Why your Google rankings drop and what you can do about it

[djbaxter]

Adding new content can cause your site to plummet too, mine dropped from No4 to No564 overnight a day ago. All I did was add a couple of new pages.

It's doubtful that adding new content caused it. Typically, search engines love fresh content.

Indeed, it probably is not connected to anything you did - it's more likely it has to do with changes in the status of pages linking to you and/or changes in the status of your competitor's pages and/or general algorithmic changes.

 

[webtura]

Adding new content can cause your site to plummet too, mine dropped from No4 to No564 overnight a day ago. All I did was add a couple of new pages.


It's been stable for ages and hopefully will come back quickly. Crazy !!

When I add or update content on my site, I always see result - increased SERP.

 

[stephenhartnett]

I was woundering if you have a new website and you are signed up for 10 different wordpress blogs and all those blogs link back to your website would google sandbox you?

 

[djbaxter]

You MIGHT get away with that strategy of the number of blogs/sites were kept low. Overdo it, though, and you won't have to worry about the sandbox... you'll be outright penalized.

Google "Shoemoney". Big time marketer who has made a huge success out of search engine marketing in a few years (I remember him at DigitalPoint when he was just getting going). He set up a large number of interlinked sites early in his career and found himself with a serious Google penalty. Being Shoemoney, he was able to correct what Google objected to and talk himself back into Google's good graces fairly quickly. But most of us aren't Shoemoney and we might well find ourselves tanked for a good long time if we tried that kind of gimmick.

 

[stephenhartnett]

But if you linked 10 different wordpress blogs to your blogger site and then have two links in your blogger site to your squeeze page that should be ok right?

 

[djbaxter]

But if you linked 10 different wordpress blogs to your blogger site and then have two links in your blogger site to your squeeze page that should be ok right?

The problem is those 10 blogs linbking to your main blog - that's pushing it... not to mention that I doubt you could even keep up with frequent updates to 10 blogs.

Drop that number down to 2 or 3 blogs (or other sites) and interlink those and sure... you may not get the full wieght of those links but it's highly unlikely you'll be penalized.

I currently have about 3 sites, one with some subdomains, that are interlinked into a mini-network. That has worked well for me both in terms of ranking and in terms of branding, but the links from my sites aren't worth as much in terms of PageRank as links from sites I don't own.

 

[stephenhartnett]

Thanks for the advice i really appreciate it. It's just that im looking for other ways to build my lists i currently have 10,000 subscribers im looking to increase that figure to 60,000 by the end of the year

 

[harrysmith]

If you manage to host all your blogs with different host having different IP then you would get better SEO benefit. Make sure you link relevant blogs to your mail website.

 

[djbaxter]

If you manage to host all your blogs with different host having different IP then you would get better SEO benefit. Make sure you link relevant blogs to your mail website.

If you have a lot of them and overdo it, that won't protect you from SE penalties.

 

[harrysmith]

If you have a lot of them and overdo it, that won't protect you from SE penalties.

I am sorry but i don't agree on this !

If you have number of backlinks from different blogs having different IPs for your main website then i don't think such backlinks would cause any harm for you.
Try to link your main website from your blog posts as if they are appearing naturally

 

[djbaxter]

You're entitled to disagree, of course. However, I think you're underestimating search engine algorithms and the amount of information they can gather about websites in the course of normal spidering. Additionally, as I said, it happened to Shoemoney, who is no dolt.

Do it in a small way and you'll probably remain under the radar. Do it in a big way and you may as well post a large flashing marquee on your site saying, "Please investigate me".

 

[harrysmith]

Thanks David for the information and honest suggestion.. really appreciated

 

[kotaspain]

I recently built a new site a few weeks ago, it is almost completed but not entirely. Yesterday I was on the first page of google for a keyword I chose, today I am at the top of the second page. It sucks that my rank dropped but I haven't hardly built any backlinks so I guess I can't complain. I suppose the fresh content thing is possibly the reason why it dropped. Will I have to keep adding fresh content to my site to keep high rankings, or do you think good content with tons of good back-links will do the trick? Of course I will always try and find ways to add better back-links as time goes by

 

[djbaxter]

I recently built a new site a few weeks ago, it is almost completed but not entirely. Yesterday I was on the first page of google for a keyword I chose, today I am at the top of the second page. It sucks that my rank dropped but I haven't hardly built any backlinks so I guess I can't complain. I suppose the fresh content thing is possibly the reason why it dropped.

No. In this case, uou'rte asking the wrong question. You should be asking, "How is it possible that I was on the first page of the search results for a site that new with minimal incoming links?".

And the answer is: It's the "new site factor". Your page 1 ranking was artificial, a consequence of Google not yet having sufficient data to rank it accurately. Once more data is available, the new site drops to a more reasonable rank.

Be prepared for it to drop further unless you're operating in a very non-competitive search niche.

 

[kotaspain]

Thanks for the info. I figured it would drop and thanks to your post I have a much better idea of why this happens and how to help counter act my site from dropping rank. The keywords I am focusing on pertain to Global Domains International (GDI). It would seem I am back on the first page for now, let's see if I can work like a madman to get to the top of the page.

When the word permalink is used, does this just refer to permanent links or am I completely off base? Thanks again

 

[djbaxter]

When the word permalink is used, does this just refer to permanent links or am I completely off base?

That's exactly what it means.

For example, the way I have my blogs set up, the latest post will always be on the home page and accessible by just typing in the domain name. However, that specifric post also has its own permalink so that it remains accessible even when it moves off the first page as it is supplanted by later posts.

 

[yanamk]

Well... i guess google is like a hungry dog - if you don't feed it, it will bite you in the a$$!

 

[aprilandy]

For me, Google rankings drop because of the usage of the wrong keywords. Not doing their best to made it to the 1st page.

 

[tommyy]

Great tips minstrel.I totally agree with your 5 tips.
In addition, I would say that Google knows sometimes remove site from SERP in period of 5-10 days for some checks(none of your tips is not a questionable then). In the end, however, all well done. This is relevant only when the Google page is temporarily removed.

 

[motherwaddles]

I can attest to website changes making a difference. I was struggling to get my site at the top of the rankings. I realized that there were not updates to the site for two months. I made some title tag changes, and changed a few lines. A week later my site moved from page 6 to page 4. Now with my seo work my site is on page 2! So keeping a website fresh is very important!