Stuck in Google Hell

[dogma7]

Hello,

I am stuck and have been for a long time in the middle of page 1 for 90% of my targeted keywords. I have done 90% of my own seo and have built some solid backlinks. I found an article about 6 months ago about the best rated SEO companies. So I called one of them and asked them if they could help.
They told me by looking at my links and everything, in theory I should have been ranked above my competition. They didn't know why I wasnt higher ranked. So I decided not to use them. I went and did more SEO. Got more good links etc. Even started a blog. Nothing. No movement in Google and yahoo and bing I am irrelevant.
So again, I turn to professionals. About a month ago, i researched a bit and decided I had found the top ranked company comparing many different articles etc. I called them and they went over my site with me. They told me they could not help me. My links were stronger than all my competition by a pretty decent margin and my problem wasnt links any longer but content.
So they directed me to a content writing company. I had them write the content and slapped it onto my pages. 2 months. NOTHING!!!! So I decided to do it myself again. I went to SEO MOZ and bought a seo kit. Again, Im higher ranked and have stronger links than my competition. Some of the links and rankings on SEO MOZ arent even close yet I am behind some sites. IN a few cased Ive been able to replicate every link some sites have yet still no dice.

So two SEO companies and SEO MOZ have basically told me I should be higher ranked but am not. Any ideas why Im getting the short end of stick ?

[dogma7]

Also, my site went to a page rank 4 in August but my inner pages l were ranked 2. In November my home page stayed at page rank
4 but my inner pages all went to page rank 3. So google gives me a little love but not enough.

[joshz]

By process of elimination, I would focus on your on-page SEO and better usage of anchor text. Nobody here can do much without more details such as URL, keywords, competition, etc.

SEOmoz kits are junk. Worthless.

I'm curious what idiot SEO's couldn't tackle this problem. It seems pretty simple once all the data is given and research is done.

[KernelPanic]

SEOmoz kits are junk. Worthless.

I'm curious what idiot SEO's couldn't tackle this problem. It seems pretty simple once all the data is given and research is done.

the SEO pro said "gee sorry, I don't know why you're not ranking better?" Priceless.

If you PM me or Josh the domain we can take a look and let you know what's up.

[Kevin H]

As Josh said without more info it's a bit tricky.

Assuming it's the strategy site then I would sort the canonical thing you have going on with your home page as a start.

Not a major thing perhaps - but I never like to see it.

Dont want to post URL in case you don't want it to show up in here - but just type in the non-www version of the domain and it is pretty obvious.

I haven't time to look today now, but perhaps tomorrow if there is more info to play with.

Good luck

[dogma7]

Hey thanks for reply. It is www new1000ad dot com. It is a game
site. Any advice or if someone could possible point me right direction would be great. Im just about there it just seems I need
a tweak here and there , I just dont know where here and there is right now.

[joshz]

Keywords you're stuck at? Competition?

[dogma7]

Well on home page Im targeting strategy war games, turn based game and text based games. Some of my main competition is torn dot com, Khanwarsdotcom and 1100ad dot com.

Those are three of the main one.

[Dr.Marie]

I only had a quick look but here are a couple of thoughts.

Your home page resolves as www and then without the www it resolves as www.url/index.cfm?

Also, I am guessing that what you call a quality backlink is not what I call a quality backlink.

I sorted your backlinks according to quality according to ahrefs and I see a bunch of directory links. Here are the descriptions of a few of the top ones:

"Get backlinks, Buy links and Bid links at example.com"
"Get backlinks, Buy links and Bid links at anotherexample.com"
etc. etc.

I am seeing a number of sites still ranking on the basis of directory links but in a competitive niche what Google wants to see is that you've got content that is truly attracting links naturally.

There are other ways to get good links, but if ahrefs is saying that your top ones are from sites like these then I'm guessing you can do better.

[Chedders]

Well on home page Im targeting strategy war games, turn based game and text based games. Some of my main competition is torn dot com, Khanwarsdotcom and 1100ad dot com.

Those are three of the main one.

One small thing, bottom of your home page I see 4 outbound links. unless there is a good reason for these I would dump or at least put nofollow on them.

I understand the facebook etc ones but not the others.

[joshz]

One small thing, bottom of your home page I see 4 outbound links. unless there is a good reason for these I would dump or at least put nofollow on them.

I understand the facebook etc ones but not the others.

Adding multiple nofollow links after a link has been place on a website could cause inverted harm. If a link is worth being on your website, follow it. If not, the link should not be there in the first place.

Adding nofollow to links (at least in bulk) can trigger Google to reset the page's PR. I've seen this happen 3 times with my own websites in the past, and I have learned this the hard way.

Just my 2 cents, not to step on your toes, bud.

[dogma7]

Also, I am guessing that what you call a quality backlink is not what I call a quality backlink.

Ive matched my competitions links. Best I can say.



I know recently I had paid for content on my website. I did not like the meta title and description so I changed them recently and dropped in rankings. I hope this is normal and I didnt screw anything up.

When I changed my content on my pages about 2 months ago, my domain authority and page authority both dropped at SEO MOZ.

[Dr.Marie]

I changed my content on my pages about 2 months ago, my domain authority and page authority both dropped at SEO MOZ.

DA and PA have nothing to do with what is on a page but rather, the links pointing to the page. And even then, those metrics are just one companies' metrics...they don't always match up with what is seen in real life. I've seen lots of sites, my own included that have a higher DA and PA than the sites above them.

Ive matched my competitions links. Best I can say.

To beat them you need to do more than match them though! If they're actively building links and you're actively copying them then you're just going to keep up. But, imagine what would happen if you were able to get a few really good quality (not directory or easy to get) links.

[AlexTampa]

I've seen lots of sites, my own included that have a higher DA and PA than the sites above them.
.

One of my competitors had a score of +10 over mine.

He sold his site via auction online. He had to list all the stats etc.
My site had 20 times the monthly uniques & 10 times the revenue.

He had nothing but forum profile links etc.

[Doodled]

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps we are looking at the wrong end of the stick.

I just did the "Strategy War Games" search and had a look at Canopian and Armor Games. There was a great deal to look at and places to go that kept me on the site. Yours is just one game?

If your competitors are beating you on CTR, time to bounce and bounce, with their respective positions in the SERPS taken into account then you may be fiddling while rome burns.

When I opened your site the main options were to "Start the game" and I didn't know if I wanted to start the game. The detail below was all very text heavy.

I would try a Jquery slideshow that shows some screen shots of the game, option to start, rules of the game, etc. When clicked these take visitors to another page with more detail on that aspect, more screen shots.

From my perspective if I knew what it was, and I wanted to play, your site is great. If I didn't (and I don't) it's a bit off putting and confusing ....