Hello guys,
My page http://www.americanscrapmetal.com was top 5 on google for the past 4 years for the search term "Scrap metal recycling". Then since last Dec-Jan my page completely dropped off.
I checked to see if my site was blacklisted for whatever reason and found out it aint. I have many links hi-mid & lower quality that point to my site. I have a page rank 5 & I have redesigned my site because I tought it would help and still nothing. My site is based at Angelfire.com and thats realy all the information I have for you guys.
Is anyone kind enough to help me or point me in the right direction?
Please look at my site & view source if needed. Any help would be appreciated!
Also is there a certain kind of css, xhtml or so on that is better for google? Any tricks?
Thank you!
Megan posted this at 13:10—8th May 2008.
She has: 9,941 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
A few things that might be a problem:
- the keyword spam at the bottom of the page with the service areas. That just looks like spam there for search engines, not for humans
- it looks like there is way too much keyword repetition, including the repetition in the title attributes on your nav links. The phrase "scrap metal recycling" appears 26 times on that home page, including keywords and title attributes. That's got to look unnatural to search engines.
Something is wrong with the navigation because google is now only indexing 4 of your pages. Ooh, here's a big one - it looks like a lot of your pages are just copies of the home page text with the words "scrap metal recycling" replaced by "copper wire recycling" or whatever. This is a duplicate content problem and could be the reason why those pages are no longer being indexed.
Just a few suggestions...
Megan
My web design blog
Ascrap2003 posted this at 14:16—8th May 2008.
They have: 2 posts
Joined: Apr 2008
Thank you that's a start. That you for taking the time to look at my site. Now a few questions how would I get results for the cities listed on the bottom of the page? After all I do service all those areas. Would I have to create a page for each area? That sounds even more spammy. Also I can change some of the words on each page but in the end I do provide scrap metal recycling services so each page is going to relate to scrap & recycling and the only difference would be the addition of the words copper, brass, aluminum etc. instead of metal. And finaly nav links:
Scrap metal recycling | Copper wire recycling | Brass recycling etc. what can I do? I mean I can change them but I don't want people looking to buy lets say "copper wire" find me when what I am wanting is to do is atract people looking for "copper wire recycling in denver etc." If I remove the words "recycling" from my nav links would that hurt the page content?
I never had this problem before.
Megan posted this at 16:38—8th May 2008.
She has: 9,941 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Google is probably getting stricter with keyword density. Or it's possible that someone reported your site.
This is getting a little bit outside of my range of expertise but here are a few suggestions
- scrap the individual pages for each type of metal unless you can provide unique content for each of those pages. Instead, just list the types of metal you recycle on the home page
- for the cities, I'm not sure what to do about that, you might want to ask on the webmaster help google group. I would probably limit the list to a few key cities and otherwise keep it more generral (American Scrap metal provides scrap metal recycling throughout the US midwest, including ___, ___, _____ etc.)
Just another tip - it would be really good for your credibility to have a proper about us page and a contact us page that is more than a link to a hotmail address. Oh wait, you do have one but it's on a separate angelfire site and takes forever to load.
Megan
My web design blog
greg posted this at 14:48—10th May 2008.
He has: 340 posts
Joined: Nov 2005
I seem to be repeating along with what Megan has already said, but feel it's probably your main issues...
On your homepage for one example, in the main page text you have 221 words and 14 counts of "scrap metal". 6% keyword to text might not sound a lot, but for every 15 words in that text you also have "scrap metal".
The first paragraph on your home page, "scrap metal" appears 6 times
Consider this... ("scrap metal" appears 3 times)
I think it actually reads better for humans, and will be better for Google as it's not keyword spamming.
Or even this:
Remember people coming to your site instantly know the site is about "scrap metal" so telling them in evey sentence is pointless and becomes repetative for the reader, and Google hates it.
Do that for the rest of your pages.
Perhaps Google wont penalise you for having all those countries on ONE page, but having it on all pages isn't good. Even if it doesn't take it as keyword spam, it wont mark it as quality content either as its repeated on all pages.
Perhaps have it on the homepage only, or better yet, have a new link to a new page "Areas we Cover".
In honesty, it's just a list of places. How is the site visitor to know it's where you cover? I know it's fairly obvious, but leaving people 'presuming' isn't good, especially when you can direct them properly to what they will likely be looking for anyway.
As for getting Google to list you for 'scrap metal in "El Paso"', I wouldn't worry to much about that.
You have to remember to provide a decent looking and laid out site for your visitors too.
Get Google to find you for "scrap metal" then people can click the link "Areas we Cover".
Also, a lot of the pages you have is basically the exact same text with the relevant metal for that page changed.
Google (and others) will just mark this as duplicate content.
There surely must be plenty you can write about regarding the different metals? How you conform to aliminuim scrappinmg laws, environmentally friendly blah blah. Must be enough to write that's different for each metal, differen't processing techniques of the material, or different legislation or whatever. Perhaps the prices on each indvidual metal page? I know it would be to update, but it's not too hard with a database.
So then people coming to read about scrapping brass, see you conform to blah legislations, environmentaly friendly because blah, and pay XX for x tonnes of brass.
I'm from the Uk so it might be different there, but large companies here will want to know they are scrapping to the required legal standards and legislations so they can state so on their company records and documents.
And why have the opening paragraph on all pages exactly the same? you have told people once on the homepage what you do...free pick up etc... So leave it at that, or have an "About Us" page with it on and make the homepage completely unique text to the rest of the site pages.
A decent landing page "we cater for all the metals blah. Each page has information regarding our upkeep of legislation and recycling procedures blah, each page also has the price we pay for that metal blah"
If you havent already, sign up to google webmasters and read the tips and tricks in there.
It can only be beneficial to take tips on decent site content from the very search engine you are trying to please.
www.imagehost-4u.com
DomainZaar posted this at 04:52.
They have: 17 posts
Joined: May 2007
think you were lucky to be there for 4 years.