What is wrong with our site?
-
Hello Seomoz friends.
I've about to pull all my hair out and need to turn somewhere. Our site, www.sightmax.com has been around since 2004. We used to be ranked at the top of page two on google under the keyword "live chat". We are no on page 4, heading to page 5.
Can anyone take a look at the site and see if anything jumps out at you? The only way we have been able to get on the first page, is the pay for google adwords (which we've been doing every month for 7 years).
Again, the site www.sightmax.com and the keyword is "live chat".
Any help or feedback would be appreciated SO MUCH!
Thanks!
Eric
-
Resslers tip here about varying the anchor text is one of the most over-looked factors. This is extremely important, as is the entire link profile being given consideration. You never want just one type of link vs another.
-
I've talked to a couple, but I've never worked with one. Just make sure to ask if they are using multiple servers across the country you are doing business in, that they are correctly using C-Blocks and that your links will be put in relevant content.
Another factor to remember is making sure your link landscape is diverse. Have both exact and similar keyword usage ("Live Chat" - "Chat Software" - "Live Chat Software"), a collection of both followed and no-followed links and websites with Page Ranks ranging from really low to really high. This makes it look more natural.
If you wanted to use a link building service for the high quality links, you could then go after low quality links on your own. Post on blogs about your topic, use social bookmarking, etc.
-
Thanks RM. I'm certainly considering Shannons proposal. Have you used any link building firms, if so, any names that you would highly recommend?
Thanks again to everyone for their participation.
-
Websites linking to you is one of the more important SEO techniques, and actually offers the highest potential. However, trading links with other websites will actually hurt you, and I would not advise doing that at all.
Link building comes from using various strategies in order to convince them to link to you. This could be through writing very informative or controversial articles (Link Bait), emailing webmasters or hiring an agency that specializes in it. These companies tend to have networks of websites that they use to build links. Because of that, it's very important to ask for references.
I would also suggest listening to what Shannon Lily has proposed to you for a technique. There is such an art to link building that any good tips will help!
-
Hey man, email me at shannonlilly@rocketmail.com I have a link building technique I would love to share with you privately.
-
Thanks for all the answers so far. Through all our analytics and conversion reporting, it does seem that the keyword is still "live chat" and not "live chat software" (or similar).
Link building will be tough since we are a commercial site and don't want to do reciprocal linking to someone that has nothing to do with SightMax.
The way the site is dropping, it feels like someone is duplicating our content on another domain name or some type of spamming. Seomoz tools give the site a "A" grade for the "live chat" optimization that is in place on the site.
I'd be very happy to get this site back to page two somewhere on google.
Thanks for all the nice help folks, I'm really struggling with this and have for quite a bit of time.
-
Ok, from my point of view your website title is a bit spammy.
I would of rather gone for the software name and then optimize each page/product accordingly with your chosen keywords and perhaps target more keywords than just the ones you chose as your site name.
Just a brief observation.
-
I concur here with Ressler.
You def need LOTS more quality links to gain front page exsposure but before you spend the time and money to do that (time is money) be sure that is the best term you should be going after.
You say you are using awords, I would split test which keywords (like i suggested before) actually convert clicks to customers (split testing will give this data too you).
You will then know which keywords are better for organic rankings. This is when PPC or CPC comes in handy!
-
First off, I agree with Shannon. There are some long tail phrases that would work better for you. As for a quantifying reason for why you are slipping: the #1 website in that search has 2414 linking domains, compared to your 300. Regardless of the overall quality, that is still a massive gap.
I would suggest two things:
- Go after less competitive long-tails (which will convert better)
- Either start, or get more aggressive on link building
Although having visitors looks nice, and makes you feel good, your ultimate goal should be to convert visitors to customers.
-
Hey Mate,
Well first off your site is really nice (good job).
Your aiming for a very competitive phrase. You would be better off and probably convert more seeing as how your service is not actually for live chat but rather the back-end of allowing people to have live chat on there websites. I would go for terms like live chat software, live chat program etc... You would convert better and rank easier. When I go to google and type in live chat its because I want to chat with someone live. Not find a software to do it myself.
