Web traffic tanked, not Penguin nor Panda...I am stumped...

[Squee]

I have had my current website for several years now, and traffic has been slowly building.

2010 = 49 hits a day, 2011 = 71 hits a day, 2012 = 157 hits a day.

I target local traffic and local keywords around by business.

I have kept up with SEO changes, using Facebook, social media, updated tags, and kept content fresh, added more galleries images, Auth tags & markup. I have 301 older sites that I have run in the past.

Then early this spring everything dropped, slowly but surely, now I'm at 90 hits a day

SERPS for my main phrase "boudoir photography" us at less than 50 according to MOZ.

I have been watching the new Algo updates, and never had any issues because I don't spam article marketing, I don't buy links, I try to keep content fresh, I don't use directories...I designed the site for PEOPLE not SEO.

I get major press about once to twice a year, newspapers still don't get links though.. grrrrr

I get natural links through gallery shows, events, local blogs, art shows...

So I thought it might be over the year I have slowly added too many less than 100 word pages?

Media, Bio, Art I combined all into one page. One page with 300+ words VS 3 pages of 100 words.

I did a 301 several pages and trimmed my menu down from 11 to 8 to help everything look cleaner and more eye pleasing...I started asking my friends/clients/collaborators for more links with no link text so they are natural...& not just "boudoir photography"

Traffic is still dropping...

What have I missed?

www.bayareaboudoir.com

[Squee]

This is am amazing detailed answer.

I went through and removed links to the inisignicfia blog entirely.

I found some forums I had a signature and removed the sig those on three forums.

I took down my entire tumblr.

I did a disavow on several domains & subdomanins that "collect" links.

Total of over 500 individual links have been removed via webmaster, signature removal, & disavowal tool.

I changed/removed anchor text/links on a few other older blogs/forums.

Get listed has me as two business, I'll update those so they all match.

Citation finder looks amazing I'll dig deeper after lunch.

I just added/fixed:

Nokia, teleatlas, navteq information

I will work on more reviews, (reviews for my clients are a bit tricky due to the nature of my business, but I can get some from my more public clients.)

Here is the rel canonical, Is it set up wrong?

http://www.bayareaboudoir.com/capture.jpg

I fixed the home page anchor text, I'll work on a "logo"

I'm not extra concerned about Oakland specific traffic, as my clients come to me from 25 - 200 miles away. I do like the SF page idea...

I'll revamp my meta descriptions.

• your site loads at non-www (bayareaboudoir.com) - this should redirect to www version.
• not a huge issue, but /index.html should redirect to the main homepage.

I'm a little stumped on exactly how to code these?

Thanks again

[irvingw]

I completely agree with Dan's advice - he just gave you like a grand of free research and advice.  Age doesn't matter - you need to clean up bad links from the past.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi There

I'll just go through some of the biggest things I see in a few areas of the site;

Off Site / Backlinks

• anchor text - you've got too much commercial anchor and not enough branded or non-commercial. see the open site explorer report here. Any anchors that you have control over I would change them to your brand name or domain name. I'm referring to the anchors that say "oakland boudoir photography" etc
• disavowing - as others have recommended, if you do have old back links that are of low quality, it won't hurt to disavow them. what you really should do though is use webmaster tools list of back links. I find the Open Site Explorer backlinks to be great for a lot of things, but when it comes to finding and disavowing all of your damaging old links, you really have to go with Google's list. There's going to be a lot more in there.

Local SEO

• check ExpressUpdateUSA - ExpressUpdateUSA is a data provider to dozens of listing services. If your info is not correct with them, that's why you may wrong addresses pop back up again. Make sure all your info is correct with them.
• use GetListed.org and Whitespark Local Citation Finder or Citation Builder. These services are going to help you find, claim and optimize more local listings than you could ever dream of. Is this the highest quality thing to be doing? Not always, especially as you get past the big ones (Google+, Yelp etc) but can't hurt.
• claim GPS listings. add your business to Nokia Maps , NAVTEQ, tele atlas
• I agree, reviews are huge. This search has a bunch of great articles for ideas in how to get them.

