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7CityJobs.com - Desperate for Google Ranking Assistance!

7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
Hoping someone in the community can help me with my Google ranking problem. 
 
I started 7CityJobs.com in late 2007.  It`s a local/regional employment or job listing website covering Hampton Roads here in Virginia.    Initially, I could find myself sometimes on page 2 or 3, but have subsequently fallen off the face of the Google planet  and can`t seem to find the right (legitimate) trick to getting ranked. 
 
Doing well with the other search engines, but Google has me stumped.   I`m certain that I have something wrong with the site, and that I`m not in the "sandbox" (having problems for too long now), and would appreciate any advice anyone out there may have.    
 
Thank you VERY much in advance for your consideration and time!
 
Sincerely,
Mike
 
 
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Comments

  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Well, the good news is your site is indexed by Google.
     
    What are your targeted search terms? Hampton Roads and Hampton Roads Jobs are very competitive and competing in the on-line job arena is highly competitive (against careerbuilder, monster, et all). You have many, many keywords on your home page and are not really optimized for any selected few.
     
    The bad news... you do not have any back links (showing on Google Yahoo, or MSN). You need to work on getting to your site especially from relevant/related and popular web sites. Improving your back links will help.
     
    You can start by using a back link from SUN (in your signature). Critical is what search term to use as the text link.
     
    So, one of the first things to do is to determine what search terms you want (and can effectively) target.
     
    Since your site`s domain does NOT have "Hampton Roads" in it, it will be hard to overcome those sites that do. One "trick" is to use "hamptonroads" as a subdomain or even a directory.
    You`ll see a few sites that do this now.
     
    If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
     
    ~Roland
     
  • 7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
    Roland,
           Thanks so much!  Will definitely check out your site and contact you as well.    This was very helpful.  I know I`m not the first person to have trouble with Google rankings, however, I can`t tell you how much time I`ve spent trying to noodle this one out without any substantial progress being made.   Believe you`re spot-on about the keywords being all wrong.   Will tackle the things you recommended mosh-kosh.   Thanks again Roland!
    Sincerely,
    Mike
    :)
  • 7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
    Does anyone out there know how to tell whether or not a website is in the Google "Sandbox" or not?     I`m guessing it`s an art form vice a science.    Thanks!
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    How old is you site (how long has the domain name been online)?
     
    If your website is not new to Google (it has already been indexed several months ago), sandbox should not be your problem anymore.
     
    If your website has been already online for a certain period (it appears in serps) the sandbox should not be a problem for you.
     
    The "Sandbox" may or may not exist... there are people on both sides.
     
    If it is or is not in the "sandbox" you still do the same thing... work on optimizing your site for your targeted search terms and work on getting quality text based lin-bound links.
     
    ~Roland
    vwebworld4/21/2008 7:50 PM
  • 7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
    Thanks Roland,
             I got the domain name in July of last year, and had the website up and running since October.  I was ranking fine on Google for a month or two (page 3 to 2), and in February, I found that one or two of my variations of "7CityJobs" (sevencityjobs, etc.) had the wrong/old server numbers they were pointing to and corrected them via GoDaddy (that was about the time I disappeared on Google).
           I know you`re right about the optimizing though, and that I really need to do it.  Thanks Roland!
    Mike
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    vwebworld... the backlink in your signature here will not work, this site adds the "no follow" tag to URLs so google will not see those as backlinks.

     
    Ah... yes correct!  I thought at one point the backlinks worked from SUN
     
    ~Roland
    vwebworld4/23/2008 2:13 PM
  • 7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
    Brent & Roland,
          Great advice and thanks!!!
    Mike
     
  • 7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
    Weird.  Yesterday, I popped on Google on page 1 to 3, based on my preferred search terms, and then disappeared within an hour, and I have no idea why.  Still no where to found today.  It`s all magic and mystery (and more than a little frustrating).
    I modified my search terms (thanks again for the advice Roland and Brent) based on word search popularity, but believe I still have something technically wrong with my website.  I even worked on my homepage content (minimized/cleaned it up, etc.).   
    If anyone else out there sees anything obviously wrong with my websites functionality, as it might pertain to Google, I`d really appreciate your advice!
    Thank you!
  • sddreamweaverssddreamweavers subscriber Posts: 5 Member
    Does anyone out there know how to tell whether or not a website is in the Google "Sandbox" or not?    
    Yes, if you get to the end of a given search result and you see the following:In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the XXX already displayed.
    If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.
    Then your pages are in the supplemental index (aka The Sandbox).
    ::edit::
    Let me clarify.  If you search through Google, and don`t see your page by the time you hit this message, then your pages are 1) in the supplemental index or 2) Google does not have your site contained in their index.sddreamweavers5/22/2008 10:49 PM
  • handelgatehandelgate subscriber Posts: 2
    Very interesting discussion. One question. I`m just starting to promote my website. What do you think of the doorway pages? Can I use them and if yes, how should I use them?
    Thanks a lot.
  • 7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
    Mr. Wood,
         Sorry for this very tardy reply.   Really appreciate your feedback.   Since I`ve never seen that search result, I don`t believe I`m in the perverbial sanbox, however, I do have something inherently wrong with my web design.    If anyone has any suggestions, please shoot!
    Thanks again for all of your help!
    Sincerely,
    Mike
  • 7cityjobs7cityjobs subscriber Posts: 1
    Brent281,
          Thanks!  I have done those things.  Unsure how long it takes for DMOZ to pick you up (hopefully soon!).   I drilled down into DMOZ and targeted my specific region (Hampton Roads), based on another article I found online.  (Apparently, the more specific, regionally, you are with DMOZ the better.   We`ll see....  Really appreciate the feedback.
    Thanks again! 
    Sincerely,
    Mike
     
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Your site isindexed by Google and you have a page rank.
     
    ~Roland
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Back links are incoming links to your site from other sites.The more you have usually improves your site`s popularity and importance. Ideally it`s good to have back links to your site are from compatible sites - relevant to yours and the link is a targeted keyword/phrase.
     
    You can get back links in a number of ways. Obviously asking for a link from another website, but you can also get back links from directories, forums (like SUN), blogs, and other social networking sites (YouTube, Squidoo, MySpace...etc). Try to avoid link exchanges.
     
    Whenever you post something on a forum like SUN you should try to use a keyword based link to your site... for example, you might use credit card processing (linked back to your site) since that is a primary key phrase on your site.
     
    ~Roland
     
    vwebworld7/21/2008 9:08 PM
  • verneverne subscriber Posts: 1
    hello,what i did was to focus on other search egines and dex and yellow pges and it works and find free sites in your area newspaper etc.hope it helps
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