Do I need only Backlinks?

[danny30]

Hi guys, I have an option of taking over an established but neglected online cufflinks retail website that used to do very well and rank on the top page for its category on Google. Due to neglect by a family member, no SEO work has been carried out for about 2 years. As a result the sites ranking and sales have gone down significantly.


The positives are that the site still ranks for some keywords, even with no money having been invested, and the category is not a very competitive area (I think).

I am looking to hire an SEO expert to get the site ranking again and I want to target customers from the UK (where we are based), the US, the far east and the middle east in particular. I have a low budget to start with but if/when business increases I might be able to invest more.

My Main question is should I just concentrate on high quality link building or do I need to target other SEO services to get the site back up? Any answers/advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[searchangel]

Once you choose an SEO, get them to do a full audit to begin with. Algorithms have changed in 2 years, and I would probably say the most important thing is to make sure the site is mobile friendly.

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[BenWS]

The issue you're looking at here it that the SEO done previously to the site, whilst it used to be effective and rank the site, could be harming your rankings now. Things have changed a far cry from a link building perspective.

With a good audit of your links and a possible clean up you should be able to get your site ranking again if you invest your link building efforts effectively.

 

[Ashley Wright]

Danny - I would say think outside the box, SEO doesn't need to be the holy grail for this site. Have you checked what links are currently pointing at the site?

 

[danny30]

Hi, I do know that the Penguin update did do damage to the site due to some bad back links.

 

[Pistol101]

Before you take on the site ask for a viewing login of the google webmaster tools. It'll highlight any issues. Second have a look at one of the back link tools like moz or ahrefs. See how well you compare with the sites ranking well.

 

[Jason L]

Some good advice above re: possible bad backlinks, looking at Webmaster Tools to assess any damage etc.

Also, don't forget your on-site SEO. You want to make sure the following are in order:

- SEO friendly URLs
- Good page titles and meta-descriptions
- Identify any duplicate content
- Assess whether any 301 redirects are needed
- Consider canonicalization
- Internal linking issues

And think more about general marketing/PR rather than just building backlinks

 

[LucasHart]

Guys, I'm new to this field. Does the pagerank still count for the high placement in SERP?

 

[searchangel]

Some good advice above re: possible bad backlinks, looking at Webmaster Tools to assess any damage etc.

Also, don't forget your on-site SEO. You want to make sure the following are in order:

- SEO friendly URLs
- Good page titles and meta-descriptions
- Identify any duplicate content
- Assess whether any 301 redirects are needed
- Consider canonicalization
- Internal linking issues

And think more about general marketing/PR rather than just building backlinks

+ site speed and whether it's optimised for mobiles.

 

[Pistol101]

Guys, I'm new to this field. Does the pagerank still count for the high placement in SERP?

Google haven't updated Pagerank to the public since December 2013.

 

[LucasHart]

I see. Thank you. Then is it still possible to raise page rank nowadays?

 

[OldWelshGuy]

PageRank exists, it is a key part of the algorithm, but it moved on from being a purely numeric only system, hence the change in term to 'link juice' and similar.

Google update PageRank on a constant basis using a system they call everflux, The everflux system does what it says on the tin, it means that the PageRank values of every site on the web are in a constant state of flux.

PageRank is not a whole number system, it actually runs to 13 decimal places. periodically, Google would 'export' a snapshot of PageRank, and display it on their toolbar and API. They stopped doing it however as it was counterproductive.


So in short, YES, PageRank is very much alive and kicking, but you can't see it outside of the Googleplex

 

[Pistol101]

PageRank exists, it is a key part of the algorithm, but it moved on from being a purely numeric only system, hence the change in term to 'link juice' and similar.

Google update PageRank on a constant basis using a system they call everflux, The everflux system does what it says on the tin, it means that the PageRank values of every site on the web are in a constant state of flux.

PageRank is not a whole number system, it actually runs to 13 decimal places. periodically, Google would 'export' a snapshot of PageRank, and display it on their toolbar and API. They stopped doing it however as it was counterproductive.


