Need help in diagnosing what I may be doing wrong
-
I have a site that has been having problems ranking. Initially, spam rate was at 18%. I have since changed the URL and forwarded to the original so now the spam rate is under 5%. Phone calls started picking back up very slowly but then by August 2024 things came to a screeching halt. Phone has been dead and very little business has been written. I did notice on the robots.txt file it had this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow:
User-agent: bingbot
Disallow: /no-bing-crawl/
Disallow: wp-adminand now I have since changed it to this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.phpSitemap: https://urlishere.com/sitemap_index.xml
My question is what else do I need to do to get this site to start ranking again? We are blogging once a month, writing press releases once a month, updating the social media a few times a week. I feel like maybe there is something on the backend that needs to be done to get this site back to ranking. I am using SEO by Yoast and I have filled in the title and meta description fields for all pages. There is a spot in Yoast where I can validate the site with Google, Bing, etc. I'm trying to figure out how to do that. I do see in the site's Google Webmaster Tools there are several pages not indexing. Any ideas on what else I can do to get this site to start ranking again? Thank you.
-
Be specific about the issue. What is not working as expected?
-
@SOM24 I highly suggest you run an audit of your current backlinks and try to identify if you have any toxic or spammy backlinks pointing to your site. If so, you can create a disavow file of the toxic links and submit to Search Console. Off-Page SEO is Important!
-
If you’re struggling with getting your site to rank again, I can help. With extensive experience in SEO optimization, content creation, and digital strategy, I specialize in crafting solutions that drive real results. Whether you need to boost your on-page SEO, fix indexing issues, build high-quality backlinks, or improve your site’s overall performance, I offer tailored services designed to meet your unique needs.
-
I was facing the same problem, but updating the sitemap solved this problem.
-
Hi, have you changed the web design or lost any good links recently?
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
-
Remove the link from Google
Hi,
SEO Tactics | | CerenSEO
I am new here and I have an issue to solve. I do not anything about SEO.
My ex harasses me using SEO and causing defamation by crawling unwanted website. Google does not remove the website as it is public record. 1: how can I remove it? I am not even sure if he uses backlink because website link is pdf and he might do some other technics
2:Although I am sure he uses SEO, I can not prove it and nobody believes me. How can I proof it?0 -
Who is the best SEO expert in the World?
Hey everyone, i am creating a blog post on Top SEO Experts in the World. I need your recommendation who is in the top 10 list? Your suggestions is highly appreciated for me. Thanks!
International SEO | | gxpl090 -
Who is correct - please help!
I have a website with a lot of product pages - often thousands of pages. As each of these pages is for a specific lease car they are often only fractionally different from other pages. The urls are too long, the H1 is often too long and the Title is often too long for "SEO best practice". And they do create duplication issues according to MOZ. Some people tell me to change them to noindex/nofollow whilst others tell me to leave them as they are as best not to hide from google crawler. Any advice will be gratefully received. Thanks for listening.
Technical SEO | | jlhitch0 -
Alternate Spelling of Brand
Our brand is called The Queen's Lace. Based on Search Console, more people search for it by "Queens Lace" than "The Queen's Lace". Any suggestions on how I can improve SEO on "Queens Lace"? Search Console (last 28 days) "the queen's lace": 206 impressions, 60.7% CTR, 1.1 avg position "queens lace": 518 impressions, 46.3% CTR, 2.2 avg position Note: our domain is thequeenslace.com and I use a redirect from queenslace.com. Thanks,
Technical SEO | | pmk0
Patrick0 -
Will amp be effective in 2022?
Will AMP be effective in 2022? I am thinking of using AMP on my website since Core Web Vitals has become a ranking factor. For mobile devices, I guess AMP would be a good option to align with the Core Web Vital update.
Algorithm Updates | | Yash20020 -
Rankings have fallen suddenly - I need a plan of attack.
I started my business a few years ago. Only recently (6 month) I started to get some good traffic and sales. At first I was ranking pretty well 3-5 for my main keywords and business began to pick up. After Penguin I was hit hard and I'm placing 10-17'ish. My Google local/places has disappeared too. I haven't received any contact from Google about unnatural links (but I'm not sure where that would appear? Email? Web Master Tools? Horses head on my pillow?). I've read so many different things online about what I 'could' do. I'm not sure where to start. I've checked and I know we've created lots of questionable back links. Using the Open Site Explorer lots of the backlinks don't have terrible DA but some do. I guess I was hoping someone would give me a checklist or priority list of things to do. It's just me so I need to use my time as best I can. What should I be doing first? Should I be trying to: Remove my bad backlinks? Spend my time making quality backlinks. On-page issues that I can't see? Telling google i'm sorry via web master tools. Changing to new domain (eek) I'm very time poor and hoped the seoMoz community might save me from wasting my time. www.bringyourownlaptop.com.au Keywords: indesign training, web design courses & photoshop courses Thank you in advance. Dan
Technical SEO | | danlovesadobe0 -
Joomla Title Help - Plugin?
I am currently working on a site in Joomla (2.5) and continue to run across issues with titles. Currently, the site is set to display the page title just over the content. Turning this off really is not an option, as it is necessary to keep these titles as part of the content. Right now, my page titles are not well optimized. What I would like to have is a separate meta title used for SEO purposes, similar to what a plugin like Yoast would do in WordPress - where there is a name for a page (often used in content as well), but a meta title that is used by Google. Hope that makes sense. If anyone knows of a plugin that may be helpful, that would be great. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | DeliaAssociates0 -
Do sites really need a 404 page?
We have people posting broken links to our site is this looking us link juice as they link to 404 pages. We could redirect to the homepage or just render the home page content, in both cases we can still display a clear page not found message. Is this legal (white hat).
Technical SEO | | ed1234560