SEO Help

[highperformance]

Alright, I've been reading about SEO and downloading plugins etc to try and optimize my site. Maybe it's just I don't understand everything still, or maybe there is a setting that is off.

For some reason I cannot get any traffic to come in through a search engine. If you google my site directly it comes up in google no problem, but I have yet to have a single view come in via a search of any kind.

Why do I think this is a problem? When I originally constructed my website a few months ago I started with Site builder and I had little content and it was crappy anyways. Somehow I managed to be getting in atleast a few views from people around the world (China, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, USA, and Canada)

Now that I am using Wordpress, and changed what I wanted on my website to something actually useful and good content, I can't seem to get any hits via searches.

Is it possible that changing my original site with site builder to Wordpress screwed something up?

I have submitted a sitemap and filled out the SEO form at the bottom of each page I create. I have downloaded the SEO pluggin by "Yoast" and I have a green light on almost all my pages?

Below is a link to one of my pages if that helps any? Am I missing something? I feel like I must be overlooking or not doing something stupidly simple. Everything I google regarding SEO talks about keywords etc, I have many and all relating to my content

Can someone lend some advice?

http://highperformancejunkies.com/how-to-guides/deep-scratches/

 

[highperformance]

No one has any advice?

 

[Phreaddee]

*sigh* perhaps its just that we've been over this 1000 times already, so maybe nobody wants to help ANOTHER seo project, or perhaps because we've had so much spam relating to SEO recently people think that to be the case with this...

in any case it be wise to wait over 24 hours for a response. see as far as my clock here is concerned, you posted your OP at 3:48am.

I doubt the move over to WP would have much to do with it (save for some 404's)
otherwise it wouldn't be as popular as it is.

plugins and the like I find to be a complete waste of energy, time and resources, and nothing really beats actually writing the copy for humans...

If you are referring to Google only, (which most people do) follow their guidelines, not anything any "SEO specialist" has to say, you're only important to their hip-pocket...

read this...
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769

oh and KEYWORDS mean sweet f**k all. the sooner you learn that nugget the better...

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html

(note that this was from 2009! so clearly people arent getting the message...)

and funnily enough google (when it launched in 1998) didn't support the keyword meta tag then. Astavista yes, infoseek yes, lycos yes, google no. That was 14/15 years ago, and look what happened to them...

 

[greatar4]

Have you experienced that issue before using that plugin? Have you used to get decent amount of traffic before using that particular plugin? The thing I'd suggest you to do now is to deactivate that plugin and allow two weeks to pass and see what happens. It seems like something is holding back your site as far as getting traffic is concerned. It may well be that your site is penalized which can be very devastating with regard to getting traffic.

If you google my site directly it comes up in google no problem, but I have yet to have a single view come in via a search of any kind.

This is likely if your site is penalized.

 

[highperformance]

I have read that article in the webmaster google support. I have done everything it has said almost 2 months ago. I don't doubt that the SEO topic has been beaten to death, unfortunately, I have not been able to find advice/help pertaining to my circumstances. Everything I have read I have done, keyword density, focus words, meta description, key words.

See if I was getting even just 1-2 people coming into my site via some sort of search, I would know that my SEO approach is working, just not working well. The fact of the matter is I get zero traffic from any search engines and it has been almost 2 months. This tells me something is wrong, and I would like to try and figure out what.

Greatar, I haven't had this issue before as when I originally started my site 3 months ago I was using Sitebuilder. Sitebuilder has some features built into it for SEO which I just filled out (like basic forms asking for info on each page etc) and I was getting a little bit of traffic from search engines.

Then I decided that I didnt want to use sitebuilder, so I switched to wordpress instead thinking it would be easier in the long run. Since switching from sitebuilder to wordpress is where I have had my issue (probably because they aren't using the same SEO plugin)

I don't think I am being penalized, I mean, I don't see why I would be, my content is unique, and I don't think I have done anything illegal? All pictures on the site are my own personal ones as is my content.

