Hi,
We've put up a website offering a plethora of information on fishing,
boating and camping on Colorado lakes. It has ranked well for specific
lake searches and the improvement was promising, but in the past few
days the rankings seem to have dropped. I was using a tabbed-panel to
switch between display of the main information, which used hidden divs,
but it was nothing tricky, it was all legit and honest...nothing
hidden. Yesterday I decided to incorporate a new layout without these
tabs (except in one small place) and force the user to scroll the
entire page for info.

Any ideas on whether the hidden div tabbed-section caused a problem,
and if so will these rankings come back after this fix?

It is unquestionably one of the largest compilations of current and
vast information on Colorado lakes, yet it never has ranked well for
"Colorado lakes fishing" or similar. Any idea why this website would
not rank well for searches like that? It is a young site, but
theoretically it SHOULD be up in the top of those searches because of
the information provided to the end-user.

The site is at http://www.fishexplorer.com

Thanks for any info!
Matt

muskie wrote:
> Hi,
> We've put up a website offering a plethora of information on fishing,
> boating and camping on Colorado lakes. It has ranked well for specific
> lake searches and the improvement was promising, but in the past few
> days the rankings seem to have dropped. I was using a tabbed-panel to
> switch between display of the main information, which used hidden divs,
> but it was nothing tricky, it was all legit and honest...nothing
> hidden. Yesterday I decided to incorporate a new layout without these
> tabs (except in one small place) and force the user to scroll the
> entire page for info.
>
> Any ideas on whether the hidden div tabbed-section caused a problem,
> and if so will these rankings come back after this fix?
>
> It is unquestionably one of the largest compilations of current and
> vast information on Colorado lakes, yet it never has ranked well for
> "Colorado lakes fishing" or similar. Any idea why this website would
> not rank well for searches like that? It is a young site, but
> theoretically it SHOULD be up in the top of those searches because of
> the information provided to the end-user.
>
> The site is at http://www.fishexplorer.com
>
> Thanks for any info!
> Matt

You are using a 302 redirect ~ change to 301 to avoid being exploited
by spammers.
Check all your page URLs with:
http://tool.motoricerca.info/spam-detector/
The main thing you need is plenty of incoming quality links from other
websites ~ I can only find 2 links from websites which themselves have
PR0 and are not helping.
At least you have a DMOZ listing.
Some more useful info:
http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/w...shexplorer.com

Thanks for the input!

I am aware of reciprical links, but it's young and we're working on it.
I guess in a perfect world if you had a very beneficial site you would
be ranked high without having to go through all these kind of
hoops...we'll eventually get there but I suppose it'll just have to
wait.

On the redirect, the server I'm using hosts other sites and there's an
ASP script handling which folder the domains point to. I don't know if
I have any more control over it. Obviously this is not an attempt to
fool anyone, it's just a matter of managing the server and domains.
Should the site be penalized for this? I believe that I submitted the
/fx/ directory after the domain to try and remedy this, to avoid the
redirect...maybe this didn't help?

I took a look at those links you sent and will work on some of the
items they brought up, thanks for those!

One other thing I noticed was the titles of the pages on the recent
crawls are weird, all include a date and "Account" and I cannot read
the rest of the title. This is not something I'm placing in the title
tag. Any idea where this came from and if this may signal a problem?

