Help ranking old e-comm Money site

I am trying to help my dad's e-comm site rank better and am seeking advice from the experts here. I'd be happy to share the site via message.

The site is 16 years old and I put a new e-comm site on it 2 years ago (previously just static pages with lists of products and direction to call or email for orders). My dad is in his 70's now and still works 10 hours per day on the business and it's his livelihood, so I want to be as smart as possible here.

The site is in a super-niche, with only 10-15 competitors worldwide. He's a one-man show and the guys who outrank him have larger operations with 5+ employees. As such, he does a lot of selling on flea bay but I'd love to help him increase the web sales. There are maybe 5-10 terms where he'd greatly benefit from a rankings boost. But, with the top 3 or 4 terms he's not even on the first page? The rest he's toward the bottom of page 1. He's doing really well on image search rankings for specific items, and good internationally for some reason.

I'm not adverse to spending a couple hundred dollars myself to see if I can help him move the needle.

When making suggestions of what to do, it would be great to hear specifically what article/link services would be worthwhile here, and any other specific suggestions. I really appreciate any advice that you guys can offer!

There are ton's of method available in this forum. You can try PBN method for better & quicker ranking. Just PM me the url and I will advise more..

Hajath said:

There are ton's of method available in this forum. You can try PBN method for better & quicker ranking. Just PM me the url and I will advise more..

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Darn - says I need 15 posts before I can PM you...will get there shortly and then PM you unless you want to send me your Skype?

Its all about content. You need long product descriptions and a mix of media. Have a look at your competition and see what they are doing in terms of content on product page.

pxoxrxn said:

Its all about content. You need long product descriptions and a mix of media. Have a look at your competition and see what they are doing in terms of content on product page.

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Great point ... The problem is there are over 4,000 products. These are all collectible items. The biggest seller is from a manufacturer where he carries like 2,000 of their products. The competitors mostly just use the item title and product number as taken from the manufacturer. A few competitors copy the description from the manufacturer's site, but I'd be concerned about duplicate content on that (should I be?)

I suppose I could rewrite or maybe spin all the manufacturer's descriptions?

Short of that, maybe a blog linking to internal pages (and some external authority links) for adding on-site content?

patrc said:

Great point ... The problem is there are over 4,000 products. These are all collectible items. The biggest seller is from a manufacturer where he carries like 2,000 of their products. The competitors mostly just use the item title and product number as taken from the manufacturer. A few competitors copy the description from the manufacturer's site, but I'd be concerned about duplicate content on that (should I be?)

I suppose I could rewrite or maybe spin all the manufacturer's descriptions?

Short of that, maybe a blog linking to internal pages (and some external authority links) for adding on-site content?

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Yes. Be concerned about duplicate content and thin content.

If you cannot write unique descriptions for each products, maybe re-think your business model here. Maybe choose 100 items that sell really well and write your descriptions for those 100 products. As you start making money from these items, employ someone to help you out.

Also, structure your website so you're funneling users where you want them to be and that's clicking the 'add to cart button'. Not only is this good practise for increasing conversions but it is also how Google likes your website to be. They are looking for a good user experience and making it easy for the user to find what they want is a good user experience.

Choose category names as keywords. For example, we sell adult toys and so our vibrator categories are called 'butt vibrators', 'rabbit vibrators' and the URL is /rabbit-vibrators. We don't just make the category 'rabbit' (sorry rabbitking).

Have unique content on a category page. For example, I'll write a 500 word article about G-Spot vibrators on the category page, giving the buyer some advice on how to choose one that is right for them. Your competition will have a category page that just has 100 links to different pages, where you'll have 500+ words of content to ourrank them with.

Have a blog and link high quality comparison articles to your category pages.

Every day the first thing you should do after looking at your organic traffic analytics is to look for expired domains that contain keywords your after. Buy these domains with whois guard and start a PBN. Make the PBN blogs really high quality and put a 700 word front page article on each, after a couple of months and 10+ articles links to your category pages.

Content is everything. If content doesn't worth then better don't throw your money. i Suggest PBN

pxoxrxn said:

Maybe choose 100 items that sell really well and write your descriptions for those 100 products. As you start making money from these items, employ someone to help you out.

