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 remóve 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
Remóve 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.
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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 promotíon.
Sources: SiteProNews, Fri 9/2/2011