On Site SEO

• link to your homepage with your brand name as anchor text. right now, your name is the anchor text for all links back to homepage. put the homepage link on your brand name and possibly logo for good UX
• if you're especially trying to rank for local queries, you need your city in the title tag(s). Don't stuff all kinds of cities in there. Just put "Oakland, CA". Unfortunately since you're not located in SF, it's not going to help much to put SF in the title tag to rank for SF
• If you want to rank for SF, I would suggest having a specific page with content about San Francisco. Testimonials of clients there, case studies of work there etc etc. I would also suggest getting people from San Fran to write reviews for you on Yelp, Google etc etc
• your site loads at non-www (bayareaboudoir.com) - this should redirect to www version.
• not a huge issue, but /index.html should redirect to the main homepage.
• In general, meta descriptions could be a little longer (not over 156). Make them like natural sentences, rather than lists of keywords.

-Dan

[Squee]

That is a friends old blog.

5-10 years ago everyone had a blog and everyone was linking to each other in blogrolls & lists. Time goes on and many of the older blogs have gone defunct, or just sit and are no longer updated. Now everyone is on Tumblr. I miss the old Livejournal days. I know that Google has made changes to the weight of blogs, since so many people have started blogs JUST to rank. You can now even BUY blogs and links for pay and the whole article spamming issue.

I was wondering if the older blogs & older defunct websites is part of what is dropping rankings since the "link juice" is now stale and no longer current. It just seems to be a bit too rapid for this to be the main cause, also most of the recent algo updates would have tanked me sooner?

So you're suggesting I ask to have some of the older links removed from defunct blogs/websites if I have contact with the webmaster or do disavow if I am no longer in contact? How old is too old?

3 years, 5 years, 10 years?

I am currently working on NEW FRESH relevant natural local links through other local businesses, current blogs, news outlets and the like. I have gotten some great press recently.

(boudoir site)

http://whynotgirl.com/features/why-not-girl-of-the-week/why-not-girl-of-the-week-mariah-carle-artist-boudoir-photographer/

(to my portrait site)

http://oaklandlocal.com/2013/05/7th-annual-oakland-indie-awards-may-30-2013-do-you-have-your-tickets-yet/

[irvingw]

I was easily able to find spam links (http://www.insignifica.org/linksblog/2010_04.shtml), so I suggest you review all your backlinks and disavow and try to remove them.

[Squee]

I have tried to fix the wrong google maps/places address for 3 years now, they validate by sending a postcard to a defunct address...

When I get the Google Phone call I go over with them and they say they have the correct Oakland address...

My Auth and schema markup has the Oakland address on my websites as well.

I can not get rid of the old listing?

This listing is over 3 years old why would it tank my ranking this spring 2013?

[brad.s.knutson]

It's definitely possible, I would consolidate your efforts in one Google Places account and encourage people you know to promote you there.

[Squee]

I have some Yelp reviews:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/carle-photography-oakland-2

I have a google + page:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/103255579254885041970/about

I JUST found an OLD google plus page:

https://plus.google.com/113751542266047416565/photos?hl=en

& if you search for my name all sorts of other of my photography comes up with a 3 YEAR old address (I have been trying to fix for years)

https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&rlz=1C1ASUM_enUS499US499&q=mariah+carle&oq=mariah+carle&gs_l=serp.3..0i10j0j0i10l8.6811.8149.0.8272.12.12.0.0.0.0.99.1013.12.12.0.cpsugrccggm..0.0.0..1.1.17.serp.Vbn2uEqR5rc

Could having TWO sites be causing the issues?

[brad.s.knutson]

I don't see a presence for your site on Google+, which might explain the drop in traffic.

David Mihm did a great Whiteboard Friday about "How Business Listings Are Made": http://moz.com/blog/how-business-listings-made-whiteboard-friday.  I would run a search for your target keyword in your location and see if your business is listed.  If not, consider creating a Google Places account for your business, and encourage friends, family, and customers to promote you and give you positive reviews there.

[ScentsySEO]

Have you looked into local reviews? David Mihm presented in Boise last week about local search. Local reviews on Yelp, Yellow Pages... (I can't remember the others) but directory reviews are starting to carry weight with local search. It does seem like a bit of a pain, but you can ask customers to write a review for you on "x" place...(Sorry, we don't do a lot of local search... so remembering exactly what directory/ review places have slipped my mind.) Also, have you connected your geolocation with Google Maps?... this is also testing to carry weight.

I'd recommend to look into what Mihm has said about local search. This would definitely be applicable to your issue.