From Google Filter to 48.7K Monthly Visitors
How We Restored a Penalized Essay Writing Platform to 48.7K Monthly Visits
Overview
Initial data:
Topic: Content project.
Site Age: 4 years.
Backlinks to getting started: there were a lot of low-quality rentals.
Internal website optimization: in places rough re-optimization, in places, there was no optimization at all.
Site status at the time of the start of work: the site under the filter.
Introduction:
The site was under the filter. The traffic of the site sank heavily and the customer refused the services of the previous contractor and the priority was to remove the filter and then increase the traffic to the site.
Project Objectives:
We agreed with the client in two stages and at each stage our KPI – the complete lifting of Google’s sanctions and at the second stage – to increase the flow of targeted traffic to the site.
First of all, we analyzed the actions of previous contractors over the past 3 months. It turned out that they very actively used PBN to promote the site. At the same time, the domains that were used to build the PBN were of extremely low quality.
Next, we manually looked at the entire link profile of the site. Just note that this is a rather time-consuming process, but in our experience, it is better to spend time analyzing and cleaning bad donors right away – this approach gives the fastest result.
All links that were of poor quality were filmed in 3 ways:
- Manually deleted links from PBN (there were accesses).
- We wrote to webmasters with a request to remove the link.
- Removed via Disavow links google.
In parallel with the cleaning of links, we conducted a full internal audit of the site, identified all the problem areas, and engaged in partial internal optimization.
In terms of internal optimization, the metadata was primarily corrected, since it was re-spammed and had a negative effect on the site – they removed re-optimization in the Title and put tickets to the programmers to refine the functionality for writing custom metadata (where there were none).
To speed up the optimization process, we have developed an algorithm for generating optimized metadata. This allowed us to quickly optimize one of the most important internal factors for ranking a site on Google.
Spam links and direct anchor rented links were identified by the site’s link profile. The entire process of cleaning the reference mass was carried out gradually, in several stages.
- Removed links from low-quality PBN;
- Removed part of rental links from explicit spam sites;
- Through correspondence with webmasters removed another part of the links;
- Diluted anchors by purchasing several quality donors;
- Through Disavow links google dropped about half of the remaining links;
- Each of these stages was accompanied by a request to crawl the site through the search console google.
As a result of systematic work on cleaning the link mass for 3 months, after several requests for a review of the site, the sanctions were lifted.
The second stage of website promotion
The second stage was the restoration and growth of traffic. We agreed on KPI, budgets and started the second stage of work.
Work was carried out in the following areas:
- Identification of potential customers and their values for building marketing.
- Internal optimization;
- External optimization;
- Quality Content Marketing;
- Promotion of content through external resources.
More details for each of the directions.
Identification of potential customers and their values
We went further than just conducting a standard website promotion service. Before optimization, we decided to conduct marketing research in order to build website promotion around customer values. To do this, we studied ICP – who is the client (orders an essay).
Based on the studies, we formed several types of clients and determined what they want to receive an essay from the order – what drives them and what are their expectations and why they should place an order on our website.
Conducted market research, formed a SWOT analysis.
They made a number of assumptions about the true, deep values for the client from ordering an essay and conducted A / B testing using Google optimize.
As a result of testing, the best hypothesis of values was selected and all marketing was built around it – banners on the site, messages for the client, inscriptions on the order buttons, pop-ups, etc.
This greatly increased the number of conversions on the site, even with current traffic.
Internal optimization
Partially internal optimization has already been done at the first stage – with regard to metadata.
Among the important problems of the site was the incorrect structure of the sections – the sections of the site were too complex and nested too much, the presence of technical and semantic duplication of pages, the shift in the relevance of sections, the incorrect distribution of semantics, etc.
