Slipped down the Google ladder

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kenmtb

New Member
Hello-
I have fallen behind the times and my website has slipped on Google. I used rich content and links to maintain a high placement for years and all the sudden I dropped. From what I have read, you need more than copy and links.

I am not a big business so I have to maintain the website myself. Can someone list the key points of Google positioning in order of importance? I will try to research these points.
Thank you
Ken
 
L

lukc22

New Member
kenmtb said:
Hello-
I have fallen behind the times and my website has slipped on Google. I used rich content and links to maintain a high placement for years and all the sudden I dropped. From what I have read, you need more than copy and links.

I am not a big business so I have to maintain the website myself. Can someone list the key points of Google positioning in order of importance? I will try to research these points.
Thank you
Ken
Click to expand...

There are several key points for SEO... Fresh and relevant content is very important. If you are changing and updating your content regularly then you may check your keyword density... If you have keywords in your meta tags, they might have also been in your content before and now you have removed them inadvertantly by updating... This will make your site seem less relevant to googlebots as you are listing keywords that are not mentioned in your content... either remove the "not mentioned" keywords from your meta tags or find a way to add them back in your body text... If you have a copy of the content you had originaly that gave you higher rankings, analyze it up to your current text... You may have had a keyword highlited or other things to set it apart...

Also by changing content, you may have lowered your word count.. More content is better and your keyword density (percentage of keywords to your total content) should be under 8% ( as a general rule )...

Hope this helps, let me know if it doesnt...
 
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v2Media

v2Media

Member
Post a link to your website along with the keywods you're targeting. Without seeing your site, this can only be just another 'seo tips' thread.
 
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ishie

New Member
Before anything else, you should do a comprehensive competition analysis and keyword research. Your SEO efforts should match your target keywords and goals.
 
K

kenmtb

New Member
Hello-
Thanks for the great replies, sorry I have been away so long. My site is www.woodtoyz.com

Target key words in order are: wooden toys, wood toys, wooden trucks

I have not changed the copy that much over the years. The keyword density seemed high so I lowered it.

I have looked at the competition and I noticed that they do not use the keywords "wooden toys" much in their copy. Is it important to get your url on blogs and use social networking?

PS--- I used google's link: command and noticed I had only 1,350 links. Other sites have a HUGE amount more. Are they using a program or trading links full time?
Thanks
 
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v2Media

v2Media

Member
Do you have usage stats, such as awstats, from when your website was ranking well? Did you convert the incoming traffic for 'wood toys' into sales very well?

"Childrens gifts" and keywords along those lines would attract more traffic, 'wooden toys' would be a secondary keyword for further qualification. The first keyword attracts people who are looking for a gift for children but don't know what they want to get. The second attracts people that do know what they want.

I would imagine that you would get more sales using an affiliate sales system. By having your products on offer at bigger children toys websites, you'll get a lot more exposure to customers that aren't thinking exactly of wooden toys. Or offer drop-shipping to other children website owners...
 
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kenmtb

New Member
Excellent suggestions.
I do not have the stats form when I was first on google. Im not sure about the conversion rate but 6-7 years ago, I would guess they were much higher. It seemed easy to climb and hold that #1 spot.

I do have items listed on other sites but there are less sales due to competition on those sites unfortunately.

Because I do not run the website full time, I would like to regain the #1 spot for "wooden toys". I wonder if links are the key at this point? I would really love to know how my competitors got 450K - 1.4 million links on google???
 
v2Media

v2Media

Member
kenmtb said:
I do have items listed on other sites but there are less sales due to competition on those sites unfortunately.
Click to expand...

The point is to have your product on more sites to increase sales and exposure, not to make a lot of sales from a few other sites.

kenmtb said:
I wonder if links are the key at this point? I would really love to know how my competitors got 450K - 1.4 million links on google?
Click to expand...

Links are an important key, yes. However the number of links is not. You could blitz your competition with 2 or 3 links on PR10 sites. Not a realistic example, but the point remains - it's not the quantity of links that boosts your rankings, it's the quality.

kenmtb said:
I would like to regain the #1 spot for "wooden toys"
Click to expand...

If you were my SEO client - I'd steer you away from that objective. You want traffic for 'childrens toys', 'mail order toys', 'online toy shop'. Add some other products along 'toys manufactured with natural materials'; drop-ship or do affiliate sales for similar product lines. You're limiting your reach into the target market by focusing only on 'wooden toys'.

