UPDATE: I've moved DOWN the listings by trying to optomize my site!

[bcbuster]

Oh man,
This is frustrating. I've been trying to adopt some of the SEO techniques I've learned on the forum....proper keyword placement, building backlinks etc. and I've moved DOWN 5 places on Google under my keyword! I haven't got around to article writing as of yet, but for the past 11 years, my site has always been on the first page of google under my keyword...now, I'm at the top of the second for the first time!

My site is in a VERY micro-niche, country specific market...and I'm at my wits end! For the amount of traffic that's actually coming in, you HAVE to be in the top 1-3 on google, or there is no traffic at all. I know the people personally that I'm competing with to get the rankings...that's how small my market is! This is my "pet" site....not the one I'm embarking on my IM journey with, but if I can't get a decent ranking for a 10 year old site...I'm doing something WAY wrong!

I shouldn't have messed with my site, but I was stagnating in the 6th position and was getting virtually no traffic...so I needed to try something!

What should I do? I'm happy to post my keyword(s) and site if that's appropriate? Maybe someone could give me pointers to re-rank!

In the meantime, I'm working on other blog type sites in other niches, so I want to make sure I'm doing things correctly going forward.

One day I'll be able to contribute back to the forum, but for now I need ALOT of hand holding...can someone lend me that hand?

Thanks in advance....

[atwellpub]

My advice is to wait 3 days calmly and see if your ranking returns. There is a good possibility it will.

When I do changes, such as title changes, my website will drop off the charts, but it always returns.

[bcbuster]

OK...so "Don't Panic" is the way to go here?

[atwellpub]

At least for 3 days, is my advice. Other than that I haven't experienced such a intense seo case before (big money site + high competition). ... I was in the print and mail business once, and that was tough, but it never got that intense.

[MR.MOE]

This is something called the Google Dance where your site jumps down and up and all around before it stays still. So just be patient and don't panic.

Moe

[AnniePot]

Yes - hang on and see. I think it's referred to as the 'Google Dance'.

[bcbuster]

I guess it must be dancing...'cause I've just moved another 4 places down.

I'll wait the three days before I panic though!

I should probably leave the site alone for the next three days and try not to change anything? Until google settles...

I remember way back in 2004 when google did a big dance right before Christmas....and knocked all of us out of our spots....just in time for the holidays. Replaced all of our #1-3 rankings with absolute garbage listings. Eventually everything went back to normal, but for an industry that relies 80-90% on holiday sales...it was a HUGE blow!

So I'm nervous, but not in a panic...yet!

[steve m]

Google dance... I would not worry to much about it at the moment. Hopefully after a couple of days it returns back for you.

Good luck

Steve M

[cringwall]

You mentioned that your site was in 6th spot with no traffic - so you really have not lost much - I'd keep building backlinks and write some articles. It really does work. Do it regularly for a month, and I'll bet you'll be back here bragging about being #1.

[Sleeq]

Google dance?

I'll remember not to freak out (once I get any place on the google ranks!),

Apologies again - I'm a newbie

[bcbuster]

You're right of course...sixth spot brings me no traffic at all. So all it's hurting is my pride at this point! Hahaha. Anyways, the difference between 1st spot and 6th spot is 6 orders a day vs. 6 orders a month!

Good thing I have offline clientele as well!

But ooohhhh it sure would be nice to get that top ranking again....this is why I've been working on my SEO!

I'm in the process of writing articles, but have you ever been so close to a subject that you just can't find the "right" thing to write about?

[atwellpub]

Well you don't neccecarily have to write about your market niche, just write something cool and with relative keywords, and then in your authors note place your link and info about your site.

If you selling dog stuff, write stories about dogs you have had and moral lessons in training them.
Or go somewhere where content is set not to index, private forums and news groups, and repost that content with your links. It will be original because it's not indexed yet.

[MisterMunch]

While you are giving your website some rest, why not make a Squidoo lens on the same keyword and get spot 1 and 2 when the dance is over.

Leave your competition in the dust as they say.

[adamv]

James will be commenting on this thread in 3... 2... 1...

It seems like every 5 minutes a thread pops up that says I did X and it caused my rankings to drop. Don't worry about it. Keep linking and your rankings will improve.

