Site not progressing at all....

[jj3434]

We relaunched our site almost a year ago after our old site dropped out of ranking due to what we think was overused anchor text....

We transferred over the content to the new site, but started fresh in terms of links etc. And did not redirect the old site. Since the launch we have focused on producing good content and social, but the site has made no progress at all. The only factor I can think off is that one site linked to us from all of their pages, which we asked them to remove which they did over 3 months ago, but still showing in Webmaster tools....

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[crackingmedia]

Hi Jason

Are you able to give more information? What do you mean specifically by your "site not progressing at all"?

A lot has changed with Google over the last year. If you started with a new site, then that site needs to build up its authority. When you say you have focussed on producing good content and social that is good. But it's important to check if you have optimised that content correctly, is it customer-focused and targeted at the questions and information your target market are asking and looking for. With social are those you are engaging with sharing it through likes, tweets/retweets, +1s etc? Have you checked your site against competitors? How do they compare?

There's a lot of things to look at and check so with what you have said I can only give you ideas about where the issues may lay, but it's likely to be an issue with one or more of the above.

Peter

[jj3434]

The sites has made no progress in ranking.....

Our social consist of Google plus (97), facebook (2600 likes) and twitter 500 plus followers with which often retweet our posts. The content is user focused, and try to answer questions with in depth articles. Our site www.help-my-mobility.org if that helps.

[crackingmedia]

Hi Jason

Well I have run a few checks and I must admit I cannot explain why your site is not ranking in the top 50 SERPs for some of the key phrases you are targeting. Some of the content is a bit thin in places but, I have checked quite a few pages I would have thought you should be in the top 50 for as a minimum and you are not.

So, like you I am scratching my head a little. I presume you have a Google Webmaster Tools account for this site. Is there anything reported in there that would indicate an issue?

Peter

[jesse-landry]

Couple pointers to increase your onsite SEO:

Alt tags - I see very few alt and title tags on your images and when I do see them they don't seem to be attacking specific keywords. Do so but not in a forced manner, keep it organic and relevant. For example your home page is title "Mobility Aids" yet that keyword only exists 5 times on the page and zero times in images titles or alts.

Also with your images you might want to consider naming the actual file something other than padlock2.png or things like this... That is a personal preference and I can't really back it up with data but I swear it'll help.

Your blog is a bit funky. The titles of the most recent articles are simply chapter numbers and tell me nothing about the content. It makes me not want to read them at all. You need to try and attract users with your content, not deter them.

Another article I randomly clicked was something about an Interview you did. This was the entirety of the article:

"Just got back from interviewing a mobility scooter user for tips and advice... Is there a better way to get advice than from someone who owns and uses a scooter. Probably not. Finished video coming soon."

That's it. It was posted in August. See right away as a user I feel like you aren't trying and don't want to return. I bet your bounce rate is rather high and length of visit rather low. These factors matter for sure. Engagement is arguably the most important thing when it comes to your design.

Speaking of design, it is kind of all over the place. I didn't really understand the layout and had trouble navigating. I looked for the blog which was found via a weird button at the very bottom of a very long wordy home page with weird formatting. At the top of the home page is a "usefull articles" button which goes to a page with a few titles that are underlined and say "read more" and then more links pop up and it doesn't even look like you can click the "read more" part because it's not actually a link but instead a clickable div and my run-on sentence here is an attempt to illustrate the confusion I experienced. Whew.

So I guess what I'm saying is you should focus more on improving the design, layout, and usability of your site. Please don't misconstrue my comments as demeaning or poking fun at your site. It isn't terrible at all. I just think addressing the issues I've pointed out might actually go a long way to improving your ranking. The social stats are great but if users land on your site and leave immediately due to poor UX then it's all for not.

Hope this helps. Don't give up!

[jj3434]

Thanks Jesse, we are in-fact just undertaking a new design, as like you we felt it was a little difficult to understand all the info. We'll address the alt tag issues as part of the redesign.

Do you think that is what is causing the lack of serps?

[jj3434]

Nope, webmaster is all good.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for writing in. Without going into a full site audit (which could take hours-days) a few areas I might take a closer look at:

• As others have mentioned, the site design does have an outdated feel. Beyond user experience it looks like a site that might be vulnerable to Panda updates. Relentlessly improving user experience will likely lead to an increase in rankings.

• Is the new site a copy of the old? Just wondering if any duplicate content exist out there from the old site. If you, you probably want to make sure to remove all old content from Google's index.

• I'd give the site a full link audit. You can do this by hand using Google Webmaster Tools and Open Site Explorer. Lately, I've been using Link Detox with good results. Disavow any dodgy links you can't remove.

Overall your link profile looks decent for your vertical, nothing too penalty worthy but some of the directory-style links may be suspect (or at least lower in value) in Google's eyes.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.