Rankings Dropped? 9 Possible Reasons And 9 Ways Out

Has your search engine rankings dropped but you don't know the reasons why? This week's featured article is by Alesya Krush, a marketing manager at Link-Assistant.com which gives 9 possible reasons as to why your rankings may have dropped with solutions to putting it right...


Rankings Dropped? 9 Possible Reasons And 9 Ways Out

Sometimes SEOs and site owners encounter the problem of their sites suddenly going down in the search engine results pages for no particular reason, it seems. When this happens, it is often hard to figure out why your rankings nosedived.

So, let's consider possible reasons for and solutions to the problem. I arranged them by relevance, starting with the most common ones.


1. Your Site Got Penalized for Using Black-Hat SEO Techniques

Google has Webmaster Guidelines by which all SEOs and webmasters must abide. If Google finds out (or your site gets reported) that you are not playing by the rules, your rankings may drop substantially, or your site may get removed from Google's index altogether.

As stated in Google Webmaster Guidelines, one must not "participate in link schemes" (buying/selling links is basically meant here), create "doorway pages", or use "hidden text" on a site. These are considered illegitimate (Black-Hat) SEO practices and may incur Google's wrath.

The Way Out

Well, if your site does get penalized, find out what might have caused this. Re-read Google's Webmaster Guidelines and remove whatever is in violation from your site - then file a reconsideration request.


2. The Search Engine Algorithm Has Changed

On the one hand, search engines are trying to keep their search results as relevant and SPAM-free as possible. On the other hand, there are people who are trying to game the system or just take advantage of the existing loopholes. And, with the ever increasing number of websites on the Internet today, search engines are forced to tweak their search algos every once in a while to keep spammers at bay.

For example, Google's latest big algorithm update known as Panda (or Farmer) was intended to do away with sites that provide poor-quality content and, as a result, provide poor user experience. However, it also affected groups of sites that have significant duplicate content by nature, such as e-commerce sites, online directories, etc.

The Way Out

First of all, if you are doing SEO and you really mean it, you should be informed about what's new in the Search Engine Land at all times. The online resources to keep an eye on are Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land [http://searchengineland.com] (yes, I did it on purpose :) ) , the official Google Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com), and the inside-Google Matt Cutts' blog (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/).

If the rules change, and there is no way you can continue using the same SEO techniques you've been using before the algorithm update - you have to change your ways then. However, if you think your site was not supposed to get affected by the algo change but it did - you can write about it on Google Webmaster Forum - that often solves the problem.


3. Your Website's Content Got "Scraped"

If your rankings suddenly deteriorate, that could be because someone has stolen (or "scraped") the content from your site and posted it somewhere else on the Web. In this case, search engines sometimes lower both sites' rankings - then look deeper into the matter. Eventually, they are likely to start ranking your site as high as they used to before the incident, once they realize who copied whose content. However, this may take some time.

The Way Out

Dealing with content thieves normally involves locating the site that posted your content, contacting their webmaster, emailing their host, filing a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) request or taking the matter to court - whatever helps. It's recommended to start with contacting the scrapers. If this does not help - take the other measures mentioned here.


4. Your Site Got Penalized for Copyright Infringement

For various reasons, this may happen as well. It can be that your in-house SEO or a third-party firm you hired to promote your site used somebody else's content to boost your site's rankings in which case the owner of the content may have filed a DMCA request (the request is normally filed in written form) or reported your site to Google for copyright infringement.

The Way Out

Remove the duplicate content, hire a new SEO or an SEO services provider and submit your site for re-inclusion (just follow the same procedure that's described in way out 1 of this post)
(http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843)


5. Competitors Beat You in the SERPs

Sometimes your rankings may go down just because a competing site (or sites) manages to boost their rankings to a substantial degree.

The Way Out

If this is the case, analyze competitors' sites and see in what way they are better than yours. Pay attention to their backlinks, keyword density, social media popularity and act accordingly, depending on what your site is missing.


6. Your Site's Structure Got Crippled

Spotless site architecture is crucial to high rankings. If there are broken links, HTML code errors or other structural discrepancies on your site, search engine bots might not be able to crawl it within a reasonable span of time, and thus, your site's rankings may deteriorate.

The Way Out

Run an audit and fix all the flaws that may hold back your site's rankings. Sometimes a site may not be visible in search results for the simple reason that the host is down and the server is not responding. A thorough site audit will show that.


7. Important Backlinks Got Removed from Your Site

Sometimes it's due to "juicy" backlinks with top Google positions pointing to your site being removed, resulting in a rankings drop for your site.

The Way Out

Check the backlinks pointing to your site. Experienced SEOs run such checkups from time to time to see whether any of the links got assigned the "nofollow" attribute, were hidden from search engines because of the robot txt file or were simply removed. If this happens, you should get these links back or get similar backlinks from other websites.


8. This is Google's QDF Algo at Work

QDF stands for "query deserves freshness" and is the algo Google uses to balance its appreciation of older content. Google applies it to trendy queries that all of a sudden become popular on the Web.

