Problem with getting a site to rank at all
-
We pushed this Word Press site live about a month ago www.primedraftarchitecture.com.
Since then we've been adding regular content, blog posts 3 times a week with social posts on facebook, twitter, G+ and LinkedIn. We also submitted via Moz Local about 3 weeks ago. Yext about two weeks ago and have been adding about 5 listings to small local directories a week.
Webmaster tools shows that the site map is valid and the pages of the site are getting indexed and it shows links from 7 sites, mostly directories.
I'm just not seeing the site ranking for anything. We're getting zero organic traffic.
I though we did a good job not over optimizing the pages. I'm just stymied trying to figure out what's wrong. Usually we push a site live and see at least some low rankings after just a couple of weeks.
Can anyone see anything that looks bad or where we've gone wrong?
-
Great follow-up Donald. Validates the advice given.
-
Just FYI for anyone who sees this post later on. We're getting a marked improvement in organic search traffic after fixing some of the page load speed issues.
Thanks for the help!
-
I doubt that it's Sandbox - if you look at the common signals for Sandbox (http://moz.com/blog/googles-sandbox-still-exists-exemplified-by-gradercom) your site would not be found for any keyword, not even your brand name, and have normal rankings in Bing.
I did a few very specific searches with phrases from your site both on Bing & Google:
"Everything that you are looking to achieve with your home addition or renovation project" => both have the same result (=your site)Search for brand name - rank 1 in Bing - rank 3 google - so doesn't look like a typical Sandbox situation.
Rgds,
Dirk
PS Noticed that the speed of your site improved dramatically - so hopefully you will see you site start to rank soon
-
Is there a way to tell for sure if you're in the sandbox?
-
While there are definitely some issues, the main problem here is simply time and links. Moz Local was a great idea but I'd also suggest claiming more social media profiles. Google has a sandbox for new sites where it is reluctant to rank them. A few months from now, with more local listings and social media listings and your site will show a lot better. Be sure to focus on some of your industry specific links as well.
-
Thanks Donna!
-
Makes sense! Two other quick things I noticed are: (1) you're parking your blog posts in the root directory versus the blog folder. That will dilute your SEO equity on main site pages. (2) You should no-index your author, category and tag pages for the same reason.
-
Thumbs up that Dirk's analysis of the site speed should probably be your largest concern. I've seen several new sites really struggle to initially rank if they're in the red on those scores. 21 / 25 are really bad. Do everything you can to quickly get those in the green and you should start to appear in the rankings. This, along with Google's stance on only indexing mobile sites that have high mobility scores are two trends that aren't going away.
-
Thanks for the response Donna,
In Webmaster tools I'm not seeing any queries and very few impressions.
I would expect the the site to be at least ranking for "nj architect", even at a very low ranking 50+, just based on the site's content. I'm not expecting first page rankings yet. I am just now seeing any at all. That's what concerns me, that there may some other problem with the way the site is set up.
-
Thanks for the help Dirk!
-
Looks like you're competing for terms with very low traffic and high competition.
I see you have Google Analytics installed, so your tracking is probably working as it should.
When you look at Google Webmaster Tools under Search Traffic > Search Queries, are you seeing any impressions? That would give you a sense of whether anyone's searching for the terms you've chosen to optimize and whether you're showing up in search results. Not always, but it's a sign.
I think you just have a lot of work ahead of you and you're not yet ranking. I used SEO Book's rank checker tool to do a quick check to see how you're ranking for "architect in new jersey", "nj architect", and "residential architect in nj". (I got those terms from title tags on the site.) It indicated you weren't ranking at all.
-
Donald,
There are some issues with your site which could be causing the problems:
1. The load time of the homepage is quite slow -http://www.webpagetest.org/result/150316_8R_Y5A/1/details/ - apart from the heavy images, you also load a huge number of css & js files. If you analyse the page with Google Pagespeed https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fprimedraftarchitecture.com%2F&tab=desktop you get very low scores - both for mobile & desktop. I would remove some of the fancy stuff on the page & focus on the essentials. Follow the recommendation of both tools to make your site faster. This would be the top priority if it was my site.
2. There are some smaller on-page issues
- not all the pages have a H1 title
- http://primedraftarchitecture.com/architecture-consultation has a canonical url which doesn't exist
- http://primedraftarchitecture.com/author/mike-sweebe/ exist 2 times (duplicate: http://primedraftarchitecture.com/author/Mike-Sweebe/) - images are quite heavy (11 > 100kb)
3; Analytics
You seem to use both Universal & async tags on page (Universal on Contact / Async on the remainder) - on /blog you measure multiple 6 page views when only one should be measured. I would put everything on universal (and implement it in the head-tag
Hope this helps,
Dirk
- not all the pages have a H1 title
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to get stars in my search results?
