My DA keeps going up, by my rankings keep falling.
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Hi,
I manage a few clients, but the one that is in reference to this question is a local law firm. They blog on a regular basis and we continue to monitor for and delete any negative backlinks. Their domain authority keeps rising, but they continue to lose rankings for tracked keywords. Has anyone else faced a similar situation? Does anyone one know what is causing this or what I can do to combat it?
Thanks,
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While I do often look at Domain Authority, I see a LOT of cases where DA doesn't tell the whole story. DA is Moz's best replication of PageRank. But, because no one outside of Google knows how they calculate PageRank, it's not always going to be equivalent.
There are a lot more things that could be done for this site, especially in terms of on-page SEO. The home page title tag is "Home | Brand" It's quite important to have some keywords in the title tag. Similarly, take a look at the above the fold content of the home page. I see an image (logo), followed by some navigational buttons and then the most important text on the page says:
Real Experience. Practical Solutions.
When Decisions Matter.Below that are a few buttons that do actually contain some keywords.
My point is that there is very little on your home page that gives Google the context of what you want this site to rank for. I am betting that changing the title tag and writing some above the fold text that concisely explains what the firm offers and also contains a few keywords would make a difference.
Those were just a few things I saw on a quick look. It might be worthwhile to do a thorough site quality audit as a next move. On-site changes can really help move the needle.
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They have some "category" type pages on their website, such as this one about "family law".
http://www.stockandleader.com/personal-law/family-law
This page only has a yada yada yada paragraphy on it.
These pages would become much stronger in the SERPs for industry category keywords, and a useful starting point for visitors, if all of the blog posts for that legal category were linked to from these pages. These types of pages can serve as gateways to the expertise areas of the firm if they link to all of their related content.
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Here is the link to the blog: http://www.stockandleader.com/blog.
Actually, we have been advising that they try to write using language that could be understood by people outside of the legal industry - as this is their main target.
I don't think other law firms would ever link to their blog, as lawyers are super competitive and do not want to send users to a different law firm, even if it was 1000 miles away. I used Open Site Explorer to see what links their competitor has, and they have very similar links - local newspapers, magazines, sponsorships, directories. The one core difference that I saw was that their competition was linked as being "local" law firm in completely different states. For example, they are based in PA, but were being linked to as a local law firm in a directory for VT and MN law firms. They are not a national law firm, so this should not be happening.
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That is quite a bit of blogging. They should have a couple hundred blog posts at that rate. Are these blog posts of high enough quality to attract links from other law firms, law schools, legal sites, etc.? If not, then I would suggest posting less often and with higher qualilty.
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They have been blogging for years, often 3 - 4 times a month. There have not been many negative backlinks. I just added that information so that you would know that there are not any bad backlinks.
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Here is some information that might be helpful to those trying to respond....
**They blog on a regular basis... **
How long have they been doing this and what is the rate? If they have been making one post per month for four months, that isn't enough to move the needle. Also, are the posts yada yada yada content or are the good juicy legal stuff that citizens, other law firms or law schools will link to?
we continue to monitor for and delete any negative backlinks.
Where are these coming from? How do you know they are negative and not simple spam?
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"They blog on a regular basis and we continue to monitor for and delete any negative backlinks" - That would be your issue no doubt. Robgerbot is cleaver but he can't see what links you've disavowed. I've seen a lot of people deleted what they think is bad links but in fact had no problem at all. This means Moz and alike can see them however Google doesn't and thus doesn't discount.
Hope that helps.
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