I see the same trend in SERP..

[brucelee4]

Whenever i do SEO work on a website I keep falling under the same problem, i strictly go with guest posts as a link building strategy and in the beginning it always works out amazing, then i hit a plateau when websites main keywords hit page 2-3. Everything just freezes no matter the amount of guest posts. Anyone have a similar situation and what could i hit the websites with to get a steady ranking affect again? I’d rather not use PBNs.. but if that works for y’all let me know.

 

[tazarbm]

link diversity is a thing, so you might want to build up as diverse of a link profile as possible. That's one thing...

Another thing, google are looking for natural growth of backlinks, or organic growth if you prefer to call it that. That is, consistent growth of links, not 2 links a day for 3 months and then stop. Natural link building, FWIW, means CONSTANTLY building links for as long as your site exists.

Sure, at some point (after you achieve the desired rankings) you can slow down, but if you fully stop acquiring links and / or publishing new content / updating the existing content google - in their retardness - will think that your site is dead and they'll start de-ranking you slowly (at least it used to be like this a few years ago, I'm not sure if it's still the same today, but it's one of the things you need to consider). And that's the 2nd thing...

The 3rd thing: link velocity and anchor texts. You might pull the previous 2 conditions perfectly, but if your link velocity (as deemed by google) and anchor texts are not safe, you're going to stagnate / get penalized.

This guide that's been created by a true expert in link building (@tiiberius, of course) will help you understand where you fall / fell short, so give it a read and you might be able to figure out what you've done / are doing wrong:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-how-many-links-per-day-week-or-month-should-i-build.1502403/
Last but not least, the fact that you're stuck on a fixed position on pages 2-3 tells me that you're not necessarily doing things wrong, but - and I know you hate hearing this, but I'm going to say it anyway - this could really mean that you need stronger links, ie. PBN links. It sucks, I know (because good PBNs are expensive), but they're expensive because they have power, and if you're in a tough niche or are trying to rank for tough keywords (buyer keywords in profitable niches, that is) - and my nose tells me that this is the case - then you're going to need PBNs to get better rankings...

 

[NeedMyLink]

Good comment, I would like to add a little more to your point. Although PBNs can work, there are risks involved. If you go down this path, make sure you use quality PBNs with a clean history. It's a wild game, but adaptability is key.

 

[virtualbyron]

Whenever i do SEO work on a website I keep falling under the same problem, i strictly go with guest posts as a link building strategy and in the beginning it always works out amazing, then i hit a plateau when websites main keywords hit page 2-3. Everything just freezes no matter the amount of guest posts. Anyone have a similar situation and what could i hit the websites with to get a steady ranking affect again? I’d rather not use PBNs.. but if that works for y’all let me know.

Because you need to send trust/authority signal to Google, the minimum publication fee for a real site is usually $100, how much did your guest post cost you?

 

[paja93]

link diversity is a thing, so you might want to build up as diverse of a link profile as possible. That's one thing...

Another thing, google are looking for natural growth of backlinks, or organic growth if you prefer to call it that. That is, consistent growth of links, not 2 links a day for 3 months and then stop. Natural link building, FWIW, means CONSTANTLY building links for as long as your site exists.

Sure, at some point (after you achieve the desired rankings) you can slow down, but if you fully stop acquiring links and / or publishing new content / updating the existing content google - in their retardness - will think that your site is dead and they'll start de-ranking you slowly (at least it used to be like this a few years ago, I'm not sure if it's still the same today, but it's one of the things you need to consider). And that's the 2nd thing...

The 3rd thing: link velocity and anchor texts. You might pull the previous 2 conditions perfectly, but if your link velocity (as deemed by google) and anchor texts are not safe, you're going to stagnate / get penalized.

This guide that's been created by a true expert in link building (@tiiberius, of course) will help you understand where you fall / fell short, so give it a read and you might be able to figure out what you've done / are doing wrong:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-how-many-links-per-day-week-or-month-should-i-build.1502403/
Last but not least, the fact that you're stuck on a fixed position on pages 2-3 tells me that you're not necessarily doing things wrong, but - and I know you hate hearing this, but I'm going to say it anyway - this could really mean that you need stronger links, ie. PBN links. It sucks, I know (because good PBNs are expensive), but they're expensive because they have power, and if you're in a tough niche or are trying to rank for tough keywords (buyer keywords in profitable niches, that is) - and my nose tells me that this is the case - then you're going to need PBNs to get better rankings...

Thats not natural at all. In fact, "link building" it self is a shady technique from the googles perspective. Natural growth is when you dont think about black links at all, you just publish, share on social media, share on forums when possible etc, but nothing else. Backlinks were supposed to be something that other websites give you without you asking them/paying for it. And acquiring those kind of natural backlinks takes time, a lot of time, to build some reputation and authority and to get seen so the other website owners start linking to you on their own. Google definitely wont think that your website is dead just because you are not getting backlinks.

 

[tazarbm]

Thats not natural at all. In fact, "link building" it self is a shady technique from the googles perspective. Natural growth is when you dont think about black links at all, you just publish, share on social media, share on forums when possible etc, but nothing else. Backlinks were supposed to be something that other websites give you without you asking them/paying for it. And acquiring those kind of natural backlinks takes time, a lot of time, to build some reputation and authority and to get seen so the other website owners start linking to you on their own

true! But google is a robot, it can't know what organic means so it relies on math, probabilities and patterns to decide what is natural / organic, and one of the patterns that it relies on to decide who games the system is constant growth of links over time. There's a reason for which link velocity exists in SEO...

Google definitely wont think that your website is dead just because you are not getting backlinks.

this is a mixed opinion actually.

In some cases it's true (I did indeed see sites continuing ranking after they've stopped acquiring links), but I've also seen sites losing rankings, too. It would have probably been more accurate for me to say "not building links AND publishing content", though because "dead" websites usually involve both of these.