So in short, YES, PageRank is very much alive and kicking, but you can't see it outside of the Googleplex

I would suggest that your post is very misleading. Page Rank was one of their first algorithms (they don't even own it) and in-essence an output number based on the number and quality of links. Useful 10 years ago, as you just had to go and get a link from a high PR site and you'd be marching to the top of the serps. It's been a meaningless number with the push towards relevancy in recent years and the number of high PR sites that have been hit by Panda and Penguin. With the use of data these days i doubt they even have a value for every page against every search query. If you have a copy of the Google source code, i'd be more than happy to be provided wrong

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I am not sure why you have decided to be so confrontational but I guess that is your nature.

By All means suggest away, but understand that I was a beta tester on Google, and it was actually called backrub at the time when they were developing it at Stanford, who own the patent, (But larry Page owns the intellectual property rights), Standford licence it to Google it was on an exclusive basis for the first 10 years, but that ran out in 2011. It can't be used on a commercial search engine as that is part of the agreement between G & Stanford

If you really want a geek chat then go for it, but I was bringing it down to terms the average Joe can understand it. I can't provide the Google source code, but I can only repeat what Jon Mu has said about pagerank existing and still being a part (although that IS planned for change more and more. But they simply haven't found anything as reliable in their tests as of yet).

The problem is you have not read what I stated, you have just decided to be smart and confrontational although I am not sure why

Google have always had 2 main parts to their algo
1. importance (purely numeric i.e. PageRank of old)
2. relevance (brought in more and more over time, especially after 2004 when they purchased applied Semantics (and have gobbled up many more since)

As time has gone by, pagreank has moved from being a pure numerical number to being what I described as link juice (which you seemed to have ignored). I am not sure why you put up the straw man argument of

"i doubt they even have a value for every page against every search query. If you have a copy of the Google source code, i'd be more than happy to be provided wrong"

That was just trying to be clever wasn't it, as I didn't mention that anywhere, a perfect straw man argument, where you state something as wrong and claim victory, when the other person never said it in the first place.

I honestly am not looking for a fight here, but if you are going to claim my post is misleading, then I would suggest politely that you actually stick to what I have written and not bring in straw man arguing, as that helps no-one .

 

[LowPrices.uk]

These days you have a much greatly accessible audience available on social media.

I would suggest that an Instagram account with good marketing photos of your products could serve you very well. If you could get some coverage from celebs with big followers (or even minor ones), all the better.

 

[Pistol101]

OldWelshGuy - Couple of useful quotes.

In 2008 Udi Manber, VP of engineering at Google, wrote on the Official Google Blog:
“The most famous part of our ranking algorithm is PageRank, an algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who founded Google. PageRank is still in use today, but it is now a part of a much larger system.”

Susan Moskwa - from the same team as John Mueller June 2011
"PageRank may have distinguished Google as a search engine when it was founded in 1998; but given the rate of change Manber describes—launching “about 9 [improvements] per week on the average”—we’ve had a lot of opportunity to augment and refine our ranking systems over the last decade. PageRank is no longer—if it ever was—the be-all and end-all of ranking."

So yes i stand by my post that your misleading people with your post. Links are important, but you can't confuse links and PageRank. You can get a domain ranked well with no links.

The PageRank algo ownership is an interesting topic on it's own. It's still owned by Stanford, as it was developed while they were there. The 2011 date was just an exclusive licence (which was extended once previously), as the algo was locked behind a patent. Thats up in 2017. It was clearly very important in the early days, hence why Google spent so much to keep the exclusive licence. The fact they didn't extend from 2011 to 2017 does say a lot about how they had evolved. Also worth noting that lots of companies use PageRank - like Twitter.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I haven't confused anything, nor mislead anyone, and am not sure why you seem intent on having a confrontation, and again putting straw man arguments up arguing something I have not stated.

As I said, I have no intention of arguing, nor having a peeing contest, so will say no more.

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

You need more than backlinks

 

[OldWelshGuy]

You need more than backlinks

See you made it all so simple It really is the answer he needed.

