WP ranking issue

[stender]

I've had a WP site which has been live for a couple of months now but I can't seem to rank anything? a lot of the posts on it are a bit thin on content but there are a few decent ones. I can't even see the domain keywords ranking anwhere. I'm loathe to add more content as I'm thinking there is something not right. Anyone mind having a look and giving an opinion?

 

[Admin]

Have you checked. The domain is not sandboxed?

Load an SEO plugin and Wassup web stats and see what traffic you are getting and from where. It will show if the Googlebot has visited and indexed your site and what keywords have been used to arrive there if you do have any search traffic.

Admin

 

[iamrofe]

you made your site crawlable?

 

[webwrappedup]

I don't mind having a look, pop the url over on pm if you want and I'll have a ganders.

 

[stender]

you made your site crawlable?

isn't wp crawlable by default? i have blocked anything with robots or htaccess

 

[bensd]

isn't wp crawlable by default? i have blocked anything with robots or htaccess

No, there is a setting to block search engines

 

[Safeserps]

Ranking Issue

OK, some hints. The site is certainly indexed, I see 47 Indexed pages, 9 years old, no page-rank.

The problems are numerous, not withstanding the poor volume on the exact match domain, here are just a few of the issues I see.

First, very few back-links to the site, none listed in Google, or Semrush.
Second, The keyword density on the front page is poor, certainly for the given keyword.
You have Google Ads above the fold on the homepage.
Last Link is "Terms"....
You could use "Ten Things" as the Anchor for the "Home" link in the Footer.
Alt Text could be better utilized, homepage logo for example.
There are lots of worthwhile, searched for lists of "Ten Things", none of which are on your sites homepage.
There are numerous "unrelated" items on your homepage.

Be specific. Answer the questions that are being asked?

Ten things to do before you die etc.

Time to ingest an SEO Manual I think.

Good Luck.

 

[fish]

You have Google Ads above the fold on the homepage.

Not such a crime if it's not blatant;

Google's referral tool info for Above the Fold

 

[Safeserps]

Not such a crime if it's not blatant;

Google's referral tool info for Above the Fold

I think this post sums it up very well:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

 

[fish]

I think this post sums it up very well:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

All well and good but without knowing the OP's site in question (which you seem to have seen) your hints don't add anything of value to those like me who have no idea of what the site layout is

 

[Safeserps]

All well and good but without knowing the OP's site in question (which you seem to have seen) your hints don't add anything of value to those like me who have no idea of what the site layout is

I'm sorry Fish, no offense was intended, I asked by PM for the URL as the OP had not posted it?

You've not looked but have an opinion on my opinion? Amazing.

 

[fish]

I'm sorry Fish, no offense was intended, I asked by PM for the URL as the OP had not posted it?

You've not looked but have an opinion on my opinion? Amazing.

Correct, as I said I've not seen the site.

Your opinions reference something we have not seen, I merely added a link to a google reference that discusses one of your points that should anyone want to see wtf you are opinionating on then they can find out. Geddit?

Amazing? thank you, you are welcome.

Oh, and no offence taken

 

[Safeserps]

Good Luck OP.

 

[stender]

Thanks for the feedback here and via pm. This is my first WP site so bit of a learnign curve. I'm used to have an exact match domain and writing keyword content for it so not used to ranking a WP homepage full of posts excerpts.

Safeserps ten things to do before you die is on there already. It's not that easy to start everything ten things...... ;-)

Fish I'll pm you the url although you can probably work it out from some of the posts

Thanks All

 

[Blossom]

I'm used to have an exact match domain and writing keyword content for it so not used to ranking a WP homepage full of posts excerpts.

What I do is have a full sticky post on the homepage with all the keyword content and then have a few post excerpts underneath.

 

[damion]

The problems are numerous, not withstanding the poor volume on the exact match domain, here are just a few of the issues I see.

Second, The keyword density on the front page is poor, certainly for the given keyword.
You could use "Ten Things" as the Anchor for the "Home" link in the Footer.

Stender, don't update the home page with more instances of the keyword or keyword set you want to rank for, if you have it included once on the page, then that's really already enough keyword density you need.

Secondly, just use "Home" to link to your home page, anything else is just a waste of time and a clear sign of manipulation ("Over Optimization") for Google.

