Hey SEO community, this is my first thread here, and I’m excited to be a part of this group. (Apologies for the long read, but it requires some background.)
I’m looking for suggestions on an SEO strategy for a recent pest control client that I got.
The client was previously working with another agency that built their website, created service/location pages, started publishing blogs, etc. However, they failed to rank for any quality keywords that could generate leads. The agency also focused heavily on building citations and low-quality links.
Because of this, the client terminated their services and came to me in early July. When I audited the site, I found that the H1 tags were unoptimized, and the rest of the content seemed over-optimized, with locations unnecessarily stuffed into every H2 tag. I took this opportunity to minimize the over-optimization and included the location only in the H1 tags. By the end of July, the site started ranking in the top 5 for the main city-specific pest control keyword, and the client began receiving leads. They were very happy with the results.
I continued improving other pages and publishing blogs. During this time, I didn’t build any backlinks or citations.
However, after the August Core Update, the rankings started to decline. The site dropped to the second page, ranking in the 18th-20th positions for the same keyword. Blog rankings also began to slide, and I noticed a steady drop in keyword rankings until the majority of the keywords were lost.
At first, this was confusing, but I reverse-engineered the previous agency’s work. I found that the agency’s own website had lost rankings, along with some of their other clients after the August Core Update. Upon further analysis, the common issue was their link profiles. Using SEMrush's network graph tool, I identified direct links from link farms, which created a dangerous backlink profile. This was consistent across all the affected websites.
To confirm whether this was an algorithmic penalty, I searched for the client’s brand name on Google. The homepage appeared in the results, but service pages and other content didn’t show unless I searched for them specifically. I also published a long-tail blog post to test indexing. Despite submitting it in GSC and waiting for a week, it showed "Page can be indexed" but never actually indexed. I tried using an external indexer. The post got indexed briefly, appeared in 8th position, but vanished after a few days. GSC again displayed "Page can be indexed."
At this point, I’m confident the site is under an algorithmic penalty after the update. The client, however, wants to rank well by February/March in preparation for their business season. They’re willing to invest in backlinks or any other strategy, but I’m not confident I can guarantee recovery by then, as this depends entirely on Google.
I’ve disavowed the harmful links from the link farm, but I’m considering starting with a new domain. My idea is to keep the current domain live while building the new one. Once the new domain starts ranking, I could redirect the old domain to the new one.
Would you recommend this approach? If so, should I include the same address and social profiles on the new website? I plan to create fresh content for the new domain without reusing anything from the current one.
It’s worth noting that their GMB is well-optimized and ranks in the local map pack for their area. The issue lies solely with the website, which is not ranking for any keywords, regardless of difficulty.
I’m also concerned about investing in backlinks for recovery because if it doesn’t work, it could result in wasted money and lost business. This is why I’m leaning toward starting a fresh domain as a backup.
Looking forward to your suggestions.
Thanks!
I’m looking for suggestions on an SEO strategy for a recent pest control client that I got.
The client was previously working with another agency that built their website, created service/location pages, started publishing blogs, etc. However, they failed to rank for any quality keywords that could generate leads. The agency also focused heavily on building citations and low-quality links.
Because of this, the client terminated their services and came to me in early July. When I audited the site, I found that the H1 tags were unoptimized, and the rest of the content seemed over-optimized, with locations unnecessarily stuffed into every H2 tag. I took this opportunity to minimize the over-optimization and included the location only in the H1 tags. By the end of July, the site started ranking in the top 5 for the main city-specific pest control keyword, and the client began receiving leads. They were very happy with the results.
I continued improving other pages and publishing blogs. During this time, I didn’t build any backlinks or citations.
However, after the August Core Update, the rankings started to decline. The site dropped to the second page, ranking in the 18th-20th positions for the same keyword. Blog rankings also began to slide, and I noticed a steady drop in keyword rankings until the majority of the keywords were lost.
At first, this was confusing, but I reverse-engineered the previous agency’s work. I found that the agency’s own website had lost rankings, along with some of their other clients after the August Core Update. Upon further analysis, the common issue was their link profiles. Using SEMrush's network graph tool, I identified direct links from link farms, which created a dangerous backlink profile. This was consistent across all the affected websites.
To confirm whether this was an algorithmic penalty, I searched for the client’s brand name on Google. The homepage appeared in the results, but service pages and other content didn’t show unless I searched for them specifically. I also published a long-tail blog post to test indexing. Despite submitting it in GSC and waiting for a week, it showed "Page can be indexed" but never actually indexed. I tried using an external indexer. The post got indexed briefly, appeared in 8th position, but vanished after a few days. GSC again displayed "Page can be indexed."
At this point, I’m confident the site is under an algorithmic penalty after the update. The client, however, wants to rank well by February/March in preparation for their business season. They’re willing to invest in backlinks or any other strategy, but I’m not confident I can guarantee recovery by then, as this depends entirely on Google.
I’ve disavowed the harmful links from the link farm, but I’m considering starting with a new domain. My idea is to keep the current domain live while building the new one. Once the new domain starts ranking, I could redirect the old domain to the new one.
Would you recommend this approach? If so, should I include the same address and social profiles on the new website? I plan to create fresh content for the new domain without reusing anything from the current one.
It’s worth noting that their GMB is well-optimized and ranks in the local map pack for their area. The issue lies solely with the website, which is not ranking for any keywords, regardless of difficulty.
I’m also concerned about investing in backlinks for recovery because if it doesn’t work, it could result in wasted money and lost business. This is why I’m leaning toward starting a fresh domain as a backup.
Looking forward to your suggestions.
Thanks!
