Does my site just need a tweak, or should it be rebuilt from the ground up?

[chuckstar_za]

My wedding photography website has grown organically over the last 4 years or so.
Each year it's been fiddled with, changed, tweaked, prodded - in short it's been mucked about with a lot.
To the point now where I think it's become a hodge potch of mucky code (theme installed on theme in stalled on theme and numerous plugins) and no real 'structure' to it.

At the moment it hovers around #12 for my main area of focus - people looking for a wedding photographer in Essex, England. So 'wedding photographer Essex'.

I try to write blog posts regarding venues in Essex where I've photographed weddings. Despite trying to follow best practice, and with weak/low competition, these posts very rarely crack top 10.

Last year when I was top 2 for wedding photographer Essex I was victim of a spam link attack. At the time I asked for advice and was told not to worry as Google didn't count these links. Now I'm feeling that along with the bloated website, lack of proper site architecture and other little issues, these links are contributing to restricting my pages from ranking in top 10 spots. Backlinking, while always helpful, doesn't seem to play a major role when trying to rank for venue related searches according to backlink reports on competitors.

I'm thinking that it might be an idea to rebuild the site and content from the ground up. This time with a proper site structure in place and conforming to best practice.  Obviously this is probably the most extreme course of action.

Or does my site just need a little TLC to get it ranking better?
The site in question is:
www.alexkilbeephotography.co.uk

Thanks

[chuckstar_za]

Hi Adam.

I've just actually posted regarding this (the backlinks) in the backlinks section.
Might be better to address that specific question there:
http://moz.com/community/q/dealing-with-spam-link-attack

I'm not really sure where to start with getting these links removed.

Thanks for your input.

[adammason]

Hi Alex

Looking at your link profile the anchor texts of your links look over optimised. I would almost certainly say these are causing issues with your site and could be a reason why your site isn't ranking for those key terms.

Before looking at investing time and money into changing the architecture of the site. I would look into analysing all links pointing to your site and see if you can get some of the unnatural links removed. Then give Google time to notice the change.

I hope this helps.

Adam