Pages not ranking - Linkbuilding Question

[Impact-201555]

It has been about 3 months since we made some new pages, with new, unique copy, but alot of pages (even though they have been indexed) are not ranking in the SERPS I tested it by taking a long snippet of the unique copy form the page and searching for it on Google. Also I checked the ranking using http://arizonawebdevelopment.com/google-page-rank
Which may no be accurate, I know, but would give some indication. The interesting thing was that for the unique copy snippets, sometimes a different page of our site, many times the home page, shows up in the SERP'sSo my questions are:

1. Is there some issue / penalty / sandbox deal with the pages that are not indexed? How can we check that?
2. Or has it just not been enough time?
3. Could there be any duplicate copy issue going on? Shouldn't be, as they are all well written, completely unique copy. How can we check that?
4. Flickr image details - Some of the pages display the same set of images from flickr. The details (filenames, alt info, titles) are getting pulled form flickr and can be seen on the source code. Its a pretty large block of words, which is the same on multiple pages, and uses alot of keywords. Could this be an issue considered duplication or keyword stuffing, causing this. If you think so , we will remove it right away. And then when do we do to improve re-indexing?

The reason I started this was because we have a few good opportunities right now for links, and I was wondering what pages we should link to and try to build rankings for. I was thinking about pointing one to /cast-bronze-plaques, but the page is not ranking. The home page, obviously is the oldest page, and ranked the best. The cast bronze plaques page is very new.

1. Would linking to pages that are not ranking well be a good idea?
2. Would it help them to get indexed / ranking?
3. Or would it be better to link to the pages that are already indexed / ranking?
4. If you link to a page that does not seem to be indexed, will it help the domains link profile? Will the link juice still flow through the site

[DanDeceuster]

That is a whole lot of questions so let me do my best to sum it up for you.

Your new pages are not ranking because new pages don't just rank. The quality of your content helps Google know what phrases to rank your pages for. The links to that page determine its relevance and authority, or how high it will rank for those phrases.

Putting up new content just because does not guarantee any rankings. Are there internal links to these pages? Are they in your sitemap? Do they have any external inbound links coming to them?

Make sure you have internal links to these pages as well as external links to them. Make sure the content is more than just original and well written- it has to be optimized. Make sure your title tags are all unique and keyword rich. These types of basic SEO practices should be followed first and foremost. Then if nothing is ranking like you think it should after 3 months, you can look at other things.

I would imagine that if they have been indexed but aren't ranking that they just need some optimizing and some link juice. That tends to get pages ranked pretty well.

[NextDigital51]

I guess it really comes down to what key phrase you are trying to rank, adding new pages with unique copy doesn't mean they will rank automatically, apart from onsite factors, you need to look into external factors as well, this includes building links to the new pages or taking advantage of social signals (if this applies to your industry).

To see whether there is any duplicate copy issue, I recommend using this http://www.copyscape.com, you can check whether there are any duplicate copy floating around on the net.

In regards to the flickr images, it really depends on the alt tag, how they describe the images, I don't think there is a problem using the same images on different pages with the same alt tags but if alt tags are all keywords, that might be a problem.

In regards to link building, my recommendation is to link to the page that would benefit users the most because apart from getting traffic in, I look into getting them to the most useful page to get them to convert, and I believe Google likes this more than just ranking the homepage. So if you find the "not-ranking" page beneficial to users, I would link to it and it will help get them indexed/ranking. One other thing you need to look into is the quality of the link, make sure it's relevant to your industry, because if they are just random links, Google might not pass value at all.

Hope this helps

[Getz.pro]

Wow, I think you used up all your Q&A points on this post alone : )

1. No

2. Could be, but probably not

3. doubt it.

4. No

1a) Yes, very much so. Link to it, blog it, tweet it, and post on Facebook and other social sites

2a) Yes

4. Yes

• Make sure the page is listed in the site XML and the new XML is uploaded to Google Webmaster.
• Be sure to link to this page from strong pages on your site, or blog.
• Get outside pages linking to this page.
• Blog it, tweet it, Facebook it, etc.

I hope that helps.

[Impact-201555]

Richard

Thanks for your reply. It all makes sense. Was wondering if you coudl give me some detial about #4 (Flickr code showing) as I wwant to be sure I was clear, and what we are doing is not harming us.

1. So even though the images are used on multiple pages, and the code is pulling the alt tags, captions, and titles (this has actually helped us rank for some longer tail kw, and have alot of images show up in image search which is good for us) and there are alot of KW in the code block, it would not penalize us in any way?
2. I know there is not reallu a duplicate content penalty per se, and more of a filter, so for each query G can choose which of our "duplicated" page is most relevant. Would this be the same here?
3. We have very well written, persuasize, and KW balanced on page copy, but if you look at the source code, the % of words taken up by the flick images infor is so large compared to our sales copy. Woudl this be drowning out the kw in the sales copy?
4. Could I post a coupel URLS?

Thanks

Shabbir

[Getz.pro]

Yes, please post a link.

I am going with that as long as there is other content on the page and not simply a redundant pulling of Flickr code, you will fine.

If you are pulling the Flickr code and on that page is just a recompilation of images in a different order, then yes, I would say a duplicate content issue will arise.

I think that answered you question?

[Impact-201555]

Thanks Richard

www.impactsigns.com/cast-bronze-plaques

compared to

www.impactsigns.com/memorial-plaques

and also www.impactsigns.com/dedication-plaques

[Impact-201555]

Hi Richard

Wanted to see if you could see the links, and if you feel the flickr code on those pages is a good idea or not?

Thanks

[Getz.pro]

Page looks great by the way!

Yes, there is lots of duplicate content here. However, with the other page copy, I would think you would not get penalized.

I must admit, this should go up to someone at SEOmoz to confirm.

[Impact-201555]

Thanks Richard - How do I get it to go upto someone at SEOMoz to confirm?

[Getz.pro]

You are a pro member, so you get two questions per month. Make sure you provide a link to this thread for reference.

[Impact-201555]

Do I need to re-ask the question, or repost it? Is having SEO MOZ review it like an escalation of the question?

Thanks

[katemorris]

These two pages are similar but definitely not duplicates. I wouldn't worry about that being the issue. The first two answers in this thread have it right, you need to build links internally and externally to these new pages to help them out. You are indexed just fine, just need some link love.

Kate