Sudden Major Decrease in Impressions

Thank you for your response. But how do I know if Google penalized me? There is no indication of this within my account in Webmaster Tools.

 

You haven't kept track of your search engine positions. Penalized can be read in different ways i.e. sandboxed or simply de-ranked. Example: You were ranking #3 for *keyword here* you are now ranking #15 = < traffic.

 

I really appreciate your feedback. However, I don't have the money to spend on creating an entirely new website. I want to do my best trying to make the one I have as effective as possible. A few years ago, a web designer out of Idaho claimed that she could design my site to bring it up to date and more functional. However, I heard from others that this site is riddled with errors. I shared similar experiences with several other web designers after her who made changes to my site. As you can tell, my trust in web designers is very negative at best. Since then, I took it upon myself to maintain my own site. I am the owner of the site but not the one who designed it. My knowledge of web design and SEO is minimal at best. That is why I have been seeking constructive feedback from forums like this - to help me improve my current site as much as I can.

 

This is your problem. Your knowledge is minimal, how do you expect to gain knowledge if your attitude is:

You have 3 problems:

-1 Your website needs drastic changes
-2 You need to up your knowledge of design and SEO
-3 Can't afford for somebody to come in and change it for you

Solution:

-1 Solve all 3 by learning.

I don't believe you need a re-design, the current design is fine. The coding however, is terrible. I'm not the best coder, but honestly changes are made. Research 'keyword density' you will come to see that you have way too many keywords in. I'm sure you have the capability to press the delete button. I'm sure you have the capability to research your keywords: https://adwords.google.com/o/Target...&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS is a great tool to estimate the traffic to keyword ratio.

Look at your competition, what keywords are they using, target those keywords.

Just those simple changes will have an affect, to what extent? I don't know, it's trial and error. Some things will work, some things will not but how do you know unless you try?

 

Thank you for your response. I will make those changes, especially to the meta tags. I always use the google link you referenced to find keywords. Finding keywords has always been confusing to me. In that link, what should I look for in terms of the competition (med, low, high), and global and local monthly searches?

 

That very question shows you still have your head in black-hat scam land TRYING to get yourself slapped down for abuse. That is not what keywords are for, or how they should be used.

You should write your page's flow text naturally, mark it up semantically, and allow it to do it's job -- trying to game the engine by dicking around with searching for specific words means you are NOT writing for the user/visitor.

... and that's something the people at the various search engines keep telling us over and over and over -- write for the user, not the engine!

Which is why 95% of your title attributes should be deleted outright, your title tag should be changed to actually be the name of the site and/or tell people what page of the site they are on (preferably less than 32 characters), and your keywords meta should contain just 7 to 9 single (with the rarest of exceptions) words that exists inside BODY that you would like to receive slightly more weight, totaling less than 128 characters.

"Finding keywords"? Look at your TEXT... what's important? If you're dicking around with automated tools and online searches to figure out what YOUR keywords should be, you're doing it all wrong and are completely missing the point.

 

good topic ... thanks for asking this question.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way because I truly appreciate your feedback no matter how harsh it may come across. However, Scott (previous response) said that I should use Google Adword Keyword search to find keywords and you apparently disagree with using automated tools to figure out what my keywords should be. I think that this has been my problem all along. Since I took over maintenance and SEO of my own site with my limit knowledge of these issues, I have consistently asked for advice in forums like this when problems arise. Even though most of the feedback I received was conflictual, I attempted to integrate almost of the feedback that I received only to be told later that I am doing it all wrong and that I should trash my site and begin again. This is very frustrating for me to read when I have been getting and implementing feedback from forums such as this. Granted, I haven't implemented all the feedback I received, conflictual feedback does leave a novice such as myself wondering what exactly I should do to improve my site. I kind of wish that there was an SEO bible if you will that has all the correct info that someone like me needs so desperately.

This reduction in impressions may have been a false alarm. I don't know if Google did something different , but now the traffic graph on Webmaster Tools looks a bit different than it use to. Maybe it is just me but the impressions are increasing again and the number of search engine clicks appears to be the same as before. I will continue to optimize my site taking everyone's recommendations in consideration and hope for the best.

 

If traffic is on the up, then work with it. Always look at ways to improve your SEO. I said a number of times in this thread that I'm not an expert and have passed my opinion on. People have different ways of doing things, so some advise will conflict. But if it's conflicting advise you are worrying about, look at the advise we have agreed on. It is good advise.

There is no SEO bible and never will be because techniques and strategies are ever changing. Search engines change their algorithms and make it harder to rank high.

As for using Google Keyword Tool. I wouldn't take that for gospel, but to give you an idea of keywords that will bring in high amounts of traffic. I personally believe that your keywords are wrong. You are using sentences and those sentences are irrelevant to the items you are tagging them on.

At the end of the day, it is down to you. All you can do is look at the advise you have been given and decide whether or not to implement it. By the sounds of it you were/are happy with the traffic/impressions you are receiving. This is why you are still stuck in a rut with no finances to improve your website because you are not striving to go the extra mile and improve your traffic to reach a wider audience and spread the word of what your entity is all about.

 

I think that you nailed it! I'm looking for facts, not opinions. I want to know exactly what will improve and what will hurt me site. It is obvious that through the years, I took to heart too many opinions and not enough facts from folks such as yourself.

By the way, I find this statement of yours:

"This is why you are still stuck in a rut with no finances to improve your website because you are not striving to go the extra mile and improve your traffic to reach a wider audience and spread the word of what your entity is all about."

very inappropriate and defamatory at best. If I wasn't going the 'extra mile', I wouldn't be seeking advice from forums such as this, now would I? To clarify my earlier statement, if I listen to those folks such as yourself who recommends trashing my existing site and start afresh, I will certainly go broke! I already once took this advice from a web designer and you could see where it got me.

To be perfectly honest, when I seek answers to questions on forums such as this, I really don't expect to be greeted by hostility, rudeness, and sarcasm. Forums should be a place to seek support, not to be trashed. It is okay to voice your concerns and be direct, but the line of inappropriate comments should not be crossed. But I guess that this is only my opinion!

Rudeness and sarcasm aside, I actually was able to siphon out the actual helpful info from this thread and I am in the midst of cleaning up all of the SEO issues that my site contains. For this, I thank you and all the others that responded to my thread!