The Way Out

The way out is simple - just don't do anything. The query will eventually stop being trendy and Google will resume giving more power to older sites with time-tested content. You can always check what topics are popular/trendy at the moment at surchur.com, www.buzzfeed.com or similar sites. Let's say, your site is optimized for the word "silver spoons". All of a sudden, a hot topic about a cafe called "Silver Spoon" appears on the Web, and millions of people start looking up "silver spoon" on Google. Google will most likely decide that "query deserves freshness" and will serve users new pieces of content at the top of its search results.


9. Google Started Picking "the wrong" Canonical URL for Your Site

Sometimes, your www homepage may be ranking at position 3 on Google, while the non-www version of your homepage does not have enough link juice and may be ranking at spot 50 at most. If, because of poor canonicalization, Google decides to pick your non-www page to include into its search results, your site will end up at a substantially lower position.

The Way Out

The way out is to get your canonicalization right. Use internal linking, 301 redirects, canonical tags (not always justified) to explicitly point out your canonical URLs to Google, so that it makes no mistake.

So, these are the most widespread reasons for sudden rankings drops. Of course we could not cover all possible causes and situations - sometimes it's several reasons combined. Besides, sometimes unexpected things happen, like Google removing some 11 million co.cc domains from its index all on one day.

But, if you get armed with the advice provided in this post, it'll take you far less time to figure out the reason for the sudden rankings drop, and you'll be able to fix it much quicker.


About The Author: Alesya is a blogger and a marketing manager at Link-Assistant.Com, a Europe-based SEO software provider and the maker of the celebrated SEO PowerSuite toolset. Link-Assistant.Com's SEO tools have set industry's benchmark for automated link building and Web promotion.

Do you like this featured article? Please let me know by using the comments section below.

Would you like your article to be featured on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


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10th Anniversary Of 9/11: A Personal Tribute

It was ten years ago here in the UK, when I watched on the TV the unbelievable events that unfolded in America. The shock and horror I felt on that day back in 2001 is still hard to describe. A mixture of shock, disbelief, sadness and anger were just some of the emotions I felt.

Ten years on and it's still hard to believe that those terrible events happened and how it's changed America and the world forever.

With today being the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, this post is to pay tribute to all those people who tragically lost their lives on September 11th 2001. Our thoughts and heartfelt prayers go out to all those who died, their families and the people that were effected by this horrific act of terrorism.

I also want to pay tribute to the brave men and women on Flight 93 who helped avoid another catastrophic disaster, thus preventing more loss of life and to the emergency services who sacrificed their lives to help others in need.

Even though ten years have past since the terror attacks of 9/11, the visions and emotions of that day are still very clear in my mind. As we continue to live our daily lives and as more time passes, may we never forget and continue to honour those people who sadly lost their lives. You will always be in my memories.

Addendum: Since the aftermath of 9/11, I want to take this opportunity to also pay tribute to all the service men and women who put their lives on the line defending our countries from such acts of terror.


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Brandwashed: Martin Lindstrom's Explosive New Book

Ever wondered what techniques advertisers and marketers use to persuade you to buy their products? What if I told you some of the techniques used include secret data-mining and chemically addictive make-up.

Martin Lindstrom, a bestselling author of Buyology and 2009 recipient of TIME Magazine's "World's 100 Most Influential People", is releasing a new book called "Brandwashed" which reveals shocking findings of how advertisers and marketers internationally target children at an alarmingly young age and how companies of all stripes are secretly mining our digital footprints to uncover some of the most intimate details of our private lives, then using that information to target us with ads and offers 'perfectly tailored' to our psychological profiles.

The book, which is due to be released in the U.S. on the 21st of September, also reveals how certain companies, like the maker of one popular lip balm, purposely adjust their formulas in order to make their products chemically addictive as well as the first ever neuroscientific evidence proving how addicted we all are to our iPhones and our Blackberry's. You can read more about the new Brandwashed book by visiting: http://www.martinlindstrom.com/brandwashed/

"My goal is that by understanding just how today's newest hidden persuaders are conspiring to brandwash us, we as consumers can battle back" says Martin Lindstrom. "The purpose of this book is not to get you to stop buying, the purpose is to educate and empower you to make smarter, sounder and more informed decisions about what we're buying and why."

The new Brandwashed book certainly lifts the lid and exposes the shocking and persuasive techniques that are used by some advertisers and marketers. If you buy products, you need to read this book. It's really that simple.


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SEO Benefits of Blogging

Each week, I will be doing a featured article on the blog. This week's featured article is by Kristin Page of KristyPage.net which explains the search engine optimisation (SEO) benefits to keeping a company blog...


SEO Benefits of Blogging

Adding a blog to your website is a big decision, but it is something that every company should consider. A regularly updated blog can give people a reason to visit your website more often, and there are also SEO (search engine optimization) benefits to keeping a company blog.

Perhaps you've thought about starting a blog for your company, but you're not sure it will be worth the extra work. Here's a rundown of the SEO benefits to help you decide.


