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What should I do now? Need a little help.

by jodiesmitham
6 replies
Ok guys, I need a little help here.

A number of website I put together last year are doing well using Adsense. They rank for no. 1 spots for my keywords. After reading a few blogs on here, I decided to tackle Amazon Associates and my first site has done amazingly well. I just need another 10 or so of them and I'll be happy.

So 3 months ago I started working on a few new sites and then added a few more some weeks later. I figured that in time, using the SAME techniques I have used before, I would be successful i.e. 'rinse and repeat'. However, it looks like my old technique isn't working and although the old sites from last year are doing well, I can't seem to rank these new sites! They drift in between page 5 and 10+ in Google and I can't understand why as I am using the same techniques as before:

- research for keywords with at least 1,000 exact searches per month
- top 10 in Google not competitive for the keywords (full of page rank zeros with little backlinks and mostly Amazon product pages).
- purchase EMD or nearly EMD URL.
- homepage showing a synopsis of each post
- write up to 10 reviews over the course of a few weeks (400 - 500 words each)
- sidebar which includes relevant categories
- images all include keyword in name, title and alt tag.
- create a number of web 2.0 pages and social bookmark all my posts as my first tier. Use social bookmark for tier 2.
- find relevant forums and add only a few links
- use Yahoo answers

This has worked before and from what others have said, should also work for me now. I have spent nearly three months writing tons of reviews (all unique) but these sites aren't ranking and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't want to add anymore sites until I know what I'm doing wrong.

I have tried changing the WP themes I'm using and have checked my keyword density (it's never above 3%).

Anyone else finding this? Some on this forum are ranking on the first page of Google within a few weeks, so it's not that I'm being impatient (I hope!).
  • Profile picture of the author Mr Lim
    You know things were totally different after the penguin update, you should post this thread on the Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum
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  • Profile picture of the author ArielT
    Jodie, I don't know the answer, but It's interesting as Vesley said in her comment above, keep us updated with your case
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  • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
    Guys, I'll definitely keep you updated. All of the websites affected have indeed been launched after the penguin update, so it would be interesting to see how the strategy of others differs from mine.

    From their research, Market Samurai have offered a solution to those affected by penguin. They claim 40% of backlink anchor text should be brand links (i.e. 'www.mykeyword.com'), 40% generic links (i.e. 'click here') and only 20% target keyword links (i.e. 'my keywords'). Problem is, if you have an EMD then you REALLY need to be careful because your target anchor text is likely to also be your brand anchor text.

    I'll update if I know more.

    J
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  • Profile picture of the author ArielT
    ok Jodie, great, and the user wolfismmiii is very experienced on amazon affiliate sites, would be useful his opinion to compare with your case
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  • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
    Hi ArielT,

    Wolfismmiii has indeed helped before, but he mentioned in an earlier post that he wasn't experiencing any problems with ranking new sites. He doesn't backlink, so maybe that's the solution.
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  • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
    I'm finding this incredibly frustrating. I added some more reviews on one of the sites a few days ago and they were indexed today. Now my rankings are worse. They are all in positions 250 +. It almost seems that adding content, albeit unique, is causing more harm than good. I have never seen this happen with any of my other sites pre penguin.

    They are all following the same pattern - the more I add to the site, the more the pages are going down the rankings.
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