To say you shouldn't have messed with it is crazy. How else will you improve your ranking. Sitting back and wishing for it to happen isn't going to do it. You need to take action. Keep building links and your rankings will come back higher than before.

[bcbuster]

Ok, very first squidoo lens created. Now off to create a WP blog using a keyword rich domain for my site (it is rude to snipe yourself in public?). I'm going for all three top positions! Go big or go home right?

[MisterMunch]

Originally Posted by bcbuster

Ok, very first squidoo lens created. Now off to create a WP blog using a keyword rich domain for my site (it is rude to snipe yourself in public?). I'm going for all three top positions! Go big or go home right?

Glad I could help. Be sure also to check out Weebly. They have a great interface. Your competition will not know what happened. Be sure to link to your own site from the different pages you are making.

[Jcsarokin]

Google pushes you down, before they shoot you back up.

Stay calm, keep building links and they will sling shot you back to the top.

[bcbuster]

Well I'm back to where I started...firmly in 6th place! Hahaha. Although I have seen a little upward movement in some of the lesser keywords. So my 5 day journey has taken me from 6 to 18 to 6. However....

I have been doing quite a bit of backlinking over the last five days. And I DID manage to get google to pay attention to me! So that's great!

With a little more research, I did find that my major competitors have 1350 and 596 backlinks on their sites (I have about 356?). Now I took some time to see "what" kind of links they had. They do have some PR links....however most of them are PR 0, PR 1 at most. So because I don't want to build my backlinks too quickly, I'm concentrating on backlinks over PR 4. And yes, I added my links to my signature (can't hurt?).

I've also added the link to my buddies real estate site that I built for her - her site is new, and I wanted to test my strategies on a new site to see if my methods were working. It's also a .info so we'll see!

How many links can you build in a day? 1,10,20,50? I know there's no "magic" number, but what is the "safe range"?

Thanks warriors!

[E-supreme]

To be honest, you said your site is a 11 year old site, correct me if I am wrong?! Don't worry about the number of links, just make sure they are quality links.


Just keep building backlinks daily, also create more unique content for your website, that way you will get noticed. Are you building links directly to your TLD or are you deep linking? Make sure you build backlinks to your inner pages as this is what will give you that extra push. When creating more content make sure the permalinks are yourdomain.com/yourkeyword. Try outsourcing your links daily for 1 month and you should start seeing a change.

Most importantly, when you create your backlinks..do you just create the backlinks and then just leave them? If so this could be where your going wrong in terms of backlinking. I'll take a look at your site and see if I can be of more help!


Just reviewed the site you should add an article section and start building links to the inner pages. Nice site by the way.

[hotftuna]

Originally Posted by atwellpub

My advice is to wait 3 days calmly and see if your ranking returns. There is a good possibility it will.

When I do changes, such as title changes, my website will drop off the charts, but it always returns.

I recently made a title change and I have had the same experience.

Ten years of experience tells me that any time your ranking drops, do not rush out and:

1) Undo all recent site changes.
2) Get a whole lot more inbounds to try and compensate.

Let things settle down and think out any changes to your marketing plan.

[bcbuster]

1) Undo all recent site changes. - Nope...didn't to that
2) Get a whole lot more inbounds to try and compensate. - OOPS! Did do that!

Deep linking means linking to my sub-pages not my main page right?

The other thing I noticed when comparing my sites with my competitors is that they've both got their sub-pages linking heavily to their main page. So instead of "../bluegiftbasket.htm" they've got the full domain name.

So I've switched all my links to include the full domain name.

You guys are so helpful.

The other thing I've done is started a blog with a related domain that I've been sitting on for the last 10 years. So it's a matured domain, it's always just pointed at my main site. It actually is now on page two for my keyword! Not too shabby!

Still no upward movement in my domain though....still sitting firmly back where I started!

What types of links should I be looking for?

Thanks again...I know the other ladies pay big bucks for their rank...so I will feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment if I can do this myself.

I am however ranked #1 at DMOZ (yet I have been for the last 8 years!) - Obviously Google is no longer paying much attention to that engine for its rankings!

I have moved up a spot on BING.