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Seems like you might have an algorithmic penalty instead (Google don't tell you when you have these). Have you done anything dodgy on your website?
How badly have you been hit? Could it just be other sites overtaking you?
Post the domain and I'll have a look.
You have too much unnatural anchor text. It is a penalty without question. You must submit a reconsideration request to Google (so they confirm the penalty) then you must start clearing the spammy links.
This will take some time to fix. I recently cleared 3 massive Google penalties on clients sites (worse than yours). It takes time but it is definitely worth doing it properly. Do no try any tricks to get round it, they will only come back to bite you in the posterior.
I can't see any reason why you would have a link penalty so it must be something else.
You do have one immediately obvious issue on your site. 95% of the text is an image so it cannot be read by Google. You have to fix this!
I totally agree with the statement "I like the concept that a directory is good only if you would still want the link if it passed no link juice."
However... I have a bit of an issue with Best of the Web (and many other "quality" Directories). The only reason that you would want a link without link juice is if it was bringing in traffic.
We have been on BOTW for 3 years on 5 of our websites. I have just checked and we have received a total of 9 clicks (across the board) in those 3 years. Hardly worth writing home about.
I've never met a person that uses directories other than (yell.com perhaps). I have even forced myself to use BOTW for a week instead of Google and it only lasted 3 days before I gave up.
Am I missing something?
I also just did a search on BOTW for "Air Conditioning" and this result came up: http://www.kingair.com.au (just one example that took me 10 seconds to find)
Is this really "The Best of The Web". Why would Google trust their judgement?
I know it's quite off topic but just had a look at your site on Open Site Explorer. You have a load of anchor text to your site for the words "Viagra" and "<a class="clickable title link-pivot" title="See top linking pages that use this anchor text" data-text="penis" data-id="9619270841">penis". You might want to look into that! (The bad links that is)</a>
Assuming your site is www.amsvans.com?
It would be interesting to know whether making the external link a No Follow makes a difference or not.
In the users eyes it makes no difference if it is No Follow, whereas in Googles eyes they treat the the link in a different way, but do they treat the gesture in the same way!?
Firstly I have no proof of whether or not it is good for rankings so you may want to stop reading now.
Having said that... My personal view has always been that if the link is going off to somewhere that adds extra value to what you are blogging about then it is worth linking to.
I wouldn't just put a link to the homepage of a industry relevant website for no reason.
Wouldn't the internet be an awful place if posts didn't link off to other insightful or funny points of views or videos.
If I was Google I would want to promote sharing of useful information so I think there would be a little algorithmic boost for sharing other sites.
Google says design your website for users, so I think it makes perfect sense. Why would you be punished for supplying good information?
....And for some further insightful reading see this link I just discovered!: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/5-reasons-you-should-link-out-to-others-from-your-website
You have an quite a bit of unnatural Anchor Text with the key phrase "lifestyle magazine"
Just 2 examples (but there are many more)
http://www.young-baby-how-to-succeed.com/One_in_Ten_Parents_Do_not_Sterilise_Their_Babys_Bottle.html (unnatural text only used to fool Google)
http://katyroofers.net/resources.php?cid=8&page=4 (spammy looking page)
I have seen much worse than this but it might be worth submitting a reconsideration request to Google to see if you have been given a penalty.
If this is not the case you need to "produce a magazine that is much more popular than the competition and acquire higher quality links."
I don't think 39% is a big issue especially in an industry where repeat views are necessary.
One of our websites sells cheap portable ramps and has a high percentage of new visitors, due to the fact that there is no reason to come back (they either buy or don't buy).
Another of our sites sells expensive vintage furniture and has a very low percentage of new visitors. There is far more time spent on the buying process, there are also many visits from interior designers who always come back.
I always think that it is dangerous to look at percentages (especially on low traffic figures). For example if you increase the amount of your new visitors the amount of repeat viewers should also increase therefore your 39% may well stay the same (despite the obvious traffic improvement). Look to increase traffic not percentages.
PPC is a good way to get people to your site. You can advertise on words that people don't currently type in to get to your site, this could cut down on repeat viewers clicking on your adverts.
As to why your rankings have dropped can't comment until you post the site!
I think EGOL makes a pretty decent point actually.
I speak from experience... once upon a time we hired one or two respected SEO companies to write content on our air conditioning site. The content included a lot of keywords but in the main was waffle and uninteresting.
We later got proper aircon engineers to help us create our content, this included great explanations, high quality diagrams and videos/animations. This practice massively improved the user experience and significantly helped our rankings.
SEO people don't know your industry, experts (in your field) do!
I have had a similar issue and we had to remove PDFs in order to clear a penalty.
Having said that, the PDFs that were linking to our site were very spammy and purely written for SEO with unnatural anchor text links (So Google rightly penalised them).
If the PDF/s of your client (it would help if you told us which one it was) were very high quality and not written in the standard spammy SEO way then I don't think that you have as much to worry about.
Finally, all the sites you have listed are PR0 and of very poor quality removing them is unlikely to have a negative impact on the site that you are optimising.
Hope this helps.
