A Sinking Ship!

[SteveGerencser]

Welcome to the new world.

First, stop looking at pagerank. Second, don't look at follow/nofollow. Third, don't look at pagerank.

Instead, try hanging out where your customers hang out. Forget about search engines, look for traffic. Look for customers. If you can find those two things the rest takes care of itself.

[weegillis]

A link from a premium products company to yours under a costume jewelry/jewellery category could go a very long way. Perhaps seek out a few and strike up a deal. Their link to you would serve their customers needs (who are usually looking for unusual/eclectic gifts for corporate or office gifts) and your link to them would augment the product line you offer, by guiding your visitors to a broader range of choices. It's not the same as giving customers or conversions away, the way I see it. It's quid pro quo in an above board way.

[marknc]

That's insightful and well thought out weegillis. I hear what you say and I shall try and act upon it.

[marknc]

I hear you also Steve. Not sure how I find out where my customers hang out. I mean it's not like looking for trendy cafe in Hampstead where the well-heeled hang out and are looking for somewhere to spend their their well-earned! In a way you could say that the internet is blind! I will think more about what you say.

[marknc]

I have to say I'm struggling with this. The relegation for our main keywords has proved devastating. I desperately need a quick fix, but alas, I don't think there is one. I am using a proprietary software to help with backlinks but it's slow. I can't even find a "Links" of "Resources" page on bigger, better or more well-known websites. Not even certain how to get a backlink from blogs other than posting comments, but lots have got wise to this and I gather, apply a nofollow tag.

[SteveGerencser]

There is no quick fix, and worst of all, there may be no fix at all.

[carstensch]

Again, from conversations on other posts, it seems that Google is informing some owners on Google Webmaster Tools that they have detected a 'dubious' linking profile - I can't recall the exact message, but I understand that if this is the case, there is an option to submit a list of the linking sites you think might be 'dubious', with a disclaimer that you did not invite these links.

I think there is a number out there of 900k messages via GWT sent.

BUT you DONT wanna place a "Reconsideration Request" at Google. They start looking manually VERY Deep *ggg*. I think there is not one SEOed Site that could pass it

[carstensch]

Not sure where that comes from? Phew! There's a lot to think about in your post carstensch. I tried a link building campaign. I composed a clear and well written email in plain text all about us and requesting a link. I sent this out in blocks of ten at a time, to quality websites that have a high page rank. 99% didn't even reply. I was a bit at a loss as to what to do about that. It was frustrating. Then I asked myself, why should they give me a link, they don't know me from adam! What's in it for them? They can happily ignore my reqest and not lose sleep or ranking over it! I'm curious to know how it's done. How do you get a high quality website that is better placed to link to a lesser site?

Well .. ask yourself ... would you open a link request email? I dont got time for this and i blacklist em directly. I never take a look at such emails.

You wanna exchange or get content related Links that way? Search for related Domains, grab your phone and call em, ask for the right person to speak with and ask for an link exchange or for the price to get one! How easy is that?

I know ... dont search for "costume jewellery" ... search for "costume blog", "fashion blog", "jewellery blog" ... "key"+"forum" ... what ever ....

Analyze your Competitions Backlinks Metrics and check if you can get an Backlink on the same spots as they do ...

[murphypj]

I would still suggest picking the 'low-hanging fruit' of websites which allow you to create your own profile/microsite without the reciprocal requirement, as a starting point:

Google Maps/Places, Brownbook.net, Yelp.co.uk, Hotfrog.co.uk, Yalwa.co.uk, 118.com, Tuugo.info, Etaxiadirectory.com, Cylex-uk.co.uk, Infoguideuk.com, Yourlocalpages.co.uk, Tuugo.info, Qype.co.uk. These are some sites ( or the Irish equivalent ) I used on a recent project. The advantages were that all had already been showing ( either their homepage or a subscriber page ) in the SERPs, most are still providing some traffic from their visitors, and the combined effect of the client's presence on these sites provided a Google boost. Ridicule those who may, but I also got a listing on dmoz.org, which took a while longer to materialize, but coincided with an extra Page 1 boost. Maybe a coincidence, but can't do any harm.

In your own case, I just ran searches for 'jewellers association uk', and 'jewellery directory on Google.co.uk, there seem to be many reputable business and directory sites you could avail of here.

Of course if you can find related Blogs and Forum sites which allow you to post your own articles, then go for it, but my own feeling is that links on Blog and Forum comments you might make have minimal value, and will at some point be discounted for the spam which, in many cases, they are. If you can write compelling articles yourself and post them to the many article sites available ( Goarticles.com, EzineArticles.com - I'm sure more experienced article marketers can provide a long list, or you can find them in search. Big advantage with these is that you just need to put the effort in once, and it's done.

Social Bookmarking sites - Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com, Delicious.com, Reddit.com, Diigo.com etc. may not have the clout they once had, but I still see some of their versions of my Blog posts show on Page 1 for long-tail keywords, before being overtaken by the original post itself, so that they get your new content listed early, as well as passing on the 'juice' to your own content, pushing it up the ranks. Plus of course Twitter and now Pinterest. A bit more effort required here, as you need to update these sites with new content ( or resurrect previously unposted stuff ), it's just a matter of adding these tasks to the existing ones whenever you have something new to say.

Social Networking sites will require more effort still, but I think you will find it easier to garner fans and followers than you are currently finding with your link-building campaign. Much has already been written about the emphasis Google puts on social engagement, but I believe serious efforts in this area will bear fruit from the social engagement itself, and any boost to your SERPs will be a Google Plus ( excuse the pun ).

As mentioned in previous posts, by myself, carstensch and others, analyzing your competitors backlinks, and 'poaching' where you can is an absolute must.

I have to admit I have never used linking software, but am guessing from your comments that it is just automating the disappointment you get when you do this manually. There have been many alternative suggestions on this thread, I would suggest you spend some time on these, see which areas work, and spread your time allocation over these. Once you feel you have made some inroads into your target, you can revisit the others.

[marknc]

Actually yes! I do look at all link request emails. Most are good others are rubbish. I do prefer to talk to people over the phone but most websites do not make it easy to make contact this way. I feel good about the advice I've had here and the track I am on now. Already I have pulled a few good links (all be they reciprocal) but I think any good links will counterbalance the "crapola" that has found it's way to our door, and the more the better.

I have to admit I have never used linking software, but am guessing from your comments that it is just automating the disappointment you get when you do this manually.

Actually it's good. I do not use the automated submission, but use all the other functionality which is more organisational. Such as status of a link request, downloading information about the sites in question, creating, editing and updating the links pages and checking link backs. It's great actually, it helps a lot with an arduous task. I would recommend it.

As to the rest of your advise, I thank you. There is a whole host of suggestions there which sounds like it will keep me busy forever! I must try and put a little time aside to actually run my shop! Thanks again.