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It all depends on so many factors. It could be that the site hasn't been penalized but has simply lost its authority due to the bad links being ignored. If it has been penalized then it can help remove any penalty's. I have heard of one or two people trying this method and receiving responses.
Webmasters is also a useful resource for finding these bad links. Thumbs up.
No problems at all, Steve.
Your anchor text is only a small part of a big picture but it certainly looks like a stand out issue in your case.
You don't need to edit any internal anchor text though, it will only really matter for incoming links from external websites. It looks like most of these links are poor quality so instead of getting the anchor text changed, get them removed (if you can). If you do come across any links using that anchor text term which are from good and trustworthy sites then by all means keep the link and maybe ask them to change the anchor text.
You will need to concentrate on building good quality links from now moving forwards. A good place to start is with guest article writing, see if you can get some good content written and head over to MyBlogGuest, you will find blog and website owners all over the world who will be happy to accept good content in return for a link to your website within the content of the article. Remember to make your link natural - try things like "click here", "danbro", "here"... things that look like they aren't trying to manipulate Google's algorithm.
Get rid of these sites or do something useful with them. These site-wide links will be hurting you and Google will easily be able to see that you own the domain.
If you must keep them, add a blog or something to them, get some unique content on them. Invite others to guest post and link to other places other than your own website. Make the page look natural. Only link back to your site every now and then, if at all.
You have no incoming links at all for that page from any external websites. Build some links up, make sure they are natural. If you ranked for this term before now then it was due to general site strength before the Penguin update. Obviously since the update you will have lost lots of shoddy links therefore dropped in domain authority - this looks like it is having an adverse effect on subsequent pages that seemed only to rank because the domain was strong.
I feel your pain, Steve! Unfortunately these things take time. If you havent already, whip up a spreadsheet of all the remaining bad links. Add a column to explain what steps you have taken to get the link removed. Google will understand that sometimes you are not in control but you can only try. They might help with manual interventions. You can then use this spreadsheet to send them to ask to be reconsidered. It is important not to keep sending the request, fix the problem and then ask. Remember that they don't owe you anything so don't depend on this method - chances are they might not even reply!
Google have announced that a tool could be coming out soon which will allow you to tell them which links you wish to distance yourself from. Keep an eye out... Clicky.
In the mean time, don't just work on removing these bad links, concentrate on building much more good quality links in a variety of forms. Try and make your link profile look natural - over time these things will help.
On a side note, you need to add a canonical tag to your home page. Your domain loads a different homepage for http://www.yourdomain.com as well as http://yourdomain.com.
Check out the attachment to see why your link profile is so un-natural. You have 8220 links from ONLY 78 domains for one anchor text and 4047 links for another anchor text while your domain name only has 188 links.
EDIT: You haven't actually been de-indexed (see attached) so you don't need to submit reconsideration yet. You just need to sort that link profile out BADLY first.
As a token gesture to help you out in your time of need I have added a contextual link from one of my websites to your homepage with the anchor text "click here" - its a small drop in the ocean but every little bit helps make your profile look that tiny tiny tiny bit better.
What search term as the specific page dropped for?
Oops. I only just noticed the date on this question! Sorry folks...
Agreed. However, it might be worth adding that reciprocal links can also look natural but only if they form a small part of your link profile.
Whatever you do, Jay, dont add a page called links or resources. Make sure the links are contextual links in the content of article's or content.
My way around doing this is putting them in the testimonials pages on my sites 
A good example would be when I managed to get a link from Sky.com - in return they requested a link back to their site and I would be silly not to have provided one. I didn't want the link for the juice, I wanted it for the click through's. The reason I'm saying this is to show that not all reciprocal links are seen as un-natural.
It can depend on your link profile. If your inbound links have only a small percentage of reciprocal links then this will look natural. Just ensure you have a varied link building strategy and you should be fine.