Go and search for other web pages about wooden toys to get external links on. You're 6-7 years behind your competition. I'd say you've got 6 months of solid link building to remotely catch up. Find the pages your competition are linked on and get your own link. Find where your site is currently linked to and see if you can get more...
 
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bermuda

New Member
You have mentioned that the number of links your competitors and colleagues have gathered for their websites is more than your so that could be one huge effect. Nowadays the top ranking websites, especially in some hot and competitive niches are found powered by a lot of backlinks coming from relevant and quality sources. The deserted websites with no fresh contents may also experience some ranks drops because Google may assume that the websites have been left with no attention or supervision.
 
K

kenmtb

New Member
V2-
Thank you for your invaluable advise. I will implement the ideas you have mentioned.

Just to be sure I understand, I should rewrite my site and find link partners with key-phrases that have a broader audience. Also I need to find extremely relevant and high ranking link partners that support the broader phrases.

You mentioned quality not quantity. I will focus on finding the most elite link partners. The question is, what is the BEST approach? Is there good software or do I do this by googling and checking each websites PR? 1000000+ links to 1000 is a huge gap to overcome!
Thanks
Ken
Thank you
Ken
 
K

kenmtb

New Member
bermuda said:
You have mentioned that the number of links your competitors and colleagues have gathered for their websites is more than your so that could be one huge effect. Nowadays the top ranking websites, especially in some hot and competitive niches are found powered by a lot of backlinks coming from relevant and quality sources. The deserted websites with no fresh contents may also experience some ranks drops because Google may assume that the websites have been left with no attention or supervision.
Click to expand...

Great point. My competitors have so many links that I am not sure how to even analyze where they come from or what kind of links they are. How can these small shops accumulate so many links?? V2 said quality is important but I do not know it the competition's numerous links are or are not quality links. My head is spinning trying to do the woodworking part, I am kind of short on the web page end.
 
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BMA

Banned
I understand the desire to win the search for "Wooden Toys". People who search that term know what they want and will be easier to convert into sales. It will also be a less competitive search phrase and easier to win for a business owner doing it himself.

Links are great for building page rank, but notice that you are already being beat by sites with lower page ranks. My homepage has a PR of 3 and beats competitors with a PR of 6. Relevance is huge, and it's not just based on keyword density of your text. Keyword density within your title tag makes a huge difference in the battles between PR1 to PR4 sites. Give yourself a different title tag on every page that is relevant to the content of the page (Google flat out asks for this anyway). If you want to win "Wooden Toys" the title tag on your home page should be "wooden toys," no less, no more. Then the other pages can have title tags such as "Wooden toys trucks," "wooden toys trains," "boys wooden toys," etc. Without over-saturating your pages with keywords, consider how you are presenting your keywords, because Google looks at this too. "Wooden toys" in an H1 size will carry more weight than in paragraph size. "Wooden toys" in bold, hyperlinked, and as the alt-text in hyperlinked images are all different ways of presenting the main search phrase and ways Google might look and calculate that this site is really about "wooden toys".

Way cool toys by the way.
 
K

kenmtb

New Member
Great advice everyone.
Thanks BMA. You bring up some very interesting points. Now I will look at title tags and headings.

So if I just had wooden toys in the title tag then dont I need something else to describe my shop in the serp?

I have analyzed my competitors again and noticed something interesting.
A few years ago, I was competing with other crafters. Now I am faced with a hoard of toy resellers. The top sites sell all kinds of toys and wooden toys is only one category. I have less than 20 items but some have hundreds in different categories. That gives them plenty of copy. :(
 
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bluecollar01

New Member
Have you considered doing press releases or article marketing that are related to your toys? Themes like "how wooden toys are made", "wooden toy making - a lost art", "wooden toys - safer for children?" could all be used to build relevant links to your site. Use the SEO press release at PRlog.com, about.com, ezine articles and include links to your site with key term anchor text. If the artices/PR are well received they may be syndicated providing even more links. Just a thought.
 
I

iresh

New Member
Hello-
I have fallen behind the times and my website has slipped on Google. I used rich content and links to maintain a high placement for years and all the sudden I dropped. From what I have read, you need more than copy and links.

I am not a big business so I have to maintain the website myself. Can someone list the key points of Google positioning in order of importance? I will try to research these points.
Thank you
Ken
Click to expand...

I do think that you need some on page optimizations
 
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