Matt

genset5 wrote:
> muskie wrote:
> > Hi,
> > We've put up a website offering a plethora of information on fishing,
> > boating and camping on Colorado lakes. It has ranked well for specific
> > lake searches and the improvement was promising, but in the past few
> > days the rankings seem to have dropped. I was using a tabbed-panel to
> > switch between display of the main information, which used hidden divs,
> > but it was nothing tricky, it was all legit and honest...nothing
> > hidden. Yesterday I decided to incorporate a new layout without these
> > tabs (except in one small place) and force the user to scroll the
> > entire page for info.
> >
> > Any ideas on whether the hidden div tabbed-section caused a problem,
> > and if so will these rankings come back after this fix?
> >
> > It is unquestionably one of the largest compilations of current and
> > vast information on Colorado lakes, yet it never has ranked well for
> > "Colorado lakes fishing" or similar. Any idea why this website would
> > not rank well for searches like that? It is a young site, but
> > theoretically it SHOULD be up in the top of those searches because of
> > the information provided to the end-user.
> >
> > The site is at http://www.fishexplorer.com
> >
> > Thanks for any info!
> > Matt
>
> You are using a 302 redirect ~ change to 301 to avoid being exploited
> by spammers.
> Check all your page URLs with:
> http://tool.motoricerca.info/spam-detector/
> The main thing you need is plenty of incoming quality links from other
> websites ~ I can only find 2 links from websites which themselves have
> PR0 and are not helping.
> At least you have a DMOZ listing.
> Some more useful info:
> http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/w...shexplorer.com

muskie wrote:
> Thanks for the input!
>
> I am aware of reciprical links, but it's young and we're working on it.
> I guess in a perfect world if you had a very beneficial site you would
> be ranked high without having to go through all these kind of
> hoops...we'll eventually get there but I suppose it'll just have to
> wait.
>
> On the redirect, the server I'm using hosts other sites and there's an
> ASP script handling which folder the domains point to. I don't know if
> I have any more control over it. Obviously this is not an attempt to
> fool anyone, it's just a matter of managing the server and domains.
> Should the site be penalized for this? I believe that I submitted the
> /fx/ directory after the domain to try and remedy this, to avoid the
> redirect...maybe this didn't help?
>
> I took a look at those links you sent and will work on some of the
> items they brought up, thanks for those!
>
> One other thing I noticed was the titles of the pages on the recent
> crawls are weird, all include a date and "Account" and I cannot read
> the rest of the title. This is not something I'm placing in the title
> tag. Any idea where this came from and if this may signal a problem?
>
> Matt
>
> genset5 wrote:
> > muskie wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > We've put up a website offering a plethora of information on fishing,
> > > boating and camping on Colorado lakes. It has ranked well for specific
> > > lake searches and the improvement was promising, but in the past few
> > > days the rankings seem to have dropped. I was using a tabbed-panel to
> > > switch between display of the main information, which used hidden divs,
> > > but it was nothing tricky, it was all legit and honest...nothing
> > > hidden. Yesterday I decided to incorporate a new layout without these
> > > tabs (except in one small place) and force the user to scroll the
> > > entire page for info.
> > >
> > > Any ideas on whether the hidden div tabbed-section caused a problem,
> > > and if so will these rankings come back after this fix?
> > >
> > > It is unquestionably one of the largest compilations of current and
> > > vast information on Colorado lakes, yet it never has ranked well for
> > > "Colorado lakes fishing" or similar. Any idea why this website would
> > > not rank well for searches like that? It is a young site, but
> > > theoretically it SHOULD be up in the top of those searches because of
> > > the information provided to the end-user.
> > >
> > > The site is at http://www.fishexplorer.com
> > >
> > > Thanks for any info!
> > > Matt
> >
> > You are using a 302 redirect ~ change to 301 to avoid being exploited
> > by spammers.
> > Check all your page URLs with:
> > http://tool.motoricerca.info/spam-detector/
> > The main thing you need is plenty of incoming quality links from other
> > websites ~ I can only find 2 links from websites which themselves have
> > PR0 and are not helping.
> > At least you have a DMOZ listing.
> > Some more useful info:
> > http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/w...shexplorer.com

Links from good quality websites relevant to your own will have the
best effect ~ over a period of time this will happen naturally, but
young websites do need help to get recognized ~ try this:
http://www.freerelevantlinks.com/

More info on 302 and 301 redirects:
http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=40193
http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=40151

(Displaying account info!!) It sounds like the problems could be with
your hosting company and you should contact them ASAP.

