Web Design Problem: Articles & Traffic

6 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
Hello Guys and Gals,
I am in a real conundrum here. In my sig you can see the site. The dilemma is that my static HTML pages are ranking well as articles but the forum section articles are not.

I would like to drive traffic to the forum but it is not happening. I believe forum is where the $$ is. I have been told that google sees all the pages with equal weight. I am not seeing that at all.

So.... I am wondering if the index.html should be replaced with the forum page? Or a 301 redirect? Or is there something I am missing?

The plan of attack was:
1) write the article (in the forum section)
2) get the back links based on the keywords for that article
3) rank in the top 10 for that article

That doesn't seem to work. It seems like I should be going with static HTML pages for all my articles as they are the only ones that are getting the job done.

If someone could advise it would be much appreciated.

P.s. This panda update really shot me in the foot. Most of my stuff was on page 1 before and now some are not even in the top 100....

Thanks in advance
#articles #design #problem #traffic #web
  • Profile picture of the author mgreener
    Hi,

    Are the forum articles viewable by spiders/robots? Try using a spider view tool just to make sure (it shows you the page as the search engine would see it).

    Keep building backlinks and maybe try getting some forum traffic from other sources, such as posting about your forum on other related sites.

    If the Panda slap still stings (as it does for most) make sure that your content is high quality and of quantity, 200 word articles won't cut it.
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  • Profile picture of the author nightshade877
    Banned
    Wow bud, you and me both... I was on page one for a couple of sites and keywords of mine, then the panda update occured and they were gone. I'll be checking this thread frequently as I have the same questions as you!
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  • Profile picture of the author Invert Planet
    Thanks for the replies. Most of the articles are 300-350 words. They are all unique and now we're upping the content 500 words per article.

    They are searchable by google as they were ranking before... although we try not to be overly repetitive on the key words (making the seo overly obvious) would changing that now help at all?
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  • Profile picture of the author Invert Planet
    Or possibly link spamming have done this? There is one article on Marbled Crays that was ranking fairly well. I purchased a Fivver gig for 1000 backlinks to that one article. I wonder if that ticked someone off.
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    • Profile picture of the author hannahraasch
      First of all, it takes long time to open your site. (my internet is working properly ) I found 'The system returned: (110) Connection timed out'.

      And there could be many reasons behind not getting desired ranking in SE. Usually, forum pages are keep updating by new posts and answers so chances of crawling in comparison of other pages are high.

      And spammy link always affect adversely.
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  • Profile picture of the author wiljep
    I would suggest you not to do a 301 re-direct rather put the instructions properly in the robots.txt file so that the bots are visiting your site, in the main home page design or in the menu bar wherever you have the forum link, make it more attractive to look at (Catchy)

    Make sure the links or url posted by other visitors are not that of spam category else you would be building back links via wrong sites and panda this time might start kung-fu with you rather than just hitting you on your feet.
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