SEO case study and need your advice

[RoyalChina]

I manage some commerce sites and non commerce sites. Usually use similar techniques and non commerce sites rank quite quickly while commerce sites rank very slowly. I understand that it might be due to competitiveness.

A major commerce site I manage is a travel site with an exact match domain name bluewidgets.com. Before we purchased the domain, it was parked for many years. After we bought it and we built our content and threw it online at the beginning of 2010.

We did submit to major directories, DMOZ (not included till now), BOTW, Business, and Yahoo and dozens of minor paid directories.
We did submit articles to some major and minor article sites.
We did submit press releases to major press release sites.
We did exchange links with related sites, not very aggressively.
We did buy some paid links thought TLA and removed them all after six months because our rankings tanked.
We did pay some non-competitor sites in our niche for banner and text block ads in hope of getting extra traffic including SEO juice.
We also did some Social Bookmarking and link requesting from related websites with little success.
We also did vary our anchor texts.
Now our site yoyos between 2-4 pages, usually on 3rd page.

Here are top 10 listings for the keyword blue widgets.
No. 1 BlueDreamWidgets.com/widget/. Aggressively link exchanging (removing link partners' links after they gain their links), heavy link buying, article submitting. A few brand links. 6 Years old.
No. 2 BlueDreamWidgets.com
No. 3 LoveThatWidgets.comwith many brand links as well some junk links their previous seo did for them. 8 Years old.
No. 4 BlueGreatWidgets.com with some brand links and 40,000 site wide links from 2 domains they own. 10+ Years old.
No. 5 BlueGreatTools.com. With very minimum links suddenly jumps to top 10. Links mainly comes from an online magazine and a few newspapers and minor directories. 10+ Years old.
No. 6 BrandWidgets.com. Links mainly comes from online magazines and newspapers, three-way exchanging links, blog commenting, etc. 10+ Years old.
No. 7 BlueWidget.com. Links are mainly natural links because of their informational nature for the last 10+ year. 15+ Years old.
No. 8 BlueThings.com/widget/. Aggressively link exchanging (removing link partners' links after they gain their links), heavy link buying, and article submitting, natural links accumulated in years of operation. 10+ Years old.
No. 9 BlueTools.com/widget/. Aggressively link exchanging (removing link partners' links after they gain their links), heavy link buying, and article submitting, natural links accumulated in years of operation. 15+ Years old.
No. 10 BlueCoolWidgets.com. Links are mainly exchanged links and purchased links. 4+ Years old.

BTW, sites with best content used to be on top are now out of first page.

Need advice from gurus to give me some inspiration.

[edited by: goodroi at 2:04 pm (utc) on Aug 16, 2011]
[edit reason] Fixed formatting [/edit]

[tedster]

Your link profile sounds like it needs some "freely given editorial links" - rather than only links you can directly control or place. That's a need where some awesome "content marketing" can come into play - and that means first you need to develop some exciting and "buzz-worthy" new content. Then you spread the word about it and look for a natural response.

[RoyalChina]

Thanks for the reply, tedster.

I understand that content is important. But the reality is that the industry leader with best content and a lot of naturally given links are getting out of the radar. The ones with thin content and heavy link buying are on the rise.

[tedster]

However their strategy is short term - and what I described is long term and sustainable. It can be a temptation to go after the apparent loophole that looks like it's working at the moment, and I do understand that sometimes it seems the most pragmatic decision.

This is a business call that any SEO can often need to make. However, when an apparent loophole involves intentionally ignoring Google's specified guidelines, that does mean that the risk factor goes way up.

[RoyalChina]

Thus there's nothing i can do except focusing on content? It really amazes me that you reply on 3am. How deligent you are!

[Planet13]

However their strategy is short term - and what I described is long term and sustainable.

Just To play Devil's advocate here...

There are some sites at the top of my niche that have been there for a while, mostly on the basis of reciprocal / free directory / paid / spammy links.

So, a popular "news" site that is like a PR 6 or 7 (rhymes with Shnuffington Shmost) happens to write a story on something that is related to the niche. Their writer is, of course, lazy, so he gets his sources while looking at the first couple of results in google. He links out to those sites from inside the article.

Bam! Bad links changed into good links.

Same thing happens when a couple of newspapers from major cities happen to write some articles that also touch on the subject.

So while I am clamoring around trying to get some decent "real" links, others, simply through the virtue of already being at the top of the SERPs through spammy links, are getting legitimate links from high pr sites, since the writers couldn't bother to scroll down past SERP #3.

Of course, with the "push down" of organic listings in the google results that has been mentioned in threads around here, me being number 8 in the SERPs and $3.95 will get you a cup of coffee. Seriously, being #8 in today's google is the same thing as not having a website...

[tedster]

Not just focus on content - but also on MARKETING that content. However, you can do a lot worse than focusing on content... or really, focusing on your visitors. Google's emphasis (also Bing's and Yahoo's) is finding ways to measure user engagement. So a big SEO help is finding ways to engage your users, more and more.

In the past, SEO was about finding technical means to improve rankings. Somewhere along the line actually serving visitors started to matter less and less. I've seen over and over that putting visitors back in the #1 spot also has a profound effect on rankings over time.

For me, it's a relief to get back to the reason websites are there in the first place. Technically clear signals are still important, of course, and there's a real depth to be learned and executed in that area.

[ edited to fix typo "bit" >> "big" ]

[edited by: tedster at 5:39 am (utc) on Aug 17, 2011]

[RoyalChina]

So, a popular "news" site that is like a PR 6 or 7 (rhymes with Shnuffington Shmost) happens to write a story on something that is related to the niche. Their writer is, of course, lazy, so he gets his sources while looking at the first couple of results in google. He links out to those sites from inside the article.

You are also absolutely right on this. I've seen a plenty of totally scrapped sites with nothing original sitting on top for years, keeping to attract those natural links they should not deserve to remain there.

Seriously, being #8 in today's google is the same thing as not having a website

Absolutely agree.

but also on MARKETING that content

NEVER thought of that. Thanks for this piece of gold!

[Planet13]

@ tedster

but also on MARKETING that content

@ RoyalChina

NEVER thought of that. Thanks for this piece of gold!

Sometimes "marketing great content" means:

1) Identifying some reputable site you want to get a link FROM
2) Analyze the type of content they typically link TO
3) Create that content on YOUR site
4) Tell them about it and ask them to link to it

It seems to me that creating "great content" means that sometimes you have to create content for visitors, sometimes you have to create content for search engines, sometimes you have to create content for authority sites to link to.

[nippi]

You need link bait