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Well my initial test done on a secondary keyword linking 3 different pages describing three different facets of the service was working great until today.

Today my page is no longer listed at all in the SERPs for the targeted keyword. Yesterday it was number 2.

I'm hoping this is just one of Google's little fluctuations but have a feeling it's bigger than that... Can't for the life of me figure where I went wrong. Each page is about something different, titles are different, content is different, all pertaining to the same service sure but still. Basically it's like this:

1.) main service offering page

2.) blog article on statistics of popularity gaining for this service recently (linked to from high authority sites/socials as well)

3.) blog article on the newest version of the service's release which happened last week.

All 3 interconnected of course. Any ideas?

Have you looked into OpenCart? I don't have a ton of experience with e-com sites but I've heard good things about this from developer standpoints. It's claim to fame is being open source, anyway...

I would lean towards Magento for similar reasons to what Dennis said already. Also I just have had poor Wordpress experiences and feel like Google is out to get 'em. That last part is all in my head and completely made up but that's enough to sway me towards Magento.

maybe (maybe) sharing the URL will help..? hard to say, really, what the problem is.

I agree with Dennis. Sounds like it's time to bite the bullet and re-build. Take it as a lesson and move on.

In the meantime, have you considered driving in traffic through a PPC campaign? Might stop the bleeding..

I agree 100% with echo here. Google disavow makes me nervous as heck. I've yet to use it even though I've seriously considered it a few times...

If your impressions and traffic hasn't taken a hit and you have no warnings, I'd stick with it.

Either way, build content and gain links that are relevant. That's the only sure-fire way of keeping up with your SERPs.

It's an early result but I've tried doing this with my main targeted keyword and so far it pushed the offender down and me up.. Not sure if it was that which made the difference or all of my efforts combined but so far so good I'll keep you posted on my experiments..

Addendum - When I search for the name of your business, the Map it gives me is for the Irvine location and is correct. You should not be concerned about this.

Couple things here-

First off, why are you worried about SERPs from people Googling your physical address? If they are looking up a map of your shop, they are already sold on coming in to your shop. People don't just Google random addresses..

Secondly, their SERPs will be different than yours based on their set location, just as you said. If they are in Irvine, the results will display for Irvine. If they aren't, they will type in Irvine. That's how people use Maps...

I think this is a non-issue.

Not that I know of.. The company I work for deals with clients in Canada and the U.S. and I find that our Canadian leads all come through the same Google SERPs that the US ones do. Of course the terms they are searching for are a bit different and I have to optimize with that in mind but otherwise it's all the same to me.

I'll be interested to see anyone else offer any other Canadian SEO tips though as I can feel myself often neglecting the potential from our cousins up North.

I sincerely doubt it. Especially in regards to file names. Think of how many "about.html" and "index.html" pages exist... So what if the filename is the same? And meta content? I don't think Google factors that into their ranking.

Assuming this is even something they're ranking.. I'm pretty confident that none of this matters.

Yes I have seen a lot of this too. I'm in competition with a bunch of companies using blackhat link building techniques and they are outranking me (sometimes) using these. Literally they are just doing article/link submission blasts with keyword targeted anchor text and it's working. Part of me thinks perhaps it's because EVERY site fighting for that phrase is using blackhat techniques and part of me thinks Penguin just isn't working well.

Either way I'm frustrated and each Monday I come in thinking.. "maybe today I'll start some blackhat link building."

The clock is ticking!

Okay Egol you big magic wizard you - I've implemented a few changes and added some media in a method pretty much exactly as you described. So we'll be testing it out (for a different keyword but still highly targeted) and seeing what we can do to grab multiple listings on a SERP.

Just wait til my sales team finds out they're now selling brass widgets..

HAHA!

"EEEGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!" (yelled like Kirk at Khan)

ugh. One of their pages has two sentences on it. Two.

I know Cutts addressed this as a potential future update to the Google algo but it's driving me bonkers.. My primary targeted keyword has one of our competitors listed 4 times in a row on the top of page 2. Some of the pages have duplicate page titles and the content is relatively thin. The site has a PR of 2 and a DA of 35. Why on earth are they able to suck up a whole half of a results page?!?!?!

I don't know that there's anything anyone can tell me that will help, but if there's something I missed about this update please let me know.

'snot fair.

Company iPad or tablet device?

robots, crawl codes, redirects, other things. impossible to say without your domain.

While Mike is correct... c'mon. How would they ever know? This is a gray area that no algorithm in the world will ever identify.

In the state of Washington it is against the law for bars to give out free drinks no matter what. I was in a band for 10 years and we played at dozens of bars/venues big and small in the area. Guess what? Each and every one of them gave us free drink tickets. This is a law that is punishable by jail time. Much more serious implications than what Google is threatening you with.

What's my point? I don't know. Bending the rules can work sometimes I s'pose.

If I were writing these letters I would be polite, cordial, concise, and honest. Simple as that. Mention how it will be beneficial for both parties for a reason beyond a free night. Maybe don't offer a free night but a free dinner and breakfast instead.. More of a promo-package exclusively for reviewers if you're worried about Google's Guidelines.

--my thoughts

Can't they just go to a static "No Listings Available" page then?

Think marketing, not SEO. SEO is Marketing. Social media marketing is huge for all business/industries/service providers. These guys summed up the how and the why but I'm just saying... Forget about the link juice. That comes as a result of a kickass marketing campaign.