 

[zobozobo]

I'll invest on contextual backlink and social signal only

 

[Karl B]

You need to build the brand awareness online, would it be possible to hook up with a fashion designer who can help you? It sounds like you need to go back to basics here. Yes, you need to make sure that your website is optimised and meets all the necessary criteria (mobile friendly, titles and metas etc) but you need to get the brand in front of people that are likely to buy your cufflinks. I'd suggest using tools like Buzzstream, Open Site Explorer and Followerwonk to find useful links and people to start talking to. This would be a good start.

If you're cufflinks have a USP then start creating some content around it and get a plan together. How well do you know your customers? Do you know what products they like to buy? Email marketing might be quite good for you in terms of data capture and getting in front of your potential customers. Be picky with the backlinks you go for and only go for the ones that are likely to drive traffic, if they drive traffic then there is a good chance the rankings will follow.

Good luck!

 

[danny30]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Can anyone recommend a good and competitively priced SEO company?

 

[CWT2k1]

Link building has come under fire again lately, due to people at Google talking about new ranking signals for next year or earlier. Checkout webpronews.com for this info. I'd recommend working on adding a blog to the site, which you can post all kinds of excellent content on which Google will find relevant and help you rank better. You have a huge advantage because the domain is aged and likely has a nice trust rating. Additionally due to age you want to make sure that it's fully complaint to the new mobile friendly guidelines, you need to be fully responsive by April 21st. let me know if you have other questions were happy to help

 

[StevePoster]

My Main question is should I just concentrate on high quality link building or do I need to target other SEO services to get the site back up?

When hiring individual or company to optimize your site don't focus on just building links but to study first your targeted users behavior such as intent, needs, and expectation. This is to benefit your audience and share with related networks.

I haven't confused anything, nor mislead anyone, and am not sure why you seem intent on having a confrontation, and again putting straw man arguments up arguing something I have not stated.
As I said, I have no intention of arguing, nor having a peeing contest, so will say no more.

Well said.
I'm wondering that there are some people treating the forum sites as a battlefield to look who's the expert and genius within the respective field. What's the point?

 

[CWT2k1]

http://www.affordablesocial.com is a good US provider of SEO. We've outsourced project to them from time to time and they've done a great job.

 

[businesswebsites.eu]

High quality backlinks do 90% of the job, the rest are over 200 hundreds factors Google checking including on-page. But still backlinks rocks, many things have changed but quality always win, if you build backlinks from high quality relative websites Google have no reason to penalize you and will reward you with high rankings. Don`t even thing about crappy tools like GSA SER, Scrapebox, Senuke etc. there are a lot of them, but the truth is all of them will soon dissapear, more and more people every month talking about that cos they just don`t work as before, all the resources are spammed to death and Google already marked them as a SPAM, so gathering backlinks from sch places is asking for trouble. Just stay away from tools thousands of people using ans spamming. Use not commonly used resources of backlinks, build your own PBN , it makes wonders

 

[astoller]

Since no SEO work has been carried out for 2 years, there could be penguin, panda and hummingbird penalties on your site. Best to get someone to take a look at it.
Of course as discussed above, links are important, but you need to have on-site fixed up as well, in order to rank.

 

[ZeroDouble]

What's a hummingbird penalty?

 

[Mkcoy]

You need social signals.

 

[darkest-pro]

I'll invest on contextual backlink and social signal only

Text links are the building blocks of every site theres ever been. To ignore the buying/building up of links is web suicide, Google knows this too well and why they impose penalties to keep decent sites down. Google calls it 'good for the web' - I call it vicious 'control'.

Social networks like Twitter aren't true links, but more like blogging or reduced forum posting.

Posting can help drive interest to your website, but don't expect critical link mass.

 

[Luckythelion]

I also agree that backlinks can't be ignored and they most probably will always work, The only thing that may change is the evaluation of their relevance by SE.

 

[darkest-pro]

If you can view a link on a page/site, it has worked, all that remains is for someone to click and visit you.