Too much buzz? Number 1 on Yahoo and Bing but low rank on Google

[debwork]

Could you help me on a particular site? I usually can figure it out but this one has me stumped. :confused:

stuart. stotts. com used to rank very well on Google and now it has taken a dive. It does appear on Google, just very low even with longtail search like "Early Childhood Keynote, Wisconsin" and "keynote speaker literacy childhood, Wisconsin" Firefox Rank Checker: #1 yahoo, #1 Bing - not in first 200 on Google. It used to be #1 on Google. Even for his own name which is in the URL the page rank is horrible.

I know that Google favors sites that get updated frequently and as a next step I am going to encourage the site owner to try a weekly update, but it feels like something is wrong. Thought I'd ask you first. Could a site suffer from too many people talking about him? It's stealing the Google juice?

[SnerdeyWebs]

Looks like Google Mayday has had an impact on that site?

[Lorel509]

Could you help me on a particular site? I usually can figure it out but this one has me stumped. :confused:

stuart. stotts. com used to rank very well on Google and now it has taken a dive. It does appear on Google, just very low even with longtail search like "Early Childhood Keynote, Wisconsin" and "keynote speaker literacy childhood, Wisconsin" Firefox Rank Checker: #1 yahoo, #1 Bing - not in first 200 on Google. It used to be #1 on Google. Even for his own name which is in the URL the page rank is horrible.

I know that Google favors sites that get updated frequently and as a next step I am going to encourage the site owner to try a weekly update, but it feels like something is wrong. Thought I'd ask you first. Could a site suffer from too many people talking about him? It's stealing the Google juice?

Rearrange the title so it matches your preferred keyword(s) and repeat the same in the text of the page at least once and expand the keywords in the link text, i.e., use Keynote Speaker instead of just Keynote, and also add the word "Wisconsin" to the page. Also the page has some canonical problems (linking to default.html instead of just "/".

[debwork]

Rearrange the title so it matches your preferred keyword(s) and repeat the same in the text of the page at least once and expand the keywords in the link text, i.e., use Keynote Speaker instead of just Keynote, and also add the word "Wisconsin" to the page. Also the page has some canonical problems (linking to default.html instead of just "/".

Thanks for responding - I added 'Wisconsin' because usually it would assure him being found, he was #1 without it and he speaks all over the US plus some international. If I search for 'early childhood keynotes' - the exact words on the page - it makes no difference in finding him. The title of the page is 'keynote speaker, early childhood, literacy, schools'. The description definitely should be honed but the after his name is keynote speaker.

and who does come up as #1 for 'early childhood keynotes'?
Julie Austin - Musician and Early Childhood Educational Consultant
It looks very much like Stuart's site! she doesn't have a page description at all.

This is the new thing Google doesn't like? Description: 'Stuart Stotts: Keynote Speaker, Conference presenter, author, storyteller, songwriter for libraries, schools, community events (literacy, elder voices, writing). '

... and I see that he has updated the keynote page recently so it is not that....


Looks like Google Mayday has had an impact on that site?

Last night I read articles about Mayday - 3 words is not all that longtail... plus his own name? I will read more what this group had to say on Mayday today. I have been reading the forum for years but admit to slacking off for the last couple of months (of all times).

Thank you for any help on this mystery.
I remember I was so skeptical about the success of his page that I asked friends all over the US to see if he was #1 in their location too - and he was. . . and now. . . he's the nowhere man!

[BoothWizard]

I just googled "keynote speaker literacy childhood, Wisconsin" and this post is number one. :)
But as you say, the page or site stuart. stotts. com isn't on the first page, although it is #1 on yahoo and bing.
I'm not sure why it's not on google (I think the experts would say it could be a hick up, so give it a little time before you panic), but my question would be, why a subdomain instead of a domain like stuartstotts or stuart-stotts? I know it would be a big deal to change, but the subdomain seems a little too clever for its own good. IMHO.

[debwork]

I just googled "keynote speaker literacy childhood, Wisconsin" and this post is number one. :)
But as you say, the page or site stuart. stotts. com isn't on the first page, although it is #1 on yahoo and bing.
I'm not sure why it's not on google (I think the experts would say it could be a hick up, so give it a little time before you panic), but my question would be, why a subdomain instead of a domain like stuartstotts or stuart-stotts? I know it would be a big deal to change, but the subdomain seems a little too clever for its own good. IMHO.

hmmm .. The client came to me with his URL. is that a negative? He has tons of external links in to his site so wouldn't that hurt him? I suppose we could do a domain forward.

I've been trying to improve its visibility for awhile and nothing seems to do the trick so decided I'd better seek help. Those dashes on the firefox rank checker - and the google analytics traffic coming from everywhere but Google? well, it's daunting.

That's funny the the longtail search to this post comes up and not his site. (is it?)

Anyway - feels like there is something that Google does.not.like. What what what...I wonder...

[peskyhuman]

Could a site suffer from too many people talking about him? It's stealing the Google juice?

If the people talking about him are also linking back to his site it should be a positive boost for the site, as long as Google can recognize that his own site is the most authoritative site on him. In order to be recognised as such he may need to release more written updates (blog type) more often (as you already say:)). My recent experiences are certainly showing the importance of content in order for a site to maintain its rankings.

[Martinscholes]

Unless, of course, Google takes against his blog posts? It's a tricky one. Every-so-often a Google insider puts out something telling the world that the bad impacts on things are not as bad as they appear and anyway, you had it good for years, so work harder to regain your position.

[BoothWizard]

I just googled the first sentence on his page in quotes, "Stuart Stotts is an author, storyteller and songwriter", and his page doesn't show up on google. I would say based on this that google does have an issue with his site, though I don't know what it is... It's also interesting that when I google his name, I don't find his site...

[Bernd]

Maybee your site is for Google only DC, because other stronger sites have exact phrases from your site published.
Yahoo Siteexplorer shows only 21 BLs from roundabout ten domains, so get more BLs.

[stevecane]

Some of my sites rank in Google but not at all in Yahoo or Ning, and some others are the opposite, I think it settles out over time tho ...

S

[debwork]

Maybee your site is for Google only DC, because other stronger sites have exact phrases from your site published. Yes, I was wondering if the other sites are squashing his ranking. Maybe the word ADULT is bothering Google. It has not improved over time so far. huh, even Tavis Smiley has a link in to his site. Unfortunately, he hesitates to pay more for me to try 'maybes'.

[mjtaylor]

The site also has a ton of links from the Yahoo directory. Google likes Yahoo directory links; this is a conundrum.

As an aside, you have a canonical issue; your home page links go to default.html. You should probably do a 301 so that all home page links go to www.stuartstotts.com (with or without the www.).

What terms did the site once rank for that are lost?

[Chief001]

Have you tried requesting some answers from Google about this? I don't know how long it will take the administrator to respond, but they might be able to give you a reason for it.

[debwork]

I ran across my bookmark for this thread this morning and decided to check up on things. The site now comes up #1 for his Stuart Stott's name on Google. It was a long time for it to resolve without me meddling with it - but it did. Thanks for all of thoughts.