Any ideas - Google

[Jaysonnhs]

Any ideas on why we keep falling off Google?

We're in a very competitive industry (real estate) and we're a new company but we've done a pretty good job link building and creating quality content and should be ranking a lot better in Google, but we keep falling in Google rankings (we had success a few weeks back). We have a lot of backlinks and quality content but we keep falling in Google for our main keywords. Our homepage doesn't even rank well at all (just sup. pages). Is it possible that we're partially penalized? I just can't figure it out and am hoping that one of you may know what's going on. Here are 2 things that I think the problem may be

1. I know our supplemental index ratio is about 86% - if this is the problem, why and how do I fix it?

2. We have a company helping our SEO efforts out - they have some automated system you can see their links at the bottom of our homepage

related - resources - webring - SpyderMap

They have several clients that do really well on Google so I'm not too sure this is the problem.

website url is newhomessection dot com



Anyways - any help would be much appreciated. I'm thinking its an on site problem because our off site is pretty solid. Thanks in advance

JG

[Chatmaster]

Hi JG and a hearty welcome to DM.

There are a few issues with your website, but I want to touch one specific point that I feel should improve your rankings.

One of the primary mistakes I found was that your website targets way to many keywords per page. Your homepage for example is targeting a ton of keyword phrases. With the Google algo the way it is, you should not attempt to target more than one keyword phrase per page, imo.

This is why you do not even rank for non-competitive terms like "Phoenix Arizona New Homes" (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&safe=off&q=%22Phoenix+Arizona+New+Homes%22&btnG=Search), there is no competition on this term and you should easily rank #1 for it.

Just your home page should target your primary keyword which imo should be "new homes in phoenix arizona", Instead it is targeting way to many keywords for Google to properly theme your site.

Other points to consider.
You are not using any contextual links to internal pages using link text to target specific keywords.
Use of all caps is not recommended from a usability perspective.
Use of images are a bit over done. Both users and SE's would like text much more than just images.
Your article section which is also one of your most powerful parts of your site, should not just be links but links surrounded by content. I suggest that you consider a small intro with the contextual link linking to the article. You will be surprised at the result of this little change.
Ad a 'no follow' tag to the "Real Estate Agents" link, I am concerned about the redirect you are using there, and the robot cannot follow that link anyway.
Then finally, the use of images for links, seriously consider rather using text links, or at least get your alt tags to target the correct keyword phrases.

Hope that helps!

[Jaysonnhs]

Wow - thanks for all of the advice. I'll get them implemented as soon as possible. I can't thank you enough for the time you've spent. :-P

[Jaysonnhs]

One more question - we say targeting too many keywords are you referring to the title and description? Or everything like the on page content (mid left of page).

Will making these changes kill our Yahoo and MSN ranking that are keeping us alive right now?

[Chatmaster]

It includes the content as well.
No it shouldn't kill your Yahoo! and Live rankings, besides that Google should give you alot more traffic than those two combined.

[Jaysonnhs]

Great thanks. We've done most of what you've advised. Hopefully, it turns some things around.

thanks for the advice

[Chatmaster]

Hope you keep us up to date with any changes :)
A very important point I forgot to mention is the acquiring of deeplinks. Your site has several pages with a weak homepage pr. Obtaining themed backlinks to your internal pages utilizing article submissions and other link building techniques, is highly recommended.

[marketraise]

Incase you are not ranking well in Google for your primary keywords it means that under Google's supervision you are not relating well to those keywords.Get a Google analysis account and check your traffic from the search engine resources.How many traffic do you get from which keywords.It is traffic that determines your SERP'S(Search Engine Ranking Position).Why don't you do a thing,visit social networking sites and compile an article that relates to the keywords and you might just start getting traffic.Create profiles on the web relating to those keywords.Try forum postings or article submissions.Check your keyword relevancy and SEO score using tools like whois (http://www.whois.sc) and zippy (http://www.zippy.co.uk).SERP of any website keeps rising and falling.All what matters is to be in the first page of Google so that when ever a search for a keyword relating to your website is done,your website is flashed in the first page and has the probablities of getting visitors.

[Jaysonnhs]

We've themed the homepage as you've suggested - New Homes in Phoenix Arizona - added internal linking on the homepage and have added contextual links to all of our resource sections, I'm not sure if we did it correct.

We've been deep linking forever (it feels like!). I'm not sure why our Page Rank is so weak. I think we started acquiring tons of links in Sept. and that Google just didn't give us any love in late Oct. (probably because of link age??). We're constantly adding new sections and pages so many of them weren't around during the last green bar update.

It's been a little over a week (still too soon to tell) and nothing from Google - our rankings on Yahoo and MSN have held pretty well. I'll definitely keep you updated and again thanks for the help.

[newbie2010]

Good discussion here. Thanks for informing such good info.

[bradmarais]

Any ideas on why we keep falling off Google?

We're in a very competitive industry (real estate) and we're a new company but we've done a pretty good job link building and creating quality content and should be ranking a lot better in Google, but we keep falling in Google rankings (we had success a few weeks back). We have a lot of backlinks and quality content but we keep falling in Google for our main keywords. Our homepage doesn't even rank well at all (just sup. pages). Is it possible that we're partially penalized? I just can't figure it out and am hoping that one of you may know what's going on. Here are 2 things that I think the problem may be

1. I know our supplemental index ratio is about 86% - if this is the problem, why and how do I fix it?

2. We have a company helping our SEO efforts out - they have some automated system you can see their links at the bottom of our homepage

related - resources - webring - SpyderMap

They have several clients that do really well on Google so I'm not too sure this is the problem.

website url is newhomessection dot com



Anyways - any help would be much appreciated. I'm thinking its an on site problem because our off site is pretty solid. Thanks in advance

JG
Hi JG

I've been in the SEO game now for only about 2 years and have ranked some very tough keywords in the accommodation sector. I can def help you out in this, its not a hard one to complete either.

First like 'Chatmaster' said you need ti limit your keywords per page to 3 (1 is to little) and then you need to create the correct page title (containing your keywords and correct length) and then your description which is extremely important to also include your keywords and correct length.

I have ranked pages just with thos elements correctly done with the page having hardly any content at all...what did i achieve? - 1st page ranking within 3months

Get the above correct and find quality links...automated link building will pull you down.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards

Brad

[bradmarais]

Hi Jaysonnhs

I had a look at your site and found that your front page is not showing any keywords? Sorry i might have missed them. But that is most propbly the most important factor right now.