Why Are My Search Rankings Dropping?

Feb. 20, 2014 - PRLog -- This is one of the most common questions I get on a daily basis:

Why are my search rankings dropping, what should I do?
So, if you want to track your rankings, and you want to ensure that you maintain your positioning, there are 7 things you can do when you start noticing a drop for a specific keyword.

#1: Internal linking
One of the biggest mistakes I see many sites making at this time is that they tend to forget to use internal linking, in which you link one of your web pages to another.

By doing this, you will help that article rank for long tail SEO-related keywords. The key to leveraging internal linking is to avoid using rich anchor text. For this reason, I wouldn’t link that long tail SEO article 10 times with the anchor text “long tail SEO”.

The tactic of using non-rich anchor text is so effective…

By always having internal linking on your blog posts, you are also creating a high-authority ranking site!

By the way, don’t expect immediate results when you start adding internal links. It typically takes 3 plus months for the links to start kicking in. And you can’t just go into your old web pages and posts and shove tons of internal links. You need to do this slowly, over time, and add internal links to new pages as well.

#2: Speed up your site
In the year 2010, Google announced that it would take site speed into account (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/site-speed/) when determining a site’s ranking. Do you know WHY Google cares how fast your site loads? Well, they noticed that when they rank slow loading websites, users tend to have a bad experience, which causes them to use Google less…and that means less income for Google. Of course, it’s ALL about the mighty dollar huh!

So, how do you improve your site speed?

I am going to share with you a simple free solution…

It’s called Google Page Speed (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/service). All you have to do is sign up and follow a few non-technical steps. You should see an increase in the loading speed of your website.

#3: Build links, but definitely ‘not’ to the page that dropped in rankings
When your rankings drop, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

You need to build more links, right?

Most people make the mistake of building tons of links at a fast pace to the web page that dropped in rankings.

Google is smart and can detect if a web page is gaining links at an unnatural pace. So, if you build too many links to the web page that dropped in rankings, you’ll notice that your rankings will drop even more.

But if you build links to other internal pages and avoid using rich anchor text, you’ll find that your rankings will not only stabilize, but they will increase.

This tactic helps increase your overall site authority, which means all of your keywords will start ranking higher.

#4: Update your web page
This tactic is just plain common sense! And probably the simplest out of them all.

It’s also the most effective one as well.

Google prefers ranking fresh pages to stale, old ones.  By adding updated content and images to your web pages, you are going to create a better user experience.

This will cause people to stay on your site longer and increase the likelihood of them linking to your site and even sharing your content on the social web.

#5: Increase your click-through rate
If you log into your Google Webmaster Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/) account, you’ll notice that Google tracks your click-through rates.

One way to increase your search traffic is by increasing your rankings. Another way is by increasing your click-through rate. If a search engine detects that your click-through rate is extremely low for the position you are ranking, it can easily drop your position as this tells the search engine that your listing isn’t very relevant.

To combat this, optimize your title tag and meta description to increase your click-through rate. You can do this by using some of the following keywords within your meta tags as they tend to get clicked on a lot:

How to
[List-related numbers]
Free
You
Tips
Blog post
Why
Best
Tricks
Great

Another way you can increase your click-through rate is through Google Authorship.

By adding your face next to your search listings, you’ll be able to stand out from the crowd and potentially increase your click-through rate by 150%. All you have to do is follow these 4 steps (https://plus.google.com/authorship):

Make sure you have a profile photo with a recognizable head-shot.
Make sure a byline containing your name appears on each page of your content (e.g., “By Steven Levy”).
Make sure your byline name matches the name on your Google+ profile.
Verify you have an email address on the same domain as your content (e.g., stevenlevy@wired.com).

#6: Optimize your design
Have you noticed that mobile and tablet devices are growing at a much faster pace than laptops or desktops?

By ensuring your website is compatible with all device types, you’ll increase the odds of keeping your rankings high.

Otherwise, it would be a poor choice by Google to continually rank mobile-unfriendly sites when a large portion of searchers use mobile phones.

Through Google Analytics, you can see the type of devices people are using to visit your website: everything from mobile phones to tablets to laptops and even desktop computers.

To find out what types of mobile devices they are using, all you have to do is log in to Google Analytics and then click on “audience”, then “mobile”, and then “devices”.

A simple way to ensure you are providing a good mobile experience is first to ensure your site loads fast because not everyone has a fast data plan. You can do this through Google Page Speed, which we talked about above.

Next, you can ensure you are providing a good mobile or tablet experience by making your website design responsive. This way, no matter what screen size someone is using, your design will adapt to it.

#7: Increase your social shares
There’s been a recent debate on whether social shares impact rankings or not. Whether they do or they don’t, more social shares means more traffic. And the more people visit your website, the higher the chance that someone will naturally link back to you. And more links mean higher rankings.

For this reason alone, you should try to get more social shares.

Conclusion
I’m still a big believer in the idea that tracking rankings isn’t useful as SEO has moved to a long tail strategy. But if you do want to track and continually improve your individual rankings, especially when they are starting to slip, you can leverage the tactics above.

You’re going to see the best results if you combine all of the tactics, but even then your rankings won’t bounce right back. It typically takes a few months after implementing the strategies above before you start seeing results.

So, Why Are My Search Rankings Dropping?


Blogging Queen at Your Service,

Maria Galloway