Is this an issue with my links?

[wonder_lander]

I'm still steadily trying to get my site the-pier/co/uk back in favour with Google.

I've been digging around my WMT and saw that I've got a heck of a lot of links from wordpress.com to a particular page. Is this likely to be causing an issue? We used to rank no.1 for Llandudno Pier but we now don't appear at all.

I guess I'm just grasping at straws but just thought I'd ask if it was an issue.

 

[Murray]

I doubt it's doing you any harm, but It's also doing you no good.. It's a bit of a nothing link.

If I was being very picky id ask him to remove it just because with all the other random links going out it looks a bit spammy.

But just one sitewide link from one site isn't going to be penalising or hurting you in any way on it's own.

 

[wonder_lander]

Cheers Murray, that's re-assuring!

 

[dashu1]

But then again your site isn't ranking, so irrespective of the opinions of random individuals something is causing your site damage, so why not disavow them and get it out of the way.

Those links have little benefit so why not kill them off to be sure once and for all.

I've just been doing a disavow for a site that got slapped on the 4th and they only have 150 links in total, but they still got caned by big G.

 

[Murray]

But then again your site isn't ranking, so irrespective of the opinions of random individuals something is causing your site damage, so why not disavow them and get it out of the

Without knowing what the problem is first telling someone to disavow their links is at best a waste of time.

How do you know anything is causing his site damage? Maybe it's the opposite, nothing is causing his site to rank.

 

[Murray]

I just looked through your site, content etc seems fine, I have some thoughts about how user friendly it is though..

Looking at your links, it's all pretty much rubbish, nofollow or directories.

I would say your main problem is lack of any quality links.. maybe if your rankings dropped it was because of those directories being hit, rather than a problem with your site directly.

Why don't you start emailing visitbritain, visitinengland, visitwales, visitbrighton all the the big visit"location" sites and suggest your site should be included?

Those will be some big links that will help you rank and will also bring some traffic by themselves.

 

[wonder_lander]

Cheers for the feedback. Should I ignore all the old links?

I started the site in 2008 when directories where the thing to do. All the rest of the links have come naturally so they may be "rubbish" as you put it but they are 100% organic

I will take your advice though and contact those websites and see if I can beg and plead my case to be included!

 

[dashu1]

Hi,
if you have seen in webmasters tools the number of search queries drop dramatically on one of the dates when Google have updated the algorithm then you have been caught in that update.

If the links are low quality - and directory links etc are, then there is no point in keeping them.

At best they are doing nothing, at worst they are holding your site back, so the only logical thing to do is to disavow them.

If you've been caught in one of the updates then it's useless to build more links, it won't do anything, so you either spend your time messing around and getting nowhere or bite the bullet, do something dramatic and see something happen.

The worst that can happen is nothing, which leaves you no worse off than you are now.

At least then after clearing the decks and knowing where you are, you can start from a position where you know that there is nothing causing a penalty, algorithmic or otherwise, and build from that.

 

[dashu1]

Without knowing what the problem is first telling someone to disavow their links is at best a waste of time.

How do you know anything is causing his site damage? Maybe it's the opposite, nothing is causing his site to rank.

No it's the only logical step to take, telling someone to do x,y, or z, build more links, etc is an utter waste of time if there is a penalty or links that need disavowing.

Disavow links files are looked at manually, so building more links now to try and achieve something is the waste of time, since then you need to disavow those too.

The links he has are poor, they are worthless, so disavowing them is going to nothing detrimental there is only an upside.

 

[wonder_lander]

I appreciate all input.

Here is a screenshot from GA. http://i.imgur.com/yBIB04i.png

I can provide a more zoomed in view for a particular date range if that would help spot when the traffic dropped.

To me it looks like it mostly dropped Jan 2012 onwards (always dips around Christmas)

 

[dashu1]

I appreciate all input.

Here is a screenshot from GA. http://i.imgur.com/yBIB04i.png

I can provide a more zoomed in view for a particular date range if that would help spot when the traffic dropped.

To me it looks like it mostly dropped Jan 2012 onwards (always dips around Christmas)

It's not GA you want, it's Google webmasters tools to see the numbers of search queries - that really highlights when and what happened.

 

[wonder_lander]

It's not GA you want, it's Google webmasters tools to see the numbers of search queries - that really highlights when and what happened.

I can't seem to change the dates to before the 1st August 2013 in WMT?

 

[dashu1]

Like this:

 

[dashu1]

I can't seem to change the dates to before the 1st August 2013 in WMT?

No the data set is limited, you need to keep an eye on it - it didn't drop on Oct 4th?

When did you notice a sizable change?

There was a big one early 2012

 

[wonder_lander]

I've not watched it close enough to pinpoint.

Here's the WMT window I have - http://i.imgur.com/Vo3SsFQ.png

I would rank #1 for LLandudno Pier, #1 for Clacton Pier for instance. Both these have just fallen off the grid.

 

[dashu1]

I've not watched it close enough to pinpoint.

Here's the WMT window I have - http://i.imgur.com/Vo3SsFQ.png

I would rank #1 for LLandudno Pier, #1 for Clacton Pier for instance. Both these have just fallen off the grid.

Well even over that time scale it looks like it fell off dramatically so I think you'd be better off doing the disavow.

I've also had a look at your site and I think you need to add some quality to it, the page about the shop "the pier" looks like the whole purpose of the site to be honest, a thinly disguised attempt to get people to an affiliate page?

Compare yours with the quantity and quality of content on piers.org.uk for example.

 

[wonder_lander]

Thanks again for the feedback. I'm a little taken aback by your assertion "the page about the shop "the pier" looks like the whole purpose of the site to be honest, a thinly disguised attempt to get people to an affiliate page?"

There are around 15,000 - 20,000 words about the piers around the UK, and maybe 300 about The Pier shop which I put on to try and stop getting bombarded with emails about where to get a vase or a plate that they had seen in the shops!

I will remove the page though if that's the way Google thinks