Site stuck on 2nd page on Google - how can it improve?

[idv]

Hi

I am working on a site http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk that for search terms such as 'Chartered Accountants Swansea' appears near the top of the 2nd page of Google.

When looking at what is listed on the 1st page for 'Chartered Accountants Swansea' I would appreciate any advice/guidance on what else could be done to give the site a final push to get on the 1st page of search results.

Over the past 2 weeks I have been building inbound links from local citation sites yelp, qype etc along with sites from competitor analysis via opensiteexplorer.

Looking at the sites that are on the 1st page I cant understand why many of them are ranking higher than me?

Any insight and plan of attack would be most appreciated from any  search experts on the forum.

Many Thanks

[RyanKent]

First and foremost, ensure you are not using any blackhat techniques on your site's home page. I found a problem within 2 minutes on your site. It is highly likely Google noticed as well.

Your home page's header tag is not visible on the page. It is hidden behind the graphics at the top of your page.

<h1 class="HomeTitle">Chartered Accountants Swansea | Harris Bassett h1>

I would also suggest using your target phrase at least once on your page in content. You do use the words on the page, but not together as a single phrase.

Once making these changes, it may take a full month to see the changes in search results.

[idv]

Great thanks - will make those changes - anything else that I should be looking at?

[RyanKent]

None of the results on the first page are particularly strong. With proper SEO, you should be able to not only reach the first page but climb to the top over time.

The next most important item is to clarify within your site which page should rank for each term. I have a concern because your site is so small and you are trying to rank your home page for "Chartered Accountants Swansea" yet you have another page which targets "Accountants Swansea": http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/accountant-swansea.html

You can certainly provide two separate pages on your site which target similar phrases. It should be done in a very careful manner with supporting internal links.

Additionally, while your site appears professional, it is a very basic html site. Notice the #1 rank site has a "search" function which is generally part of a CMS. It also offers social engagement, blog, rss feed, etc. If this site belonged to my client, I would recommend moving to a WordPress or Joomla CMS and increasing their web presence.

[idv]

With proper SEO I take it you mean build inbound links as there is not much more SEO or technical side SEO left to do?

What I was trying to achieve with the accountant-swansea page was to capture the traffic and ranking for this search phrase - which way would you recommend that I achieve this with supporting internal links?

I totally understand what you mean but the no1 site are a large firm and have the resources to do this - many small businesses do not have the time to run a blog or write financial articles - if you look at the other sites in the top 10 list they are very weak, I cant understand how my site has not overtaken them already.

Would the creation of a twitter account and feed on the homepage help with SEO to get us on the 1st page?

[RyanKent]

The resources it takes to improve your site are relatively low. Your site is not an e-commerce site. You don't accept online payments. It is a relatively simple site. With the proper knowledge, you can build it yourself. Alternatively, you can hire someone else to build the site for you.

Many companies offer to create basic word press sites for $500+. Personally, I don't like the quality of those sites at all. For between $1000 -$2000 you can build a very high quality, professional WP site including any extensions you need, a graphics layout, and everything you need to succeed from a SEO perspective. There are major corporations who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build their website. A small business should be able to afford a simple site as described.

With respect to the time, I noticed from your About page your company has at least 3 employees: Nick, David and Sharon. Is it possible each employee could write one helpful article each month? They could talk about a current situation they face, or a current hot topic in the industry. If one outstanding article can be written per month by each employee, your content will steadily grow over time. Additionally, you content may draw in new clients. The content will certainly offer new opportunities to rank for additional keywords.

Would the creation of a twitter account and feed on the homepage help with SEO to get us on the 1st page?

The creation of a twitter account in and of itself will not offer any tangible benefit. You need to actually use the account for it to have value. Tips, links to articles, helpful reminders, etc. can all make great tweets.

if you look at the other sites in the top 10 list they are very weak, I cant understand how my site has not overtaken them already.

As I shared, your site has at least two major problems with respect to ranking for the key term. You are using a black hat technique which alone can knock you off the first page. Additionally, you do not use the target phrase a single time in content. Both of these points are major SEO issues. At the very least, fix these two issues today.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi

Use the Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis tool - run a full report. It will give you all the ranking factor metrics of the top 10 results (plus an 11th site you can add).  The major things I always check first are;

• Linking root domains
• Linking C Blocks (there should not be a giant difference between root domains and C blocks)
• Exact and Partial match anchor text
• Facebook Shares
• On Page Optimization Grade

Chances are you may need to beat some people in the top 10 in any of these metrics.

-Dan

[firstconversion]

canonicalise your urls

more content on the homepage

Get rid of crappy stock photography, makes you look spammy. Have large, quality images

Id add an image with keyword relevant alt attribs

Add a google map with your location

[idv]

Hi

I have removed the hidden h1 behind the graphic on the homepage and included the targetted search phrase on the body copy of the homepage which I have also made bold.  So time will tell if it makes a difference to the ranking?

[idv]

Thanks

Is it best to canonicalise the URL via webmaster tools to point to the www version of the site.

I have added some content on the site before they was very little - how much content is enough - looking at some of the top 10 sites in the SERPS their content leaves a lot to be desired.

I am using ALT tags on images on the homepage already for the target search phrase - have I missed any opportunities?

Good idea with google map and images I can see where you are coming from- thanks

[RyanKent]

Correct.

I hate to offer any "wait" type of answer, but that is the next step. The first opportunity for a change is when Google crawls your page again. Your Google page cache is from October 8th. Since this issue is from your home page which is crawled more frequently, I estimate it will be updated this week.

Please check your site and ensure there are no other similar issues on other pages with respect to black hat technique usage. If a site is penalized, it can be the entire site regardless or which page the issue is discovered upon. Sometimes it is only the page, depending on the issue.

The rankings could be resolved right away. Your site may have also been given a "time out" form of penalty where it can take 30 days for the rankings to improve. To be sure, I would wait 30 days after the cache has been updated. I suggest marking the date on your calendar as a reminder.

[idv]

Hi Dan

Ran the report and its as I thought

My site has better rankings across the board than 6 of the top 10 results?

• For example on page optimisation analysis is graded A and there is only one other A grade in the top 10
• FB shares - we have none but only 3 of the top 10 have 1 FB share each, while we are the only one with a Google Buzz share.
• We have the 4th best domain authority and mozrank, 3rd best moztrust
• Linking c and root domains we are 5th best and 4th best page authority

We have been building links the past 2 weeks but these dont seem to be showing in the report as on exact anchor text links we have 0 when we should have several.  BTW out of the top 10 8 out of the 10 have 0 for this metric

Does it take time for the links we have built to show in this report?