Getting fed up.

[tjc348]

Okay, my site has been up for several months now and I have built a lot of backlinks from many good reputable sites. I have backlinks on alot of sites that are on PG 1 for several different competitive keywords in my niche. I am targeting a relatively low competitive keyword and I regularly post on different forums with a link to my site in my signature.

I would have figured by now I would be up there in the SERPS but I am not. In yahoo and bing I am on pg 2 for my targeted keyword, but on google I am only on pg 20.

I have been doing on page SEO, and a couple of days ago I went back through a lot of my posts and did even better SEO. My page has not moved from pg 20 in two weeks. What is up with this?

Some of the websites that are on PG 1 for my keyword look like junk. The site that is number 1 is cluttered with ads and isn't even a clean looking site. It doesn't even have fresh posts on the site.

I dont know what else I can do. I am doing everything the right way (atleast I think I am) and it just doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestions?

My targeted keyword is cichlid fish

[iAmNameLess]

Maybe you're doing too much? Calm down for a bit and see where your site will settle.

Although, why don't you contribute to the wikipedia that is ranking #2, and get a backlink on there?

Usually ranking on page 20 or anywhere near there, you're just up in the air waiting to settle. I wouldn't push it. Changing your on page is probably going to delay that for a bit. SEO isn't exactly a push now get results now type of thing. Just be patient.

[tjc348]

Maybe I am being a bit inpatient, but it is frustrating because I do my best to provide high quality content, build quality backlinks, and keep my site updated.

I try to contact other website owners asking them if they'd like to exchange guest posts or if they would consider posting a unique article of mine on their website with a link to my site. None of them ever contact me back which is very frustrating.

[outwest]

whats the top 10 look like for your kws (main ones you are targeting) on your site? backlinks, onpage SEO, domain age, PR, etc

[tjc348]

Originally Posted by outwest

whats the top 10 look like for your kws (main ones you are targeting) on your site? backlinks, onpage SEO, domain age, PR, etc

I don't know exactly. How would I conduct this type of research?

[Domsa]

Download SEOQuake addon, it gives you a pretty good insight on the competition and it's free

[Anna Howard]

Originally Posted by Domsa

Download SEOQuake addon, it gives you a pretty good insight on the competition and it's free

Surely is a great software for SEO purpose, would be recommending this as well.

[tjc348]

With SEOquake I was able to find out that the website ranked number 1 for my targeted keyword is 6 years old. It says that the website has 120 inbound links and 11 external links. It's PR is 2.

Not sure if this is good or bad?

Thanks for the SEO addon recommendation!

[outwest]

Originally Posted by tjc348

I don't know exactly. How would I conduct this type of research?

PM me the main kws I will analyze it on Market Samurai top 10 for you
Its 97 dollars for the program, I find it pretty valuable

or if you dont want to do that you can use SEOquake firefox addon to analyze the PR, the backlinks etc of the top 10 sites on google for the kws

but you would also need to analyze the onpage SEO of those top 10 sites

honestly if you just chose kws before, without knowing this information:? no wonder you cannot move up on page 1, the chances are its very tough competition for those kws

If I search the top 10 for about 100 kws, maybe I will find ONE that is easy to rank on the top 10
thats how much kw research is involved

thats why some people on the board spend days or weeks searching and finding very easy to rank kws BEFORE they make their websites
its the most important part of making sites

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by tjc348

I try to contact other website owners asking them if they'd like to exchange guest posts or if they would consider posting a unique article of mine on their website with a link to my site. None of them ever contact me back which is very frustrating.

hang in there. In a few weeks this will no longer be a problem for you provided your quality is good

[oldvintageguy]

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

...
lthough, why don't you contribute to the wikipedia that is ranking #2, and get a backlink on there?
...

Contribute? How? Would you please elaborate/clarify that for me -- thank you.