The server is set up so that I have one big chunk of it, and all my
domains point to one nameserver, and the host DNS points them to my
main script which divvies up the requests to the appropriate subfolder.
Now if you go directly to a specific page you byp*** all that. I
don't know what I'll do, but I can't afford to move it now. There's
something called virtual director that I can run, but not sure exactly
how it works.

Thanks - I checked out the relevant links site - pretty cool stuff.
Great idea. I dont think our website fits in any of their vertical
markets though.

genset5 wrote:
> muskie wrote:
> > Thanks for the input!
> >
> > I am aware of reciprical links, but it's young and we're working on it.
> > I guess in a perfect world if you had a very beneficial site you would
> > be ranked high without having to go through all these kind of
> > hoops...we'll eventually get there but I suppose it'll just have to
> > wait.
> >
> > On the redirect, the server I'm using hosts other sites and there's an
> > ASP script handling which folder the domains point to. I don't know if
> > I have any more control over it. Obviously this is not an attempt to
> > fool anyone, it's just a matter of managing the server and domains.
> > Should the site be penalized for this? I believe that I submitted the
> > /fx/ directory after the domain to try and remedy this, to avoid the
> > redirect...maybe this didn't help?
> >
> > I took a look at those links you sent and will work on some of the
> > items they brought up, thanks for those!
> >
> > One other thing I noticed was the titles of the pages on the recent
> > crawls are weird, all include a date and "Account" and I cannot read
> > the rest of the title. This is not something I'm placing in the title
> > tag. Any idea where this came from and if this may signal a problem?
> >
> > Matt
> >
> > genset5 wrote:
> > > muskie wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > We've put up a website offering a plethora of information on fishing,
> > > > boating and camping on Colorado lakes. It has ranked well for specific
> > > > lake searches and the improvement was promising, but in the past few
> > > > days the rankings seem to have dropped. I was using a tabbed-panel to
> > > > switch between display of the main information, which used hidden divs,
> > > > but it was nothing tricky, it was all legit and honest...nothing
> > > > hidden. Yesterday I decided to incorporate a new layout without these
> > > > tabs (except in one small place) and force the user to scroll the
> > > > entire page for info.
> > > >
> > > > Any ideas on whether the hidden div tabbed-section caused a problem,
> > > > and if so will these rankings come back after this fix?
> > > >
> > > > It is unquestionably one of the largest compilations of current and
> > > > vast information on Colorado lakes, yet it never has ranked well for
> > > > "Colorado lakes fishing" or similar. Any idea why this website would
> > > > not rank well for searches like that? It is a young site, but
> > > > theoretically it SHOULD be up in the top of those searches because of
> > > > the information provided to the end-user.
> > > >
> > > > The site is at http://www.fishexplorer.com
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for any info!
> > > > Matt
> > >
> > > You are using a 302 redirect ~ change to 301 to avoid being exploited
> > > by spammers.
> > > Check all your page URLs with:
> > > http://tool.motoricerca.info/spam-detector/
> > > The main thing you need is plenty of incoming quality links from other
> > > websites ~ I can only find 2 links from websites which themselves have
> > > PR0 and are not helping.
> > > At least you have a DMOZ listing.
> > > Some more useful info:
> > > http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/w...shexplorer.com
>
> Links from good quality websites relevant to your own will have the
> best effect ~ over a period of time this will happen naturally, but
> young websites do need help to get recognized ~ try this:
> http://www.freerelevantlinks.com/
>
> More info on 302 and 301 redirects:
> http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=40193
> http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=40151
>
> (Displaying account info!!) It sounds like the problems could be with
> your hosting company and you should contact them ASAP.

