New site - SEO mistakes and ability to fix them

[at2000]

Hi All,

Reading this forum I'm keeping finding out that almost every move I made with my webisite was incorrect from SEO perspective:

1. Generated too many incoming links in very short time. Although those links were not paid the rate with which they were acquired is out of normal for such a site.

2. Chose incorrect internal linking structure and had to 301 later.

3. Allowed too much duplicated content.

4. Over-optimised.

5. Didn't add any additional value to the site.

All my mistakes above led to my site being put into sandbox then some filter/penalty applied to it.

Is this possible to go back to SERPs or this site is dead forever?

I would you very grateful you have any similar experience you can share information about.

Thank you.

[tedster]

The only way a site becomes dead "forever" is through some really cranked up participation in manipulative link schemes. That takes a lot of intentional effort to do that and it doesn't happen through newbie mistakes.

So I'd say that errors on the level you're talking about CAN be fixed and eventually you can rank with a re-vamped site on the same domain, same owner.

Only your first point "too many incoming links in very short time" is cause for some concern. So back out of whatever you can back out of. When you are ready on all fronts, use your Webmaster Tools account for a reconsideration request and be sure to mention what you did and what you did to back out of it.

[at2000]

Thnaks tedster,

This worries me too, but I'm not sure I can backup... It was normal submission, no black schemes, some of my competitors made the same and they rank well. The only thing I'm not sure is how fast they acquired their links (you can submit in one go, but can make 10 submisions a day).

Considering this was white hat method and that there are links from most reputable websites in my niche, is this possible without removing those links to get this filter/penalty lifted by reconsideration request? It's been about 8 months already since then.

[tedster]

Google wants to see freely given, editorially selected and independent backlinks. No button-pushing service where you just "submit" is going to be fully in line with what the Google guidelines are asking for.

If you build a better backlink profile, your rankings can improve. You can always apologize and claim newbie ignorance in your reconsideration request - at least one time ;) Follow the discussions in our Link Develoopment forum for ideas.

[g1smd]

The Duplicate Content, and so on, once fixed on your site, will take about three to six months to work itself out of Google's system.

[potentialgeek]

New site? Unless you're making a lot of money off your blackhat site, you just might be better off starting from scratch on a new domain.

p/g

[at2000]

Thank you for your answers. I posted my site for review < in the Supporters Area Site Review forum >. If you have access I would be very grateful if you can take a look

potentialgeek, yes, you are right, I would like to start one more website from stratch trying to avoid all mistakes I made before.

[edited by: tedster at 7:50 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2009]