If you want to rank higher, and your on-page seo is as good as it gets, then you simply need a better link profile then your competition.

 

[Safeserps]

Stender, don't update the home page with more instances of the keyword or keyword set you want to rank for, if you have it included once on the page, then that's really already enough keyword density you need.

Would have to disagree in this case, I would usually aim for 3.8-4.2% on my main keyword, followed by reducing % for the top sub keywords. (Then aim for 3.8-4.2% on that page for the sub keyword.)

Ten things to do before....

There should be multiple links from the homepage to inner pages with relevance to the main keyword, with each to further sub pages.

E.G.

Cruises
Caribbean Cruises
Caribbean Cruises from Southampton
Caribbean Cruises from Southampon in June
P&O Caribbean Cruises from Southampton in June
P&O Caribbean Cruises from Southampton in June 2012

In this case, Ten things that / to / which etc.

Secondly, just use "Home" to link to your home page, anything else is just a waste of time and a clear sign of manipulation ("Over Optimization") for Google

I would again disagree.

I could show you various industry leading websites, well page 1 for huge terms, that do exactly that. Some do it from the header, some from the footer, 50k + UK exacts.

It is your domain name, Ten Things, it is likely, ideally it will end up the most relevant page on the web for the term, hence it will also become the best to get a link from.

Perfectly reasonable to use it in the footer. For example:

(c) 2012 Ten Things "anchoring ten things to the homepage".

Of course I could be wrong.

 

[damion]

Safeserps, it's 2012, by now you should know that assigning any specific "optimal" or "recommended" keyword density is complete utter bullocks.

I'm not even going to elaborate further on this anymore, it's evident you need a bit of catching up to.

There should be multiple links from the homepage to inner pages with relevance to the main keyword, with each to further sub pages.

E.G.

Cruises
Caribbean Cruises
Caribbean Cruises from Southampton
Caribbean Cruises from Southampon in June
P&O Caribbean Cruises from Southampton in June
P&O Caribbean Cruises from Southampton in June 2012

If those green anchor link descriptions link to separate individual pages then it's a flawed approach, specifically in the light of the Panda updates.

I could show you various industry leading websites, well page 1 for huge terms, that do exactly that. Some do it from the header, some from the footer, 50k + UK exacts.

Sure, but industry leading websites have proven to be able to get away with a lot more then a brand new site.

 

[Blossom]

I could show you various industry leading websites, well page 1 for huge terms, that do exactly that.

There is no point comparing anything on this level to industry-leading authority websites. They can get away with doing pretty much anything they like.

Perfectly reasonable to use it in the footer. For example:

(c) 2012 Ten Things "anchoring ten things to the homepage".

Of course I could be wrong.

I agree with your fundamental point, but just as a note it won't pass any anchor text benefit as only the first link to a given URL on a page is counted for that. If the logo or first nav link links to the homepage instead, then that will mean the footer anchor text is ignored.

 

[Safeserps]

A millions ways.

Agreed not every site is the same and a feel has to be gotten in each niche however lots of things help a site rank, keyword relevance is still one of them.

Agreed it is only one, but I use every one I have access to.

I can also assure you the method quoted is not flawed.
I have today recommended its use, last week and a long time ago.

A site, brand new was recently built using the method is now doing so well that they are being take to court by a competitor for "passing off".

The legal passing off bit is from a Paid Advertisement and very week, but it has been caused because the new site has blanketed the main keyword for said competitor in the organic listing front page with 6 pages, pages and hierarchy like those mentioned above.

So it definately still works just fine.

I have another just went live, an aged and relevant domain however, so perhaps not quite the same, but it uses the above system of hierarchy in another niche, but its built automatically by the searches completed by users and some clever data manipulation. Automatically populating the Sitemap files as it goes.

It is still the same none the less from a page hierarchy point of view.

It went live on Thursday and is now 7th for one of the largest keywords in the UK?

There are a million ways to perform SEO, many work, many do not, some help, some do not, the Internet is awash with SEO guides, the true advice is this:

Provide the content for the query, or in another way, answer the question being asked. Answer it in a new way, more concisely, more interestingly, differently, than the next website, and Google will, for the most part, do the rest.

A few links can speed it up.