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
-
How to track ranking in local area?
When I track a keyword ranking with the Ranking Tool, are the results for my geographic area? So, how would I track a keyword in another location? As in, another state? Thanks,
Moz Pro | | marshalllj0 -
How can you tell how many pages rank for a particular keyword?
I know with ranktracker I can see a page that will rank for a certain keyword. What if I have multiple pages that rank for this keyword? How can I see all pages that rank for it?
Moz Pro | | Sika220 -
SEOmoz Keyword Ranking - Does it work for local search?
I was just wondering how SEOmoz calculates keyword rankings up and down every week. Shouldn't there be a way to have SEOmoz calculate rankings on a Local and Non-Local Basis? For example I have "Local Dentist" as a keyword in SEOmo for my dental client. SEOmoz shows that we are not in the Top 50. | Local dentist Keyword History Ranking Analysis | Not in Top 50 | Moved unknown 0 spaces | Not in Top 50 | Moved unknown 0 spaces | Not in Top 5 | If I change my location in Google browser to the zip of where the office is located, we
Moz Pro | | Czubmeister
show up in position 14(for the home page) & 15 (for an inside page) How can I show the keyword rankings to my client if the keyword ranking report doesn't reflect searches done in my clients local area?0 -
Rankings Feature Changes
Hi guys, Is there a way that the Rankings tool within the campaigns could show a monthly comparison rather than weekly? Possibly a drop down just to choose weekly or monthly. At the moment, when someone outside of the team involved looks at the results, it looks as though the website is in a downward sprial, where as we could be lower than ever, just with one bad week. Thanks for your help! 🙂
Moz Pro | | RPIDigital0 -
Why isn't Ranking Updated?
I see that my rankings are not updated. Why is that so? Do we have to do something else for ranking to update or is it automatic? It's said that ranking updates every tuesday. Also when does the next Linkscape update take place? JGHjA.png
Moz Pro | | ConversionChamp0 -
Page Rank is different from google search
I use the ranking tools to check each page of our site. I use the keyword flora grand and exact url http://www.florahospitality.com/dubai-flora-grand-hotel.aspx . It return page rank 1 in US, UAE, and UK region but when I try to search it in google it doesn't appear.
Moz Pro | | shebinhassan0 -
Help with SEOmoz API
Hi guys, I'm trying to make API requests from my webserver via PHP. I'd like to retrieve data from the SEOmoz URL Metrics API. Unfortunately I always get the error response "unauthorized" even when I copy and paste the Sample Valid API Signature generated by your system into the browser. Is Signed Authentication not longer supported? I even tried the sample PHP Code SignedAuth.php but there's the same problem, too. If signed authentication is not longer available, do you have a code example for the basic http authorization? Thanks, Brandon
Moz Pro | | thegreatpursuit1