Homepage dropping back to page 30 and being replaced by a random page?

[hillfields]

Hi All

Please accept my apologies if i have posted this in the wrong place, i am new to this.

I have asked for help over and over again on Google Webmaster Forum but everytime i am faced with sarcastic, unhelpful answers and then moaned at for asking the same question again when i get no answers.

Well, my website is http://www.hillfieldscampingandleisure.co.uk.

The site is nearly 2 years old and is an ecommerce online camping equipment store. It is hosted on the EKMPOWERSHOP Platform.

After a about a year of adding products and designing my site i decided to hire an SEO Company based in the UK, they were a good company with some big clients. Anyways to cut a really long story short....they completely ripped me off by £700 a month for 7 months for my site to keep going backwards, they wouldnt target the keywords i wanted and all they did was provide really spammy, non relevant, no page rank links...my site ended up on number 31 of Google.

I managed to drop the company and try to do things myself.

• I optimized my sites content so it wasn't keyword stuffed
• I re-wrote all my alt tags to look more natural
• I optimized my meta and h1 tags
• I carried on with trying to build relevant, high page rank links

Anyways i managed to get my homepage to page 3/4 of Google.

It stayed there for a few weeks but over the past few weeks my Homepage is dropping back to page 28-30 and being replaced with a random page of my site on page 4-6. It corrects itself after a while and my homepage returns but then it happens all over again....today i have a random page on page 4 and my homepage is on page 29.

Any ideas on what is causing this and how can i get my site up there?

I have had some ideas come back that it is the EKM platform i am using but since the seo company took the p out of me, its the only one i can afford at the moment until i start selling.

I am a small business with stock waiting to be sold but no matter how much i read and rules to follow my site just doesn't seem to move.

Any help would be really really apreciated and be nice!

[RyanKent]

Hi Fiona,

I am sorry to hear about your negative experience with another SEO company. Hiring an SEO company is like hiring any other professional (tax preparer, attorney, car mechanic, etc). The best results are often received by seeking referrals from people you know and trust. Otherwise, it helps to spend a couple days performing solid research rather then trusting a quick presentation or a flashy website.

It's unfortunate your first experience with a SEO company was so negative. I am highly concerned the company actually damaged your SEO. Please look at this screenshot: http://www.vitopian.com/public/images/hillfieldscampingandleisure.co.uk-backlinks.jpg

Your back link profile is very spammy. I am unsure if you built those links or the SEO company did, but either way the Penguin update was designed to address manipulative backlinks. It would take further analysis to diagnose your ranking issue but manipulative links are one possible cause. Here is an article which addresses the topic: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/identifying-link-penalties-in-2012

Generally speaking, sites hosted by other companies such as your ekmPowershop store are a problem for SEO performance. The main issue is the lack of flexibility to make changes necessary to improve SEO performance. There are several other concerns in this area as well. For example, I added an item to the cart and pressed the checkout button. I was asked for personal information such as my address, phone number, etc. but the page is not secure (i.e. it is http protocol instead of https). It may not be legally required for the page to be secure until a credit card number is requested, but I would suggest it is a best practice for it to be. Some users are not comfortable providing information on an insecure page.

You are in a difficult spot. My normal recommendation is to work with a professional developer and create either a WordPress site with the eCommerce plugin, or a Joomla site with the VirtueMart shopping cart. There are other solutions available but those are two options I am familiar with and can recommend. The cost of properly developing such a site would start around $2500 UK pounds ($4000 US). The price for each developer can vary greatly but I have had multiple clients build sites recently for that amount.

There would be additional costs for you to acquire trust badges such as Verisign SSL (less then 300 pounds), TRUSTe privacy, etc. Also, you would want something along the lines of VPS hosting. In the UK it would be around $50 pounds per month. Lastly, these costs do not include SEO consulting which would be highly desirable.

If you have no money available, then you can start by reading the Beginner's Guide to SEO which is an excellent document. Ask your last SEO company to remove those links if they built them. A few quick specific suggestions:

1. Improve your image names. An example image from your home page: http://www.hillfieldscampingandleisure.co.uk/ekmps/shops/fiona1125/images/outwell-fuego-deluxe-rechargable-lantern-583-p[ekm]150x150[ekm].jpg. A much better name would be http://www.hillfieldscampingandleisure.co.uk/images/outwell-fuego-lantern.jpg.

2. Secure any pages requesting private information from users

3. Drop the /index.asp from your home page. It would be best to drop the ".asp" from all pages.

4. Add social engagement next to all products. Offer users the chance to +1, Like and Tweet about your products.

5. Add social logins to your site so users can enjoy 1-click registration without the need to remember another username and password.

6. Promote your site with specials. For example "Like our facebook page to receive a 10% off coupon".

There are a lot more steps you can take but these are some basics to get you started.

Best of luck.

[Anthony_NorthSEO]

Exceptional answer from Ryan, as always. Just wanted to add that freshness of content is an important factor that now has an increased effect on how your site ranks in Google. This could partially explain why your site maintained it's position for several weeks after you made the updates you mentioned, and then recently dropped.

Hope this helps.

-Anthony

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Fiona,

I'm following up on older questions. Did these two answers help you, or are you looking for some more feedback still?