jwc2349 - 10:45 am on Jul 20, 2006 (gmt 0)

I have analyzed my site vs the competition inside and out using various tools and hired a SEO firm to do the same (who found nothing critically wrong). When I analyze with SEO Elite and check to find well optimized sites, I keep coming up at the top of the heap, sometimes by a dramatic number but almost always in the top 5 regardless of which targted search term I use.

Therefore, after much analysis over the past 7 months, I think it is one of these two problems. The first is a duplicate penalty assessed to my primary site because of the development mirror site put up by programmers last Fall which Google crawled and indexed. The dev site is still in G's index now but I just 301'd it. This is sounds likely because I fell 30 spots in the serps initially and have stayed there. This dup penalty has been my belief since day one but it should have expired by now.

The second reason is a lack of quality IBL's. I didn't work on developing links too much because I was doing so well. But now that the well has gone dry, I am busting my butt to get great IBL's.

Question for you: How many sites do you have crosslinked?