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Nothing is coming up Jeff. Try this: https://plus.google.com/u/0/103919683606070410359/

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Hi Jeff,

Firstly, you need to figure out if your link profile is actually causing problems. There have been numerous algorithm updates in the last 18 months which could be causing your ranking struggles... It might not actually be your links. I can take a look at your site to see if I can give some advice.

I can actually save you LOTS of time and money in hiring a freelancer to trawl through your links. I have a spare Link DTox credit from Link Research Tools. It can give a list of any bad links. This could be useful even if your links aren't effecting your rankings. Pop me a private message on here or add me to socials and we can discuss. Of course, you can have this credit for free, I wont and don't charge for my advice or help on SEOMoz Q&A.

Matt

There are literally hundreds of alternatives. All do require effort though, nothing in SEO should be easy.

Add me on Skype and I'd be happy to guide you through a few ideas

"However, you CAN do white hat tiered link building."

Oh absolutely. This can actually be a nice tactic to use and can also be pretty safe if done in a natural way. That's an important note Brian.

However, software cannot do this and more often than not - certainly if you are a novice - it can be hard to implement. Generally, people just assume a tiered link building tactic is spammy.

"The way it is being explained is that the websites pointing at your website are 'clean' websites that have gained rank by the other websites pointing to the second tier and then all the spammy and automated links pointing to the second tier."

Ah, see, there is an issue with this. Google's algorithm is very complicated and clever. If you imagine a link passing PR from tier 1 to tier 2 and then to your site then you can also easily imagine a link passing bad trust metrics from tier 1 to their 2 and then to your site.

Link juice is not the only thing that passes through a link. Just because there is a site in-between doesn't mean you are safe.

These are methods that used to work pre 2010 which are considered (rightfully so) as spammy. Look at it from Google's point of view; their algorithm is built to serve the searchers. If you are doing things to try to manipulate their algorithm then the searchers might not get the best results. It is their job to try and ensure that spammy sites don't rank as well as sites that belong high in the rankings on merit... Whether this happens in reality is a separate topic. As you are already seeing, competitors do rank well whilst using poor methods of link building. I'd argue that they won't rank for too long and will be caught out at some point but there are other who cant beat them so they join them.

I can see reviews on his site for things like SENuke and many automated link building programs. He might know his stuff, without me looking into it further I couldn't tell you. However, any real SEO who is tried and tested will tell you to steer clear of methods that are automated. His site seems pretty honest though and it looks like he talks about varying methods of digital marketing.

Generally, if something is too good to be true then it usually is. Link building software is something I wouldn't touch personally.

There are a few methods of tiered link building. I'm not sure which one you are talking about in your question. Could you elaborate on the method?

If you are thinking about the generally accepted concept of tiered link building it would go something like this:

Tier 1: 10,000 links pointing to 10 websites

Tier 2: 10 websites pointing to 6 websites

Tier 3: 6 websites pointing to your main website

You can replace the amount of websites above with any you like but I entered 10 and 6 as just random numbers.

Can you confirm that this is your intention? If it is, don't do it. PLEASE! This is considered as evil spam by G.

You can install Wordpress on the same domain on a page like mydomain.com/news

Blogs can be a great source for gaining visitors and also keeping your website's content fresh.

Also, with regards to blogging on other sites or your own site, I wouldn't assume you should limit yourself to one or the other - do both As long as you blog on other sites and build natural looking links then this should help your site rank better and in a safe way.

Don't underestimate the role that a blog can play in building links to your site. If the content is good, you might find some natural links firing your way but even if this doesn't happen you can build links to your blog posts manually which would then send "juice" through the rest of your pages

Matt

Hmmm, I understand. It can be frustrating.

The problem is that even if you are trying (and trying hard) to sort the issue out, if they still see bad links they wont lift any manual penalty.

I'm not saying that it is worthwhile in your case but sometimes it can make sense to throw away a domain and start again. Does it take many sales?

Just remember that if you start again with a new domain, do it properly and don't outsource to people who can't be trusted

As long as you continue to build links the correct way then you should do fine. Just ensure they are very natural links on relevant sites and aren't based on anchor text links

If you need advice on how to build decent safe links just fire me a mail or something, I'd be happy to advise.

Did you invest much into the new design? If so, it might be too late to consider moving platforms. Service levels like that belong in the 1900's!!!

I'd recommend giving Madwire Media a shout if they developed it for you. They MIGHT be able to help. Feel free to pop them my email address if they get lost, I could be of some help possibly.

I'm not sure if this is the issue but having looked at the link profile of that specific page it looks a little unnatural. There are lots of links pointing to that specific page on your site with anchor text. Granted, the anchor text is mainly long tail but still very keyword rich (hard disk failure).

It could have something to do with the issue. I'd recommend maybe building a few nice clean links to the page using branded anchor text or naked anchor text (www.mydomain.com). Even if anchor text isn't the issue, it should only help your website if the links look natural

I'll try and delve a little deeper later on, I have to jump into a meeting now I'm afraid.

Matt

Ah, sounds like that could be an issue. Unfortunately I'm not too familiar with Big Commerce. I have used it a couple of times but not in detail. I tend to use Magento or OSCommerce for large eCommerce projects and sometimes Wordpress (using something like WooCommerce) for smaller projects.

It's definitely worth shouting up to Big Commerce though to see if they can help.

I see a problem already, although it could be that these links have been disavowed (there is no way something like Open Site Explorer can tell this).

Check out the image attached. You have used some very aggressive link building tactics which target exact match anchor text links - and lots of them! Very unnatural indeed.

Can you confirm that these have been disavowed?

Matt

bROmGPS.jpg

WOW. They are using some SERIOUSLY OLD techniques. They have incredibly aggressive and poor link building methods, all based on exact match anchor text links and all from horribly poor domains mostly built to serve the purpose of creating links.

You will be safe in the knowledge that their rankings shouldn't last long at all - hopefully!

Yeah its pretty cool. Its basic but serves its purpose nicely. Saves having to remember the dates of each algo update (or checking them manually).

This should help you out Josh:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2109932/Google-Introduces-New-Pagination-Tags-Pushes-View-All-Pages

You need to set up pagination correctly.

Alternatively, altering how many products are on the page might help but don't do this if you think it might effect your customers experience (although unlikely).

Exactly. Sounds ominous.

Also, it seems like their main method might be blog posts... Great, IF done correctly. Looking at the pricing, I doubt it will be done correctly or will be poorly written.

Sorry to hear of the problems, Chris.

Can you give us an idea of the keywords that have dropped off and their relevant landing pages?

Also, it might be worth checking whether the drops in visitors coincided with any algo update. To check, try this great tool:

http://www.panguintool.com/

Matt

Don't do this. Please.

This is very risky way of trying to help your website rank and has become even more risky since the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates. One targets thin content (like these free blog sites will have) and one targets spammy links (which these free blog sites will also have).

What they are effectively doing is creating a link network. I'd like to estimate that they will be hit by Google at some point... Especially if the link network plays a big part in their link profile.

Care to share a link to their site for me to take a look at?