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March 16th, 2010 by Nick
First, don’t panic. The algorithms used by Google and the other major search engines change every day, and the result is that search engine rankings flow up and down. Of course, millions of changes to individual websites also happen every day. Fresh content is posted and old stuff taken down, blogs are updated, links break and are re-formed to other sites. The internet is a highly dynamic and changeable network. Some of those changes will benefit you and some won’t. The same goes for search algorithms.
Chances are high that what you’re seeing is an algorithmic change. They really do happen all the time. Sometimes it’s just a tweak, sometimes it’s a major renovation. If you have a quality website with good, ethical and ongoing SEO, you have nothing to worry about. Let’s make some checks anyway, just to be sure a small fluctuation in rankings doesn’t mean something sinister is going on.
The people most likely to experience a sudden and serious drop in search rankings are those who’ve been tempted by unethical ‘black hat’ SEO services. If your ranking shot up suddenly after buying a stack of juicy-looking inbound links from a not so reliable SEO company, for example, your drop in rankings is the flipside. Google has caught up with the trick and will penalise anyone caught with grubby hands.
But let’s assume you haven’t been naughty. Your search engine optimization hat is nice and white. What about your links? Is any website you’re associated with doing something questionable? The quality of the websites you link to has negative as well as positive connotations, so be careful and remove low quality outbound links. Check all your links for breakages, too, because that can harm your SEO. Clean up your html code and keep it tidy and efficient. Web crawlers note messy or outdated pieces of code floating around your html. Running a quick SEO analysis of your website can help you to see where any problems may lie.
Think about the smaller directories you list in. Some are taken into account by Google, some not. That can change overnight. Who is linking to you, and has anyone dropped your link for any reason?
The other major driver behind unexpected ranking change is the market. If one of your competitors gets wise and realises they need to pay attention to SEO too, you might notice they make some gains at your expense. It’s good practice to keep an eye on your main competitors’ search rankings all the time, and check their websites to see what new content or ideas might be changing the way they perform for good or bad.
You should also be monitoring social media sites. Do you have an unhappy customer poisoning your SMO? If so, seek them out and see what you can do to change their mind about your company. Make sure you address their comments in forums and let other users know you listen to your customer’s concerns and do your best to solve any problems that might arise.
Use SEO tools to check your PageRank and the general health of your SEO strategy regularly. If you see any changes (either positive or negative) with these tools, try and figure out what caused them and either fix it or get more leverage from it if you can.
For most, a small drop in rankings is nothing to worry about. You may find it disappears with the next batch of algorithm changes. If you see a really sudden and severe loss and can’t account for it, get professional help from an SEO company or get in touch with Google to ask what the problem is.
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