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I Really Stink at SEO

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by pbruessow@msn.com, Jan 7, 2008.

  1. #1
    I thought I was doing well about a month ago when I reached #7 for my keywords (7 month old site), but gradually fell back to #9. Then I thought I needed a lot more content and a better link building campaign, so I really got aggressive.

    Now I'm at #12 or #13 (was #15 for awhile). Was I too aggressive in link building to lose 4-6 positions? I thought I knew what to do, but apparently I just suck at SEO. Could losing a decent comment post cause this. I'm really kinda lost. Any help is appreciated!:confused:
     
    pbruessow@msn.com, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  2. Tudi

    Tudi Peon

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    #2
    Did you rank in a hot niche? It might not be you that sucked, but your direct competitors putting a lot more money in their SEO campaign. What site did you optimize for btw? Maybe some of us here can take a look and spot some errors. Cheers and good luck getting back up there.
     
    Tudi, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  3. w3bmaster

    w3bmaster Notable Member

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    #3
    Wait time is a important thing in SEO

    And it takes time those backlinks to take effect
     
    w3bmaster, Jan 7, 2008 IP
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  4. jvfconsulting

    jvfconsulting Active Member

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    #4
    Which site are you referring to? Do you have a url? Time is definitely a factor if your doing everything else correct.
     
    jvfconsulting, Jan 7, 2008 IP
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  5. Chios

    Chios Well-Known Member

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    #5
    If this a new site you are talking about (less than 1 year)
    then google is giving you the "google dance" your site will be moving a lot in the results

    if the niche is very competitive then you might have actually done less than the rest of the
    competition has done, or the search engines might not have actually seen your links

    Its really hard to say if we don't know the niche and the age of the site
    but I assume if your site is still in the search results (SERPs) their is no penalty from GOOGLE
    so you can safely continue doing what you have been doing

    SEO needs patience
     
    Chios, Jan 7, 2008 IP
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  6. pbruessow@msn.com

    pbruessow@msn.com Active Member

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    #6
    Thanks for the comments everyone! My niche is not very competitive and I didn't see much action in link building (except one) from my competitors. Not much in their content building either. The site I'm focusing on is Florida Bass Fishing, as it does have some searches according to some keyword tools and I like bass fishing so it is a topic that I can write about.

    It's either the Google dance, a lost of some good links or too aggressive of a campaign, but I'm not sure which. Not much change in my on page optimization. Any other clues are appreciated!;)
     
    pbruessow@msn.com, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  7. Chios

    Chios Well-Known Member

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    #7
    pbruessow@msn.com
    I assume we are talking about florida bass fishing and floridabassfishing.us/

    I think you are doing fine with you link building
    its just that all the sites above you on that search have been around for some time
    most even before 2002 - only one was established in 2006 and one around
    the time that you built your site (may 2007)

    My advice is you can't beat those guys with just link building

    build nice content that people will enjoy and link to it
    and build it on some timely manner - write 1-2 or even more new articles every month

    another thing you can try to do is leave "florida bass fishing" alone for awhile (forget it)
    and focus on some other lesser competitive terms (but still related)
    and try to dominate those terms ...
     
    Chios, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  8. bogs

    bogs Active Member

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    #8
    SEO is a long time process.. no exact result but definitely theres an output.. depends on how you do it...
    every seo have a different technique on how to rank a site... and yes it also depends on your targeted niche...
     
    bogs, Jan 7, 2008 IP
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  9. pbruessow@msn.com

    pbruessow@msn.com Active Member

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    #9
    Your right on Chios! So do you think I need to focus link building on some other term for bass fishing? I do have another site South Florida Bass Lakes that brings about the same amount of traffic but I'm higher in SERP for it's keywords (although those keywords aren't as competitive i.e. less searched for). I am writing more pages, submit articles at about two a month and have a RSS feed with snippets to my pages.