muskie wrote:
> The server is set up so that I have one big chunk of it, and all my
> domains point to one nameserver, and the host DNS points them to my
> main script which divvies up the requests to the appropriate subfolder.
> Now if you go directly to a specific page you byp*** all that. I
> don't know what I'll do, but I can't afford to move it now. There's
> something called virtual director that I can run, but not sure exactly
> how it works.
>
> Thanks - I checked out the relevant links site - pretty cool stuff.
> Great idea. I dont think our website fits in any of their vertical
> markets though.
>
> genset5 wrote:
> > muskie wrote:
> > > Thanks for the input!
> > >
> > > I am aware of reciprical links, but it's young and we're working on it.
> > > I guess in a perfect world if you had a very beneficial site you would
> > > be ranked high without having to go through all these kind of
> > > hoops...we'll eventually get there but I suppose it'll just have to
> > > wait.
> > >
> > > On the redirect, the server I'm using hosts other sites and there's an
> > > ASP script handling which folder the domains point to. I don't know if
> > > I have any more control over it. Obviously this is not an attempt to
> > > fool anyone, it's just a matter of managing the server and domains.
> > > Should the site be penalized for this? I believe that I submitted the
> > > /fx/ directory after the domain to try and remedy this, to avoid the
> > > redirect...maybe this didn't help?
> > >
> > > I took a look at those links you sent and will work on some of the
> > > items they brought up, thanks for those!
> > >
> > > One other thing I noticed was the titles of the pages on the recent
> > > crawls are weird, all include a date and "Account" and I cannot read
> > > the rest of the title. This is not something I'm placing in the title
> > > tag. Any idea where this came from and if this may signal a problem?
> > >
> > > Matt
> > >
> > > genset5 wrote:
> > > > muskie wrote:
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > > We've put up a website offering a plethora of information on fishing,
> > > > > boating and camping on Colorado lakes. It has ranked well for specific
> > > > > lake searches and the improvement was promising, but in the past few
> > > > > days the rankings seem to have dropped. I was using a tabbed-panel to
> > > > > switch between display of the main information, which used hidden divs,
> > > > > but it was nothing tricky, it was all legit and honest...nothing
> > > > > hidden. Yesterday I decided to incorporate a new layout without these
> > > > > tabs (except in one small place) and force the user to scroll the
> > > > > entire page for info.
> > > > >
> > > > > Any ideas on whether the hidden div tabbed-section caused a problem,
> > > > > and if so will these rankings come back after this fix?
> > > > >
> > > > > It is unquestionably one of the largest compilations of current and
> > > > > vast information on Colorado lakes, yet it never has ranked well for
> > > > > "Colorado lakes fishing" or similar. Any idea why this website would
> > > > > not rank well for searches like that? It is a young site, but
> > > > > theoretically it SHOULD be up in the top of those searches because of
> > > > > the information provided to the end-user.
> > > > >
> > > > > The site is at http://www.fishexplorer.com
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks for any info!
> > > > > Matt
> > > >
> > > > You are using a 302 redirect ~ change to 301 to avoid being exploited
> > > > by spammers.
> > > > Check all your page URLs with:
> > > > http://tool.motoricerca.info/spam-detector/
> > > > The main thing you need is plenty of incoming quality links from other
> > > > websites ~ I can only find 2 links from websites which themselves have
> > > > PR0 and are not helping.
> > > > At least you have a DMOZ listing.
> > > > Some more useful info:
> > > > http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/w...shexplorer.com
> >
> > Links from good quality websites relevant to your own will have the
> > best effect ~ over a period of time this will happen naturally, but
> > young websites do need help to get recognized ~ try this:
> > http://www.freerelevantlinks.com/
> >
> > More info on 302 and 301 redirects:
> > http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=40193
> > http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=40151
> >
> > (Displaying account info!!) It sounds like the problems could be with
> > your hosting company and you should contact them ASAP.

Some more info here:
http://www.dnsreport.com/

It still could be worth a try with the relevant links ~ travel links
may work well ~ I have a son that would travel anywhere in the world
for fishing.
Perhaps you could dedicate a page ~ how to get there ~ where the
nearest airport is ~ equipment, car and boat hire etc.
Good luck

I'll check that out and I agree about the travel...it is a destination
website, people looking to visit the places we cover and are looking
for more information. Am working on recip links. The original pages
that had been dropped for a few days are back up and so is traffic.
Thanks, I think some of the fixes worked!