Blogs and traditional websites often disappear, as if by some magic trick gone horribly awry, from the search engine results pages (SERPs) of the dominant search engine Google.
For new sites, that phenomenon is well known and not a surprise. When Google first indexes a site or a blog, the page will shoot to the top of the SERPs for its most important keywords. For a brief shining moment, like Camelot, your blog is on top of the world.
Then something bad happens.
The blog or website will suddenly vanish from the Google listings entirely. No one knows precisely why this event occurs, and we know for certain that Google isn't talking. It happens nonetheless. The key here is to not panic.
Your blog will return to the listings, in what the Google search algorithm (the computer formula used to determine a site's relevance for that search) determines is the blog's proper location. Chances are it will be lower than during those heady days when the blog was first indexed.
Riding high in April, shot down in May.
The same problem happens to established blogs and websites as well. No one is ever quite sure why it happens either. There are several theories. None are certainties. The best advice is to just ride out the storm.
D. Gordon Smith at the highly informative and knowledgeable Venturpreneur recently felt the pain of being lost from the Google search results.
His blog has since made a return to the results listings, but no longer gets much visitor traffic referrals from Google.
I checked Gordon's searches, from which Google dropped him, "D. Gordon Smith" and "Law Student Blog Honor Roll". Right now, Venturpreneur tops both searches, with the top four and top two Page One positions, respectively.
The problem is now one of traffic generation from those searches.
I would suggest to Gordon, and to all other bloggers, to check your visitor logs. Find the most important searched keywords that found your site. Those are what real world searchers type into the search box, when looking for information on a topic. Make certain those keywords appear in your blog posts somewhere. They are what your visitors want to read about.
Help them find what they seek.
Yes, you will have some strange and quirky searches. Everyone has some really weird search results that led someone to their blog. What I am talking about here are your most important ones. Top three or four to be exact.
Google updates its search engine results pages (SERPs) on a constant basis, but has monthly updates, that range from minor to major earth shakers. The famous Florida update, of November 2003, falls into the off the Richter Scale earthquake category.
Google also does periodic updates of its backlinks and Google PageRank (the numerical measure of a page's importance on the internet) in times ranging from two weeks to a month. They are somewhat erratic, likely in an attempt to keep the search engine optimization community off balance.
Don't overlook or discount search engine optimization because of a disappearance from Google.
Your blog will return, and possibly higher in the results than ever.
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