Losing Rankings & Need Help
-
Hi Guys, I am not sure if anyone else is suffering from the July 4, 2013 update. I know many of us are awaiting to see what happens once the dust settles. I have a couple of issues/questions/statements below. This is the first time any Google update has every affected me negatively and I'd love some ideas or input.
1. I have ranked quite well for nearly 10 years for all my top keywords. Now, after this update, I am disappearing for my top keywords in the SERPS - definitely getting pushed to page two, etc. Can anyone help me discover the reasons? I have a great SEO expert helping me and I know quite a bit, but this has me baffled. My website is Journey Beyond Travel.com I have read MOZ's ranking factors for 2013 and also the recently published report from SearchMetrics. In the last few days, I've added more quality text to the homepage and shortened my page title on the homepage (although Google has been changing my homepage browser title to put my brand name first in the title - and they haven't for my competitors).
Over the past few months, I've really cleaned up my link profile to the best of my ability. I've never really taken part in any negative or black-hat practices. I am trying to get more links that use my 'brand' name rather than exact anchor text. I believe I have a natural profile - any thoughts?
2. One thing I notice is the higher ranking of larger brands now (at least in my field). Just because a domain with higher authority creates one page of content, how can that outrank me? I mean, I've got ten years and 600+ darn good articles of content on my website. How can one domain that is very 'general' (for example, well known in the world of travel and not specialized or niche like mine) outrank me? How can it be that Google allows larger brands to outrank smaller ones just because they have more backlinks and domain authority, but no real content to support these pages? Is content truly king? I am thinking about an article: "Google, Brands, and the Death of Small Business Online." Anyone wish to collaborate here? I am not being hatelful or resentful, but I foresee the day when an 'alternative' search engine emerges, doesn't allow crap ads, allows users more flexibility, and brings search to the next level. Not all of us want the big brands and are searching for alternatives that stand out. I ignore them when I am searching mostly.
Any thoughts or elaborations? Thanks!
-
This is just superb information. Thanks so much for sending it my way. I am going to read through this carefully. I have a lot of work to do : )
-
Glad I could help!
Here are some good sources to get your feet wet:
- Top four ways to earn links with Social Media - White Board Friday
- Utilizing Footprints - 5 Fundamentals of Large Scale Link Building - WordTracker Resource
- Broken Link Building Bible - YouMoz
- Advanced Guide to Link Building - Neil Patel's Free E-book
-
Hello There,
Thanks so much for your response. You are correct. I do have some quality links but a good portion do come from directories (albeit higher quality ones). I do need to balance those out with some better editorial links, connecting with bloggers, and may even start doing some more YouTube stuff. I will work this into the plan and will stay positive. Thanks so much!
-
First off, sorry that you're running into ranking problems. It's never fun, but always turns into a learning process.
Upon inspection, it seems as though your link profile is lacking a set of links with integrity. Those that come from natural evolution of the lifespan of a linkworthy site. Looking at your link profile, sorting by external links to the root domain shows top links are from directories in large part. Granted, they are directory links with good authority, I would surmise that there are a lot of competitor links you could obtain as well as the ever-sought-after editorial-type links.
You're right. Big brands have these and they will continue to grow in SERP saturation within your vertical. The best thing you can do is be dynamic, target time-sensitive news items, provide better content and build your network of bloggers, social authorities, youtube users and grow your footrpint the right way.
Look to the link profiles my friend.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is there a tool that can rank multiple results for a single keyword?
Hi all, I have searched the web for a tool that can tell me if more than 1 landing page is ranking for a single keyword. I have noticed sometimes that a single keyword query can trigger up to 3 landing pages within the 1st SERP. I found an old bookmarklet from Lunametrics that might do the trick using Search Console data, but the link is no longer working. Any other pointers, or can Moz do this as well? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | rodelmo40 -
Need advise/strategy for cleaning up backlinks to my site
I recently redesigned my website (studio35design.com), and with that, I'm finally paying attention to SEO. I used a few different tools to find the amount of backlinking domains I've built up through the 7 or so years. The numbers are the following: 52 Total Backlinking Domains (800+ links):
Moz Pro | | rubennunez
• 17 of those are from blog commenting - they are pretty much all NF
• 20 of those are from sitewide footer credits on websites I've built. They are all old, as I stopped adding sitewide links to my client sites over a year ago.
• 7 of those are from spam. My site was hacked last year which contributed to alot of it. I've since then completely scrapped my old site and built this one on webflow (Not self-hosted like my old WP site).
• The other 10 or so are from forums, and the odd photo credit. As you can tell, almost none of these backlinks links are really any good. I'm surprised that my DA is 27 really. So moving forward, I need to know the best strategy dealing with these "bad" links. For the spam, I'm going to disavow in google webmasters. As for the rest, here are my questions... QUESTION 1:
As for the sitewide links, would the best thing be to remove the link altogether from the footer of each one of those sites? Some I can't because they are really old, and I don't have access to them (I'll probably disavow), but the rest I can still go in and update. QUESTION 2:
Will removing a ton of links at once hurt my DA and my google ranking? I can probably eliminate 500-600 links within a few days just by removing the sitewide links. How quickly can I expect those links to drop off? A few months? QUESTIONS 3:
Should I disavow blog commenting links even though they are NF? Does it matter at all? QUESTION 4:
I noticed 5 or so of the domains I have links one aren't working domains anymore. How quickly can I expect those links to drop off? Thanks in advance for your help.0 -
SEO Help in LA
Hi All- We're new to the MOZ community and plan to use the tools to help our site. We sell graphic design retail products globally. We're looking for a recommendation for a MOZ pro in Los Angeles (ideally) to help us build out our campaign(s) and get us started with the MOZ tools. Any of you in LA? Any of you have a rec for a great resource close to us? Thanks so much, Scott
Moz Pro | | freshs0 -
Rank tracker
Which paid rank tracker is best? Free rank tracker best? --How many keywords we can check per profile from free tool? --How many profiles we can manage from it? Is their any way we can upload bulk keywords in Moz Rank tracker?
Moz Pro | | csfarnsworth0 -
SEOMoz Ranking section only showing my Homepage
My competition has a few pages showing for each term, but only my homepage shows for those terms. My SEO shouldn't be so bad that no inner pages show. What's happening? Do I have something set up incorrectly?
Moz Pro | | Ocularis0 -
What Q&A Forum Platform Does SEOmoz Use?
Completely custom built, or a 3rd party offering that can be customized? One of the most usable forums I've seen!
Moz Pro | | SEOPA0 -
How does moztrust compare with google page rank?
I have a trial Seomoz membership. I've been comparing my site to some of the competitor websites and Im confused about the moztrust vs google page rank. For instance some of my competitors have higher moztrust but my site has a higher google page rank. Isn't moztrust meant to duplicate google pagerank?? Why would these vary so much?
Moz Pro | | blac67890 -
302 (Temporary Redirect) & HTTPS - how to improve for SEO?
Hello, I have a crawl diagnostic warning that says 302 (temporary Redirect). My site is set up with HTTPS - is that the main reason I am getting this warning? I don't have a strong need for higher security SSL on my site, which is what I understand the main purpose of HTTPS to be so, to improve SEO, would I be better off getting rid of this and going with HTTP? Or would 301 redirects be a better option? Thanks for your help! Niall
Moz Pro | | NiallTom0