This has probably been the most common post but I need to sound off!

I have been running this karting site for a year - www.karting1.co.uk - and to be honest it deserves to be in the top ten at least. I have links, and good keywords, and especially good content. That is my main aim - good content. We don't even put up press releases because we don't like to have un-original content on the site!

I am pretty much a slave to Google. It's the only Search Engine that people use.

We are getting about 1,000 hits a day which isn't really enough., and I don't think hardly any of them are from google. I have google adsense but it doesn't earn as much as I think the site deserves!

My beef is that we are ranked at about 300 or something in the deep and murky depths of the Google listings!

HOW ON EARTH CAN THIS BE RANKED AT 14 FOR KARTING WHEN WE ARE SO LOW?

http://www.uk250.co.uk/Karting/

That's just a link page, and has no content on karting whatsoever! There are pages in different languages ranked higher.

The only thing I think I could be being punished for is my link building. When the site started a when link building crazy. i went on so many karting sites to get my link up. Maybe google doesn't like this.

What is going on! Why does Google hate me so?

Because you make the same mistakes that webmasters who are "hated by Google" make (and yes, I was among them at one point but I figured it out).

1) You assumed your site should have been in the top 10 for whatever keyword/phrase you find appropriate. There is only room for 10 sites there, and if those 10 sites meet the needs of an objective user, then there really isn't anything wrong with the results. The 10 that are in the top do that, and one could easily argue that their sites are better than yours. It's subjective.

2) You worry so much about Google as a singular source of traffic that you don't think about the other engines (MSN, Yahoo!, etc.) and other sites. Now, it's true that Google is the most used of the engines, but you can still get quality, targetted traffic from Yahoo! and MSN if you do it right.

3) Your thinking about the links is correct. Links were meant as a means of naturally traversing the pages that make up the Internet, not to be exchanged for search engine benefit. While some of them appear to be legitimate one-way links, most appear to be two-way links.

You also need to organize the links into a more navigable and readable fashion.

4) Basically, you need to ignore the traditional SEO mantras...link build, exchange, create doorway pages, etc. There's a new SEO mantra that will gradually make its way through the search engines...build for users first, search engines after.

In other words, take what you know about search engines...forget it...and learn it allllllllllll over again. Good design, minimal code, unique content (that part you seem to get), a site that people will link to organically, and the SEs will come.

Adam really summed it all up nicely. All site owners think their sites are deserving of a top 10 listing, but there will only ever be 10 pages in those top 10 for any given keyword.

I did a search for karting and while I can't claim to know much about karting in general all the sites who's pages were in the top 10 seemed like quality pages to me. There's certainly enough there for me to be happy as a searcher.

I did some quick checks on links and the site you mentioned has about 10 times the links pointing at it's home page as your site. That's probably a good reason why they show up first.

One thing you might do is target longer keyword phrases instead of the most general one about yout topic. For example, 'kart driving' technical kart tips' 'kart driver' kart races' etc. All phrase I just grabbed from your site.

I completely agree with Adam that the way forward with search engines is going to be to build a good site and let the site build links naturally. We'll always be doing some link building ourselves, but it will be more along the lines of getting a link because that link will bring traffic to your site. The focus will be on people and not search engines.

Have just had a quick look at a couple of your links in Google. The link text seems to be either your URL or the word karting1. If you are targetting the word 'karting' then this MUST be in your link text to get a decent google ranking. Karting1 is not the same word as karting. Try searching google for allinanchor:"karting" and you'll see all the sites that have got links with "karting".

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Because you make the same mistakes that webmasters who are "hated by Google" make (and yes, I was among them at one point but I figured it out).

1) You assumed your site should have been in the top 10 for whatever keyword/phrase you find appropriate. There is only room for 10 sites there, and if those 10 sites meet the needs of an objective user, then there really isn't anything wrong with the results. The 10 that are in the top do that, and one could easily argue that their sites are better than yours. It's subjective.

2) You worry so much about Google as a singular source of traffic that you don't think about the other engines (MSN, Yahoo!, etc.) and other sites. Now, it's true that Google is the most used of the engines, but you can still get quality, targetted traffic from Yahoo! and MSN if you do it right.

3) Your thinking about the links is correct. Links were meant as a means of naturally traversing the pages that make up the Internet, not to be exchanged for search engine benefit. While some of them appear to be legitimate one-way links, most appear to be two-way links.

You also need to organize the links into a more navigable and readable fashion.

4) Basically, you need to ignore the traditional SEO mantras...link build, exchange, create doorway pages, etc. There's a new SEO mantra that will gradually make its way through the search engines...build for users first, search engines after.

In other words, take what you know about search engines...forget it...and learn it allllllllllll over again. Good design, minimal code, unique content (that part you seem to get), a site that people will link to organically, and the SEs will come.

