Determining Penalization

[felt]

Hello,

I have a site that initially ranked in the first 30 google results for targeted keywords. However, after I contracted out further SEO work to a consultant, my site is nowhere to be found for any keywords. I'm afraid that they have done something to get me penalized, but I'm not sure how I would tell if 1) I have in fact been penalized and 2) what the issue(s) are so I can fix them. Thanks in advance and any help would be appreciated.

-Alex

[jesse-landry]

In order to truly get potential answers to these questions we would need the domain in question. Without it all we could offer is guesses.

As for how to determine penalty, if it is a manual penalty you will see notice in Google Webmaster Tools. Login to your account and find the manual action section as well as the notifications section. However, if it is an algorithmic penalty you will likely not see anything here.

There's a good chance whoever you "contracted" did black-hat SEO tactics and built poison links. This would be the most likely scenario. I could tell you for sure if you gave me the domain... But that'd be my guess from the limited information offered here. I'd definitely fire them ASAP either way if you haven't already.

[jesse-landry]

Okay let's back up a second.

1.) How long did you employ the consultant?

2.) What work did they say they were doing or were going to do? Explain how these services went.

3.) Who designed this website? It needs help. It's so incredibly drab and so strangely arranged. I would be looking at a complete redesign.

4.) You have a total of zero linking root domains with zero links pointing to you. You will never ever rank this way.

5.) Why is your content hidden? By looking at your sitemap I'm able to determine that somewhere you have more than one page and maybe even some articles. But there is absolutely ZERO navigation on your homepage... Why are you hiding this? How would you react if you landed on this page? It looked like it was under construction and nothing more than a form template at first and if I were browsing I would have left immediately.

What's your bounce rate like?

Sorry if this is harsh, but these are a few quick easy things that any SEO worth-a-darn should be able to tell you in mere seconds. Find a new marketing firm who knows what they're doing. It'll change your life.

[jesse-landry]

I recommend a company like Portent who has a team of web developers and designers on staff... cause that's definitely an aspect you could use.

[felt]

1. They worked on the site for about 6 or 7 months

2. Organic link-building. But I'm not sure if it was organic or not. You said you could tell by the domain, do you see the links as "poison"?

3. I'm less concerned with the poor design right now and more concerned with the 0 traffic that's coming to it. I could have the greatest design, but if no one can find it...

4. I see that I have a few links to the Webmaster Tools "links to your site" section, not zero.

5. Yes, I agree the content could be linked better.

[jesse-landry]

I see very few links at all. http://gyazo.com/21b501732b681d58943fe23f92297dbd.png

See that? Zero links on OSE.

ahrefs.com says you have 7 linking root domains. That's nothing. Nothing at all. GWT's link report is the most untrustworthy of all of them, don't pay much heed to what it tells you.

"I'm less concerned with the poor design right now and more concerned with the 0 traffic that's coming to it."

STOP RIGHT THERE!

This mindset needs to change if you want to have any success in your internet marketing campaign. Your website's poor design is the first and foremost reason you are not ranking well and you will most likely never rank well with a poor design. And even if you somehow were able to rank well it wouldn't matter when your bounce rate hovers right around 99% as nobody wants to spend any time on a page with terrible design and nothing going on.

Google's ranking factors have everything to do with your design. And your ability to gain links and retain visitors does as well.

If your site is interesting and unique you will find it much easier to gain links organically. If your site looks like poo you will find it incredibly hard.

If your site has a long average visit duration and low bounce rate Google will notice and determine that people are finding it useful. If people are visiting multiple pages during their time on site you will see this as well. What do your analytics say for these factors? I'd bet they're not good.

Any digital marketer will tell you that your site's design is everything. It's like saying "it doesn't matter what my restaurant looks like, if we don't have a sign on the street nobody will come." That may be true. But when people come in and your restaurant is filthy and you're using lawn furniture purchased from big lots you will quickly find that the place is empty.. YOUR WEBSITE IS YOUR STORE FRONT! Invest in this.

Bottom line is you need a marketing campaign launched for this site. And you need a better site. That's the honest truth and I can't tell you anything different. Nor can anybody else. There's nothing happening with your site preventing it from being ranked. But there's also nothing happening with it causing it to be considered authoritative (which would lead Google to ranking it).

That's the best advice I think I can give you and I wish you the best of luck.