Help with my site / slipping down SERPs

[dbramley]

Hi,
Can anyone help with an issue I'm having with an established website of mine?
(The site is about a local town in North East England)

My site: This is Hartlepool - Hartlepool Tourism, Hotels, Forum, Hartlepool Guide has been around for about seven or so years and I've updated it regularly with content etc. I've tried to keep on top of SEO and used any tips or tricks that have come out

My main keyword used to be 'Hartlepool' - recently I've slipped down Google's rankings from 2nd in the list to near bottom (and I've noticed my homepage is not even appearing today!)
I've also slipped down to 3rd page on Yahoo.

I suppose my question is Why? or What can I do to move back up!?

Any help would be appreciated!

thanks
Dan

[google junky]

Cross-Linking
There are different views on this, so you will want to ask someone else also to get a well rounded opinion.

Have you ever heard of cross-linking(domains)?
My view on linking to other domains in navigation is that it is seen by search engines as somewhere between grey and black hat tactics. You do seem to be using it in a good way, but I wouldn't use it at all.

Was it this way for the 7 or so year span that you were doing so well?

[seiretto]

Hi Dan,

It happens to sites all the time. In your case it could be the fact that other related sites now have a greater weight/ranking than yours.

Also it _could_ be that you have a good deal of pages (90% of whats in Googles index) that google sees as repeated pages:
site:www.thisishartlepool.co.uk - Google Search

They may well be district pages with their own relevant unique content but google is not seeing it as such

Time to get the fine tooth comb out and go through your pages to check the essentials are there for each page, then think of building your ranking....

Hope that gives you some were to start.

[seiretto]

Also, the "Who hung the monkey" page is on the first page when searching for Hartlepool!

Why is that? Maybe the most linked to page? Time to delve into your stats.

[larryweiss]

That happened to me. #1 for six years, and then slipped daily towards # 200.

Looking over the stats showed me search terms like incest, porn; really disturbing stuff. So I tried one of the search terms, and there it was; someone had planted an entire porn site in my deepest directory. They even gave the directory an arty name consistent with the rest of my squeaky clean site.

The moral: use long complex meaningless passwords.

[emps]

Originally Posted by google junky

Cross-Linking
There are different views on this, so you will want to ask someone else also to get a well rounded opinion.

Have you ever heard of cross-linking(domains)?
My view on linking to other domains in navigation is that it is seen by search engines as somewhere between grey and black hat tactics. You do seem to be using it in a good way, but I wouldn't use it at all.

Was it this way for the 7 or so year span that you were doing so well?

This website is all about the town named Hartlepool.

The problem i see with the navigation links is not so much having the links,but having links to domains

WITHOUT relevance. For instance even tho Sunderland is also a town in North East England it is a DIFFERENT town.

So really, in other words only links relating to Hartlepool would be relevant.

If the site was about "North East England Places" then there would be relevance. As we all know relevance along

with content is king.

[Martinscholes]

I have checked and on Google.com you are fourth and fifth on Google.co.uk and sixth on Ask.co.uk

So, not too bad. The borough and the footie club are the ones above you!

[dbramley]

I've often been unsure about the cross linking, but I've had it in place for about two years now. I know its not directly related linking to other North East Towns but I kinda thought they were 'similar'.

I've noticed now the site is appearing in 4th position - not sure what's going on there but it didnt appear at all last week! Still on page 3 of yahoo as well.

thanks for the replies
Dan

[monfis]

Google is updating it's index since weeks. These fluctuations are nomal during an update. You should wait until the update is finished in order you make conclusions.

[amjonathan]

There are tons of reasons why you could slide down the list, some of them are at no fault of your own. The best idea is to contact a professional in regards to a certain engine as they are all different.