Friday Findings: South African Sites Getting Hit Hard?

Over the last three or four weeks we have noticed that there have been a number of South African sites being nailed by Google for various reasons. We found an example of two major players in their respective industries that have taken a hard hit and been punished severelly. We don't want to name the brands as we aren't going to be that type of a company, but we keep our eyes and keyboards very close to the ground across a number of industries and verticals to make sure that we are right on top of trends and news in terms of the digital marketing arena. Interestingly enough, both brands have not released any form of statement acknowledging that they no longer rank for anything, including their own brand terms. However, if this was a US or UK based company, there would have been a very public shaming festival happening. Anyone remember JC Penny or Rap Genius anyone? We are not trying to point the finger at brands or any SEO agency, we are merely pointing out the fact that it seems all of a sudden more South African sites are getting hit as if Google is turning their attention to South Africa. Below is an image showing how one of the brands suddenly lost their rankings. Naughty, naughty. Remember to make sure that if you are using an SEO agency that they are always up front with you about any tactics that they use and if any of those tactics are potentially risky. Organic means natural and no SEO company should be doing anything other than that.

 Reading Resources

1. Link audit guide for effective link removals - Moz Blog
2. Rumours of "not provided" in AdWords unfounded - WordStream
3. 21 User activation hacks you need to know - Growth Hacking Pro
4. True Facebook page post reach experiment - Jon Loomer
5. Schema.org best practices guide - State of Digital