    What keywords would you focus on for my niche?;)
     
    pbruessow@msn.com, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  10. trichnosis

    trichnosis Prominent Member

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    #10
    your problem is your site age. 7 months is not a high age for a web site. i think you must continue to work on your web site with the current speed
     
    trichnosis, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  11. Tudi

    Tudi Peon

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    #11
    3 short tips to help your SEO:

    1. Redirect http://floridabassfishing.us/ to www.floridabassfishing.us using the .htaccess file in your site-s directory. Search engines consider it two different sites and you may get flagged for dupe content.
    2. Add more expressive, keyword rich titles. Although the site's name is a keyword, popping in some secondary ones won't hurt
    3. Add lots of internal links, with keywords acting as anchors. From my experience this really helps with weighting out keywords and with a healthier indexing of the site

    Good luck!
     
    Tudi, Jan 7, 2008 IP
  12. Chios

    Chios Well-Known Member

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    #12
    Keywords ??

    YOU probably know better than anyone what keywords are in your niche
    from the top of my head and looking at your blog
    how about
    "florida bass fishing guides"
    "florida bass fishing tips"
    "south florida bass fishing guides"
    "south florida bass fishing tips"

    they do have your main keywords in them
    "florida bass fishing"
    but will be probably easier to rank well

    I would have to do some research in order to give you
    an exact answer of what are good keywords

    but you can
    consult your stats/analytics account and see potential
    keywords that have brought you traffic

    and
    use your webmasters tools as outlined here
    http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=614501
     
    Chios, Jan 8, 2008 IP
  13. Tudi

    Tudi Peon

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    #13
    Here's a tip:

    Search for your competitor's websites. View their source. Steal their keywords from the meta tag, if they were silly enough to add them there. Optimize your site on the same keywords plus some niche long tail keywords (although "florida bass fishing" is a niche in itself).
     
    Tudi, Jan 8, 2008 IP
  14. Dvae

    Dvae Banned

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    #14
    thanks for the tip.
     
    Dvae, Jan 8, 2008 IP
  15. Tudi

    Tudi Peon

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    #15
    Yw. Oh and the trick works both ways. So don't use meta keywords tag on your site :) They don't help you optimize it anyway (some say Yahoo might still use them on a small scale but you shouldn't care about Yahoo, your main target is Google :p)

    Good luck wtih the site!
     
    Tudi, Jan 8, 2008 IP
  16. Chios

    Chios Well-Known Member

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    #16
    Sorry But I don't agree even one bit with what you are saying.

    It don't matter for me if I give my keywords away.
    A little research can actually reveal them so no point in hiding behind my finger.

    Closing the doors on some search engines is not wise either.
    They don't send you the traffic that Google can send you,
    but nevertheless they do send you some nice traffic that
    most of the times converts better then all other traffic sources.

    And one more subtle point:
    Its ultimately the people that visit your site that judge if it was worth the visit and search engines have a way of knowing (more so in the future)
     
    Chios, Jan 8, 2008 IP
  17. Tudi

    Tudi Peon

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    #17
    Feel free to disagree :) The pro/con meta keyword discussion is not something I'd argue over. Can you (with absolute certainty) tell me that one of the major search engines uses them in the algo?

    Are you talking about toolbar stats? Like time on page, CTR in the SERPs and so forth. If so, yes I agree the SEs have a way of storing and using this data, although nothing has been "proven" yet. It would be silly if they didn't use this data, since after all, a search engine's goal is to provide the best and most relevant sites for a search.
     
    Tudi, Jan 8, 2008 IP
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  18. thunderbolt007

    thunderbolt007 Active Member

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    #18
    I agree, the age of page or domain has a great impact in terms of SEO... Also try to build your links according to your niche and update your contents every now and then...
     
    thunderbolt007, Jan 8, 2008 IP
  19. Chios

    Chios Well-Known Member

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    #19
    That is exactly what I am saying, you are right on the money.

    As far as hiding your keywords if you want proof that anyone can find your successful keywords tell me a site (or PM me) and I will.
     
    Chios, Jan 8, 2008 IP