Site dropped in SERPs - now what?

[Anna_O]

I had a site that was doing very well and had good rankings for several keywords - including a few keywords on page 1 that were generating great traffic.

Suddenly this week, the rankings dropped from page 1 to pages 4 and 5 for the keywords I was targeting. Now my holiday sales have dropped dramatically.

I can't see any logic to this drop in the SERPs (there was no large influx of backlinks to the site that I know of or anything like that).

What do I do now? Get a new backlinking campaign started? Add a bunch more content to the site?

What's the best strategy in this situation to get the rankings back up - hopefully in time to capture more holiday sales?

Thanks,
Anna

[milczy]

I think there was some sort of algorithm change this week, because my site which has been ranking quite comfotably at number 2 has now dropped out of even the top 100. No where to be seen.

Last time this happened I left it alone and didn't touch it and within a couple of weeks it came back. Mind you I agree. It sucks because you are getting income and then nothing.

The worst thing is, my site is australian. And the ones that are now ranking are all american. The other thing I hate is when I choose australian sites only a directory listing I have for my site is ranking and mine is no where to be seen. There are even sites ranking above mine which have crappy on page SEO and I have an EMD.

I hate google sometimes!

[coachbob]

Ha ha, I came crawling to the forum to see if anyone else experience what happened to me this week and guess what, same thing. I had 8 keywords ranked in the tiop 5 and all of a sudden I can't find any of them. The only one I can find is the domain name itself. This sucks, especially after losing a site completely in August. That site was delisted and still not showing up, I am not exactly sure what i will do with that one and it was acting just like the site I lost this week. :-(

[milczy]

At least I can say my site is still indexed! I search the exact domain and its comes up. Thank God! Let's hope they do something with their algorithnm again and fix the rankings because the sites which are ranking for my keywords are all crap. lol

[coachbob]

Originally Posted by milczy

At least I can say my site is still indexed! I search the exact domain and its comes up. Thank God! Let's hope they do something with their algorithnm again and fix the rankings because the sites which are ranking for my keywords are all crap. lol

I completely understand where you are coming from. This has been a year for me. My best site in February had to be given back because it was a company named site, glacierbaytoilets.com and it is still in the top 10 after I gave it to the lawyers. Iif you look you will see the .net and .org versions still up and making a killing. I emailed the lawyers about it and they never responded.

Then in August another up and coming site gets delisted and now in Dec. another up and coming site gets hammered. Talk about taking 3 steps forward and 2000 backwards.

[razorhound]

Same thing happened, I reckon it might be too late to get the keywords back to top before Christmas.

[googlepage1]

the others might have increased their optimizing strategy and that caused you these low rankings.

[ninal]

Google serps is certainly one heck of a rollercoaster ride. Some of my rankings came back, some never recovered. Now, I just work on strengthening the few sites that are making profit. If they drop a bit or completely, I just continue with my work and hope that it regains its place.

I find it's best to have many targeted keywords per page so even if you lose a bit of ranking, you can still get traffic from your other keywords.

[MaverickUK]

Strange, two of my affiliate sites dropped on the same day and haven't recovered yet, however it's only been a few days. I didn't see many people complaining, however from the posts here it looks like there may have been an algorithm change/tweak.

[coachbob]

I have one website that has been online for over 10 years. Each year one particular set of keywords to this page always bounce from first page to nowhere to be found section. Then after a few months they come back. However, this time they have not come back since May. I don't think google knows what they are doing, but I can tell you that I will take the site that was de-indexed and create a new domain name and use the same webpages. It worked for the site I lost to Home Depot and I bet it will work again. Sometimes the human reviewers don't have a clue what they are doing.

[markw89]

My website was on #8, yesterday I checked and it was on page 2

[WakondaMarketing]

It's another one of those pesky algorithm changes by Google. Google could be a headache sometimes if no, all the time. LOL.

[sadek]

Try to build some link and don't forgot on page SEO

[icosane]

Originally Posted by coachbob

I can tell you that I will take the site that was de-indexed and create a new domain name and use the same webpages. It worked for the site I lost to Home Depot and I bet it will work again. Sometimes the human reviewers don't have a clue what they are doing.

LOL does this work? I also lost a site from #2 completely off of top 100. I could buy the .net or .org of the same name and have it up in 10 minutes.

Do you think its human reviewers that cause the serious drop off? My site was a bit spammy but the results right now aren't any better than the site I put up. I did notice over the last month or two a few newbies were trying to break into my niche targeting the same keywords and may have spammed the hell out of the keyword...

[ericnelsonator]

I have been through this earlier and adding more content and backlinks constantly has helped get my rankings back. Though not all my sites could recover but most of them did while others are showing decent progress. Keep going and it will come back.

