Sites not ranking, penalized?

[Rob]

Two of my websites, free-games.as and top-free-games.com don't seem to be ranking high/at all in Google any more.

If you search for "free games", free-games.as is nowhere to be found. The site used to rank on the 2nd page but it disappeared after the new algorythm. Same goes for top-free-games.com, used to rank for "top free games" but now is nowhere to be found.

Both sites don't really have any big SEO tricks which could trigger Google to penalize them.

Perhaps it's because both sites (which are on the same IP) are linking to eachother on every page? I have more websites on the same IP also linking to these websites with targeted anchor text.

Any ideas?

[I, Brian]

There are two things working againt you here:

1/ Google has almost certainly implemented the Hilltop algo for it's general search terms. What this means is that links are rated in a very different manner - simply having lots is not good enough. You now need links from "expert pages" and "authority" sites. In simple terms - you *need* links from directories and from any site covering the topic (that's why you should aim to link exchange only with related content sites).

2/ The second issue is that cross-linking the same IP falls foul of LocalRank. I've seen claims of this alerady having been implmented some time ago, but that the screw was turned tighter in Florida. Effectively, LocalRank means that links on the same IP subnet are devalued. So if you want to cross-link sites, you need to host on different IP blocks, ie, "xx.xx.xx.different" is classed as "xx.xx.xx.same".

Now, before you rush off and move a site elsewhere, note the above comments about Hilltop. What that means is that the cross-linking of sites with unrelated theme and content is not going to do you a great deal of good, no matter what IP block you're using.


As a general point...

You've lost your rankings due to Florida, and so have lots of other sites. A lot of Google's general search terms are quite ridiculous at the moment. You're more likely to find directory listings in search results than eral on-topic pages. However, the way you can immediately try to counter is by aiming more for specific search terms. So far as I can tell, Florida affects general searches, rather than detailed searches - so one way to try and offset your loss is to aim for more specific terms. Individually, they may only gain smaller traffic (hey, but if it's targetted that's great), but together in large numbers detailed searches can really draw the traffic in.

[Rob]

You're saying links on the same IP have been devalued, that would mean they do not have a negative effect on rankings?

Of the 380+ links Google accounts for free-games.as, 200+ are from few websites with a lot of pages I have links on.

Thanks for the explanation, Brian. I'm not sure where to get links now though, since I'm already list in the larger directories.

[I, Brian]

Well, to clarify - everything regarding the Florida update is speculation.

My own observation is that multiple backlinks from the same IP have been devalued, and that the PR transfer is muted. However, I'm only able to properly observe forum links - it could be dynamic content specifically most affected. BUT, either way, SEO now needs to account for the fact that future algo updates could wipe out all value of internal links. That's what I'm basing my comments on - the need to prepare for future eventualities.

If PR is still significant then that means that pages with backlinks spread about more IPs will get the most PR benefit, and thus better ranking - and this would work nicely in tandem with the Hilltop algorithim.

However, do note that nothing about Florida remains settled in the SEO community. Any single SEO could question my own observations - I merely present them as so, as would anyone else.