One other thing to check is the quality of your distributors websites. If they involve themselves in spammy tactics when linkbuilding or writing content and you link to them it could look bad on your site. Please make sure that you don't make all your outbound links no follow though, this WILL look un-natural and will not help at all. However, if you have good website trust then you should be fine provided that your site looks very natural.
Ignore PR for now...
The important question is; are you still ranking for your keyword terms? Has site visitors gone down today?
Looks like you need to put some of your effort into building some new (quality) links and making your link profile look much more natural.
Sometimes its easy to analyse what went wrong instead of moving forwards and getting back into a position of authority. Focus yourself and think of some ideas for link baiting aswell as creating some great content - get this on your own site as well as looking for relevant sites to host some articles for you (with links back obviously).
Thanks for the reply.
The black backround is ok for he menu, but having a black backround on the other boxes headers puts them on he same level of importance, which I don' think is ok.
Thats a good point actually. I had a similar thought. If you check the menu headers on this page, I think this is how I will have them changed on the home page - all apart from the main one.
The main focus of the page is on FREE DELIVERY and PRICE MATCH and no on the mai banner.
Agreed. I have the design team working on two new banners for these as they draw your eyes away from the key areas.
Thanks for your thoughts Some good suggestions there!
20,000 products... scary!
"Is the banner under the header going to be a sliding gallery style design or fixed?Just showing 3-4 offers maybe? Just thinking out loud! "
Yeah, we have a design team here working on 3 banners, they slide across
"The only other comment for changing I would make is the header is too busy. I'd move the search bar to above the green 'Free delivery" image on the right of the page. In it's place I would make the phone number much bigger."
I was thinking the same to be honest. I was thinking maybe to reduce the width of the main banner and lift the two smaller banners (free delivery and price match) on the right hand side up a little and add search.
Are you able to give an example of a product that you think isn't 'buyable'?
Sure, here. I wouldn't even know what a "starter bay" or "extension bay" was. I also think there are WAY too many options.
Hi guys,
I have a list of things to do on this website that is longer than my arm but thought I would gather a few more thoughts on the site before moving on further with it.
The site is here. It went live a couple of days ago for live testing.
I have a news section coming very soon at theworkplacedepot.co.uk/news - it is in live testing now.
One glaring issue for me is that some of the products simply aren't "buyable". What I mean by that is that the options are too vague and too vast - as an outsider I wouldnt have a clue what I was buying!
Other issues:
However, critique for me pretty please!
Absolutely go for individual pages. Find the best keyword for each service based on search volume/competition and add the keyword into the page title & meta details aswell as the URL (yourURL/Digital X-Rays for example).
Content is king here so make sure each page has a great and well written article.
To be honest, without knowing the URL of your site and the URL of your competition site it is pretty much impossible to say. It would need some in-depth research. It may well have something to do with your domain age.
What you are experiencing is possibly something called "Google Dance". It happens while Google's algorithm is trying to figure out the best place for you.
HAHA Yeah... Thats the problem with the fiverr gigs, you cant actually tell their methods properly.
One way to check is to have a look at the profiles who +1 your page and see if they are real. If you can notice that they are fake then you can bet your bottom dollar that big G can too.
Nice test though, I like it!
OK, couple of questions...
There are so many fiverr gigs where they literally sit there setting up accounts (all from the same IP!) on one PC. Then there are others who actually ask genuine accounts to click the +1
Great research here! I love seeing these kind of tests
Yeah I know, I read the full forum thread... Im not sure what you mean?
Edit: Do you mean your post was not about the actual site it effected but more about Negative SEO? If so, we understand that, thats why we said it was scary. We were just pointing out the other issues in the forum thread.
Oh absolutely, the backlinks generated from the story will make it worthwhile. Not sure if it was intended but it will benefit the site in the long run Im sure. Also, they did state a few times that his website was non-profit so it certainly wont hurt his lifestyle.
Yeah I think that thread will be closely watched by big G... Probably not something to boast about on an online forum. However, he definitely knows his stuff so fair play to him - he has thought about it in great detail.