More Content for Search Engines

Most websites have a fairly limited number of pages, and a limited number of words per page. Adding a blog means you can regularly create rich content, and include the keywords you're trying to rank well for in search results. You'll be giving search engines more pages and content to crawl on your site, and more opportunity to see your important keywords.

For every blog post you write, you are giving yourself the opportunity to add content containing five to 10 new keywords. Some of these keywords could actually be longer phrases containing keywords you're already trying to rank well for in search results.

These longer phrases - called "long tail keywords" by SEO professionals - can be easier for you to rank well for. That's because, as a keyword phrase gets longer, there are fewer instances of it in search engine indexes. In effect, there's less competition for top rankings in results for searches on those keywords.

For example, a gardening supplies website could add a blog that offers gardening advice. Perhaps the company wants to increase its online sales of bulbs. Of course, the website will have pages selling spring bulbs, autumn bulbs and summer bulbs. The blog could also have articles about spring bulb planting mixtures; bulb planting tools; autumn bulb soil amendments; summer bulbs for shade; and many, many more topics surrounding the word "bulbs."

Every one of those phrases around "bulbs" is another keyword phrase. By adding lots of articles that include these phrases, the gardening supplies site would be signaling to Google that it has plenty of information about bulbs. The site's pages would show up higher in more searches that include the word "bulbs."

The more pages of your website you can get into the top slots of search engine results, the more potential website visitors you will have.


Updated Content for Search Engines - and People

Search engines don't like it when we allow websites to get out-of-date. Having a blog encourages people to update their websites more often.

When a new URL is added to your sitemap from a blog entry, search engines have a reason to come back to your website, crawl its pages, and possibly adjust its rankings of your pages. If your content just sits there and is never updated, search engines have no reason to re-crawl your site.

Updating your blog frequently will give people a reason to return often to see what's new. It also gives them a reason to subscribe to your RSS feed. If you update your blog with information about your new products - or new uses for your products - you could generate more sales.


Link Power

One of the key elements of search engine optimization is links - not just inbound links to your website, but outbound links from your site to others.

When you link to other websites, you show search engines that you are trying to provide a good user experience for anyone who visits your website by sending them to other information sources you've judged to be valuable. Because links are how search engines discover new Web pages, you're also doing those other sites a good turn.

You can link to important pages on your website from your blog. Doing that signals to search engines which pages have information you think your blog readers will find valuable. While this won't automatically shoot your pages into the No. 1 spot in search results, linking to pages within your own site will help search engines "see" the connections between your pages and their content.


Watch out for Duplicate Content

If there's one thing you should not do with your blog, it's duplicating content from another page of your website or even worse, someone else's website. Search engines try to avoid returning duplicate content in search results. If your pages are seen as mere duplicates of other web content, that can cause search engines to rank your pages lower than they would otherwise.

There are, however, times when it's useful for your audience to republish material from another website. That's called syndication. You should always get permission from the author, and attribute the material to the original source, with a link back to the original article. Pages with content you've syndicated from others may never rank as well as pages where you publish your own original content - but you're providing a good experience for your visitors. That's never a bad idea.

To sum up, a blog is a great way for you to keep your website content fresh, boost your rankings in search results, and give people a reason to visit your site frequently. You don't have to be a slave to your blog, and there's no law saying it has to be updated daily, or even weekly. Start with once a month, and grow from there.


About The Author: Kristin Page is a project manager at Golden Technologies, an information technology services company based in Valparaiso, Indiana. Kristin has been involved with web design since 1998 and is interested in SEO, blogging, social media and Internet marketing. Article originally published on AboutUs.org.

Do you like this featured article? Please let me know by using the comments section below.

Would you like your article to be featured on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


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Blogger Launches New User Interface

The popular blogging platform Blogger have officially rolled-out the new user interface to all of it's users.

In a post by Chang Kim, Product Manager on Blogger Buzz: "It's been a few years since we made major updates to Blogger's look and feel, and there's a lot more to these changes than just shiny new graphics. We've rewritten the entire editing and management experience from scratch so it's faster and more efficient for you - and easier for us to update and improve over time."

Mr Kim continues to say: "Throughout the design process, we conducted user interviews to help identify how to make Blogger even easier and more enjoyable to use. We also watched users try our new interface and made many refinements based on their feedback."

Here's a screenshot of Blogger's new post editor which has been expanded and simplified to give a larger canvas for drafting and previewing work.

This new streamlined interface which has been in draft for the past few months (see Relevant articles below) is clean, easy to navigate and most importantly, has good statistics reporting showing recent traffic numbers, comment activity and follower counts.

If you're using Blogger to host your blog, you can choose to update to the new interface immediately via a pop-up announcement that will appear on your Dashboard. If you decide not to update immediately, you can always update to the new interface at a later date by clicking on "Try the updated Blogger interface" on the top-right of your Dashboard.

Note: I have updated the post: Have You Backed Up Your Blog? with information on how to backup your blog on this new interface.

I personally like the new interface but what's your thoughts?

Related articles:
Google Plus, Facebook Chat & Blog News
Google Profiles Gone Secure & Blogger Getting A Facelift


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post, enjoy the rest of the week!