The main keyword I would like to target is Business York or York Business and for a good while I was well up on the first page in Google.
However, earlier this year I disappeared totally from the search results on those critical keywords and I can’t seem to do anything to resolve, despite sites with virtually no relevance appearing prominently.
I’m redesigning to include search friendly urls but would really appreciate any guidance in case I’m about to make some fundamental mistake again on the redesigned site.
Sorry - I know this is a cliched question but it’s still one I can’t find a successful strategy for resolving.
You might like to think about the fact that your home page has no <h1> at all, and that the graphic that gives the title of the site (which should be in an <h1>) has alt text that doesn’t reflect the image at all. Why would you put an image whose alt or title text was “return to home page” on the home page?!
But more importantly - what does the site do? I’ve just had a look at it, and I think your mission for enabling people to find plumbers in Holgate is a great idea (especially if they travel as far afield as Selby), but I couldn’t see how your site actually did that…
Probably not on its own, but Google is continually tweaking its algorithms, and competitors’ sites are continually adding and changing their content, so nothing stands still in SEO.
Where business you are referring to have websites, you need to try to get a reciprocal link from their site back to yours. (And where you give their website URL, make it a link!)