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SERPs dropping, what did I do wrong?

by edyang
10 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello,

Looking for some assistance from the WF community.

Website hired us and we commenced work back in mid October.

At the time, they were ranked mid-Page 2.

They fired us a week ago for not achieving results. To be fair, their rankings hadn't budged after 3 months. They refused to pay us our outstanding invoice for January.

Now their rankings have dropped to mid-Page 3.

Back on Oct 15, here were their site stats:

Page Authority: 54/100
Domain Authority: 44/100
Total Links: 6,593
Total Internal Links: 910
Total External Links: 5,683

In the first month we provided recommendations to improve their onsite SEO factors. We also changed their Title and Description tags to be less spammy and more grammatically correct.

Our analysis showed that their site didn't have enough links built for inner pages; we recommended creating content for them and then building links to those pages.

Our team wrote pretty good, original content for 2 new inner pages around "common myths of mail order brides" and "tips for online dating". About 450 to 600 words, with a few outbound links sprinkled in to authority sites.

We also wrote 2 other new pages called "Ask Anna" that were like "Dear Abby" in a question and answer format.

Client claimed Ask Anna was useless and a couple days ago told me they took it down, to our objections.

Client also was mad that we were using target keywords that weren't the core ones they wanted, but I had to explain that over-optimizing anchor text is a big red flag. We mixed in long tail, branded, and ones like "click here" and "learn about" for more a natural look.

We started link building to those inner pages, using a rotation of different keywords, not really wanting to rank those pages higher but just to increase the depth of the links to the site.

Over the course of the next two and a half month, we did the following:

-One Hoist Rocket from HoistSEO to the homepage
-10 authority profiles on Linkvana
-20 .edu links and pyramid push on Link Chicks
-3 Link Pushes from linkpushing(dot)net, one for the homepage, 2 inner pages
-purchased social media clicks
-20 .edu links, .edu/.gov wiki links, 100 mixed links, bookmarks, 200 microlinks for inner pages from Link Chicks
-3 Link Pushes from linkpushing(dot)net for 3 inner pages in January
-dotEDUlinks(dot)com, 3 packages for $150 each targeting 3 inner pages in January
-strategic seo blitz package from Warrior Forum for one inner page in January

I realize some of the benefits from link building in early January shouldn't show up yet as it's too early.

But any idea what I did wrong here? Even if the client fired me, I want to do right by them and figure out if I can help them in any way.

Thanks in advance for your input.
#dropping #serps #wrong
  • Profile picture of the author nik0
    Banned
    Why the heck are you outsourcing the link building to other party's?

    And why do you add non relevant pages, purely of the sake of creating more inner pages? I think that's a worthless reason when there is no strategy behind it. When a site doesn't have inner pages then it doesn't need links to inner pages either. If you add other pages you should do it to increase the relevancy and build it up in a pyramid style (silo structure like Yukon mentioned often). Just adding random pages makes zero sense, you won't create authority that way.

    Then you come up with other spam links like .edu and .gov, and 100 mixed links and 200 microlinks whatever that means. If you want to be an SEO you might want to figure out how to rank sites first instead of purchasing a mix of several different (crappy) services from external sources.

    Now I won't claim for the full 100% that the link building is the reason as there was also this panda 24 update, but still, if you want to do it good take care of your own network. I never buy seo services from others, only maintain my own network and have a team in Pakistan that build links at public sites according to my guidelines and if they do it wrong they can re-do it. Turns out to be a great teacher when they have to redo things in their own time.
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  • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
    The best input I can give you is ''don't offer professional services if you don't fully know how to make the job''. Write it down somewhere and keep it on your desk.

    You have to understand that you're dealing with people's money , those sites could be their mine earners. Buying few crappy seo packages on forums doesn't make you a SEO and you should make it clear to your clients before taking their money.

    ps: outing your clients data on a public forum isn't very smart.
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    • Profile picture of the author edyang
      Originally Posted by GodMode52 View Post

      The best input I can give you is ''don't offer professional services if you don't fully know how to make the job''. Write it down somewhere and keep it on your desk.

      You have to understand that you're dealing with people's money , those sites could be their mine earners. Buying few crappy seo packages on forums doesn't make you a SEO and you should make it clear to your clients before taking their money.
      Point taken, but we did do a thorough analysis of his onsite factors and made recommendations to improve the site from a technical point of view.

      We also did do manual whitehat link building, but with such a high competition niche we felt the need to augment it with link pushes of a sort that would be too time consuming for us to create and maintain in house.