Have you had any successful blog posts? Our safari / firefox count often has a massive jump when we promote things to social websites.
Check your top keywords and see if the same statistic is true.
I know that I'm not directly addressing the question, however, you should really proof read your website!
There are countless grammatical / spelling errors on the homepage alone. This is on your testimonial:
| "I was searching online and found Singapore Dry Cleaning. Their price are very reasonable and also very efficient service. I am using them for quite awhile and i am very pleased and impressed with their service. Will recommend them to nayone who needs laundry and dry cleaning service." |
| Miss Cathy (Ang Mo kio)" |
I'm not saying that spelling is a big part of Google's algorithm, but it will make you look far more professional to your customers.
Further to Heathers quite correct comments... You also have to keep an eye on the latest links tab in Google Webmaster Tools. It is also worth posting a reconsideration request as a preventative measure if there has been a large influx of spammy links.
I guess this is the usual reaction to a seeing a domain rank above your own website is "They must be cheating"!
However... in this case I feel more than justified. The website is aircon247.com they rank top 3 in the UK for "air conditioning" and other quite generic terms in the industry. I'm interested to know your thoughts and what (if any) action should be taken. Here are many of the links that I think contravene the Google Guidelines :
Spammy Article Submissions with Inorganic Anchor Text:
http://www.furniturearcade.com/decorative-furniture/decorative-accessories-lamps/
http://www.sys-con.com/node/2308271
http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/imagine-a-world-without-air-conditioning-units-7-112555
http://www.retail-digital.com/press_releases/appliances/diy-air-conditioning-installation-options
http://www.livingwithwhite.com/three-fun-uses-for-antique-grates-and-floor-registers/
http://www.mcrjk2008.com/2009/04/best-air-conditioning-ever.html
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/comfort-your-business-needs-1682737.htm
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/diy-air-conditioning-installation-options-1677015.htm
http://www.housetohome.co.uk/topical-advice/531054/regulating-your-home-environment
http://homeklondike.com/2011/01/10/country-style-bedroom-design-ideas/
http://www.greenscenedebate.com/2009/04/take-good-luck-at-air-conditioning.html#.URzEmh17L5w
http://www.harlynn.com/2009/04/wanna-chill-out.html
http://www.loveshaven.com/2009/04/we-are-all-so-excited-for-my-sisters.html
http://asiwaspassing.com/2009/05/
Spammy Links in External Website Footers / Side Bars with Inorganic Anchor Text:
http://www.g-dir.com/home/gardening/
http://www.sefdir.org/popular-listings.html
http://rapidcoolsite.com/Home.html
http://www.singaporerealestate.info/blog/?s=%27the+solitaire+call%27
http://www.onlinepureherbs.com/acidity.htm
http://erostours.com/cheap-flights-Chicago.html
http://koolergazi.persianblog.ir/
Blog Spam Inorganic Anchor Text:
http://www.bluehatseo.com/quick-answers-1-link-building/
Spammy (Link exchange etc.) Directories:
http://ireland.accommodationforstudents.com/info/reciprocal_links_ad.asp
http://baliscript.net/barter-links.php
http://www.abacushosting.ca/linx.php
http://www.whelphelper.com/links.php
http://www.spectramedi.com/links_shopping.htm
https://www.midwayautosupply.com/linkexchange.aspx?
http://artsellart.com/links.html
http://www.linkalizer.com/directory/39-1/
http://dogdir.com/region/NA.php
http://www.easyezinearticles.com/ezineresources/Outsourcing.htm
http://www.patchhomeinspections.com/Links.html
It's funny you mention that, I just noticed that it has brought in 20+ facebook likes / tweet, so maybe not so useless.
We have many articles on our sites that bring in a large volume of traffic but bring no links.
As an example we wrote an article about the hottest cities in the world. The article brings in over 1000 hits a month on Google and people spend an average of 4 minutes on the page and never return and never link to it.
The article also doesn't bring in business because the company sell Air Conditioning.
From an SEO point of view should we focus any time at all on writing articles that are useful for the internet community that bring in traffic but don't bring in many (any) links?
Every summer for the past 4 years one of our customer's competitors suddenly has a big jump in Google's (.co.uk) rankings for some of the main industry phrases, particularly "air conditioning".
We were always under the impression that they bought links before the busy summer season, as they have these strange massive jumps in the rankings. (for the rest of the year they often drop down) I recently checked out some of the back-links going to their site and noticed something I'd not seen before. Of the (approx) 480 links that showed up, around 80% of the SourceURL's ended with "?Action=Webring" (see 1st attached image).
To me it doesn't look natural at all and I'm surprised that Google hasn't picked up on. Their site is www.aircon247.com. It had been mentioned to me that this may be to do with link sharing sites (which I assume is black-hat) but I'm not 100% sure that they are doing this.
They also have an identical long spammy-looking footer at the bottom of every page which is clearly only for search engines to see. We reported it to Google a year ago but no action was taken. Do you think that it is acceptable to have it on every page? (see 2nd attached image)
I would be interested to know your thoughts on both of these, and whether this would be a dangerous tactic to try and emulate?