[Khal]

You've done a lot for this single web site.
It is now time to leave it alone and start a different project.
Let it mature on it's own over time.
Check on it every 2 to 3 weeks and see how it is doing.
Once it starts to pick up, you can revisit it and start adding adding more content.
Do not get obsessed with one single site, it will get you frustrated and depressed.
Move on for now.

[tjc348]

Originally Posted by Khal

You've done a lot for this single web site.
It is now time to leave it alone and start a different project.
Let it mature on it's own over time.
Check on it every 2 to 3 weeks and see how it is doing.
Once it starts to pick up, you can revisit it and start adding adding more content.
Do not get obsessed with one single site, it will get you frustrated and depressed.
Move on for now.

You think?

I always thought (from what i've read) that it is important to focus on one website for atleast 6 months before moving on to another one. I figured that you should work on one website until you can get the most out of it before you start working on another.

Correct me if i'm wrong.

I would be interested in moving to another campaign/website but I have been following by this rule.

[MaverickUK]

Hi,

Feel free to send me the URL of your website and I'll try give you a few tips to improve your rankings. If you're on page 20 for this term you're doing something wrong - depending on the circumstances I'll even build a few high quality backlinks to your site in an attempt to assure you things are fine, but maybe you're doing something wrong.

Anyway the offer is there if you want it. Plus you lose very little giving me your site name as you've already disclosed your main keyword.

Nick.

[outwest]

i analyzed the top 10 on market Samurai,from the kw pm'd to me.......... if it were me I would not have chosen the kws, and targeted this term, way too strong competition with tons of backlinks
also the CPC on Adsense (if that we an adsense site ) is not worth going after, very low

learn to target less competitive kws, why waste time on tough competition like this

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by tjc348

I try to contact other website owners asking them if they'd like to exchange guest posts or if they would consider posting a unique article of mine on their website with a link to my site. None of them ever contact me back which is very frustrating.

You will find those contacts if you keep digging. You are already separating yourself from many by taking some initiative and actually talk to your peers. Maybe use Ezinearticles to try and find sites who syndicate your content and then approach them directly.

[sethczerepak]

Surprised no one is asking for a link to the site, lot easier to tell my looking at it

[tjc348]

Originally Posted by sethczerepak

Surprised no one is asking for a link to the site, lot easier to tell my looking at it

cichlid-fish.com

[simonbuzz]

forum backlinks are not effective try building backlinks using blog commenting or article marketing

[tjc348]

I do several different types of backlinking. I submit articles to five different article directories.

I also have several articles that have been syndicated but they don't really bring me much traffic. I've also started to blog comment

[outwest]

the term is too competitive, his competition has thousands of backlinks
my point was choose another kw

i cant see the point

[MaverickUK]

Originally Posted by outwest

i analyzed the top 10 on market Samurai,from the kw pm'd to me.......... if it were me I would not have chosen the kws, and targeted this term, way too strong competition with tons of backlinks
also the CPC on Adsense (if that we an adsense site ) is not worth going after, very low

learn to target less competitive kws, why waste time on tough competition like this

I had a look at the competition and can't see why you think it's too competitive. Granted, he won't get the top spot, or at least not for a good few months of hard work, but position 2 is definitely attainable by all means.

If you look at the backlinks pointing to cichlidfish.com they're hardly targeted. Seriously, i'd best $500 i could get number two for the keyword in a matter of two months - if it weren't for the fact that time costs money, i'd happily prove it and hand the website over to the OP.

[Fraggler]

There are stacks of easy competition in that niche - you don't need to start with the toughest one.

You can focus the site on cichlids initially but the who aquarium has so many different products and the need for good information that I think it can be an awesome site with a lot of return traffic.

The niche is also full of very passionate people who spend a lot of money on their hobby.

[paulgl]

Your site is cichlid-fish.com?

Man that site is as thin as a tattoo and the structure makes no
sense.

Who is teaching this stuff?

I'd say you are lucky to be where you are.

No reason to find other keywords. Start working on some
authoritative articles on the site. Fatten it up.

Then join some niche forums, do a blogspot, twitter, squidoo,
and get that targeted traffic rolling in.