      If you have any vendors you recommend that are trusted who can, I'm all ears.
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      • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
        Originally Posted by edyang View Post

        Point taken, but we did do a thorough analysis of his onsite factors and made recommendations to improve the site from a technical point of view.

        We also did do manual whitehat link building, but with such a high competition niche we felt the need to augment it with link pushes of a sort that would be too time consuming for us to create and maintain in house.

        If you have any vendors you recommend that are trusted who can, I'm all ears.
        Services which are advertised for "sale" are generally crap and targeted towards those who don't understand how SEO works. Look at Fiverr. People see 50,000 backlinks and jump in joy - because they've been reading about how valuable a backlink is!

        The people who sell SEO services on WF and other areas typically don't generate enough revenue through private clients to pay their bills. It's much more profitable for them to sell to a more "mainstream" market (a market who doesn't understand SEO).

        Me for example, I don't advertise my services on WF. I don't list my personal website. I have actually picked up quite a few clients through WF, and all of them, messaged me to ask if I do SEO. These are people who want results and are sick and tired of dealing with crap. The people who NEED to advertise their services generally aren't reputable and reliable, and it's really that simple.

        People who have worked with me know I deliver results, and they refer their friends & family to me. I get enough business through referrals and people who try to contact me.
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        Just got back from a #BrightonSEO. I was given room 404 in the hotel I stayed at. Couldn’t find it anywhere!

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        • Profile picture of the author yukon
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Icematikx View Post

          Me for example, I don't advertise my services on WF. I don't list my personal website. I have actually picked up quite a few clients through WF, and all of them, messaged me to ask if I do SEO.

          That's why I had a Not for hire message in my WF forum sig. I was getting a lot of PMs every single day with people asking to pay me for helping them. I don't want to sound mean but I just don't have time to do other peoples work. I know I'm on this forum a lot, but most times I usually have another browser window open & working on my own stuff.

          If people would jump in & start helping answer questions on the forums, the buyers will track them down. I'm talking about sincerely trying to help people on the forums, not posting just to drop fiverr gig links in their forum sig.
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  • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
    Your links are absolutely awful. It's no wonder you didn't notice any SERPs movement. Why would you take on a client when you know absolutely nothing about SEO? It's people like you who destroy the market.
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    Just got back from a #BrightonSEO. I was given room 404 in the hotel I stayed at. Couldn’t find it anywhere!

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  • Profile picture of the author Cash37
    Links not relevant enough
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    • Profile picture of the author edyang
      The pages we created were definitely related to the site's topic, they weren't crappy at all but rather were written to be informative.

      Are you saying that all link outsourcers are bad and not superior to doing it in House?

      I find that hard to believe. Companies like LinkPushing and Hoist have great reviews by the community, and I've used them to good effect with other clients. And if this is the case, then what's the deal with all the SEO packages being hawked on WF and all the good reviews left for them? I don't buy it...
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      • Profile picture of the author nik0
        Banned
        Originally Posted by edyang View Post

        The pages we created were definitely related to the site's topic, they weren't crappy at all but rather were written to be informative.

        Are you saying that all link outsourcers are bad and not superior to doing it in House?

        I find that hard to believe. Companies like LinkPushing and Hoist have great reviews by the community, and I've used them to good effect with other clients. And if this is the case, then what's the deal with all the SEO packages being hawked on WF and all the good reviews left for them? I don't buy it...
        Well the first mistake is trusting reviews. There are always some people where it works out well, no matter how hard you spam it, and if you sell 5000 packages in the long run then it's no surprise to get 50 good reviews, but from the other 4950 people you never hear a thing.

        I'm actually amazed myself that I never receive negative reviews while there are plenty of clients where it did not work out well, and when I started to sell SEO I was going on the hype of public blog networks so quite a few clients got penalized after that but never a bad word in my sales thread about it. (Now I have to add that I always made it clear what type of links I builded and where so the clients also have some self-responsibility and perhaps that explains it).

        In all honesty I can say that 98% of the link building services being offered on this forum are pure spam.

        Short note about the services that you used: They all still use (crappy) automated spun content, hell no that they are going to create well readable spin content for those budgets as it's insane time consuming (even if it's readable then it's mashed up content, or in other words a mix of sentences from all over the web where not a single sentence is unique but as a total it appears somewhat unique) and even then it's not so hard for Google to detect that and that's the main reason why automated link building is as good as dead.
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  • Profile picture of the author john8954
    Update your self bro first then handle projects individually, because every things depend on your give suggestion of website.

    Thanks !
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