Help! My site was on page 1 of results for 3 years!

Beviboo · #1 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 07:12 PM

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum so forgive any ramblings.

I've been on the 1st page of Google and Yahoo! for 3 years when searching for "work at home" and "work at home jobs" but last week I couldn't find me at all! My keywords are the same. (I do my best to provide a variety of home-based businesses for those choosing to work from home and they're all original to me.)

I'm still listed somewhere, but buried deep in both. Needless to say, I was VERY surprised and naturally, my orders have dwindled to nearly nothing, meaning my income has almost stopped!

I emailed Google and they said they have the 'fairest' index on the web and have no way of deleting or moving a site once included. Practically the same answer from Yahoo! Well, something happened!!!

I haven't changed anything on my site other than to update a couple of pages, which I had done before with no change in status.

Can you help me and maybe take a look at my source to see what may have happened? I'm stumped and starving! I'm not too savvy on web stuff, but can usually work thru most of my problems.

Thanks for any help you can give me. I am most appreciative!
www.workathomeclassifieds.com

Bev

cbp · #2 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 08:09 PM

Welcome to WPW

A lot of people have posted in the last few days with similar problems. If you are going to come here and ask for help - please be honest and give us the full story - people do volunteer there time to take a look and get annoyed when obvious problems are found, when all along it could have been mentioned.

Why did you not tell us about your other identical site? ... have you heard of the duplicate content penalty?

CBP

Beviboo · #3 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 08:20 PM

Thanks for your reply CBP.

No, I don't know anything about a duplicate content penalty. Yes, I do have another site. Is that what you mean??? The URL's are different but the name is the same.

By the way, I'm as honest as they come!

Bev

cbp · #4 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 08:22 PM

Google drop a site when they are the same - why would they want to clutter up the index with two sites that have eaxactly the same content?

Search here for duplicate content...

CBP

Beviboo · #5 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 08:25 PM

Search where for duplicate content?

Thanks for your help, Bev

cbp · #6 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 08:27 PM

The search box on the top right of this page.

CBP

cbp · #7 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 09:40 PM

Search box in top right of this page.

CBP

Beviboo · #8 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 10:18 PM

Thanks CBP!

I initially came to this forum after reading in WebProNews dated 1/11/05, where Phantom had posted an article about achieving a #1 position in major search engines. I couldn't figure out what happened to my site on Google and Yahoo! and thought I might find an answer here.

I appreciate your insights. I've since read everything I could find on Google and in these forums about duplicate content. I even went to http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php and found in comparing my two sites that only l6% are found duplicated. According to other posts, that's low.

What do you suggest I do to get a higher ranking in Google? I can take down one site or increase my content or ?

Thanks again, Bev

cbp · #9 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 10:44 PM

They look 100% the same to me:
http://www.homejobsnow.com/
http://www.workathomeclassifieds.com/

What do others think?

CBP

Beviboo · #10 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 10:52 PM

Oh dear, you're using one of my DNS's that points to www.workathomeclassifieds.com . Of course it's 100%, it's the same site. The site I'm comparing it to is: www.americansworkathome.com my other site.

I have 3 DNS's that point to workathomeclassifieds.com It's never been a problem from 2 years ago when I first used them. I don't think we're on the same page - ?

Whadoya think?

Bev

cbp · #11 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 10:54 PM

You need to get rid of them - to Google, they are different sites (the URL stays the same in the browser address bar) -

All URL's should be 301 redirected to the one URL (that is what Google recommend)

CBP

Beviboo · #12 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 11:26 PM

So if I redirect all 3 DNS's to the one site, is this the magic bullet that will shoot my site back to page 1 where it's been for 3 years? Is this the 'real' fix I need to apply?

Thanks again! Bev

cbp · #13 (**permalink**) 01-13-2005, 11:28 PM

I wouldn't say that will happen.... but I would make the change ASAP - Google has indexed content from 2 of the URL's and has detected it as duplicate content --- thats not a good thing. Just make sure the that the redirects are 301's.

CBP