What to do if your website is “gone”

 

If you cannot find your website when you search for yourself on Google, don’t panic right away.
There are a couple of reasons for this that we covered in Part One, so to recap:

 

The Google Dance can cause your site to yo-yo in the rankings, going from page 1 to page 4 to page 2 and so on. No one is exactly sure why this happens, but many consider inbound links to play a large part. The Google Sandbox is an effect that applies to new websites and/or website trying to rank for very competitive keywords (i.e. “weight loss” or “debt management”) and keeps these sites low in the rankings for a while. If you’ve been on the receiving end of a Google Slap, you’re an AdWords user and Google has seen something about your account and/or how you use it that they don’t like. The end result is an increase in the cost-per-click for your campaign and possibly a drop in PageRank as well. Getting a taste of the Google Smackdown isn’t any fun for affected sites; this effect is often brought on by updates and changes such as the Panda and Penguin updates and can result in a drop (or rise) in your site’s ranking. Last, but not least, is the dreaded Google Ban which more or less means “Sorry Charlie, better luck next time!” for effected sites. If you’ve been banned you have a slim chance of an appeal, but not many people are even offered the opportunity to appeal so it’s always a good idea to consider other options too.

 

Dancing in the Sandbox

 

If you’re experiencing the “Google Dance” then there is really not much you can do but sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride as you watch your site go up and down in the rankings before your position begins to stabilize. This isn’t always a bad thing, though if you drop way out of sight you might want to start looking more closely at your link building strategy and see if there are any low-quality sources you can stop using in favour of something a little more high-quality.

The same can be said for a site that is currently experiencing the “Sandbox Effect” and isn’t really rising in the rankings very much. Age is an important factor here, as is the keyword you are trying to rank for. If you want to try and better your chances of being found in a search, do not neglect long-tail keywords, for example a typical keyword might be “dog collars”, and a long-tail keyword on this theme could be “pink camo dog collars”. The best thing to do if you think you’re in the Sandbox is to play it safe and build your links slowly and surely while putting content out there that is unique, original, and useful for anyone who visits your site.

 

Getting Slapped and Smacked Around

 

Sites dealing with a “Google Slap” are going to need to get in touch with someone at Google to try and figure out what went wrong. This is easier said than done, but through research it has been found that many users find help contacting representatives in Google’s Help Forums. Just remember to be respectful and use plenty of tact when posting there as a hot attitude will not do you any favours in getting someone to hear your case.

Out of all of the things we’ve talked about so far, a site suffering from a “Google Smackdown” has the best chance of a full recovery in a (relatively) short amount of time. Since most “Smackdowns” are doled out to sites during updates and major changes under the hood at Google, it is a good idea to head over the Google’s developer blogs and take a look at the top blogs for SEO and Internet Marketing elsewhere on the net to get a sense of what was effected by the most recent change. If any of the things that were targeted (say, spammy links or duplicate content) are on your site, now is the time to change those for the better. You can also slow down building links for a bit and focus on putting out some quality content and a slow-yet-steady stream of new links to make sure you stay in the game while you’re getting your site up to speed again.

 

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

 

If you’ve tried the site:yoursite.com step we suggested in Part 1 of this post and you’ve found nothing, then you’ve most likely been banned from Google search results. Your site is still online and still visible if someone searches using another search engine like Bing or Yahoo, so nothing says you cannot keep things up and running just the way they are. If you are interested in returning to the good graces of Google, you’re going to need to do one of two things. First, you can try to appeal your case; sometimes you will receive an email to let you know what happened and why Google did what they did to your site. If you get one of these emails, you might (and I stress might) have a link included that you can follow to appeal your case. Not very many people get this appeal opportunities, so you might have to try the Help Forums we suggested above, and if that doesn’t work, move on to option two. Option two involves getting a new domain name and starting over from scratch. If you have backup copies of your site you can upload these to your new domain, but that shouldn’t be all you do to get back online. There was a reason Google banned your site in the first place, so now is an excellent time to go through things with a fine-toothed comb and make any changes you can think of to boost the quality of your site and the material / information you offer to visitors.

 

Wrapping up

 

The only thing that stays the same with Google is the fact that everything changes. You can count on updates and alterations, on new algorithm changes and other behind-the-scenes mojo popping up at random all throughout the year. Google likes to keep website owners on their toes it would seem, and for some things this is good (promoting quality content on the web), but it is easy to get confused by the tech-speak and frequency of the updates.

