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    4. Why aren't our articles ranking in Google?

    Why aren't our articles ranking in Google?

    On-Page / Site Optimization
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    • Heydarian
      Heydarian last edited by

      We have a website promoting Pakistani lawyers online. The website also has an articles section where we post articles reviewing different legal cases and laws. All of our articles are written by actual lawyers are high quality and unique.

      Website itself doesn't have large page/site authority but its not a baby website either. I can't figure out why our articles don't rank on Google.

      Here are few of the articles:
      http://www.pakistanilawyers.com/articles/pakistan-child-custody-laws-explained-479/
      http://www.pakistanilawyers.com/articles/pakistan-divorce-law-476/
      http://www.pakistanilawyers.com/articles/pakistani-law-insolvency-guide-460/

      I don't know whether its simply because there are not enough links pointing to our website or if there is a problem in the website itself that i can't find.

      Thanks for the help

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • EGOL
        EGOL last edited by

        If I search Google for unique sentences from these articles between quotation marks,  I see that the pages are in the Google index.   Also, the sentences are unique to your website.

        So you are getting indexed and not being filtered because of duplicate content.

        I only see seven linking root domains to your website, some are directories.  So, I don't think that your site has much power.

        ===============

        On my sites, I notice google is quick to index new pages but those pages take a lot longer to develop good rankings.  They often start out very deep in the SERPs and climb slowly to where I would expect them to rank.   These are pages of substantive content (2000 words and six images) with PR6 and PR7 links into them from homepage and category pages.   I published an article in November, 2012 and it originally ranked at about position 150, then slowly moved up a few positions per week and finally entered the top 10 this week.  This is for a keyword with a difficulty of only 45%.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • MarieHaynes
          MarieHaynes last edited by

          There's a good chance that your site has been affected by Panda.

          As EGOL mentioned, if you search for text from these pages enclosed in quotes, your site is displayed.  BUT...take the quotes away and you're almost nowhere to be seen.

          I don't think the Panda filter was brought on by the articles though.  It's probably the fact that a large portion of your site consists of thin content.  You have page after page that consists of, "We currently have no Urdu speaking lawyers listed in (State/Country). Fill out the form below and we will do our best to connect you with one. This service will be free of charge to you."

          So, your site consists of a few articles plus a pile of thin content.  If Google sees that the majority of the site is not worthwhile showing to searchers then they'll flag it with Panda and the whole site can be affected.

          There's a good chance that if you noindex the directory pages with no content that your article pages will eventually start to rank.

          EGOL Heydarian 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • EGOL
            EGOL @MarieHaynes last edited by

            Marie is right.

            I only looked at the article pages.

            I am willing to bet big money that you have a Panda problem.

            The thin content pages should be noindexed or removed until you have content for them.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • Heydarian
              Heydarian @MarieHaynes last edited by

              Thanks. After I noindex the pages with no content, do I need to submit a panda review ticket to Google?

              MarieHaynes 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • MarieHaynes
                MarieHaynes @Heydarian last edited by

                No. You just need to wait for Panda to refresh. However Google recently said that they are now rolling Panda out with the regular algorithm so you won't know when the refresh will happen.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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