Definitely. I think that example was way OTT and not needed for most websites. I think it looks like it would be pretty easy for small businesses with smaller websites.
Unfortunately there seems to be plenty of to55ers around. It worry's me that some people have no remorse... It could mean jobs lots and life's destroyed! Shame on Google!
Scary stuff indeed...
I don't care how effective it may or may not be, I could never do this to a competitor... My motto would always be to beat them on merit and not cheating.
I have no doubt that this currently works but I also have no doubt that Google will close the loophole and instead of devaluing a website for "un-natural links" it will simply ignore the links - it is only a matter of time.
Lets cross our fingers that we don't have immoral competitors until that time comes.
As above... Thumbs up.
Also consider whether they have contact details, what kind of sites they link out to. Check what kind of sites link in to it. Have a read of some of the articles, are they good quality?
Remember not to concentrate your entire time on blog posts to obtain links... Blog links needs to be only one of many link types otherwise you may end up in trouble.
mmmmmmm.... I like Vanilla!!
My life would be complete if Google decided to do that!
Cool plan... Why not take it a step further and do three tests:
One landing page with lots of retweets.
One landing page with lots of +1's.
One landing page with lots of "likes".
Could be interesting if it is on a throw away domain?
Might not be as detailed as you would like but this could be useful: http://outreachr.com/bulk-domain-checker/
I think it's pretty fair to say this method should not be used - however, if you gradually built 50 +1's over a month or two then this might not be too bad - AS LONG AS it was only a small part of your overall link building project.
I ran a test a few months back on social marketing...
I had an old domain with an old page which had no incoming (external) links and no on page optimisation... It ranked 58th in Google UK for the keyword I used in the content of an article which was posted on the page.
I grabbed a crappy Fiverr gig which added 50 Google +1's - two weeks later I was on page two.
I wrote an article on it with images etc but never uploaded it to my blog and now I cant find it 
There is a small chance that other factors also helped it rank but I think its fair to say that the +1's certainly helped (in the very least!).
After seeing these SERP improvements I was happy with the results and deleted the page before finding out whether or not Google would have frowned upon the tactic - Im pretty sure that a page with no links coming into it which all of a sudden gets 50 +1's in a day looks pretty spammy to the big G!
There are so many cowboys out there in the SEO world so be very careful. Algorithms change and along with that, techniques need to change... There are LOTS of SEO companies who use very old methods and are actually quite dangerous instead of useful.
Take a look at SEOmoz' list of recommended companies here.
Generally, you get what you pay for!
Blog commenting and Social Bookmarking (should you choose to use these methods) should only be a small/tiny part of your overall link building strategy. Put more effort into on-site content and make it interesting and unique. Then look at doing other things like PR articles, news articles, blogs etc... Also concentrate your efforts on building actual backlinks from strong, relevant sites.
I have uploaded an (old-ish) PDF which might give you some extra ideas However, don't take it as gospel - I would personally ignore the paid links section!
It could be that your links are poor quality or on poor domains. It could also be that Open Site Explorer hasnt updated since your links went live.
Where are you getting the links from and what methods are you using to acquire the links?
If you want my honest opinion then I would say that the content should be rewritten... Sorry! It is probably a huge job!
You could add no follow coding into the secondary site so the content is hidden from Google bots but Im sure from reading your question that this will defeat the object of the secondary site?
I would not condone it nor personally do this myself but you might be able to rewrite some of the content again and leave in maybe 20% of the original content so in effect the content is diluted - Google might not see this as duplicated anymore. However, that still requires work. I would just rewrite it all and try to make it as unique as possible.
Anytime. Please feel free to mark the question as answered hahaha! 
On a side note, not sure why anyone would thumbs down your comment thanking us for our input :S due to this I have added my thumbs up to your comment thanking us.
If you want to check likes for each page on an eCommerce site then it's not ideal. Absolutely. However, you could easily install a plug in to the eCommerce software that showed you how many likes, tweets and +1's etc... Then you wouldn't need a tool.
