Google rankings have dramatically dropped...

[spartiums]

I don't understand what is going on - I think I have been doing everything right with my site and put a lot of effort into optimization.

My results dropped in Google last November and still arn't going up.

For example my page

http://www.spartium.com/coffeegiftbaskets.htm

page doesn't even rank in the top 600 pages - I have no idea where Google has indexed it - can anyone help me please?

Tina

 

[ChrisHirst]

coffee gift baskets". Strictly speaking that is a very competitive phrase. Your page has no focus on that term at all.

As I recall last time we recommended removing the list of keyphrases down the left of the page, these are detracting from the overall page focus. Two phrases per page only and on a phrase with that kind of competition, almost 9000 pages in direct competition, that bunch of phrases will seriously damage the efforts.
They are only there for one very obvious reason and THEY AREN'T WORKING. in fact putting your adsense block down there would be more valuable. Which BTW may yield more if you make it fit in with your site a little better.

You actually seem very determined to get visitors OFF your pages quickly as well by mixing your affiliate links with site navigation, and slap bang in centre page there is "For all Gift Baskets: click here" Visitor clicks, and they are gone.
You have thrown them off your site to another. Maybe you get paid the same commission but not when you treat visitors as disposable, Because they may not even stay on the other site
Have your external links seperate and indicate they are to an external site and there is no need to make them so prominent as to be the first thing visitors click.
All you need is a box with a heading of "Couldn't find the ideal gift basket ? Try some of these links :-" or something like that.

the semi related links, Cookies, flowers etc have another page with them on. ROS affiliate links do nothing for improving ranking of the site they are on. With Yahoo it can be the cause of your site being removed as an unwanted affiliate only.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[spartiums]

Hi Chris

Thanks for that.

I've started looking at the posts on here and it's obvious you know your stuff and I have taken all your advice and updated my page. Would you mind taking a look and letting me know if you think I can improve it in any other ways...?
I used to have great page ranking on Google - but I must have over-modified my pages somewhere along the lines - If I can get good ranking on one on my pages I can adopt it on the others.
Thanks for you help.

Tina

 

[ChrisHunt]

Tina, I think you need to look beyond pure SEO considerations.

It's hard when your site is your pride and joy, but try to look at it through the eyes of a potential customer. What would you think if you landed on your page? Is it appealing? Does it draw you in?

All I see is the word "Gift Basket" repeated endlessly, with some tiny product pictures and some tiny text to describe them (clue: not everybody who buys coffee has good eyesight). It looks like a page written for (and possibly by) machines, and has me reaching for the back button.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[ChrisHirst]

While you have made so progress and it is improving (Probably Chris missed the before version) I do agree with Chris and you are simply focussed on search engines.

Forget this keyword density garbage you probably have read somewhere. Forget that search engines exist. Forget about rankings.

Start on one page and focus on vistors and conversions.

Good SEO starts with the design and as an affiliate site you have to work harder to be noticed or risk getting buried under the thousands of others. None of the SEs want hundreds of duplicates in the SERPs so affiliates get a hard time because little of their content is unique.
When your results with the SEs take a drop it's simply because it's just another dup to be filtered out. Make it so it isn't. Don't just take the descriptions from the shipper site, rewrite them to be unique. Don't simply have a bunch of products on one page with descriptions, have thumbs that got to another page with the product on so you can optimise the title etc for specifics.
I'll take your books page for example;
There is no point in optimising a page for those phrases and expecting results, But optimise for "Amulets of Acacia" say will yield very different results indeed.
The same can be done for all pages.

Lot of work but can be worth it


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[spartiums]

I've tried everything that has been suggested and although I can now see my listing 291 for "Coffee Gift Baskets" on Google for my page

http://www.spartium.com/coffeegiftbaskets.htm

- I don't understand why other pages that aren't as relevant as mine are appearing. I used to appear in the top ten on google until November last year. I'm wondering if there is something wrong in my code. I am at a complete loss and would appreciate anyone's help on this, it is so frustrating - my page rank is 4...... - any ideas......???

Thanks, Tina

 

[jstreich]

Google is based heavly on links to your site and the text in those links. It's just one of the innovative and often useful ways to get truly relevent information when searching. The down side is that to get great ratings you have to get more people linking to your site, which means you need more people seeing your site, which means you need to be ranked higher. etc.

[plug=shameless]

http://game-master.us/phpx-3.4.0/

[/plug]

 

[spartiums]

Now my page Coffee Gift Baskets is 331 on Google - even though I haven't updated it - can anyone take a look at my page to see if there is something wrong with my code - I did previously rank in the top 10 on Google for over a year, up until last November...

 

[ChrisHirst]

There is nothing majorly wrong with the code. There were big updates in Googles algo in November and again in February.

STOP WORRYING ABOUT RANKINGS they go up and down all the time, concentrate on conversion.

Put some structure into your pages, use h1 and h2 headings to give the pages some focus, above all else you need some backlinks.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[spartiums]

Hi again Chris

I am going to try and build my backlinks and include h1 tags

I do have another question though.

If I type in "link:

http://www.spartium.com/coffeegiftbaskets.htm"

on Google - I can see two links, both are from my site - but what I don't understand is why other pages with that link don't show up - for example my Birthday Gift Baskets and Christmas Gift Baskets. Someone told me that Google doesn't display all the links - is this true and if so how can I check my backlinks correctly - I currently use marketleap.

Thanks
Tina

http://www.spartium.com

 

[ChrisHirst]

use link:sitename at Yahoo or MSN

and you can do combination seaches at Google This will show all mentions of the site, some may be links some not.

Make sure you try and use a keyphrase anchor text for some links and mix them about. Even better if you can get deep links instead of just to the home page.

Be aware of the potential problems with having .com and .co.uk aliased and both returning a 200 response you should be redirecting the .co.uk with a 301 to the .com. Yahoo has already decided that the .co.uk is the site to index and MSN has both with more pages for the .co.uk

Also just found the seemingly orphaned link directory on your site. At least one of the sites on this page w*ww.spartium.com/links12.htm (Free Debt Consolidation) is looking more than a little suspiciously like having been penalised by Google. This may be causing YOU problems.

I would honestly suggest that if you have any budget at all you hire a professional to do a full and frank site survey. There is only so much can be done in forum posts, and the more I look at the site the more I can see that is not in the slightest bit helping your efforts, in some case quite the reverse.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[spartiums]

Hi Chris

Thanks for that.

I've removed links12 from my webspace - so that should solve the problem there.

How do I create a 301?
If you look at my page spartium.co.uk - I have just created a manual link - is this ok?

Thanks, Tina

 

[ChrisHirst]

No a manual link won't pass over the Link Pop etc.

For Zeus you may need to get your host to enable the .htaccess module if it's not already on. and use

RedirectMatch 301 (.*) [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.yourdomain.com$1[/URL]

in the .htaccess file





Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.