Frustrated and p..... off. Since the beginning of N0v 07 one of my sites has been losing ground in Google search, lost another spot last night and don't really understand why. Probably there's more than one reason and maybe if I had some opinions I could narrow down the problem. I've been working on the links, have senbt out probably 1000 emails to relecant site requesting recip links, done some work on the site itself and on the title/desc/keywords/ Anyeay...can I get some opinions here please. Search term...pedal car my site http://www.pedalcarplus.com
I really hate Google. I remember when they were this cool independent start up and now they are all corporate and trying to control the content of the internet.... That said, it might not be Google's fault that you are losing ground. Look at the sites that have replaced you--are they more popular, is their SEO better? Sometimes Google will whack a site because of paid links, etc.... but take a look at what else is up there and see how you might need to up your game (not that your game is not up of course). Good luck!
Too much pedal car(s) in one paragraph, but it appears it is not too "spammy" for Google. You might be better off using pedal cars in an h1 tag and significantly reducing pedal cars in this paragraph. Maybe use pedal cars in bold once further down the page. Also, mix in some h2 tags as well. Maybe for "history of the pedal car." You still need more backlinks with the anchor text pedal cars. Go to Google and type in: allinanchor:pedal cars Code (markup): The number of sites with more pedal cars backlinks is very similar to your position in the serps. Before doing any onpage SEO, I would suggest working on getting more backlinks with the anchor text "pedal cars" if that is your primary keyword. Check your position in Google frequently with the allinanchor operator. If your position in allinanchor improves but your serps do not, then try some onpage SEO as I noted above. Make suttle changes so you can monitor its effect and adjust accordingly. PM me if you need a free onpage SEO report - compares your site to those ranking above you. Good luck with your interesting niche.
I guess my looking at the other sites ahead of mine is part of the reason I'm having trouble understanding what's happening. Personally, when I look at the design, content and quality of the first 3 sites using the search terms, I fell I have them beat pretty good. (please give me your opininion if you have time) I am lower on backlinks than the other sites but then I hear all this stuff about relevant links...how many links are available related to pedal cars? That brings up link exchanges, how many are out there that are relecant? I go to Alexa and I have a hogher traffic rank than all of the competitors, like that actually matters. Va,idation....my homepage is calidated, none of the other sites are. Afain, does it really matter? I guess as far as SEO, I want to make the site as right as possible. I know that backlinks play a major role and I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do about that.
One needs to have a detailed analysis of your competitors to determine keyword placement, keyword density, etc. I'll run a report for you and you can check it out. It won't be an opinion, but plain facts. Just give me 30 minutes or so to run the report and post it for you to download as a PDF file. Relevant links are important, and you should be submitting like crazy to web directories. You can probably submit under toys and possibly under antiques. I have a directory list in my signature you can use, but there are other lists around as well. Use Roboform free form filler to make submitting much faster. Of course, do not overlook other link building methods. Use press releases, social bookmarking, artice directories, etc. to get more permanent backlinks. Relevancy does not have to be 100% accurate for SEO purposes. Relevancy should have some relationship to your keywords. I would venture to say even links on used car Websites would still count towards your Pagerank and improve your serps. I would avoid link exchanges, unless they are likely to increase traffic to your Website. There are too many sources of one way links out there and exchanged links do not carry the same SEO weight they used to. Alexa traffic rank can be spoofed and can be very inaccurate. If people don't have the Alexa toolbar installed, there is no way to count that traffic. Webmasters tend to have the Alexa toolbar, so your traffic rank may be higher simply from visitors clicking on your signature link. I can't say for certain. I have parked domains with no Alexa traffic rank that get ten times as much traffic as other parked domains with a 3 million traffic rank. Don't focus much on Alexa, because it is simply not reliable. I really believe at this point you need more backlinks. The allinanchor was the giveaway. The other sites have more backlinks, with an anchor text of pedal cars, then you do. That's something we can see and there is no guessing there. That's why I said to try to increase your backlinks first, before doing any onpage SEO. If you try to do both at the same time, you will not discover what is working and what is not. Also, don't post links to your site with www if your site displays without the www. You may want to go to Google Webmaster tools and set this appropriately. Give me a few to get that report done for you...
Thanks very much for the advice. Showing my "newbieness" but I assume onpage is the changes to the site itself and off page is like working with the backlink issue? I've looked at the coding of other sites and it seems they have more than one h1 tag throughout the page. Corect? Backlinks. I think I've pretty much exchausted going for links from Similar peges, related sites, clubs....now I'll go towards link exchanges. Haven't had too much luck woth that so far but will give it another shot. Snowbird...thanks very much for the time spent on this thread and your help. Alll very good advice.