To many on page links with ABC search

[RyanKent]

Do you have any ideas on the problem with the site ranking for 1 word.

While T Shirts is clearly a focus for the site, it is also an ultra competitive keyword. While the site has a respectable PA of 53 for the home page, there is only one result in the top 20 sites with a PA that low and it belongs to Zappos (PA 47) but that site has a much higher DA (93 vs 43).

The overall quality of the home page is not great. There are no trust symbols and the page seems to be written for search engines more then for people. The page seems stuffed with keywords and links.

The title is focusing multiple keywords which is also a concern.

In my opinion the site's home page should not appear on the 2nd page of SERPs so I can't speak as to why it may have appeared there in the past. There could have been changes made to the site, the page or it's links. I think the site can do well in SERPs but it definitely requires SEO attention.

[onlinemediadirect]

Sorry Ryan but I disagree with your reply. The site is ranking highly for Music T Shirts and was 2nd page for T Shirts for months.

something has happened recently but I hear what your saying regarding the site being stuffed with links.

I am worried the site might have been penalized in some way.

For T shirts this site is no 1 - http://www.streetshirts.co.uk/

your telling me it has lots of great content ??

[RyanKent]

Garry, can I ask you to share which search engine you are using? I used Google.com for my research because it was a .com site and nothing was otherwise stated. The result you are sharing is from the UK so I am now guessing you are using google.co.uk.

[onlinemediadirect]

Yeah Ryan Google.co.uk thats right.

[RyanKent]

When I compare the two sites, they are really night and day from a SEO perspective. The streetshirts.co.uk site does have opportunities for improvement, but it is a completely different class as a site then your client's website. A few examples:

• The streetshirts site has a Verisign EV SSL certificate. It's basically the best SSL certificate from the world's most recognized provider. The tshirtsubway.com site not only lacks a SSL certificate, it seems to fraudulently claim to have a Versign certificate. I was not able to find any evidence of the site having the Verisign SSL certificate it claims to possess.

• The streetshirts site accepts Paypal and GoogleCheckout. The tshirtssubway.com advertises acceptance of those payment options, but either the store is not properly configured or these claims are fraudulent.

• The streetshirts site has active social engagement. There are over 100k facebook likes and about 1k Google +1s on the home page. The tshirtsubway.com site does not use any social engagement at all, except a single Google+ widget on the home page in a sidebar below the fold where it is unlikely to be seen and has 0 clicks.

• The streetshirts site PA/DA is 65/58 vs the tshirtsubway 53/43.  While both sites appear to have some manipulative links, the tshirtsubway site appears significantly worse. The majority of the anchor text is either "t shirts" or "music t shirts".

• The streetshirts site uses mostly valid html code (2 errors). The tshirtsubway.com home page has 68 errors.

• Since you mentioned the content specifically, neither site is great, but the streetshirts site is significantly better then the tshirtsubway site.

• The streetshirts site manages it's PR flow much better with a total of 51 links on the home page whereas the tshirtsubway site has about triple that amount.

If I were to use an analogy, I would say it's like comparing a McDonald's hamburger (tshirtsubway) to a Whopper w/Cheese. The Whopper isn't a fantastic burger, but next to a regular McDonald's hamburger it's clearly the better choice. They are simply not in the same class.

The last point is you mentioned the traffic drop. There are simply far too many issues with the site to discuss the ranking drop. The home page should never have appeared in the top 20 results in my opinion so it's hard for me to discuss the "drop" from that perspective. My first guess would be the site never really appeared that high but was shown there due to personalization.

Good luck.

[onlinemediadirect]

It certainly wasn't due to personalization sorry mate but been in the business 10 plus years .

I hear what your saying but investment from the client etc have to be considered

It is still ranking well for music T shirts in the top 5 if its that bad then why ?

[RyanKent]

Hi Garry,

I mentioned personalization because I was unsure if the ranking information was generated by you or from the client. I didn't mean to offend you.

It is still ranking well for music T shirts in the top 5 if its that bad then why ?

Using AdWords keyword data for the UK:

T Shirts 16,600,000 global monthly searches

Music T Shirts 201,000 global monthly searches

Music T Shirts UK 1,300 global monthly searches

"T shirts" has 80x more traffic then "Music T Shirts" and clearly is a much more competitive term. For "T shirts" you are competing against Wikipedia and many major retailers which simply do not compete at all for "Music T Shirts". Additionally, the site's "Music T Shirt" page is better optimized. Google helped out by changing the page title to "Music T Shirt" which is a perfect match.

The site has numerous issues and the page titles and H1 tags I would suggest are in serious need of attention. They not only target multiple terms, but they cannibalize the same terms.The page which ranks for "Music T Shirts" has a title of "Music T-shirt, T-shirts and Tee Shirts at T Shirt Subway" while the home page has a title of "T Shirts | Music T Shirts | Buy Online at T Shirt Subway".

[onlinemediadirect]

had a lot of problems in this project with a guy that runs the site who thinks he knows SEO. As a result its all over the place with ridiculous titles .

Thanks for all that its what I already know but nice to hear it echoed by another seo.

One question I had to EGOL is he always mentions good content being king and so on...

Does he have any examples of his own work. (dont just point out wikipedia :-))

[RyanKent]

I can't speak for EGOL. Perhaps you can ask him directly. The challenge I find is a large percentage of people keep everything confidential.

Most of my work in the past has been either for other SEO companies or for private companies involved with a penalty or other specific work where I am immediately presented with a NDA. Unfortunately those circumstances prevent me from sharing my work. I have the impression EGOL is in a similar circumstance in that he isn't freely able to share.

What I can suggest regarding content is after it is created, every article should ideally be reviewed by 4 people:

• An English teacher (or whichever language is appropriate) to check for grammatical and spelling errors along with overall presentation and reading level.

• A marketing professional to ensure the message is clear and will connect with users

• An expert from the field which the article covers. A doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc. Check for accuracy, qualified quotes, etc.

• A SEO to check for all other relevant factors such as URL, header tags, title, linking, etc.

Usually there are not 4 separate people involved to perform those functions in which case I recommend at least two people: the SEO and an expert. The SEO can use tools for English checking, and then can focus the other factors.

You can also ask others to review the final article. When I refer to "others" I mean people who would otherwise read the article. It is helpful to have a small group of people (bloggers, etc) who read advanced copies. They can offer valuable feedback and also help promote the article. At worst, grab anyone you can...a receptionist, a student, etc....to review the article and share honest feedback.

Some of the SEOmoz articles from Dr. Pete, Cyrus, Rand and others are good examples.

[onlinemediadirect]

"Since you mentioned the content specifically, neither site is great, but the streetshirts site is significantly better then the tshirtsubway site."

How on earth have you come to this conclusion the streetshirts site has no content on shop pages ?

[RyanKent]

Hi Garry,

I did not perform a full site analysis. You inquired about the rankings for the keyword "T shirts" so I only compared the pages which ranked for that term.