Falling SERP! Why?

[whyfrown]

Hey everyone,
awhile back i bought a package to boost a page. It was doing very well for the past 2 months. But i just checked 2 days ago and my ranking has been falling from #3 to # 27 now. Could it be

1) I just changed my wordpress theme
2) A loss in links built to the page all of a sudden has caused the SERP to fall?

If so i don't understand how it's possible to keep spending money building links to pages continually...

Please do advise me

[JamesGw]

It could be a combination of both. Changing your theme might have some effect, but it really shouldn't do much unless it really messed up your internal linking structure or your URLs.

You can't just buy one link package and expect it to make your website golden. Proper link building is constant and consistent. Buying one a month would be more appropriate. Try subscribing to a site like linxboss or something. It's not too expensive.

[vok]

You can only speculate the reasons why, but or the same reason this is a perfect example why you shouldn't just rely on one traffic source and or "Free Traffic".

[aizaku]

you need a constant flow of do follow anchor text backlinks - the links dont have to be much but constant.

are you posting regularly? Are the Google bots visiting your site without any fresh content to feed on? - The content doesnt have to be much but constant.

are you connecting with your audience via twitter or facebook? are you providing solutions to their problems? - the interactions dont have to be frequent but constant.

develop a routine and you will be fine. if you can, outsource some of the things you hate doing.

be well

[MaverickUK]

There's nothing wrong with relying on Google for traffic, yes you are at their mercy, but play by their rules and you're golden. You will often see people on this forum preaching article marketing, forum commenting and all sorts for traffic, but this is merely their way of generating traffic and this is yours.

As for your question, changing a theme on Wordpress will definitely not effect your ability to rank in Google. Unless the link structure or content has changed, you can certainly rule that out as being a problem.

As your site is still young at 2 months old its definitely possible that it's merely a Google dance. Give it at least a week before being too worried, if after a week it's still a problem then it could be due to many different reasons. As long as your backlinking and playing within Googles plathora of rules, you will be fine.

Also it's unlikely that just because you have stopped backlinking that your site would have such a fall in rankings. Usually it will be more incremental such as losing two or three spots. After you've backlinks for a good while you can eventually backlink at a much slower rate, just make sure it's enough to keep on top of any competition.

In many cases you can just stop backlinking all together, unless of course your site falls in the SERP's, then you need to take action.

[coronaborcalis]

I don't think changing theme will effect ranking because its been 2 weeks now since I do trial and error by changing theme to find the best CTR for my adsense site. For testing I change layout once per day but Google still loves me by giving me steady position on first page

[vok]

Originally Posted by MaverickUK

There's nothing wrong with relying on Google for traffic, yes you are at their mercy, but play by their rules and you're golden. You will often see people on this forum preaching article marketing, forum commenting and all sorts for traffic, but this is merely their way of generating traffic and this is yours.

As for your question, changing a theme on Wordpress will definitely not effect your ability to rank in Google. Unless the link structure or content has changed, you can certainly rule that out as being a problem.

As your site is still young at 2 months old its definitely possible that it's merely a Google dance. Give it at least a week before being too worried, if after a week it's still a problem then it could be due to many different reasons. As long as your backlinking and playing within Googles plathora of rules, you will be fine.

Also it's unlikely that just because you have stopped backlinking that your site would have such a fall in rankings. Usually it will be more incremental such as losing two or three spots. After you've backlinks for a good while you can eventually backlink at a much slower rate, just make sure it's enough to keep on top of any competition.

In many cases you can just stop backlinking all together, unless of course your site falls in the SERP's, then you need to take action.

What "rules" are those? They make their own up, not only that but they're consistently re-working them.

[MaverickUK]

By rules I mean guidelines. Those who know about SEO generally know the do's and dont's when it comes to Mr G. Let's take for example alternating anchor text to ensure it looks as natural as possible - if there are a hundred links pointing to a page about blue widgets all with the anchor text "blue widget", this will raise flags with Google's algo.

[Forcefactor]

The reason you the site dropped so quickly is because google is trying to figure out where to place your site in the serps.

So there is going to be some bouncing around for a while until you resume back to a position even higher than you were if you backlinked your site properly.

[RevSEO]

It very well could be the change in your theme. Far too often a change in the theme can result in very different linking structures from your homepage, and even internal pages (because of sidebar change).

99% of domains homepages retain the most overall value/linkjuice. By changing the theme it may change the way that your pages were linked to from the homepage. Thus, the page that fell, may have lost a link from that page or another page that had good pagerank. I'd suggest relinking that page from your homepage or another page on your site that has good PageRank.

Keep in mind that changing themes is often a BIG deal unless you try to simulate the same linking structure as before.

[purecapitalist]

Originally Posted by whyfrown

awhile back i bought a package to boost a page. It was doing very well for the past 2 months.

ROI = return on investment

Investment should never be looked at as a short term prospect. If your site is making $100/m, some of that should be sank back into advertising (generally speaking). It's not only about growing the site to new income levels, it's also safe guarding your site from a ranking drop offs.

Creating new articles and drip feeding links over time is the only way to establish any momentum for your site. As long as you're doing small sprints of linkbuilding you'll constantly be dealing with this same chaos.

Look at it this way, if google sees you building 1,000 links over a few days and then nothing in the next 2 months, what do you think is going to be their opinion of your site? Wouldn't it look more natural of those links came 125 each week for 2 months?

The WP theme can change your rankings a little .. it might even cause a short term dance ... but you should bookmark this post because when another week has gone by and your rankings are still bad, you'll want to go ahead and address your real problem

Originally Posted by Forcefactor

The reason you the site dropped so quickly is because google is trying to figure out where to place your site in the serps.

Nope, that time passed 2 months ago when he did the link building. Now he's being discounted because his site looks dead.

[whyfrown]

hey everyone,
thanks so much for your valuable advice and guidance. I have managed to understand that the likely cause for the drop in SERP after 2 months at no.3 to the 3rd page is because of the lack of constant link building to the site.

Can anyone suggest a good way to maintain links into the site? A cheap and affordable way? the page was making about $100 /mth so i dont want to be spending anymore than that...

[jenyjenifer]

You need to have quality backlinks.....