Sitebuilder had a program you could use to check if you were on googles blacklist, is there something I can use now to check?

 

[highperformance]

Also, Phreaddee, I have read and am aware that google does not rely on keywords anymore. I have added and used the keywords at this point as a last ditch effort to see if it would fix my issue. I figure that adding them couldn't hurt the website anymore than already not having search engine traffic.

 

[Phreaddee]

I wasn't having a dig at you using keywords. simply that the information you were getting regarding keywords can simply be dismissed as BS...

 

[highperformance]

I understand, like I said, I've added them in to see if it changed anything.

So besides submitting your content to google directly as well as providing a site map, is there something further I am missing?

Is there something that maybe has to be done via coding only?

 

[chrishirst]

Is it possible that changing my original site with site builder to Wordpress screwed something up?

Yep! Your URLs probably ALL changed, so any natural links are all broken and no longer passing any value to your new URLs. Did you put any redirects in place?

 

[chrishirst]

By the way

This

I have downloaded the SEO pluggin by "Yoast" and I have a green light on almost all my pages?

means absolutely nothing, it just means that whatever the programmer thought was "right" is Ok. Doesn't actually mean that SE will "think" the same. In fact could be quite the reverse.

 

[highperformance]

Yep! Your URLs probably ALL changed, so any natural links are all broken and no longer passing any value to your new URLs. Did you put any redirects in place?

I didn't because at the time (and still now) I am new at doing all of this and did not know how to put in re-directs

How can I rectify this now? Or is it too late and I'm screwed?

I think irrc the site linked to google adsense that tracks all your stats and stuff still has my website picture showing up as my old setup/layout if that makes sense.

 

[chrishirst]

I think irrc the site linked to google adsense that tracks all your stats and stuff still has my website picture showing up as my old setup/layout if that makes sense.

No it didn't.

Adsense only records clicks on adverts with your publisher ID in the code, do you mean Google Analytics?

How can I rectify this now? Or is it too late and I'm screwed?

Maybe, maybe not.

Do you have examples of the original URI structure and how it has changed with the switch to Wordpress?

 

[highperformance]

No it didn't.

Adsense only records clicks on adverts with your publisher ID in the code, do you mean Google Analytics?

Maybe, maybe not.

Do you have examples of the original URI structure and how it has changed with the switch to Wordpress?

yes google analytics is what I meant.

If you can explain exactly what you want and what is meant by URI structure I can do my best

 

[chrishirst]

URI structure is what the address "looked like"

eg:
site.tld/filename.ext?key=value
or
site.tld/folder/folder/

and what the equivalent document URI would be now.
Search egines will pick up the new structure as time goes on, but anything with promotion and marketing you have done previously is lost, redirecting keeps that value and traffic coming to your new URLs.

 

[greatar4]

Well, you find yourself into a bad situation which is very frustrating. As you mention that "You have not been able to find advice/help pertaining to your circumstances." Well, it's obvious that nobody can give you an advice that can help you solve it. I mention penalty in my previous post because if your traffic went down dramatically a penalty is often likely to be the reason, since your ranking went way down which makes it unlikely for people to find your site.

 

[highperformance]

Well I can't seem to find the old pages and I can't access them on the Cpanel X for sitebuilder. What is cool that I just found out though is I can use the same sitebuilder sitemap and SEO tool when I log into Cpanel and use it despite the fact that I am using wordpress. So I resubmitted everything and my sitescore is back up to 100

I also checked google blacklist and I am not blacklisted by google.

So I guess we'll see if this corrects anything, I'll give it a weekish

 

[chrishirst]

A Google blacklist???

 

[highperformance]

A Google blacklist???

Ya, I'm guessing the list has to do with being penalized? or doing some kinda illegal stuff like running a scam website.

 

[chrishirst]

There is no such thing as a Google blacklist, at least not one that is known and available outside of Google.

 

[highperformance]

I dunno, this is what I used and what it says it is? I'm too new at this to be able to tell you otherwise lol