We really do deserve a top 10 place. Our content is 100% original Grade A karting information. No other karting site has the same amount of in depth interviews, reviews, and features!

I understand we have to let the site grow naturally. But I feel we are being penalised for something major because we are so low down the ranking!

And how can our site grow when we are so heavily penalised. everybody know karting.co.uk because its ranked number 1. How are we supposed to grow when we are way down in the 300's!

On top of that we are out-ranked by sites that duplicate OUR material, and by sites in completely different languages. We do not put up press releases that are duplicated throughout the karting web world because they are useless information.

There are nearly 10 million results for "karting" and you are expecting to rank well after only a year? It's not going to happen, You will only just be coming out of the ageing delay. If im honest i would say you are doing well to be ranking at 300 in the serps for a one word search term..

It just makes me laugh that we rank below pages that are in different languages, pages that duplicate our material, and directories!

It's not just our page that suffers. Another great karting site that as been around for many many years http://www.ekartingnews.com/ is ranked at about 100! There's no aging excuse there.

I am worried we will suffer the same fate.

It's sad because there is so much good information on our site that can help so many more people to get better at karting, and they are not given the chance to reach it.

I thank god we have a decent database, and loyal readers!

Again you have to give up the notion that your site deserves to be in the top 10 and that you have the best content. No site deserves a top 10 ranking. A search engine owes you nothing. And if people aren't getting the chance to reach your content it's not a search engine's fault. There are plenty of ways to attract visitors to a site without them ever finding you in a search engine.

When I click on some of the sites that are in the top 10 they also have some good content. I haven't read through everything admittedly, but I don't see where your content is automatically better.

Being ranked in the top 300 is pretty good. It actually means there are things you can do to get your site ranked better. Keep working on getting more links and adding more content to your site. Target keywords beyond the single and most generic keyword on your topic.

Your site isn't being penalized. If it were you probably wouldn't even be in the top 300. Stop thinking your site deserves to be #1 and start working on doing more things to get to #1.

Hey.

Thanks for all your advice! I know I sound like a top 10 wannabe!

All we want to do is help people out, and its a shame we are not up there!

To be honest the top 10 doesn't represent the quality of sites out there. This time Google is way of the mark. Content wise the top ten are so far behind many sites I know of including ours!

Apart form karting.co.uk most of the other sites really are lacking content wise. This isn't just in my opinion. This is the opinion of hundreds of e-mails i have revieved querying the error!

I'll just pluggin away, and I hope Google will wake up one day!

That's precisely what your problem is. You're applying subjective logic to an objective process. You may see it one way, but I don't necessarily see it the same way, nor does vangogh, nor does Bob, Ted, Sally, Alice, and in this case Google.

You can't use "the top 10 sites aren't the best ones out there" as an argument because that's an opinion. And you can't apply opinion to an algorithm, which is how Google ranks things.

As vangogh told you, the way forward with search engines is not to obsess over ranking, but to let it come naturally as you build and improve on your site.

Besides, you may not be ranked #1 in "Karting" but what about longtail phrases off of it? Like "Karting tracks in Britain" or something like that? Build content focusing on those phrases and you may have better luck in the short run and by extension the long run.

I understand this, and all we really do is add GOOD new content. We have resisted the urge to put up rubbish to pursue ranking!

It just seems this aging process seems to be the main thing on Google. With age doesn't come good content.

Alan it's not necessarily age though as to why your site isn't ranking on the first page. What age is though is a measure of trust. I know a lot of webmasters don't want to hear this, but a site that's been online for 10 years probably should be trusted more than a site that launched yesterday. Consistency should earn trust.

The age and trust is only part of the equation though. You can get pages ranked number one for longer keywords. And the beauty of it is if you optimize pages for 'karting tracks in britain' as Adam suggested you've also optimized your page for the single work karting.

It just takes longer to rank well for the more generic keyword mostly because there will be more competition for the keyword.

Take the phrase 'karting tracks in britain' and replace britain with any other location. Competition for the longer phrase will be limited to sites in the specific location while all of the sites will be competition for karting.

You're really doing much better than you think. I'd love to have my site show up in the top 300 for the term 'web design' for example, but as far as I know it's not there and probably won't be for a long time to come.

Where I can rank and rank well is for longer phrases in articles about web design I post to my blog. That way I can still bring traffic to my site even though it's not my page about my web design services and direct people to that page.

Try Google.co.uk - you're top on page 7 (Results 61 - 70 of about 9,990,000)

that's not bad!

Maybe Google heard me because it wasn't there a couple of days ago. That's a big jump me thinks

Cheers fdor your advice guys, it's much appreciated!

A Dove

I think the keyphrase is

It's been nearly a year

and oddly enough "nearly a year" is about the amount of time the "aging delay" takes before your site ranks for anything competitive

Well we need to work on our google.com ranking, but for sure hopefully we will start to rise. Karting is very a competitive keyword.