may've also had no effect whatsoever. In any case - I found it because I dug up to try and what was going on and I can't explain what I found in any other way. Even if it didn't affect ranking - does it look like negative SEO to you or do you think something else is going on here?

hayksaakian 6y ago
Like the poster above -- I don't think it's negative SEO either. I think it's just an opportunistic person who saw an easy way to rank their own stuff by taking advantage of your hard work Like you said -- they ranked higher in some cases (without doing any work besides copying you).
- santah 6y ago
  But what are they ranking higher? Only the domains that display the stolen content, with no ads or anything. What is in it for them? It doesn't make much sense to do it other than if you're trying to affect someone else's ranking by causing them to be penalized for duplicate content. No?
  - hayksaakian 6y ago
    if you look through their source code there are ad tags. view-source:https://[redacted].com/titansgrave--the-ashes-of-valkana/season-2 https://[redacted].com/titansgrave--the-ashes-of-valkana/sea... unless you have a competitor you really hates you for some personal vendetta, it's exceptionally rare to see this level of effort for the purpose of negative SEO in 2021. like I said just looks like a spammer going for low hanging fruit, throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks
    - santah 6y ago
      Not sure what you mean. The AD code there is mine and the only thing they added is some JavaScript code for a Russian web page counter ... Can you please remove the link to the offending site as not to give them any link juice?
      - jv22222 6y ago
        I think the OP is saying it's a spammer running experiments to see what works, with the intention of maybe one day doing something. I'm not sure that is a correct assessment, just (hopefully) clarifying the OP's intent.
      - hayksaakian 6y ago
        it looks like my post is too old at his point to allow me to edit it. If DanG or any mods are around, I would appreciate if you could remove the link on my previous post.
        dang 6y ago
        Yup. Edited now.
Matsta 6y ago
This December update was quite significant, as I know a few peoples sites tanked as well, so you're not alone. I still think the main problem for you is thin content. Google doesn't seem to be as strict as they are about duplicate content. But if you're taking the movie/episode description from TMDb, there are most likely thousands of other sites doing it too. Google could have put you in a category of thin content [1], you may have got a notification in Search Console (but unlikely, I'm not a fan of the new Search Console since literally all the data in there is so vague which makes it not very helpful). Another thing is that when I look in Ahrefs for pages with the most links [2], they are forum profiles that have been hit with spammy Xrumer/GSA link. They're referred to as profile links. They are pretty useless, but people still build them as there is literally $0 cost to do so. If I were to offer my advice, my first step would be to build some content. First, add some content on the homepage (if you get SurferSEO it will tell how many words to write based on your competition) and then if you're willing to build a blog in (you seem to be a developer). You could write some roundup articles that are SEO focused and then link to the relevant Show/Movie, which would also help your internal linking. If you wanted to explore building backlinks (depending on if you want to go on a whitehat or greyhat road) - you can look into paid guest posts or niche edits. [1] https://www.vertical-leap.uk/blog/what-is-thin-content-why-does-it-matter/ https://www.vertical-leap.uk/blog/what-is-thin-content-why-d... [2] https://i.imgur.com/xZ8VEJQ.png https://i.imgur.com/xZ8VEJQ.png
- santah 6y ago
  I'll check out what SurferSEO is suggesting, thanks for the recommendation, though generally - I try to avoid tailoring my content for bots and optimal SEO. Good catch with the spammy forum profiles - I moderate the forum quite heavily, so there is no spam there, but I never thought to monitor inactive profiles. I'll clean them up and will see what I can do to try and prevent those from popping up in future. Thanks

by santah 6y ago

hayksaakian 6y ago

Like the poster above -- I don't think it's negative SEO either. I think it's just an opportunistic person who saw an easy way to rank their own stuff by taking advantage of your hard work Like you said -- they ranked higher in some cases (without doing any work besides copying you).

santah 6y ago
But what are they ranking higher? Only the domains that display the stolen content, with no ads or anything. What is in it for them? It doesn't make much sense to do it other than if you're trying to affect someone else's ranking by causing them to be penalized for duplicate content. No?
- hayksaakian 6y ago
  if you look through their source code there are ad tags. view-source:https://[redacted].com/titansgrave--the-ashes-of-valkana/season-2 https://[redacted].com/titansgrave--the-ashes-of-valkana/sea... unless you have a competitor you really hates you for some personal vendetta, it's exceptionally rare to see this level of effort for the purpose of negative SEO in 2021. like I said just looks like a spammer going for low hanging fruit, throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks
  - santah 6y ago
    Not sure what you mean. The AD code there is mine and the only thing they added is some JavaScript code for a Russian web page counter ... Can you please remove the link to the offending site as not to give them any link juice?
    - jv22222 6y ago
      I think the OP is saying it's a spammer running experiments to see what works, with the intention of maybe one day doing something. I'm not sure that is a correct assessment, just (hopefully) clarifying the OP's intent.
    - hayksaakian 6y ago
      it looks like my post is too old at his point to allow me to edit it. If DanG or any mods are around, I would appreciate if you could remove the link on my previous post.
      - dang 6y ago
        Yup. Edited now.

Matsta 6y ago

This December update was quite significant, as I know a few peoples sites tanked as well, so you're not alone. I still think the main problem for you is thin content. Google doesn't seem to be as strict as they are about duplicate content. But if you're taking the movie/episode description from TMDb, there are most likely thousands of other sites doing it too. Google could have put you in a category of thin content [1], you may have got a notification in Search Console (but unlikely, I'm not a fan of the new Search Console since literally all the data in there is so vague which makes it not very helpful). Another thing is that when I look in Ahrefs for pages with the most links [2], they are forum profiles that have been hit with spammy Xrumer/GSA link. They're referred to as profile links. They are pretty useless, but people still build them as there is literally $0 cost to do so. If I were to offer my advice, my first step would be to build some content. First, add some content on the homepage (if you get SurferSEO it will tell how many words to write based on your competition) and then if you're willing to build a blog in (you seem to be a developer). You could write some roundup articles that are SEO focused and then link to the relevant Show/Movie, which would also help your internal linking. If you wanted to explore building backlinks (depending on if you want to go on a whitehat or greyhat road) - you can look into paid guest posts or niche edits. [1] https://www.vertical-leap.uk/blog/what-is-thin-content-why-does-it-matter/ https://www.vertical-leap.uk/blog/what-is-thin-content-why-d... [2] https://i.imgur.com/xZ8VEJQ.png https://i.imgur.com/xZ8VEJQ.png

santah 6y ago
I'll check out what SurferSEO is suggesting, thanks for the recommendation, though generally - I try to avoid tailoring my content for bots and optimal SEO. Good catch with the spammy forum profiles - I moderate the forum quite heavily, so there is no spam there, but I never thought to monitor inactive profiles. I'll clean them up and will see what I can do to try and prevent those from popping up in future. Thanks