Alan Webb, one of the moderators at SEO Chat and owner of ABAKUS Internet Marketing contributes with a huge post named New Google algo checklist/todos.
It starts off as The following is based on my and others observations of the algorithm since Florida and how to become an authority. Below a 6 point checklist which be warned, in most cases is going to require a lot of work, in no particular order below...
1. Have you increased your total site size? Check the top 5 rankings for your target main keyword/phrase with the 'site:' search function on Google. For example site:www.competitor-domain.com This provides how many pages they have indexed. nine times out of 10 they will have more than your own which if you have been hit by florida/austin/brandy will very likely be a lower number of indexed pages. If not read the next point. Solution: Start thinking more content. Glossary, fAQ, more product details, articles, forum... Size matters! Thats why amazon, major portals, hubs and professional dwp spam are ranking so highly. They are commonly huge in site with thousands of indexed pages. Get your website to around about the same number of indexed pages as those ranking top 10 (average). The less competitive the term the most likely you will not need too much new content.
2. Have you made a big effort since Update Florida to obtain more incoming links with ideal link text? Those sites coming up top are seen to have either a whole lot of indexed pages (point 1) or, a whole lot of thematic and unthematic inbound links. Most at the very top have both. Thematic links to your site are crucial. get to the directories and get working on link exchange. Remember it doesnt have to be exactly reciprocal, suggest you will link to another of their domains so the links arent exactly reciprocated (if they have another domain.) see my article here on effective link pop building. Try and get on a par or naturally more links than those ranking currently at or near the top.
Visit the thread here for the full checklist.
