cannot rank 5yr old uk local business site

Hi guys - newbie here to the forum. I am looking for some help (but dont expect everything for free!)

I need a local expert/knowledge of local rankings rather than traditional seo

So basically i have a local trades uk site for my business and having done countless things and tested many services and methods, i just cannot get a good nor stable ranking.

Site is 4.5yrs old ish
fairly easy competition/lowish monthly search of about 300-400 for given terms and slight variations like plural etc. Main terms are just tradesman+town and for the life of me i dont know where im going wrong with on site stuff. Im aware i need to step up a few things but having done myself and payed for services of links (which of the ones i have obtained are not really much good for local search and most not uk links), articles, press releases, social, bookmarking and citations which im on with now.

I dont want to post much details here regarding my domain etc but if anyone would fancy helping me out with maybe an initial audit or something and then possibly reasonable weekly fees or something on those lines to gain another successful job in your portfolio then id love to hear from you. Im not wanting everything for free but times are tight as my work has died off totally due to loss of rankings (not a G slap either) and so id like to maybe come to an arrangement where we can do a few improvements to get me ranking higher and hopefully if the money starts to come in then we can contiue things as i have plenty of plans to improve my site long term and maintain ranks once i have funds in a short while.

I have ranked high (top 10) but my business is ruined after last updates and my competitors stepping up their campaigns too.

If anyone would be kind enough to help out and then follow up with me further for some more business in next week or so then id be most grateful!

look forward to hearing from you!

 

TL;DR - clean your link profile, fix any on-site issues and develop a long-term strategy.

Otherwise:
I guess what needs to first be established is what update has hit you and clean that up. It sounds like Penguin 2.0, so the sad fact is you need to wait until there's another Penguin update until you will recover. I might sound harsh (but it's not meant to be), however it sounds like you have engaged in quite a few manipulative link practices and this is why you've been bitten by Penguin 2.0. It's all in the timings. If you post the date your downfall occurred, then we'll have a better idea of what hit you.

So, the first thing I would do if I was in your situation is change direction with resolution of this. That means, don't hire anyone for the "clean up" as you want to avoid anyone screwing it up (or screwing you, for that matter).

Next up is to assess your links, so download a copy from of the links (from Google Webmaster Tools) and open them up in MS Excel (or similar). You probably want to add a drop down list to each cell in one column and that list will contain categories of link types, along the lines of:

• Paid (links you paid for)
• Outsourced (links you paid someone else to build)
• Self (links you built)
• Organic (any link to you that someone else made out of their own choice, with no payment or request from you)

I would go a bit further and for each of those points have "self - social media", "self - web directories", "self - guest blogging", "self - social bookmarking", etc. (Have similar categories for the outsourced, too).
So, the purpose of this list is you will remove links until you're just left with the bad ones.

So, obviously you want to keep all of your organics, so remove those from the list. Next up you want to remove any self-built ones that are on your social media profiles, for example. That means, legitimate social media profiles for your site, not fake ones in order to seem popular without being. For article directories, they all want to be left there (except maybe GoArticles.com, EzineArticles.com and any other reputable article directory - maybe just one or two more out there). For web directories, just keep a few high quality ones (such as regional/business directories) and remove all the ones that just take any link.

If you did guest blogging, evaluate each site carefully - is it essentially an article directory, or are these niche sites that are selective about the articles they accept? If the article is duplicated elsewhere, you need to decide which copies are going to remain on the "bad links list" and then just remove the most trustworthy site from the list.

So, continue in that kind of way through the links so that you are just left with the crap ones. Next, try to get some of these links removed and the ones you can't will just have to be disavowed. I suggest you read this article and watch the video so that you avoid some of the mistakes other people make.

So, once you've done the link clean-up, there will be an unfortunate wait time (the next Penguin update), however you should still develop a long-term plan for your site and action it.

Pay close attention to your site's architecture - is it crawlable, are there any duplicate content issues (this could be due to url parameters and sorting, which can be solved by specifying canonical urls), is there content? (Or do you have some empty pages.) Also, do you allow people to leave reviews? If not, do it, as it will be very important. You should employ rich text too (for breadcrumbs and also the review stars and anything else you think is relevant).

Obviously, there is the issue of gaining links, marketing your site and content. Sorry, but this is one of those kind of boring niches (but having reviews for businesses will help gain some links). Anyway, to get some ideas I would recommend the following. In Google, search for:

site:moz.com boring

Code (markup):

And you will actually find some good articles about creating content, marketing, etc, for boring niches.

 

Hey i'd like to help what is the url and keyword you looking to rank for? Ill check it out and see why.
I've taken a few sites I had after the Penguin update and got them back on the first page again.

 

Do they rank anywhere else? E.g. Yahoo or maybe a Facebook page

 

google mostly

 

Even though google should be your number 1 it's not the only place to get good quality traffic.

 

agreed for sure. But thats where they are showing up the most.

 

Hi all, thanks for the input. I will be posting updates and maybe even a journey log of how we do. A well respected active member is already on with implementing some changes for me and we are doing great so far. I am more than happy with what has been suggested and rates are very reasonable and done as we go with no false promises. I have logs via serpbook etc and will document any changes and catch up here shortly. Maybe this will then help out others to see how we implemented things and what the movements were as algos change. Its a local site as mentioned and a few extra things id missed are being implemented so it will be a good example to see where we end up. The person i have employed may or may not wish to chip in now or may wait to show what they have managed to achieve for me in the days/weeks to come. Im happy with whatever he/she chooses to do. ill be back soon.

oh and yes - its ranking in most search engines but often better than not in bing although this was never really targeted. Yahoo has poor rankings now but used to be brilliant/the best for me but again yahoo has not been on my to do list recently either.

kind regards