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
-
Thinking about redesigning site to reduce bounce rate - have a couple of questions
BACKGROUND Im looking at redesigning the website for a creative consultancy to improve the user experience. The website is mainly an image portfolio along with “press”, “our services”, “about us”, “contact” pages. I originally designed the website a few years ago and when we did, we wanted to make the image portfolio the most important feature. So we made it a full screen JS image slider with lazy loading of images, so that there are about 40 full screen images on the homepage that rotate. From a users point of view i still feel this is the best system as it very quickly allows them to browse the portfolio, which we looking for a creative consultancy is their UPS (unique selling point). The site has a very strong backlink profile compared to its competitors in the SERPS it has about 20-25% increase in PA and DA. But our site has been slipping down the rankings in recent years / months. From spot 1-2 to about spot 5-7. MY HYPOTHESIS I think that the reason the site may be dropping back in the SERP is that although its a very usable site, all its portfolio information is “too easy to find / view” and results in a user coming to our site, seeing everything they need to see, then bouncing back to the SERP. Our site has a bounce rate of 40-60%. Where as on competitors sites, their “portfolio” is a separate page off the homepage, so a users has to click through to a separate page, and even if they don't like the design content of the portfolio it doesn't get logged as a bounce. MY QUESTION Does bounce rate affect SERP ranking ? Could the sites SERP performance be improved by redesigning the site to put the portfolio on a separate page so a user would have to click through to it, if that would get the bounce rate down, would the site see a benefit even if people still clicked back to the SERP results eventually after seeing our portfolio, even though it wasn't a true 1 page bounce ? Dose time on site affect SERP ranking ? Is there a way i can see a competitor's bounce rate ? Would welcome any other thoughts inputs on this matter.
Web Design | | sl_pa0 -
Responsive Site has "Not Found" Errors for mobile/ and m/ in Google Search Console
We have recently launched a new responsive website for a client and have noticed 2 "Not Found" errors within Google Search Console for /mobile and /m Both these URLs are not linked from anywhere within the site. However Google is reporting them as being linked from the homepage. This is not the first site we have seen in which Google has reported this error, however the other site was not a mobile friendly site. My thoughts are to 301 them back to the Homepage. Anybody else have any thoughts on this? or have recently received the same errors?
Web Design | | JustinTaylor881 -
What causes rankings to drop while moving a site.
Hi, we recently moved a PHP based site from one web developer to another (switched hosting providers as well). Amidst the move our rankings drastically dropped and our citation and trust flow were literally cut in half as per Majestic SEO. What could have caused this sudden drop?
Web Design | | Syed_Raza0 -
For a real estate website, is a different mobile site warranted vs a responsive site?
I researched the major real estate websites: Zillow, Trulia, Remax, Keller Williams, Century 21, etc. They all have a separate mobile site and not a responsive one. The client wants it to be easy to search for properties from a smartphone. Is it possible to get a responsive version of a real estate website on a smartphone?
Web Design | | MassMedia0 -
Pulling old site-map and URL structure of a site
Hey guys how do I pull an old sitemap or URL structure of a site ! This company I am helping out . Build a new site without any 301 redirect ! It's been about 2 months and hosting company sent me. SQL database file said we basically need to build another site ! Wondering if there are any other ways to see what exact urls were existent before their change over
Web Design | | BizDetox0 -
Will a .com and .co.uk site (with exact same content) hurt seo
hello, i am sure this question has been asked before, but while i tried to search i could not find the right answer. my question is i have a .com and .co.uk site. both sites have exact same product, exact same product descriptions, and everything is the same. the reason for 2 sites is that .com site shows all the details for US customers and in $, and .co.uk site shows all the details to UK customers and with Pound signs. the only difference in the 2 sites might be the privacy policy (different for US and UK) and different membership groups the site belongs to (US site belong to a list of US trade groups, UK belongs to a list of UK trade groups). my question is other than the minor difference above, all the content of the site is exactly the same, so will this hurt seo for either one or both the site. Our US site much more popular and indexed already in google for 4 years, while our UK site was just started 1 month ago. (also both the sites are hosted by same hosting company, with one site as main domain and the other site as domain addon (i thought i include this information also, if it makes sense to readers)) i would appreciate a reply to the question above thanks
Web Design | | kannu10 -
Preserve Rankings When Switching to a New Site
Hello community! I have a quick question for you regarding preserving my SERPs once I switch a development site to replace the current production site. Basically, we are switching to a new CMS and will be featuring the same content, architectural layout, URL structure, etc. Again, the only difference is that it's going to be on a new CMS. Upon switching to the new version of the site, what would be the best strategy for making sure we preserve our rankings for content already ranking highly within the search engines? Likewise, is there anything additional we may be able to do right-off-the-bat in order to assist content that may not be ranking highly in the SERPs, rank more highly?
Web Design | | NiallSmith0 -
Footer backlinks for sites I've developed
I link back to my website via my company name on the footers of sites I develop. Lately I've been changing this to my keyword and mixing and matching. This has been done for new sites I create and old sites I've not seen any benefit so far after a couple of months. Most my clients are hosted on the same server as my main site that it links back to. 1. Is this a bad idea to link back on the same IP?
Web Design | | sanchez1960
2. Is footer backlinks to the main developer going to annoy Google?
3. Should I change my main site's server, will it help? All my competitors seem to do it and as far as I can tell they seem to get better results than I do. Because I'm now changing them the reason I see no benefit? Thanks0