Getting my site back where it belongs in Google

Marketing
1

The main website that I run is for a product I sell called WebCards. The site address is http://www.mywebcards.net/.

Unfortunately, my site ranks very poorly in Google. I was caught selling paid links a few years ago and dropped down significantly in the Google rankings. Since cleaning up the site my rankings still suffer.

I am referring only to a search in Google for “webcards.” I am currently 62nd in the rankings for this word. I am not currently interested in any other search terms.

Where my site is listed I have an indented second page and a link to “Show more results from www.mywebcards.net.” This leads me to believe that I am “supposed” to be ranking quite near the top. I rank at number 2 in Bing and Yahoo, so I am clearly suffering some type of Google penalty.

I stopped showing paid links on my website about 2 years ago and have submitted 2 reconsideration requests from Google. One of these was acknowledged but nothing seems to have happened.

For ages I didn’t really care that I wasn’t ranking for my site name, but now I do. I really want to get back where I “belong.”

So the reconsideration requests don’t seem to work, does anybody else have any suggestions on where I can start?

2

I’m curious about the “show more”. You say that means you should be ranking higher, why? I thought that was for pages that were in “supplemental”.

Have you been updating the site content regularly?

3

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

The “Show more results from” link makes me think that my site is quite relevant for the search terms. Here is a quote from a top contributor at Google Webmaster Support Forum that backs up my opinion:

If a site is well established and has multiple relevant listings, Google may show this option beneath the normal listing
This will appear as a JavaScript based section with a Clickable link.
Using that link will cause a selection of Relevant URLs to be shown in the currently active page.

My site is a sales site for my product and as such doesn’t have lots of content added regularly. There is a support forum and that is pretty active, but the blog only tends to be updated when there is a new release.

Any ideas?

4

If you are interested in the term “webcards”, maybe you should have that instead of “e-cards” in your description tag?

5

The “Show more results from” link means nothing. Lots of sites NOT in the top 20
have that.

A “top contributor” is not official.

Have you thought that maybe in the last two years the web has grown and that
at least 50 other webmasters have been busting their ass to get to the top for
that keyword?

Sorry to say, but imo, your site IS where it currently belongs.

What you need now is better content and some quality high PR back links.

Bompa

6

Can you show me a site that is out of the top 20 that has a “show more results” link that has not been penalised? What do you mean it “means nothing.” It must be there for a reason.

No, not for this particular keyword. Have you looked at the serps for the particular term? There are sites that use my software that are outranking me for the name of my product. How many links with the anchor text “webcards” do these sites have?

While I would definitely agree that lots of backlinks and updated content is important, you are overlooking the most important ranking factor relevance.

Please don’t think I haven’t done my research before bringing this up. I am not trying to rank for a competitive keyword. There is no competiton for it and it attracts just 3,600 Google searches each month.
According to Open Site Explorer, there are 5,338 sites linking to my homepage using the anchor text “WebCards.” The next most common anchor text has just 80 links.
Additionally, as I mentioned before I rank second in both Yahoo and Bing for the term “webcards.”

Given all of this are you still convinced that my current ranking is not due to a Google penalty and that my site is where it “currently belongs”?