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Hi folks, This question has been baffling me for some time now and I'm still struggling to get to the bottom of it. www.sterlingbuild.co.uk is the website of choice for Google when it comes to searches relating to roof windows, velux windows, fakro windows etc. I can't understand why? Their link profile is atrocious. I'm struggling to find one 'high quality' link in their profile at all. Most of their links are guest blog posts which Google is apparently now treating as spam, or links from other sites that they own - also spam. The design of the site is incredibly messy and confusing. But one of the biggest flaws of the site (which I am suspicious may also be what is helping them) is they list every single different size of window as a different product. So whereas with most websites in this market, you search for the type of window you want e.g. a VELUX GGL 3050 window, and then choose the size you need from a drop-down menu, Sterlingbuild list every size as a different product. So you have to scroll through reams of product listings to find the window type in the right size before you get to any information about the product itself. Not to mention, their site is riddled with duplicate content because 12 different sizes of product are not different products, they are the same product, just a different size, so they have the identical product description for numerous separate pages basically selling the same product. How on earth has Google decided this is the best website in the marketplace when it comes to roof windows?

Hi folks, I have a bit of a dilemma that I'd appreciate some advice on. We'll just use the solid wood flooring of our website as an example in this case. We use the rel=canonical tag on the solid wood flooring listings pages where the listings get sorted alphabetically, by price etc.
e.g. http://www.kensyard.co.uk/products/category/solid-wood-flooring/?orderBy=highestprice  uses the canonical tag to point to http://www.kensyard.co.uk/products/category/solid-wood-flooring/ as the main page. However, we also uses filters on our site which allows users to filter their search by more specific product features e.g.
http://www.kensyard.co.uk/products/category/solid-wood-flooring/f/18mm/
http://www.kensyard.co.uk/products/category/solid-wood-flooring/f/natural-lacquered/ We don't use the canonical tag on these pages because they are great long-tail keyword targeted pages so I want them to rank for phrases like "18mm solid wood flooring". But, in not using the canonical tag, I'm finding google is getting confused and ranking the wrong page as the filters mean there is a huge number of possible URLs for a given list of products. For example, Google ranks this page for the phrase "18mm solid wood flooring" http://www.kensyard.co.uk/products/category/solid-wood-flooring/f/18mm,116mm/ This is no good. This is a combination of two filters and so the listings are very refined, so if someone types the above phrase into Google and lands on this page their first reaction will be "there are not many products here". Google should be ranking the page with only the 18mm filter applied: http://www.kensyard.co.uk/products/category/solid-wood-flooring/f/18mm How would you recommend I go about rectifying this situation?
Thanks, Luke

Hi folks, Since the latest penguin update, this website: <cite class="bc">www.sterlingbuild.co.uk</cite> is now appearing top of the listings for most 'Velux' related search terms e.g. velux windows, velux, velux windows online. I say top, VELUX themselves are actually top but then Sterling Build are top of all the other retailers that sell VELUX Windows. Why? Their link profile is appalling, the website is no better than their competitors as far as I can tell, their prices are more expensive - it makes no sense? Would be very grateful if anyone can work out why Google has decided they have the best website? Thanks, Luke

Hi all, Excuse the rant - but I'd be interested to hear others thoughts on this... I am completely disheartened by the Google Algorithm updates of the last 18 months. They seem to be completely geared up to making life much much harder for E-commerce companies to rank organically, and much easier for informational sites to rank organically, with the only exception being national or global brands that have millions of pounds to invest in off-line marketing like TV advertising. Is it not all a devious strategy by Google to ensure e-commerce companies have to pay for their traffic? It seems like if you genuinely want to compete organically as an e-tailer, without investing millions in off-line advertising, you basically have to become a publishing house as well as shop. My company sells building supplies. There are plenty of magazines and info-sites out there offering tips, advice, interactive tools etc. for how to build your own home, home improvement advice etc. But if I want to start getting 'natural' links, I have to become an online magazine and information resource as well and start competing with these other reputable info-resources - where is the sense in that? If house-builders want advice and information on building regulations, planning permission etc. they'll visit government information sites and other reputable online resources to get that information, if they want to buy materials they'll go to a shop. It just seems like Google is trying to make every site an information resource - how else are you supposed to get natural links without publishing 'sharable' information - no-one shares links to products really, well not building materials anyway - maybe sexy products like ferrari cars and super-duper laptops or sound systems, but no one is going to go "oh that's a really nice piece of timber, I'll share that with all my friends before I buy it". Just feels like it's getting harder and harder and more and more expensive to trade online. What's everyone else think? Luke

Hi folks, I use OSE a lot for comparing where we stand against our competitors and I'm always surprised to see most of our competitors have loads more internal links than we do. For example, comparing 'www.kensyard.co.uk' with 'www.sterlingbuild.co.uk', we are better on every Root Domain Metric except for the Total Links metric and this is down to a much smaller number of internal links. They are ranking better than us in Google so I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the way our site is coded / structured that means Google and OSE are not picking up our internal link network properly? We have over nine times as many external root domains linking to our site than theirs, which is surely a far more valuable metric than internal links right? Or is there an issue with our internal link structure that is confusing Google and causing us to rank lower? Many thanks for any advice, Luke