Is it possible for me to take my Google reviews and show them under my homepage as stars when my page is shown in search results. I provide a service, so I don't have separate product reviews. My homepage is what ranks most in the searches I target. If this is possible, what is the best way to do it technically? I have a wordpress site. Thank you in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | CalicoKitty20001 -
Do Google Know What People Are Doing On My Site?
I run an ecommerce site and am keep to increase the time on site and reduce bounce rate. I have had some good results from writing good articles and advertising them on Outbrain and Twitter; both of these metrics have improved. However, I am wondering if Google will see this. Clearly if people land on the pages from the SERPS and return there they will know what is happening but will they know if people get there from an advert?
On-Page Optimization | | T0BY0 -
How to rank in Google during domain name search?
We have received one requirement for this website. http://www.coldcasebeer.com/ We would like to rank in Google during domain name search. If we are going to search following search terms in Google then We are not able to see this domain on first page of Google search result. cold case beer coldcasebeer We have done quick research on this issue. And, We have decided to implement following tasks to make it happen.But, We are quite excited to read certain inputs on this question from experts! 1. Upload default Robots.txt file 2. Verify website on Google webmaster tools 3. Set up USA region on Google webmaster tools 4. Submit Google crawl request on Google webmaster tools 5. Title tag and Meta description optimization for all pages (There are 5 pages only on website) 6. Audit Google local listing 7. Develop quality links with domain name
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0 -
Big problem with my new crawl report
I am owner of small opencart online store. I installed http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension/info&extension_id=6182&filter_search=seo. Today my new crawl report is awful. The number of errors is up by 520 (30 before), up with 1000 (120 before), notices up with 8000 (1000 before). I noticed that the problem is with search. There is a lot duplicate content in search only. What to do ?
On-Page Optimization | | ankali0 -
How can I get on-page analysis reports ?
I started trying out seomoz' facilities as a way to give myself a checklist of things to do-and-don't while learning SEO. Faced with a ton of new and interesting information, I started optimizing my home page and writing some content that can tell a story to people in my business. So I started using on-page analysis tools. But the campaign opening screen is telling me to wait for reports approx. two weeks. There are some reports ( not so good ones, a lot to improve ) but not the one I need most: the on-page analysis one. I set up two campaigns and I have the same problem for both. Am I doing something wrong ? Can I change my pages to make this work ?
On-Page Optimization | | wiebe0 -
Site Structure
I'm confused about the best way for seo to set up the site structure . i understand the examples of the pyramid diagrams and how link juice flows, however does this mean that global navigation is not good? It appears the pyramid structure leads to the designated number of category pages (we'll use five) and they lead to the 5 content pages etc and some "superman pages" can be linked to from the home page but is this is global navigation or anchor text navigation and is gloval navigation acdeptable for content pages? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | JulB0 -
Impact of mobile pages on current rankings
Morning all - I've been getting a bit of traffic recently for mobile phrases, so am thinking of putting a mobile optimised page on my site which users will be automatically directed to when they visit my site. My question is though, how will this affect the rankings of those current pages which are trying to target mobile users. For example, let's say I've got a page at www.betting.com/iphone which is ranking really well for those users looking to place a few bets on their iPhone. Once I stick my mobile optimised page up anyone clicking through to this URL will be re-directed to a generic mobile landing page at a different URL. Is this likely to effect my rankings of the original www.betting.com/iphone page at all given the fact that all visitors are being immediately re-directed elsewhere? Thanks very much for your help
On-Page Optimization | | theshortstack0 -
Best information organization for a new site?
I'm launching a new stain removal website, and wanted to know what would be considered the best way to organize the content? Since most articles will roughly involve "removing X from Y" or "how to remove Z," I can see two ways... 1. Organize articles by Stained Items, Stain Agents and perhaps Cleaning Detergents. 2. Spread the categories out more, to try and group stained items according to categories... E.g. Hard surfaces, delicates, fabrics, ceramics etc. Any thoughts on which of these two might be the best way to organize the site, or are there any better suggestions? Not sure what the main considerations are here... Either of these two seem equally user-friendly.
On-Page Optimization | | ZakGottlieb710