(Entry was posted by Mike Cooke on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 10/09/2013).

I have problem with my website ranking

Ok, hi everyone, got to look at the problem we have with rankings, in short my predecessor allowed links from shite SEO companies going to the site. Result, rankings are shit, I have been removing them but it is like ice skating uphill. I have done disavow requests, lots of optimisation on the site, and still slow. I am looking at moving domain name we have some aged ones that are clean so that`s ok.

Questions I would value opinions on

1/ domain is phclaw.com do you think it is needed to move domains
2/ upon moving domain name would you 301 the old domain name and if so will it carry over the old penalties
3/ would i need to re-write the whole content.
4/ My opinion is move site to new domain name, redirect good links and leave the phclaw site (old one alone) and put up a splash page with contact form and resubmit to google etc..

The reason I am asking this is I am a firm believer on when you have a problem with multiple choices you should get a second opinion and of course I am to close to the problem so perspective is also needed.

Ok do your worst.

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Kate Toon: Hey just talking to the content part of your question. If dodgy links are your problem then content should be fine.

But having just read a sample page, 'hand injuries' it feels like the content was written to game Google rather than satisfy user needs. So you might want to look at rationalising content, cutting down on the keyword repetition and warming up the content.

Also on a semi unrelated point, some of the content is so small it's impossible to read - and the white copy on pale grey background is a killer too!
Mike Cooke: content looks fine, i had someone saying that the move would be pointless as the penalty would be on brand, I dont buy this as if it is on a fresh domain name with no links and good ones are re-added how can there be a penalty?
Michael Chapman: Moving domain would fix any penalties.

In regards to disavow/reconsideration requests these can take a long time (months) so patience may just pay off. ;

Really it's juggling the benefits of the domain authority versus time. ;

Alternatively you can set up a ;new domain temporarily while waiting to remove the penalty from the primary website in the end you have two high quality websites.
Dave Elliott: I'm with +Kate Toon ; Paragraphs such as 'Many of the hand injury claims we deal are for clients who are seeking compensation for broken wrist injury. These types of claims are often very severe. For clients who have suffered a severe hand or broken wrist injury, we will apply for interim payments to be made to help you financially throughout the process of your wrist injury claim until it has been settled.' may well earn you an over optimisation penalty! Tis a fine line to tread between optimising for keywords and making sure you are not being spammy and for me this is just a tiny bit on the wrong side.
Jim Munro: Hi +Mike Cooke ;:)

I more or less agree with all above. I am not an expert but I think this is one of those sites where you might eventually say it was good while it lasted but now it's time to start over.

I think you might also have a current technical issue. One of the two pages that Googlebot is indexing is a 404 while the other is a redirect from ;/accident-at-work-claims/warehouse-accident/ to ;/accident-at-work-claims/warehouse-accident-claims/.

It might be that you are confusing googlebot or perhaps you have overcooked the optimisation omelette.

Also, would you mind please editing ;your original question to disable the link to the site?

phclaw(dot)com will do it, almost everybody here knows the drill. :)
Joe Paul: It appears that you've done a great job doing on-page seo. The only thing I hope you can add, in case you decide to keep the current domain, is revising your title tags to as short as 66 characters in length for each webpage. Put your keyword in front of the web page title tag. Poor rankings now can be helped by doing this very important seo practice because you'll improve your click through which leads to a chain reaction of all those other benefits that can eventually lead to improved rankings.
Mike Cooke: +Joe Paul thank you so much for the positive feedback, i am currently just working through a few pointers but i will revisit all the titles. Upon transferring the domain name I also redesigned the site so it was faster and less complicated. i want to give a good ux. I want to make sure it is easy to use and give the user exactly what they want quickly so all feedback on this is appreciated. I feel most law site provide a really bad experience with use. Also +Jim Munro I appreciate the feedback on the links and would love your take on the new site as I have 301'd it to the new site phc-law.com with a new design, cut 90% of all plugins. I am looking at the redirect links now so should be able to keep clean and am also addressing the spammy side of things, I did get it close to the wire on it.
W.E. Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 00:47:00 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/i_have_problem_with_my_website_ranking