Well guys it finally happened.. After 7 months of ranking and banking, my humble spam site got hit by Penguin 3.0.
Although a little upset, I am not surprised, as I have been waiting for this day to come. The good news is I can test the 301 redirect theory out, which I have already put into place this evening.
Just to recap, I launched the site made up purely of PLR content and unique 1500 word homepage at the end of last year. Then in March I began building links using nothing but GSA Search Engine Ranker, Kontent Machine ( and then Content Foundry).
The site began to rank very quickly and even made position 12 for a big money term. Panda 4 then rolled put and killed off the the big money terms but left around 40 long tails on page 1.
In total it made $7000, with $5500 coming from just one product.
The King Is Dead
After seeing some tweets early Saturday morning regarding the release of Penguin, I quickly checked some of my main terms and low and behold, my site had vanished.
Here is my traffic for the past month:
Long Live The King
All is not lost, as tonight starts the second part of this case study, testing out the 301 redirect method.
This involves simply cloning the old site using a very cool plugin called Duplicator and then re-directing the old site using an .httaccess 301 redirect.
I had another domain lined up and in waiting which now hosts the new (old) site. During the week I will slow drip a few PBN links to tickle a bit and see how it does.
If all looks good I will look to either continue with PBN links and a big GSA SER blast as well.
It’s late now and I have to crash, but whatever happens I will keep you all updated.
Please share below if you have been hit…
Dave says
October 20, 2014 at 2:06 amHi Nick,
Hay thanks for the update.
Was just revisiting you Report earlier this week.
Hope it comes back, the site that is.
The good thing is now I/we know you are the real deal.
Others, who shall remain nameless, (his last name begins with a B_ _ _ _ _ ) never admit to anything like a site getting hit.
Nope their SEO is perfect.
WRONG!
If your doing much of anything you will get hit.
Best Regards,
Dave
admin says
October 20, 2014 at 12:23 pmHi Dave,
Thanks for the vote of confidence! Not sure who you are talking about but I tend to stay clear of BS.
Have a good day!
Nick
mikey says
October 22, 2014 at 7:32 amMaybe it’s because you posted your method on Matthew’s blogs, and Matt Cutts reads that post and targeted you especially 😉
Anyway, looking forward to your upcoming case study!
admin says
October 22, 2014 at 6:50 pmYeah, thats what he did!
Thanks for stopping by.
N
Conrad John says
October 30, 2014 at 8:48 amMy king died too!
I created / augmented my existing sites using 100% dupe content.. (as you did)… and like you… made some nice dosh 😀
And like you… I got hit on Oct 17th! It’s the 30th now and my penalized sites show no signs of recovering.
I’m ever the follower so havn’t touched my penalized site yet. I’m very interested… how is your site moving after your .htaccess 301 redirect? Any signs of life? (i’m getting ready to execute too) Is it recovering? Any signs of former glory?
That said…. I’m surprised your going to do GSA again to your new (old) site. I’ve heard rumors that the algo which hit us will run more frequently. Also how old is your new (hosting the old) domain? Auction? A virgin domain? I’d love to hear these details! Thanks
(PS Please post more!!!)
admin says
November 21, 2014 at 9:15 amThanks, I’ll try to post more. Got my hands full right now with new baby and loads of new work.
Yes, new site with 301 bounced back in just 2 days. Got a sale in that time too. Now at 50% traffic.
Virgin domain, 2 months old. Some unique spun copy before cloning to help indexing.
Hope this helps.
Nick
Max says
October 30, 2014 at 4:58 pmHas the site returned yet Nick?
admin says
November 21, 2014 at 9:11 amYes, see Mathew Woodwards blog. I’ll do a quick update on here soon but I have been so busy with things its hard to make enough time right now.
John says
November 4, 2014 at 3:42 amSounds interesting… Let’s see what happens after the 301 🙂
admin says
November 21, 2014 at 9:07 amI posted an update on MW’s site. The 301 kicked in quickly, within 2 days in fact. Traffic at 50% previous levels now.
Nick
cornell says
November 8, 2014 at 2:05 amHey it was good while it lasted, but you know it works so recreating it should be fun.
Seo’er go back and forth about doing churn and burn vs niche vs authority sites, ive even seen some recently ditch niche sites for authority, (not just spencer haws) But my opinion is why not do them all?
Theres no rule in this internet marketing game that says you have to do one or the other. Why not do churn and burn sites, make some quick money while building niche/authority sites.
You can reinvest that money into niche sites, and build that income up as well, since its going to take time see a return on an authority site.
Im off my soapbox now!!!!
Its time for me to do some churn and burn sites!!!!
admin says
November 21, 2014 at 9:09 amI saw that he was stopping niche sites and that he felt they didn’t work as well any more. I guess it all depends on the tactics like you say. I am all for diversification. Some of my best sites are 100% legit and constantly do well. They are not really authority but more brand orientated.
Thanks for stopping by.
Nick
Daryl says
July 14, 2015 at 1:53 amHi.. Want to ask about this.. Is this method still can do good? It’s 2015 *.*.. Thanks. :).
Julian says
June 15, 2016 at 12:14 pmHey Nick!
Any news on this? Are you still using this approach or a similar one?
Thx
Julian