Forum Moderators: open
We have two sites that predominantely sell different things. however there is a small area of cross over.
as way of example: Site A sells big widgets and a small range of small widgets. Site B sells only small widgets.
Site A has seven main sections, one of which is dedicated to a range of small widgets. When you click "more info" on each individual small widget you are taken to Site B where you can then make your purchase.
Since the Austin update we've slipped right down the serps on both site a and site b for our keyword "small widgets". (From some of our other sites we are seeing a penalty for linked sites and are presuming that this is the problem here - although I'm sure many will disagree)
My questions are this. In order to improve our google rankings do we:
1) Delete all small widget related pages on site A? - if so should we re-direct to our new site (or does this defeat the object)
2) Delete all links from site A to site B - if so we might have to repeat a small amount of content on both sites.
3) Leave it alone...this is not the cause of the problem
4) Continue to cry ourselves to sleep each night (although we know this doesn't work - we've tried it enough);)
If you want the url's of the sites please sticky me.
Marra
Please post if delinking helps - I'm considering actually closing one of the sites since traffic is now at a mere 40%!
Cheers.
The only way to know if things really work or not is often through trial and error. You can wait 60 days or so and see if your sites recover, or you can make a change and see if it affects your position. The only caution I would is make "a" change not dozens as you will not know which one helped otherwise. If you are so low in the serps you are not being found you don't have much to lose experimenting.
