Basically I have been link building for a client of mine but they have also been doing some work themselves and with another company, problem is that we have all been concentrating on the same keyword. Now we used to rank #5 for this keyword but now we are not anywhere for the particular keyword.
The page we have link built for is still in googles index and ranks for different versions of the keyword but not the main one.
Anyone got any ideas on how we can sort this out and get back in Google’s good books?
If you both have been concentrating on the same keyword then you should be seeing an increase in the performance - seeing the reverse means either your, or the other company’s methods have fallen foul of Google’s guidelines.
Its not clear what you mean by “different versions” of the keyword - do you mean a synonym? or a keyphrase with a different pairing?
Secondly - look at the traffic for that page - is it increasing or falling. Given the backlink building and that it ranks for different versions you should see it increasing and thats more important than where it ranks.
yes I am agree from seriocomic’s answer but one more thing we can do it that we can target same page with different keywords just adding some content on that page.
We have been link building for different terms but putting alot of concentration on one of the main keywords.
For example it is a clothing brand that I am link building for, so lets say I was to link build for Levis. My main keyword would be “levis jeans” but I would also link build for “levis”, “levis clothing”, “levis polos” etc etc to the same page.
At the start of March we were in position 5 for the main keyword, but now we are not anywhere for the main keyword but are in the top 3 for all the other phrases. As I said earlier we have both been putting alot of time and links into the main keyword phrase so would that be the reason google has decided to drop us for that keyword!? If so what can I do to get back up there?
One approach might be to linkbuild for each of those phrases you have to separate pages. That’s going to be easier than trying to get a single page to rank highly for multiple phrases.
I have been ranking well for all different phrases for the one page for months and it hasnt been a problem but 3 weeks ago I just dropped off the results for my main keyword.
When I do a search for my main keyword now google doesnt even show my page anywhere, but Google has the page in its index and puts it in position 1 for lots of other long tail keywords, just not my main one.
If this was just google moving this around abit I would have expected my page to have jumped back by now.
The only SEO work that I have been doing is getting my usual 20 backlinks each week to my site, I have not changed anything onsite so this makes me think google has penalised me for some of the links that have been built.
So does anyone know what I can do/try to get this page ranking again?
Simple answer: change your link-building approach.
Before you do that, have a look at all the back-links you have already got. You should have them in a spreadsheet or recorded somewhere (don’t you?) - check the pages that they appear - have those pages/sites been devalued by Google? If so, that would explain why your keyword/phrase no longer performs.
Next, stay away from those silly “dofollow blogs, forums, directory submission blah blah” rubbish methods. Aim for high-quality, relevant and related websites and target those.
I have been linking building this way for the past 18 months. I get link reports sent weekly so yes I have them on a spreadsheet. All the links I get are industry related but surely one link wouldnt be enough for google to kick me off? If it is then I will would just be able to put all my competitors sites on these pages and then they would all fall off the face of google!
Just doesnt seem right to me, how can google punish you for something that can be malipulated by other people and not the owners of websites. Surely to kick you out of the SERP’s it should only be for something that you have done onsite to your own pages? Am I wrong?
There are so many variables at play without knowing the specifics - so the answer is “it depends”.
If you’ve been putting all of your eggs in one basket as far as link-building is concerned (by that I mean relying on a single technique - buying/renting, link-farms, forum signatures etc) then you can expect the whole lot to be undone. If you have diversified your link-building efforts, been “white hat” in your approach, then you might just want to sit it out a little and ensure you’re not part of a blip.