If you have the pro SEOmoz account then you can find out using the Open Site Explorer:
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org
All you need to do is put the exact URL into the search field.
You can sign up to a free trial without paying anything to test it.
In short, yes. But this is obviously not Google's concept behind "buying" links. If you read my comment above I explain about what Google cannot possibly class as a "purchased" link. Here is a snippet...
"For example, how can Google tell if you are buying links? It could be that you have a next door neighbour with a very genuine website and you get a link from his site in return for a pint of beer at your local pub - Google have no way of knowing this! However, if you aren't very careful with your footsteps and you openly sign up to places like BMR which clearly advertises paid links then at some point you will more than likely be found out."
You would be wise to understand that more often than not, the value of purchased links is nearly always less than the value of a manually built link based on good, unique and relevant content on a page which is from a trusted domain and has very few links on the page.
As always, the key here is accountability and covering your tracks. I'm not telling you not to buy links. Im saying you would be wise to put all your eggs in the "purchased links" basket. If you must purchase links then ensure they are of good quality and cant be traced... more importantly, make sure they only cover a smallpercentage of your overall link strategy.
Lastly, I just want to comment on your comment:
"Every site in a competitive market buys links"
Not true. I agree that most do, sure. I also think that most do not understand the dangers and pitfalls of buying links. They probably also think that the more links the better,., regardless of quality of link and the quality of the content on their site.
I used to own a multimillion pound-a-year eCommerce company until I sold it last year and I can honestly say that I had never once purchased a link for the site. We were position #1 in Google for over 300 keywords and the largest eCommerce company in Europe for our specific Niche. Just so you understand the competition, our main keyword which we ranked #1 for brings back the following when searched:
About 740,000,000 results (0.18 seconds)
"The new SEO Moz historical link data is cool but it's a shame it's only for campaigns, I'd like to see that for any domain I want to check up on."
That would be pretty cool actually, I would find that useful too!
Hopefully this could help:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80472&topic=10079&ctx=topic
EDIT: Oops, just re-read the question on my PC as I was on my phone when I answered. Ignore my response, it doesn't relate.
Exactly...
Buying links is often a lazy way out.
There are always alternative ways of building links and the manually built links always tend to be better than paid links anyway.
This is exactly the reason why you should not buy links... The risk of being caught out is too high... Yes, its a quick fix method of building links which in the short term will benefit but it could do some serious damage for the long term plans of the website.
In Google's ideal world, you should not have to rely on paid links to rank. Instead, you should have good, creative and relevant content. You should manually build good links; guest post articles on good websites, build up well written press releases, have a strong social network, add a news section to the site and keep it update. Etc etc... Links should follow.
In our world we know that this is not always easy. For example, I am currently working on a website that makes plastic S hooks. BORING! No amount of content I write is going to be interesting. This is why you have to start thinking outside the box. Get links from customers, do interviews, blogs, news, build offline business relationships so you can build links that way. There is still lots that can be done without paying for links which might hurt you in the long run.
IMO I actually think this is a good move by Google - it actually makes the better and more creative SEO's reap the rewards for their work instead of companies with large budgets. As usual, this change (like most other Google algorithm changes) will only effect the people who put all their eggs in one basket, ie: the paid link basket. If only 2% of your incoming links are paid then this will barely effect you. If 95% of your incoming links are paid then you are screwed.
Obviously as always there are points to be made on both sides of the fence. For example, how can Google tell if you are buying links? It could be that you have a next door neighbour with a very genuine website and you get a link from his site in return for a pint of beer at your local pub - Google have no way of knowing this! However, if you aren't very careful with your footsteps and you openly sign up to places like BMR which clearly advertises paid links then at some point you will more than likely be found out.
Ultimately this is nothing new. I wouldn't worry about it too much. We have known for quite some time now that Google is starting to penalize overly optimized sites. As long as you dont keep all your eggs in one basket and you try to be a good SEO across the board then you should be fine IMO.