Have unique content on a category page. For example, I'll write a 500 word article about G-Spot vibrators on the category page, giving the buyer some advice on how to choose one that is right for them. Your competition will have a category page that just has 100 links to different pages, where you'll have 500+ words of content to ourrank them with.

Have a blog and link high quality comparison articles to your category pages.

Every day the first thing you should do after looking at your organic traffic analytics is to look for expired domains that contain keywords your after. Buy these domains with whois guard and start a PBN. Make the PBN blogs really high quality and put a 700 word front page article on each, after a couple of months and 10+ articles links to your category pages.

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Awesome points! Those will take some time, which I'm not adverse to doing ... but this is for my dad's business and I'm not sure how much time I can take away from mine. I have content I can use for a blog, and I can certainly write more.

Aside from adding fresh new unique content, what about adding quality backlinks? If so, what are the best avenues to pursue for that with a money site?

patrc said:

Awesome points! Those will take some time, which I'm not adverse to doing ... but this is for my dad's business and I'm not sure how much time I can take away from mine. I have content I can use for a blog, and I can certainly write more.

Aside from adding fresh new unique content, what about adding quality backlinks? If so, what are the best avenues to pursue for that with a money site?

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It takes allot of time, but the more you put in the more you will get out of it. If you treat it like a hobby, it will cost as much as a hobby, but if you treat it like a business it will pay you like a business.

As for backlinks, you're after quality, not quantity. That is why I mentioned the PBN. You then have absolute control over the quality of your links. The PBN sites will have very low OBL and you'll get allot of juice from them.

You can then explore the BHW marketplace for links to your PBN websites. Also, remember that your PBN sites can rank as well and can be a really good source of targeted traffic so make sure the content is good and directed as selling.

OK. I am not answering your questions directly here, Since I am also running a portal can be considered as e-Commerce.
It takes really take so long to move the SERPS positively or else you will have trouble with algorithmic penalties. Business cant will till you figure out and get your site on first in google.

I would strongly advise you to consider Google Adwords, FB and bing to generate some traffic and work initially on increasing conversions. And in parallel, improve the on-page factors. And slowly create some parasites. and tier 1's . Your tier1s should easily get pass the manual review. It takes more than 5+ months. then you can use your favourite tool to get the backlinks.

I am saying this based on my experience and your current state. YMMV

How is he ranking already? 16 years worth of natural linking? I think there are hundreds of services here that could rocket his rankings..

sarav said:

I would strongly advise you to consider Google Adwords, FB and bing to generate some traffic and work initially on increasing conversions.

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andrewloppol said:

How is he ranking already? 16 years worth of natural linking? I think there are hundreds of services here that could rocket his rankings..

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Hi Andrew - thanks for the reply! It's a super-niche selling very specific connoisseur collectibles with relatively few competitors, and very little online presence in the industry other than competitors. As such, there just isn't much opportunity for natural linking. I'd be happy to share site and stats details via messenger or Skype and would really appreciate your suggestions here!

Ranking - about half his traffic is from Adwords, 30% is from customers searching his site name, and the rest are specific product searches and image search. Ranking for the 3 or 4 terms around the manufacturer whose sales make up 80% of his income would be a huge windfall - and he's page 2-4 for all those.

I'd love to "rocket his rankings" and I agree it shouldn't be too hard - I'd would love to hear more about services & specific suggestions!!!

I suggest you go completely whitehat with this blog. You don't want to risk incurring a penalty especially because it's an important site. The MOZ blog can help you a ton.

SEO Power said:

I suggest you go completely whitehat with this blog. You don't want to risk incurring a penalty especially because it's an important site. The MOZ blog can help you a ton.

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MOZ blog? Like formerly SEOMoz? Or is there a section on BHW you're referring to? Sorry, I'm relatively new here

patrc said:

MOZ blog? Like formerly SEOMoz? Or is there a section on BHW you're referring to? Sorry, I'm relatively new here

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SEOMOZ = MOZ. I recommended their blog because they blog mostly about whitehat SEO techniques.