Need advice on direction to go with site
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I am taking over this site and redoing it all over. I believe that google may have penalized the site because the site doesn't show up in the SERPS, but will show under a google search (site:prosplumbingsanjoseca.com). I am just asking for your opinions on what I should do to correct the issues with this site and get back into the SERPS.
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Backlinks are what's hurting you. According to AHREFs, you've got 52 backlinks coming from paces like article directories, Russian comment spam, etc.
Get as many bad backlinks removed as you can, disavow what you can't get removed. But make sure you're building new links - quality links - at the same time. You need new links to improve rankings, getting rid of the bad links isn't enough.
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First steps would be to connect with Google Webmaster Tools and see if there any manual actions against the domain. Correct any that they notify you about.
Update the site to be a value-added website. I.e. remove all thin content pages, duplicate content, optimize the site navigation architecture, optimize the internal link architecture, clean your sitemap, ect.
Examine the site's backlink profile and disavow any domains that are spammy and non-value added (link farms, blogs with duplicate content, excess comment spam, thin content, ect).
That should give you plenty to start with and you should see results once completed.
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