We know that Google has hit down hardon duplicate content, link farms, spammy links, keyword cramming etc... I think this is just a reiteration that it wont be tolerated. Keep your work White Hat and never concentrate too much in one area of optimization and you should be fine. Make sure that your site doesn't stand out like a sore thumb and is overly optimized.
Excellent! Seems like you have most bases covered - this is good.
Some people find links from high DA but low PA useful, others find the opposite useful. As always, there should be a bit of both. Try not to pick a strategy that puts all your eggs in one basket. I would prioritize the high PA first but dont forget about the high DA and low PA links, come back to these at a later stage
Also, make sure that there are other backlink strategies in place other than directory listings. There are lots of ways to gather links, directories are just one slice of the pie.
Feel free to send me a private message should you need assistance or add me to skype, the info is on my profile
Matt
If its a new website then you should avoid trying to grow too quickly - especially with link building. Link building is an area in which the SEO cheats have taken advantage of Google's algorithm in the past so Google are very aware of the problem. To combat this they are very careful with new domains receiving loads of incoming links. However, link building is obviously still important with new websites. You should make a spreadsheet of the link directories along with their PA and DA, keep a note of which directories you have submitted to.
You should start with the best directories on the list and when you get more time, filter down the less important directories.
In the mean time there are plenty of other bits which are just as important like content and on-site optimisation (forgive me if you have already worked on these two but most people just straight into link building. I had a client a while back who had built some really nice and relevant links but the foundations of his website were terrible and all his links were sent through to pages with poor URL's (ie, mysite.com/?>£hfgrt�talogue-p5 instead of mysite.com/dogfood))
Hope this goes some way to answering your question?
Great stuff, glad it looks to be sorted. Come back and pop a reply should you need more help!
Good luck!
OK, if he hasn't already, he should create a sitemap. This should help speed things up and allow all the pages on the site to be crawled by the bots.
As an example, this is SEOmoz sitemap.
When were the amendments made? Are we talking days or weeks?
I have an excellent copywriter. He is studying English at one of the UK's best universities. He does quite a lot for me in his spare time to earn extra £ for his university lifestyle. The work he carries out for me is outstanding and without trying to sound smug... He only charges me £6 an hour!
The beauty about him is that he researches the subject in great detail before writing the article and they always sound like they are written by a guru of that specific field.
I think once you have found a good one, you will stick with him for most of your copywriting work.
I would be willing to pass you his contact details should you wish but please don't pass this about - I dont want him to become too busy for me! haha!
Matt
It can depend on how often Google bots crawl his website. When did he make the change? Is it a new site?
Most important point to note... Dont panic.
Take them section by section in chunks, start off at the duplicated content errors as these are arguably the most important. Click the duplicated content errors, then on the first URL it should show how many other URLs are duplicated.
I have uploaded images for 4 steps of how to see which links on your domain have duplicated content.
The reason there is duplicated content on the campaign I took the images from is because the site I am working on is set up to not have Cononical URL tags. The reason your site might have duplicated content issues may well be for the same reason (ie, Google sees these three pages as the same content: http://mysite.com - http://www.mysite.com - http://www.mysite.com/index.php - even though they are all the home page. You just need to tell Google that they are the same page in effect)
Another reason you might have duplicated content is because you may well quite literally have content which looks/reads the same on numerous pages. If you do have content the same on different pages on your site then you should look at changing this as soon as possible and making the content 100% unique.
One last thing to note is that very few websites are perfect and show no errors. If anything, perfect websites look bad to Google because they look too automated and not manually built and optimised.
Sorry if it seems like there is alot to swallow. As stated, take a chunk at a time and don't panic. If you need advice there are some great people on here who would happily offer some support. I am available to offer any community member guidance should they need it, my Skype contact is on my profile, please feel free to use it should you get stuck!
Anytime, feel free to fire me a private message or add me on Skype. Im always available to offer advice if I can
