5 Ways To Handle Search Engine Rankings Drops

Are you a Google junkie? I know I was a few years ago when one of my first blogs was doing so great on Google. It’s quite addictive when you think about it. If you are pulling in 3000+ visitors a day just from Google, you know your content is getting some decent exposure without it costing you any money. Of course, nobody’s satisfied with any level of traffic. The more of it you have, the more of it you want. But those who live by Google, die by Google. In 2004, my top blog was pulling in 90K visitors a month just from Google. Sure. It wasn’t as popular as a super blog, but the blog was paying for itself, and it was making me a good amount of change for my efforts. Then came Google algorithm changes. The site suddenly disappeared from the SERPs without me making any changes to the code or the content on my blog. It took me months to get my blog back up to where it was. But I learned my lesson. You should never rely on one traffic source to drive traffic to a blog, especially one as volatile as Google.

A lot of people can’t handle the thought of losing their search engine rankings overnight, but it could happen. A lot of blogs get flagged for duplicate content and some even become victims of hack attacks or serve downtime. It doesn’t take much to lose your position in the search engine results pages. You can handle a drop in your search engine rankings two ways. You can panic and start going berserk, changing your code, web host, and even your domain, or you can think logically about it. While there are no guarantees that you can get back your original search engine rankings, there are things you should and shouldn’t do when faced with such a dilemma.

How To Handle A Drop in Search Engine Rankings

Here are just a few ways you can go about handling a drop in your rankings:

• Don’t Lose It: I have seen a lot of bloggers who just lose it when faced with a drop in their rankings. Blogging is all about having fun and facing challenges. If you can’t handle the heat, just don’t get in the kitchen. Just because you have dropped a few places in your rankings, doesn’t mean the world has come to an end. Sometimes these changes are temporary. Sometimes they are due to things you have done to your blog. But don’t just lose it and start changing everything. I did that once, and I can tell you changing things drastically more often than not backfires.
• Back to Basics: make sure you check your blog’s structure and SEO basics to figure out what could have gone wrong. Also make sure you keep your web host in check. Maybe they were down when you were not checking. If you haven’t taken time to optimize your blog for search engines, you may want to take time to add titles, address duplicate content issues, and create a sitemap for your blog.
• Identify the Source: my blog disappeared from the SERPs as someone hacked it and added Viagra and other malicious links to my database. It took me a while to realize what had happened, but if you keep yourself up-to-date with the latest hacking tactics, it’s not too hard to identify the source of your problem. Not every issue on your blog can be attributed to hacking, but hacking is a part of life for bloggers. Thanks to great posts such as this you can stay up-to-date.
• Diversify Your Traffic Sources: never put all your eggs in one basket. I don’t care how many people are visiting your blog from Google or Bing. Just make sure you stay involved in the social media and use article marketing, hubs, and other traffic sources to keep bringing people to your blog. That way things will be less stressful if Google drops your blog.
• Try Paid Search: paid search for blogs? I must be crazy, right? In some situations, you may have to rely on paid search to get people to your blog (especially if you have built your empire upon your traffic from Google). StumbleUpon and Facebook ads are not too expensive, and they can get a lot of people to your blog.

The best way to handle a drop in search engine rankings is by staying calm. The world doesn’t end when your rankings drop. More often than not, you can get it back by making minor tweaks. Even if you are hacked, you can always get yourself back to your original position. By losing it, you may make decisions that you will regret in the future. Nobody likes to get slapped by Google. Just take a time-out and try to think of ways you can regain your position in the SERPs. If you haven’t put all your eggs in one basket, you won’t have to stress too much while planning your next moves.