Welcome to the Q&A Forum

ABSOLUTELY great Egol advice here.....especially on the 'variance' you'd find by filtering thru common counsel for the 'style' that you like for you and yours....

Read...learn...test...then rank...and repeat!

I've been followin the "Negative SEO" world for years - http://www.canuckseo.com/index.php?s=%22negative+seo%22 - will lead to our own blog posts on same...

Suffice it to say - please tho do read some other experts and how they say to fight off same - the best tool you have is the Google disavow one - oh, don't forget that BING has one too, eh!

Hang in. Stay on top by using a great very functional IBL tool too like majestic too...and keep on the disavow trail...is the best thing I can offer today....

As others have said, yeah..most likely NOT the plugin...but with that timing you may need to check on the Penguin update in Dec....

That said a gentle reminder -- that ALL SEO plugins are tools one uses to make changes to the site pages and NOT strategy items that need development first....ie they do what they're told...YOU need to know what to do on your own!

ie you can surely change a title tag - but from what to what at how long and keywords in what order etc etc - no WP plugin can help with that, eh!

Yes...relation to the centroid of the search area is very important still (see the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factor Survey here at moz from David Mihm) as we well know...

And yes, we've had clients with the same issue too. One way that we handled that issue was to open up a "sub-office" for the client via a hot-desk at an Incubator site located across the street from city hall - ie AT the centroid! Took awhile for the updates to resolve...but the move up the Local search results happened...and they (and us too of course) were happy with the results.

Oh - they actually 'do' use the hot-desk - it's staffed by a marketing dept person every day and they 'award' the seat to a diff person each week as a sort of 'bonus'....ie the telecommuting opportunity as a reward. Works, it does!

Your brain comes to mind....plus the months of research and testing that any due diligence would entail....

There is no shortcut to success....'cept damn hard work, eh!

Hello EdBen...

That date seems a bit "after" the July 24th Google Pigeon update...about a month or so...but can I ask, was this rankings drop at google.com or google.co.uk?

Up here in google.ca land (Canada that is) we tend to get the changes to the major google.com algo about a few weeks after...so while Pigeon did change many things (like local listing packs, local directories, carousel items etc.) it took those weeks to be "seen" up here...

Could then, Pigeon be the culprit for your drop? Have you been able to drill-down to see if your own site has been re-ranked based on IBLs (incoming back links with authority) or new local directory reviews from say Yelp etc?

drill down here on moz for Cyrus's blog post on same here - http://moz.com/blog/traffic-case-study

well worth the read!

Yeah...what I see above could ONLY be looked at as link manipulations...

Don't know how else to phrase what I mean - but it appears that you're trying to gain traffic by using all the WRONG tactics....when I see clients that use content markers as " > 2000 chars"  & "fiverr" & "boilerplate"  -- they're all telltales of trying to get real live stable rankings using 2004 tactics....sigh....

YMMV...but in my world those items you've listed show a basic fault in your whole SEO strategy, eh!

Yup....Marie knows her Penguin stuff for sure...would highly recommend this Canuck!

Well....there are so so many things that can contribute to a fall in rankings...that I can't mention them all here...

But a drop - if I read you right - from #6 to #10 is not a drop really at all...just normal fluctuations...i.e. this is how the rankings flutter...

Have you checked tho to see if you're looking at the rankings using Personalized Search? Incognito? WebHistory on/off?

Do some googling for those topics....read...and learn!

Not trying to be dismissive here - just that there really is no 'answer' that you'd be satisfied with....honestly!

No worries, as G ignores the case sensitive issue....my own firm is KKT INTERACTIVE Inc. and it's been fine in G for like 20 years....

Can't speak on Yahoo/BING tho....anyone else know?

clicked on that competitor URL and it's plain jane junk...

if you create a real site with great content you should go by this EMD site in time...

and DO NOT copy this p**spoor example of serp manipulations either!!!

As Donna pointed out, the 'delay' tween what you expect time-line wise and what Google can 'do' is often longer than anyone would wish........

course...maybe the real question is - why would you want to detune to free??

As Bryan said...it's a seperate item that is priced seperately...but WELL worth the cost.

And don't forget to go to the LOCAL Rankings Survey too, where the top (disclaimer, I'm one of them!) experts across NA have contributed to David Mihm's annual survey to see what we think the most important factors to consider will be of use to any SMB owner!

Here's our last years survey - http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors

And the 2014 has been completed I believe and David is working on the finalizations before publishing it here! And yes, there are some big (far as I know) changes too!

Agreed here on Monica's answer directly above....this is what should be done, eh!

As Egol has said....it's all true...and as he never takes any consulting....he's unavailable

But DO look up Alan on google - and you'll find he's one of the best known, most revered, most reputable audit guys out there...in fact I couldn't even name a peer of his....he's def the one to contact.

Simple...pick #1 - if the RD is not working they said - then you test it. Mount the site on various devices, play with the window size....

Does it change/adapt to the viewport?

If so - and yes I just tried it on everything from my BlackBerry Passport to my 27" desktop monitor - then the oDesk idiot who claimed otherwise is NOT a place to spend any SEO dollars....

...sigh....

YES...you do need to include the full NAP!

Check here at moz.com for the local search ranking factors survey - we're still working on this years, but last years shows too the vast importance of the full NAP on every page....

EdBen....yeah I know...you're prob as irritated with this as I was to learn that even Canada ain't covered....yet!