What did I do wrong? What did they do right?

[FailuretoPlan]

I have only been here a little over a week so bare with me if I am out of protocol by asking this here if there is a more appropriate place for me to have done so.

Anyhow, i own the domain www.lowloans.com and just a few months ago, this domain was ranked 1 on Google for the search term "low loans" and "lowloans"  Now, that domain is nowhere to be found.

I don't even know where to go to begin to work on this.  With respect to the search lowloans, the sites that get top spot don't have a lot of info that I have been able to find that would help me better my position.  I must be doing something wrong in my campaign as all of top 3 sites on google, don't rank within my campaign "rankings" report.  Ugh.  Where to start?

Is there some section within SEOmoz that would give me the info I need to reclaim the top spot for my desired search terms?

I am still making my way through this site so if I am asking something obvious to you vets, please be patient with me.

[Craigseo]

Around september or october 2012 google s EMD update was rolled out, this was where having an EMD ( exact match domain ) doesnt automatically get you top positions for the domain name. A bit more effort and some SEO will be required for your to rank.

This has happened to many websites now, including some i have, so the only thing for it is to do some SEO on it to get it ranking !

[ColinWhite]

Yeah now you have to roll up your sleeves and start from the beginning. I would do a comprehensive audit of the current site and a fair amount of competitive research as well. Unfortunately from there the strategy can be many things based a number of different criteria.

Just from an eyeball test the site seems incredibly outdated and does not follow remotely any best practices as they currently stand. There is nothing unique or valuable content wise to speak of and you basically have a bunch of keywords stuffed on the home page which is not going to get you anywhere. You have a domain authority of 9 which means the site is not considered trustworthy along with only 2 inbound links.

I don't want to be a downer here but there is a ton of work to do but f you are serious about the site then it's gonna take a good amount of focus from you and or your team to bring up to current standards.

[FailuretoPlan]

Thanks for your candor.  I am not shying away from the work, I really just don't know where to start.  I am new to SEO and new to SEOmoz so just want to get pointed in the right direction.  Are there tools, a section of the website or something I need to do to understand where to go first?

Thanls, Mike.

[FailuretoPlan]

Thanks.  That explains why it got lost.  I wasn't aware of this change.

[ColinWhite]

So first what is the budget you have for the work. I only ask because that would tell me what type of process you should start. But first and foremost plan. The site needs a redesign for starters, you can go to places like ThemeForest.net and get a nice new template either standalone or for any CMS you may be using for great prices. I would suggest WordPress as Google loves them and you will have your site up and running in no time as well it's an easy machine to manage content. If you use WP make sure you download "SEO by Yoast" and "Better WP Security" plugins as well as a good captcha plugin

Then once site is looking refreshed here are steps you could start taking

1. Read and reread SEO for beginners here at SEOMOZ
2. Decide on paper who you are and who your target audience is
3. Decide on paper who your competitors are and their URL's
4. Create a Google Drive account and learn to love as it is great for a bunch of strategies moving forward.
5. Create a Trello account and start managing you daily tasks
6. start doing research on you competitors using free tools like opensiteexplorer.org which will give you a good snapshot of where you comp set stands
7. If you are a pro member here there are a bunch of great tools at your disposal but you will have to get familiar with the execution.
8. Start finding the community, go to Followerwonk and start looking for people on twitter who are influencers and talking about your niche. Follow them and start interacting with good information that is valuable and ultimately share-able. Do not buy Twitter followers. let them grow organically and if you posts are relevant and add value your followers will grow.
9. Make a copy of this Google Doc sheet to get quick information on who's talking about your niche on the web as well as to start getting good content ideas
10. Start planning your next few Blog posts and start posting to your own blog
11. Setup a Google Plus page and start joining communities and interacting
12. Make sure that everywhere you setup accounts online they have your correct contact info and site descriptions
13. Make sure each page of your site has Unique Title Tags and meta description here are some best practices to follow for both and more best practices as well
14. Never ever use Meta Keywords on your site
15. Make sure images all have ALT tags that represent what is on the page
16. Use only one keyword per page with up to 2 variations. Keywords are Like Quarterbacks if you have 2 you have none.

Well i'm winded so there are some items to start. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions

[VillasDiani]

That was great advice Mike! I don't want to be daring but would have a look on my site:-) wwww.villasdiani.com I am absolutely lost as we do not rank on Diani Beach keyword at all. My husband says that I had to do something wrong, but I can't find what is the problem. We try to rank like wwww.almanararesort.com but it seems to be worse:-( What did I do? Can somebody help?

[ColinWhite]

Sorry for delay , I would be happy to look and give some guidance. I will take a peek today and let you know what I think