Rankings disappeared on main 2 keywords - are links the issue?

[stephenshone]

Hi,

I asked a question around 6 months ago about our rankings steadily declining since April of 2013. I did originally reply to that topic a few days ago, but as it's so old I don't think it's been noticed. I'm posting again here, if that's an issue I'm happy to delete. Here it is for reference:

http://moz.com/community/q/site-rankings-steadily-decreasing-do-i-need-to-remove-links

Since the original post,  I have done nothing linkbuilding-wise except posting blog posts and sharing them on Facebook, G+ and Twitter.

There are some links in there which don't look great (ie spammy seo directories, which I'm sending removal requests to) although quite a lot of others are relevant. Here's my link profile:

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.thomassmithfasteners.com</a>

I've tried to make the site more accessible - we now have a simple, responsive design and I've tried to make the content clear and concise. In short, written for humans rather than search engines.

As of the end of November, 'nuts and bolts' has now disappeared completely, and 'bolts and nuts' is page 8. There are many pages much higher which are not as relevant and have no links. We still rank highly for more specialised terms - ie 'bsw bolts' and 'imperial bolts' are still page 1, but not as high as before.

We get an 'A' grade on the on-page grader for 'nuts and bolts, and most above us get F. I was cautious about removing links as our profile doesn't seem too bad but it does seem as if it's that. There are a fair few questionable directories in there, no doubt about that, but our overall practice in recent years has been natural building and link earning.

So - I've created a spreadsheet and identified the bad links - ie directories with any SEO connotations. I am about to submit removal requests, I thought two polite requests a couple of weeks apart prior to disavowing with Google. But am I safe to disavow straight away? I say this as I don't think I'll get too many responses from those directories.

I am also gradually beefing up the content on the shop pages in case of any 'thin content' issues after advice on the previous post.

I noticed 100s of broken links in webmaster tools last week due to 2 broken links on our blog that repeated on every page and have fixed those. I have also been fixing errors W3C compliance-wise.

Am I right to do all this? Can anyone offer any suggestions? I'm still not 100% sure if this is Panda, Penguin or something else. My guess is Penguin, but the decline started in March 2013, which correlates with Panda.

Best Regards and thanks for any help,

Stephen

[BenjaminMorel]

Hi Stephen.

Google try their best to serve up relevant results to everyone (or at least that's the assumption we make. Whether it's true or not is, I'm sure, something people could debate for hours) and have a very complex algorithm for doing that. The algo' changes that make up Penguin and Panda may have had the effect of pushing other sites above yours because they are more authoratative in other areas than <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank">thomassmithfasteners.com</a>.

I would definitely back up your disavow requests with the information you suggest; I'm not sure how much of a difference they make but if they do then they're great to have and if they don't then at least you're keeping a record of your activity. Here's Google's instructions, which do contain comments on when attempts were made to contact site owners.

Good luck!

Ben

P.S. I've just found this ebook at Hubspot. If a file storage company can produce good enough content to be featured on Hubspot then Thomas Smith Fastenings should definitely be able to create something!

[stephenshone]

Hi Ben,

That's a fantastic response, thank you for taking the time to look.

You're right, I was going to mention fasteners being a boring industry - I bookmarked the very same webinar a few days ago but have only seen a small amount of it so far.

The reason I was looking at Penguin etc is that on those terms we've gone from 1st page to oblivion in recent months. There are sites above us with no links or activity, and that aren't relevant. Does that point to a bad backlink profile in that case? As you say, I'll continue with removing the poor quality directory links as that can't hurt, they won't have been passing value anyway.

I'll send removal requests twice and then disavow if nothing changes after a few weeks. Is there anything specific notes-wise I need to put in a disavow (ie 'sent removal request 8/11, no response') or is just a list of domains / links? I notice Google has changed the way they look at things - you can check if any manual spam actions have been taken directly in Webmaster Tools now, negating the need for a reconsideration request. Am I right in thinking that all we can do with Google is disavow?

First stop is to take a look at the 'content marketing in boring industries' webinar, and then I'll formulate a new content marketing strategy as you suggested.

Thanks for your advice.

Anything further you or anyone else can add would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Stephen

[BenjaminMorel]

Hi Stephen,

The link removal requests may help you clean things up somewhat, and hopefully the new site will improve engagement and conversion rates (both highly important). Blog posts can also be a very good thing, as they increase the amount of relevant content on the site, fixing the technical errors should help search engine crawling and indexation, and on-site SEO is always a helpful place to start. But on-site will only get you so far.

Looking at your blog, it seems that each post is tweeted about once (except the latest, which has two tweets) and shared on Google+ a couple of times. You also mention you have not built any new links recently, so your problem may be less about what you have done in the past and more about what your competitors are doing today that you are not.

If your competitors are running PR or marketing campaigns which earn them links and are using social media to reach out to more than a handful of people they will be gaining authority while you remain static. Definitely continue with your link removal requests - and disavowing of links after a week or two if you don't hear anything from those directories - but also think about moving forward: put together a marketing strategy that includes digital, build up an editorial calendar, and work out how to use social media effectively (for example you could send Tom White an email next time you blog about him, or tweet the people your reps meet at Silverstone with things they might be directly interested in).

Build things that people will want to share - whether that's an infographic or a video of you working with a couple of other small companies to build a Rube Goldberg machine filled with your nuts and bolts (Honda did a whole ad based around sprockets and bits of windscreen wipers). Tell people about those things and work with other people who will also get the word out (this is called fusion marketing and can be a great way of getting yourselves out these). I know what you're likely to say about being a boring industry, but to head that question off at the pass I'll direct you to Ross Hudgens' recent webinar Content Marketing in Boring Industries. In short, take where you are as a standing point and think about how you can start running - rather than looking over your shoulder at Panda, Penguins, and other animals from the Google zoo.

Hope that helps!