In several iterations, we eliminated all the main errors of internal optimization:
- Duplicate Title, Description, H1;
- Duplicates of the home page and some internal pages;
- Set up indexing via robots.txt, sitemap.xml;
- Found and removed 404, as well as a cyclical 301 redirect;
- Removed extra rel = canonical;
- Speed up website loading for mobile and desktop devices;
- Optimized the site for viewing from mobile devices according to the requirements of Google mobile-friendly test;
- A number of other technical internal errors were also identified and eliminated.
External optimization
External audit of competitors
The second stage – competitors’ survey, marketing espionage.
Based on ICP, we gathered the target semantic core and found the best competitors who have been growing traffic lately, increasing visibility in the search for target keywords.
We conducted a discovery phase, during which we studied:
- competitors’ link strategy and the placement of the most effective link donors;
- competitors’ content strategy – what topics of texts, what structure of texts, presence of media content, presence of marketing elements in articles that catch the target audience, how interesting the content is, bounce rates and other parameters;
- the internal structure of the site and linking – transfer of internal weight between sections of the site;
- competitors’ social activity to understand how they pump their content marketing articles.
As a result, we compiled a summary table with competitors with all the data and based on it we developed a step-by-step strategy for website promotion, as well as a content strategy.
Back Link site development
They acted very carefully to build a high-quality link profile – since the site was under sanctions, there was a high risk of re-overlapping.
We went according to the strategy of unaccounted promotion through link building outreach and crowd marketing. Also, the client had a number of PBN sites that we finalized, downloaded and put in order the link mass from and to them
We used to outreach to post free quality articles on thematic donors for free (Guest Post), for a backlink to the customer’s website.
And they used the classic outreach for the paid posting of feature articles with backlinks to the customer’s website (Sponsored Post)
The budget for the Sponsored Post was allocated quite enough, but we still very carefully selected donors according to the principle – maximum transfer of weight and trust to the customer’s site at the lowest price. For each paid placement, they traded with webmasters to get a discount from them..
Quality Content Marketing
To write quality content, the entire process of its creation was revised. The client had a staff of copywriters, but they all worked without technical tasks for the texts, there were no requirements for the size of the text, there were no clear deadlines for writing.
We identified the most traffic-generating articles from the most powerful competitors (which have been growing rapidly over the past half-year) and developed a content plan. We registered the topics of the articles, the volume of the articles, and when writing them we used the marketing approach – in the text of the article we described the pain of the client and how to solve them. This approach enhances the involvement of the reader, and also shows our expertness of the site owner.
Those. Trusting the site helped convert traffic coming to news articles on the blog into commercial traffic.
Some copywriters were fired and new ones were taken in their place.
In the course of close work together, a high-quality copywriting department was created on the basis of the client and we set up copywriting as a system process.
The quality and quantity of content for publication have become predictable and much better quality.
After that, our task was to formulate technical specifications and final control of the quality of the content.
Important nuance:
All texts and metadata must be read and edited by a proofreader. This approach allowed us to give material that inspires confidence among potential customers and conversions from the site – leads are very targeted.
Promotion of content through external resources
Further, the content written by copywriters, we promoted through external sites, such as Quora, Medium, as well as forums, and other communities.v
Also, we pumped all the articles through the social networks where our potential customers live (we made a start from ICP). It turns out that we gave useful content just in those groups and social networks where our target audience is.
Website Promotion Result
Competent actions and a systematic approach allowed to lift Google’s sanctions.
Thanks to the right topics for content marketing and building a link profile in the US, traffic returned to the site and grew to 48,700 per month
The site has also taken advantageous positions on Google on the semantic core.
For high-frequency and mid-frequency keywords, the site reached TOP 5, and for many keys TOP1-3 Google
For most low-frequency keywords, the site has reached the TOP1 Google
Success factors
High-quality separation of bad links from good ones and systematic cleaning.
We started the promotion by immersing ourselves in the client’s business and understood exactly what customers the customer wants to attract and built marketing and all the content around the true values for potential customers.
Active customer assistance – the rapid implementation of our recommendations on website optimization and building a copywriting department.
