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SEO - Feeling Fed Up!

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012.

  1. #1
    Hi

    I run a niche kids clothing brand. The website has nice content and no adverts. My sales dropped by 50% after the Panda update. I have had to make half my staff redundant. I am constantly working on SEO but my position is not improving. (Keyword focus designer kids clothes, designer baby clothes plus many more niche keyword such as funky baby clothes that I list okay on but don't have a high search volume anyway) My strategy is:
    Social bookmarking
    Facebook Fan page (3500 fans)
    Twitter (2000 followers)
    Blogging
    Forum and Blog commenting
    Facebook and Google +1 Like buttons on each product
    Updating content regularly
    Onsite SEO (Title Tags, Alt Tags, Keywords on content (less than 3%)

    Please help!
     
    ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  2. J.P

    J.P Notable Member

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    #2
    First off check your sig link as you have a extra slash in it which means the link is not working.

    Just wondering if the description of the clothes are unique.. if yes, good, if no make them unique

    What you are doing SEO wise is good, ensuring it's a mix of links (different places) and be sure to keep rotating your anchor links.

    Half the battle when making changes is nothing happens right away, it's a bit of a waiting game for the SERPS to change since Panda updates/above the fold update.

    Edit: Your home page title is too long imo
     
    J.P, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  3. vacationcluster

    vacationcluster Peon

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    #3
    do social media marketing for your product based site , you will definitely get referring traffic from such site , also participate in forums , community sites .
     
    vacationcluster, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  4. lapseo

    lapseo Member

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    #4
    If your onpage SEO is fine then maybe some of your incoming back links are of low quality and google has punished you for it? Perhaps think about building more high quality back links to your website.
     
    lapseo, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  5. psychicmystery

    psychicmystery Active Member

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    #5
    you need more original content to be posted on your site DAILY
     
    psychicmystery, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  6. rodcul

    rodcul Peon

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    #6
    Which is the main site you are worried about? or both?
     
    rodcul, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  7. ghome1971

    ghome1971 Member

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    #7
    How can one remove low quality backlinks? - some of might not be my own making. And this doesn't make sense, as one could create low quality backlinks to a competitor's site in order to damage their listings!
     
    ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  8. ghome1971

    ghome1971 Member

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    #8
    ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  9. rodcul

    rodcul Peon

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    #9
    I would suggest you try running Screaming Frog against your site, there appears to be a bunch of URLs that are not working:

    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/Personalised_Sweatshirts.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/hip-baby-t-shirts.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/personalised-baby-gifts.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/sale_tops.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/teenage_girls_tshirts.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/cowboy_kids_t-shirt.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/branded_pyjamas.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/pirate_baby_gift_sets.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/baby_xmas_gift.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/sale_kids_top.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/Personalised_Tops.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/hip-infant-clothing.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/royal_wedding_t-shirts.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/keep_calm_dress.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/girl_s-pyjamas.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/sale_boys_tshirts.html
    stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/kids_stocking_ideas.html

    among many others. Check out where you are linking to this from.

    Also /cgi-bin/ appears to be getting crawled still despite your rule in robots.txt I suggest you check that its setup correctly.

    I would suggest you make sure you have Google Webmaster Tools installed as it would have alerted you of these sorts of errors.

    Good luck!
     
    rodcul, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  10. ghome1971

    ghome1971 Member

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    #10
    Is screaming frog the same as Xenu?
     
    ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  11. rodcul

    rodcul Peon

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    #11
    Welcome to SEO, unfortunately "Google Bowling" - building low quality backlinks to a competitors site with the objective of getting them kicked out is technically possible: seoblackhat.com/category/googlebowling/

    In order to identify low quality backlinks Google Webmaster Tools can help detect things here. Also of help is SEOMOZ Opensiteexplorer.org tool or Majestic SEO backlinks tool.

    You may have also just been part of the "collateral damage" of the Panda Update

    Hope you can work it out. If SEO is really such a core part of your business I would strongly suggest you find an SEO freelance or agency to help you out.

    Good luck!
     
    rodcul, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  12. rodcul

    rodcul Peon

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    #12
    Yes it has similar features although is a lot more powerful. Also they have great support (especially via twitter)

    Screaming Frog =Xenu on steroids for SEO's

    Also the free version will scan 500 URLs - more than enough in your case for debugging the site.
     
    rodcul, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  13. ghome1971

    ghome1971 Member

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    #13
    Could my Webgain affiliates links be damaging my listings? I have cancelled my affiliate scheme anyway from the end of this month as i was losing so much to paying affiliates for orders from listing competing with my own site.
     
    ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  14. ghome1971

    ghome1971 Member

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    #14
    I will create a list of all the suggestions on this thread and address all the problems with my site.
     
    ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  15. lapseo

    lapseo Member

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    #15
    You can't really remove low quality backlinks, all you can do is be counter productive to this and keep building high quality ones.

    And yes, this is possible on some sites. I had a PR5 health related blog and a competitor of mine built 1000's of spammy backlinks and 1000's of porn/adult related backlinks/keywords and my site dropped. I've still not fully recovered but things are on the up again.
     
    lapseo, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  16. tedives

    tedives Peon

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    #16
    You said it was due to the Panda update, but when do you mean exactly (around which date). Surely you've not been waiting for months and months to ask this question, was it recently, if so when?

    - Ted
     
    tedives, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  17. ghome1971

    ghome1971 Member

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    #17
    I was affected well over a year ago. I have worked very hard to rebuild my listings and have had some success (at least enough to keep my business going). I wanted to see if there is anything I am missing. I will make all the changes suggested here but not sure if they really will turn my listings around.
     
    ghome1971, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  18. lapseo

    lapseo Member

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    #18
    Well panda was first introduced in Feb 2011, was it before or after this date?
     
    lapseo, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  19. bigznet

    bigznet Member

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    #19
    As others have mentioned, there isn't much you can do about low-quality backlinks. If you wanted, you could find some of the websites and email the webmasters to ask for your links to be removed. But to be honest, this would take lots of work and I question if it would make any difference. There are different opinions on this subject, but I disagree that these low quality links can negatively impact your website. If this was the case, everyone would go out and apply bad backlinks to their competition. Google has stated this is not possible and they simply provide NO VALUE to poor quality links (rather than penalizing you).

    What they can penalize you for is linking schemes to artificially build your rankings such as reciprocal links, 3-way exchanges and paid links. So if you're using any of these strategies, it's possible they could penalize you for it. But I would say it's more likely that they'll completely devalue these type of links. If they devalued links that were previously considered high quality -- your positions would drop.

    So keep working on high quality backlinks! You have some good strategies going already. Also consider "guest posting" on other people's blogs (with links to your website). Are there any high quality "shopping directories" where you can submit your website? What about submitting articles to article exchange sites? Just a few other ideas...
     
    bigznet, Feb 14, 2012 IP
  20. Trapped

    Trapped Well-Known Member

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    #20
    Removing low quality backlinks? That's insane!

    If you don't mind me asking, do you do your own seo or you have someone do the routine daily tasks? From the list of promotional methods you just mentioned, I do see a flaw. Also rodcul nailed some dead pages which can negatively affect your site, but again, all your marketing efforts are only those you've mentioned in the OP ?
     
    Trapped, Feb 14, 2012 IP