But I gotta tell you up front. If I was looking for cichlid info,
I'd surf in and out of your site faster than a dog can raise his leg...

Paul

[MaverickUK]

Don't worry about Paul, he doesn't like to offer advice He's a nice guy really, aren't you Paul?

[outwest]

Originally Posted by MaverickUK

I had a look at the competition and can't see why you think it's too competitive. Granted, he won't get the top spot, or at least not for a good few months of hard work, but position 2 is definitely attainable by all means.

If you look at the backlinks pointing to cichlidfish.com they're hardly targeted. Seriously, i'd best $500 i could get number two for the keyword in a matter of two months - if it weren't for the fact that time costs money, i'd happily prove it and hand the website over to the OP.

cichlidfish.com you think he can outrank that? thousand of backlinks to the page, 11 year old domain? perhaps but why waste the time and money

oh ok i guess the anchor text to cichlidfish.com are mostly to the domain name but still

if it were me I would be out there targeting terms with more monthly searches if the competition had thousands of BL

this local monthly search is 2400 on "cichlid fish"
heck maybe if he can sell a ton fish, i guess its worth it, i dont know much about the niche

[trustumar]

Remove the affiliate links and see ranking improves or not.

[MaverickUK]

Strange, perhaps I'm missing something, but where are the thousands of backlinks pointing to cichlidfish.com? It is 6am so forgive me if I've missed something, but I would hazard a guess that the site has around 100 backlinks max. of which a majority of them aren't eve. targeted.

[tjc348]

Yeah how about some encouragement "paul".

Anyways, I'm aware that I need to keep adding content, but I'm not sure how my structure makes no sense? People who own cichlids, or any other type of fish still need to know the basics of keeping an aquarium, and I have several articles that give advice to beginners.

I'll assume that what you meant is that I need more actual information on cichlids.

In order to add more content and professional advice, do you guys suggest that I use articles from other publishers? Of course as long as I give them credit with their resource box?

This would give me more information for my readers

[MaverickUK]

To be perfectly honest with you there's nothing wrong with taking information from other websites and collating it and turning it in to your OWN unique and useful content. I'm not talking about stealing other peoples content, but rather taking ideas from it and structuring your own unique article.

[tjc348]

Changed a little SEO on my blog and went from pg 20 to pg 8.

I'm just going to keep building backlinks and writing content. Sooner or later I will move up to pg 1 which will bring tons of traffic to my site each day

[yukon]

Originally Posted by tjc348

Changed a little SEO on my blog and went from pg 20 to pg 8.

I'm just going to keep building backlinks and writing content. Sooner or later I will move up to pg 1 which will bring tons of traffic to my site each day

Tip:

Change that header image so only the fish on the right side of the page (top) is an image.

Add this text/code on the left side of the header (instead of the left side of the existing header image).

<h1>Cichlid Fish</h1>
<h2>Everything you need to know about cichlids</h2>

Right now you don't have an <h1> tag on the index page.

That header text being inside of an image isn't helping your on-page seo.

[simpleonline1234]

I'm going to agree with Paul on this one. Your competition has 100k internal links. The age and amount of content are driving this site.

You CAN beat them out but it won't happen anytime soon. If it were me I would look to flesh the site out more with content, slap up articles, blog comments, forum comments (which your already doing), and maybe some other methods not listed here.

Being that it's a strong competitor you are going to have to come in guns blazing and have a strong plan of action.

Plan it out and put it into motion. 6 months time and you should start showing some positive results if you play your cards right.

[Dellco]

Firstly, I would say your site seems pretty good, if you indeed created all that content yourself, and know first hand about cichlids. Otherwise, I'd be out of that site within 30 seconds as well.

I notice your site has a lot of image attachments like.....

inkwell1.jpg inkwell1.jpg

These are being listed by Google as your site content and each one is regarded as a full page. I'm not sure why your site outputs them as posts complete with the ability to add comments. I'd look into getting rid of them, because they can be seen as "low quality content".