The Search Engines Lost My Website…What Can I Do?

[thejenn]

Authored by: Todd Mintz

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/mintz/007437.html

A Snippet:

Losing a test website in a laboratory environment isn't a big deal to an SEO...it is part of an ongoing educational process that insures clients receive the best possible results for their investment (since ethical SEO's NEVER use client sites for such experiments).

[vangogh]

SEO can be risky depending on how far you're willing to push things. I think it's important to not try those risky experiments on your main site. Be conservative with your business site and if you want to experiment a little create a new site just for that purpose. Once you've tested and are sure something works then use it on your own site.

Also like the article mentioned there are more ways to get traffic than through a search engines. Never put all your eggs in that one proverbial basket. If you market yourself right you'll never be dependant on one source of traffic or revenue.

[Jill]

This article seems to assume that it's something wrong with your site that may have caused it to drop. The reality is that tons of sites drop all the time without doing anything wrong. It's just a bad change by the search engine.

Most of the time that's what it is, and it doesn't need to be diagnosed by an SEO company. Just sit tight until the search engine fixes what THEY broke.

99% of the time, that will fix things.

Jill

[vangogh]

I'm not sure I agree. I think there are occasions when something is off at a search engine and sites come and go from the different pages. That's normal.

I think this article though is talking more about pushing things a little when experimenting with a site to see what does or doesn't work. Maybe by stuffing a few extra keywords some place you shouldn't or trying to hide a link in a new way. Or maybe some kind of risky link campaign was adopted. And after having pushed that envelope a little too far getting the site in question is penalized in some way.

I wouldn't say search engines broke something just because they changed the algorithm in some way. Much of the algorithm updates recently have been about finding and removing spam sites or sites that use techniques designed to manipulate ranking. I realize that all seo can be considered to be manipulating ranking, but some techniques do have merit beyond seo.

i think there are many cases where site owners either purposely or innocently have done something that causes them to fall out of favor with a search engine and the article is offerning some suggestions of what the site owner can do if that hapens.

[thejenn]

Most of the time that's what it is, and it doesn't need to be diagnosed by an SEO company. Just sit tight until the search engine fixes what THEY broke.

I've got to disagree here, but only in the application of your thought.

It's easy enough for an SEO with dozens or hundreds of sites to see a pattern of lots of sites dropping at once and to recognize that it's a temporary glitch. For a small business owner that is only running a single site, it's pretty tough to tell if the drop is because of something they did, or because of one of those glitches.

Thus, doing things like hanging out in SEO forums, having an SEO consultant that you sometimes touch base with or even calling up a firm to have them review the work you are doing on your site can be handy. How else, but via the community can a small business owner know which are glitches and which are actual drops because of something they've done?

[vangogh]

Good points Jenn. The same can really be applied to most any industry. I'm not an accountant and will most likely never be up to date on all the latest tax laws and how they may be applied to my business. Fortunately my brother is and I can ask him.

Similarly unless your business is seo it's unlikely you would be able to keep up with everything going on with search engines and while ranking changes could be a temporary glitch they could also be indicative of something more going on at your site.

You may not always need an seo expert, but there are times when it can be helpful and I agree that it's good to have one you can touch base with at the least. If you can't afford to hire one then reading forums can be a great way to get the info though reading through them can be time consuming.

[Jill]

I just don't want anyone wasting money on an SEO consultant when it's not necessary.

It's especially funny when a site owner pays for a consultation, but their site comes back naturally as it mostly like would, but the SEO gets the credit. (Just seems like a big rip off to the site owner, and I'm just watching their backs!)

[vangogh]

Jill why do you think that all seo's are just ripping people off? Without doing some kind of optimization most sites will never show up in search results. I'm not saying people need to hire seo consultants. A lot of the concepts are relatively simple and most people can do them on their own. It does take a lot of work though and just like any other aspect of business sometimes it's more cost effective to outsource the work that so it yourself.

Now there are definitley seo consultants who don't know what they're doing and it would be a waste to pay them anything, but that's far from true about the whole industry.

And it's really not true that sites will just rank naturally without some kind of optimization. There are a lot of sites and only 10 that show up on page 1. Most people when searching won't click past the 2nd or 3rd page so unless your show up in the first 30 results your site won't be found much. The sites that do appear in those first 30 have generally done some optimization and link building to get there.

[Jill]

Jill why do you think that all seo's are just ripping people off?

Because 90% of the people emailing me about my SEO services have been burned by alleged SEO companies.

And it's really not true that sites will just rank naturally without some kind of optimization.

I certainly never said they did.

But if you had a site that was ranking well, it dropping in rankings for a keyword phrase or two is no cause to go out and hire a consultant. You obviously had some clue about how to get your rankings in the first place. Keep doing what you're doing, and be sure that you actually optimize for hundreds of phrases, so that when some naturally drop due to SE changes, others will naturally go up.

Certainly if you don't want to learn SEO or don't have the time to do it, or whatever you should hire an SEO company. I'm definitely not telling people not to hire SEOs. I AM an SEO.

I'm just telling people not to jump the gun and hire an SEO when it's not necessary.

[vangogh]

That makes sense Jill and I agree that there are a lot of seo comapanies that have no clue or are just practicing either old or spammy techniques. I think everyone should at least learn some of the basics about seo before hiring someone if they decide they want to just so they can make a better decision about who to hire.

My apologies too for misunderstanding about ranking without optimization.

What I notice with a lot of people when it comes to seo is that many seem to think there's a magic formula to greater ranking when in truth it's just a lot of hard work. I think a lot of people fall for the bad seo companies, because those are generally the companie guaranteeing instant results.

There definitely are a lot of seo companies that aren't worth even talking to let alone giving money to, but I also think site owners need to take a certain amount of responsibility in who they hire. I agree with your advice though about an seo not always being needed and I encourage everyone to at least read some of the basics before hiring one.