Forum Moderators: open
I would appreciate any suggestions WHY this site went from #3 in August on Google.com down to about #65 presently (today).
No major changes were done to the site.
The home page is optimised for "toenail fungus", a heavily-searched-for word.
Visitors went from over 200/day down to about 30/day now.
MSN still lists it high (#1 on websites).
True, there are few links TO the site.
It was #3 or so for about 4 months on Google.
The homepage is pure informative content about the subject.
Which is exactly what the SE's want, I thought. The sales pitch comes at the end of the page.
It's still a mystery why it jumped so quickly down, and so far.
Could someone (competition?) have "over-submitted" or "over-reported by WPG"?
The damage has been done.
The big question now is, WHAT to do about it.
<snip>
We have secured a new domain name and am thinking of relocating the whole site to the new domain name and doing the corresponding promotion, from the start.
What would be best?
1. Put redirects on the old address to the new domain, or
2. Leave the old site alone (still getting 30/day, mostly from other engines) and totally "rewrite" the new site.
3.Ideas?...
Thank you for your ideas.
Alan Pattinson
[edited by: engine at 6:43 pm (utc) on Nov. 28, 2002]
[edit reason] no urls, thanks [/edit]
<edit> should say inbound links are *critical* - Google thinks your great content is great content only because other webmasters think it's great content. </edit>
Before the moderators tell you, it may be a good idea to read the do's and don'ts of WebmasterWorld.
Yes, get a keyword rich domain name and hunt down new incoming links.
Read Bretts Google knowledge base and follow it to the letter.
I wouldn't classify this as an informative web site. It's selling remedies right on the front page. I don't understand how you can say that this is an "informative" web site. This is ecommerce.
Welcome to webmasterworld. There's a lot to read in here. Be sure to read the terms of posting. Site reviews and url posts aren't permitted.
I think that by reading through this forum you'll get a clearer picture of what's going on with your web site and things to avoid doing that will harm you.
Second, sorry for missing the guidelines. I re-read (skimmed first time) the Guidelines, and will abide by them. I really LIKE the "no sig files" rule; it makes reading faster. There is so much to read.
Third, am I ever glad I found this forum! It's like going to a seminar, with friends, about SEO and websites and all the things that I love doing (and people PAY me to do for them!). With the bonus of being free.
I am a happy camper, and will be back!
Alan
Maybe the problem is that I am tryng to be too helpful, and the site is too informative..including stuff about the region, things to do etc etc..that seems to be penalising me..because all that matters to google is the key word 'hotel'. I really cant think of anything else...
[edited by: heini at 7:19 pm (utc) on Nov. 28, 2002]
[edit reason] no urls as per TOS / thanks [/edit]
It hurt my eyes too.
[edited by: varun007 at 7:43 pm (utc) on Nov. 28, 2002]
Have you researched your referrer logs to see what keywords people are using to find you?
I had a client that was using a two word keyword to yardstick seo efforts and I advised him that no amount of effort will pay off, for him or his competitors because the two words were too general: The serps were dominated by irrelevant behemoth PR 9 government web sites.
I suggested 3 word phrases likely to be used by searchers, as well as less general 2 word phrases.
At the end of the day, Position 8 is not bad, especially when the results above you aren't as relevant as you.
I have to say that this is a pretty competitive two word phrase, though.
I think if a searcher was unhappy with those results they would do a more specific search.
Certain searches are too broad, have multiple meanings and ultimately the search results are cluttered. With G--, I think this is the case. Would they try G-- bed and breakfast? G-- resorts? Cheap resorts?
I think this is the type of search when drilling down those adjectives and finding the alternate search terms helps.
My two cents.
[edited by: martinibuster at 7:53 pm (utc) on Nov. 28, 2002]
You sure seem to have some interesting expertise in that keyword.
Varun
Keep reading this forum, I am sure you will find lots of ideas to help you climb in the SERPS. Brett has an excellent Google knowledge base which may help you.
interesting expertise in that keyword.
I'm in San Francisco, so that kind of stuff gets high exposure out here... heh-heh.
Yes I think so. I have the same problem and spend a lot of time on this. To find out more about this, change the language to e.g. german. You will see what happens about your site ranking. If your site winn all lost positions, it must be some restrictions made by hand in the engl. Barrels or Sorters or a mayor change in the engl. algorythm for some word-frases. (e.g. the frase real estate is interpeted as one word in engl. Google language version,
but as two words in german language version.)
In german/spanish/dutch/french language versions, dosnīt exist this restrictions.
Change your language tool and try it again
Franz
