Thanks for asking!
Let's see if we can pin down some reasons your site is no longer shown
under the desired search terms, and come up with ways to counter that
situation.
1. Flash Intro
There's very little in the Flash Intro page for a search engine to
grab onto. Google doesn't use META keywords in determining what the
page is about, and Flash doesn't offer text for Google to interpret.
There's nothing in the Flash content related to any of your desired
search terms. The sites that link to you, link the main domain URL,
which is the Flash page. Which leads to the next problem.
2. Few Inbound Links
Search engines use inbound links to help determine the importance of a
website. The site shows only two inbound links, one from Grahl, the
other from what looks like a rather shady link exchange. This sort of
link is very risky. Google's Quality Guidelines state: "Don't
participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking
or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad
neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected
adversely by those links." I'm afraid that "true value discounts"
falls into that bad neighborhood category. Sportsthisandthat could
well be considered a similar bad neighborhood. This type of linking
could well be why the site has dropped out of the top listings. The
search engines penalize sites that are involved with linking schemes.
Remedies
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Seek quality links. "Your website is a window to the world wide web.
In addition to the useful content or products you have to offer, you
can provide a superior service to your visitors by offering high
quality links to other sites."
"The benefits of linking go even further. Your site's search engine
ranking can be raised by the quality of your links. Links to, as well
as from your site. For better or worse, your site is partially judged
by the company you keep."
In the interests of full disclosure, the quotes above are my own words
from my own website.
Web Design Guide (Promotion Tutorial) | Links and Link Quality
http://www.dreamink.com/promo3.shtml
Seek inbound links from local organizations and your customers, as
well as sites whose content complements your own. Link OUT to high
quality information on your own or related subjects, including review
sites, and any product information that is genuinely useful to your
customers. If you're after local business, make sure to list list your
address prominently on your homepage and contact pages. GoogleLocal
(and other local versions of popular search engines) can be an
excellent source of traffic. Such strategies pay off long term.
Seek listings in the big directories, ODP, Yahoo, Looksmart. These
highly desirable links shout "quality". Regional listings are
generally easy to claim, even if you are unable to obtain listings
under the product or industry categories.
How to Suggest a Site to the Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/add.html
Yahoo Directory Listings | Suggest a Site Help
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/dir/suggest/index.html
Zeal (LookSmart) Register and Add A Site Profile
http://zeal.com/
When seeking links, you might consider using your default.htm page as
the link destination, rather than the Flash page.
See your site as the search engines do. Use the SimSpider or the
Keyword Density Analyzer to help you create keyword related content.
Search Engine World Tools (scroll to Tools Menu)
http://www.searchengineworld.com
Read this "Build a High Ranking Page" tutorial. It's outdated with
respect to meta tags (META keywords have been much downgraded in
importance since 1997), but the basic process is still the same.
http://www.searchengineworld.com/tips/doit.htm
Webmaster Guidelines
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Familiarize yourself with search engine Guidelines, and check them
every 3-4 months or so. Both Google and Yahoo describe the sort of
pages they don't want in their results. Make sure your site stay away
from the practices that are considered suspect.
-- "Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your
users, or present different content to search engines than you
display to users."
-- "Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good
rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what
you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful
test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search
engines didn't exist?"
Google Information for Webmasters
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Search Engine Resources
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Rankings
http://www.googlerankings.com
Yahoo Rankings
http://www.yahoorankings.com
Search Engine Watch
http://www.searchenginewatch.com
Webmaster World
http://www.webmasterworld.com
Search Engine Online Search Engine Tools
http://www.searchengineworld.com/misc/tools.htm
HighRankings Advisor (free Newsletter, plus extensive Archives)
http://www.highrankings.com/advisor.htm
SEO Chat Forums
http://www.seochat.com/
I hope you find this information useful. Should you have any questions
about the information or links provided, please feel free to ask for
clarification.
---larre
The Fine Print: As stated in our TOS, Google Answers Researchers are
not Google employees. We don't speak officially for the search engine.
Those of us who answer this type of question are generally
knowledgeable about search engine performance based upon personal
experience and observation.
Answer Strategy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I prepared this answer from personal bookmarks, and well known SEO
expert sites. The information provided is based upon personal and
professional experience as a web designer, working in tandem with
search engine optimization specialists.
. |