[Illuminart]

Try to add more content and backlinks. That will bring you up to the SERPS in no time.

[coachbob]

Originally Posted by ericnelsonator

I have been through this earlier and adding more content and backlinks constantly has helped get my rankings back. Though not all my sites could recover but most of them did while others are showing decent progress. Keep going and it will come back.

Is your recommendation above from a site that was de-listed or for a site that just dropped off in serps?

[RevSEO]

Don't give up.

Most people simply give up when something like this happens.
Your rankings may be back, and be back quickly. But, let this
be a lesson that you can't stop giving Google what it wants.

Google loves what your readers love. Engagement, backlinks
quality content, regular updates, etc. If you make content
that people want to read, share, and link to it will make a
world of difference.

Do you have a lot of duplicate content on your site?
What is your current backlinking strategy?
How often do you update your website?

[coachbob]

Originally Posted by RevSEO

Don't give up.

Do you have a lot of duplicate content on your site?
What is your current backlinking strategy?
How often do you update your website?

Who are you directing this at?

[jep]

Now I know why I lost my #1 ranking site to oblivion..somehow I also saw in AHREF'S website there's a sudden hike of removed backlinks and that may caused it too..

[ericnelsonator]

I've had sites drop off 50 positions and even 100+ sometimes but the key is to keep going and keep building links constantly (partial phrase match ofcourse)and you will see the rankings come back but it will take time so you need a lot of patience.

Originally Posted by coachbob

Is your recommendation above from a site that was de-listed or for a site that just dropped off in serps?

[JackieGold]

I thought it was just me, as my sudden drop in the SERPs coincided with a tweek I made - but I see now it was just coincidence. Fortunately, I am still indexed.

I am, however, confused by the fact that not only were my "thin affiliate pages" affected, but also all of my content-rich blog posts have lost their rankings...

[stefijain]

this is same for me, my website keywords were ranking well, but i wanted to get better results, so i did work for one url of my website, i did social bookmarking, directory submission, blog commenting and now my keywords ranking went down too much , i do not understand why this.

[coachbob]

@stefijain

lots of people are experiencing this, so it will be a game of patience. I've noticed my oldest site got hammered last month and didn't get any traffic at all and now in the past couple of days the traffic has started to pick up again. Thank goodness I didn't have time to work on the site (I wanted to really bad) and didn't do a thing. No backlinks, no new content, no nothing. This site has experienced these ups and downs all the time but usually it is once a year and then it re-establishes itself. So, I guess the lesson is to be patient but don't over due it.

I would like to hear of others who have had their site de-indexed. Any thoughts?

[Ettienne]

Originally Posted by Anna_O

I had a site that was doing very well and had good rankings for several keywords - including a few keywords on page 1 that were generating great traffic.

Suddenly this week, the rankings dropped from page 1 to pages 4 and 5 for the keywords I was targeting. Now my holiday sales have dropped dramatically.

I can't see any logic to this drop in the SERPs (there was no large influx of backlinks to the site that I know of or anything like that).

What do I do now? Get a new backlinking campaign started? Add a bunch more content to the site?

What's the best strategy in this situation to get the rankings back up - hopefully in time to capture more holiday sales?

Thanks,
Anna

People, those of you who say "maybe your competition is better" or "just build more backlinks" clearly don't know what Anna here is referring to...

The same thing happened to me this week, please note that we're also not talking about dropping from page 1 to 2, or 3 to 4, but dropping 100's of spots without warning or explanation.

I had multiple keywords on page 1, they've been there for months (some for years even) and suddenly over the past weekend (late Saturday eve) I checked my rankings (I do this daily) and 90% of them dropped to page 25 and above, some even disappeared completely.

I know how you feel Anna, same problem here. However, last time this happened all my results came back stronger than ever after about 5-6 days so let's hope for the best

[DaCheese]

I've had this happen to me during the first panda update too. I built more backlinks and content to the dropped sites but only some of them came back and some of them didn't..

For those that didn't, i bought new domains targeting the same keywords(if was previously profitable) with a suffix and started ranking them from scratch again.

Hope this helps

[tylerjaysen]

yeah this drop in the SERPS is normal and expected. Check back in a few days and see where you are then. If you still keep dropping back, then you might want to analyze your on page SEO and backlinking efforts.

[RedWaterDub]

Hey Ana,

Did your serps come back?

Looks like you got slapped with the -50 google penalty. You will need to update your pages and make a reconsideration request....

[John Moore]

Yep, sounds like a -50 penalty, sometimes it's best to get an expert to look at your site as 90%+ of penalties are due to on-site issues the webmaster can't recognize, if you think backlinking caused it, then it's best to diversify you anchor text as much as possible and keep building links to your site, don't stop!