The easiest and best route to take is to do everything above-board and ethically. Build your links naturally and get exposure for your site in honest ways like guest posting on a popular blog or starting a social media profile somewhere and always put quality content out there for your visitors. If you do these things you will be pretty safe from any negative action. Bear in mind that nothing is ever guaranteed, but if you’re doing all of the right things and keeping your nose clean (figure of speech), then if you do have action taken against you, you will have a much easier time and better chances of getting an appeal than someone who was doing wrong and just go caught doing it.

 

Do you have any experience dealing with the after-effects of a Google penalty? If you have we want to hear from you!

 

If you know someone who has experience with these punitive actions be sure to direct them here to share their stories.

Help! My website isn’t ranking in Google

 

If you’re checking your stats and can’t seem to find your site anywhere when doing a simple Google search, don’t panic! It is more common than you think to “lose” your site on Google from time to time, especially with all of the updates being rolled out (Panda and Penguin anyone?) that are constantly changing the face of SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and essentially it means anything done to your website or its content in order to make it more appealing to search engines and enabling it to attract more web traffic to your website.

There are a few different things that can happen to cause your website to disappear from the search results:

 

Google Dance – The Google Dance is the name given to the phenomenon that causes your website’s ranking to change dramatically from day to day. A website in the midst of the Google Dance can be on page 1 one day, page 5 the next day, and back up to page 2 after that. There is no one cause for the Google Dance, though many SEO’s think that it is caused by various strategies such as link building taking effect ; if you built a lot of links yesterday, your site may Dance for a few days or a week as those new links are evaluated to determine you site’s new rank.

Google Sandbox – Regardless of what you might read, the Google Sandbox is real, though it isn’t a “place” but more of an effect that can apply to your website at certain times of its life. When your site is “in the Sandbox” it is not in website time-out for some sort of violation; instead a site experiencing the “Sandbox Effect” is likely a younger site that is trying to rank for a very competitive keyword. Google keeps these young go-getter sites on ice for a while to make sure they don’t get too enthusiastic with trying to build links and promote themselves and instead take the time to do things right. If your site is in the Sandbox, just build your links slow and steady, do things all above-board and ethically, and you’ll soon be out of it and ready to take on the web.

Google Slap – The “Google Slap” is a term used to describe a punitive action taken by Google against websites using their AdWords service. When a website has been “Slapped” a few things happen, including the price per click for a given keyword increasing (sometimes as much as jumping from 10 cents to 10 dollars per click) and a drop in PageRank which can also cause the cost per click a site pays to climb much higher than it was before. This happens to sites that Google feels are not using the AdWords service properly for any number of reasons.

Google Smack – Also known as a “Google Smackdown”, this is the term used to explain what happens when your website that is ranking pretty well suddenly drops out of sight. Getting “smacked down by Google” often occurs shortly after Google has rolled out a new update such as the recent Panda and Penguin updates that include changes to how Google determines rankings. When a site gets “smacked down” Google has taken their massive library of algorithms and a little mystery magic and determined a new ranking for your website which might be much lower (or if you’re lucky, higher) than it was before.

Google Ban – If your website has been banned, you’re really going to have to sit down and consider your options from here on out. Before you start to worry too much, here is a simple test you can do to see if your site has been banned: type site:yoursite.com (substitute yoursite.com with your site’s URL) into Google and see if anything comes up. If something does, you have not been banned, so something else is going on. If nothing appears but your site is still live and functioning, then you have been banned by Google. While it is possible in some cases to appeal this decision, for a vast majority of website owners there is nothing to be done but try to pick up the pieces and try again under a new domain name.

 

How to fly under the radar

 

If you want to avoid the wrath of Google, there are a few things that you can do to fly under the radar and avoid drawing attention to your site in a negative way.

The first thing you need to look at is your link building strategy. Where do you get your inbound links (the ones pointing to your site from other sites around the web) from, and how often do new links appear? In a perfect world people all over the web would link to your website because they thought it was awesome, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way and you have to do a little link creation on your own. The best way  to build your own links is slowly, and as naturally as possible. If you have to, only create a dozen new links per day; yes this will take a while to bear fruit, but if you’re blasting away using automated software and getting 1,000’s of links per day, don’t be surprised if you wake up the next morning and find that your website has gone the way of the dinosaurs…

How to build links the right way:

• How to Build Links Through Guest Blogging – by Neil Patel
• How to Build Inbound SEO Links the Right way! – by Jo Erickson
• The Right Way to Build Links – by Jeune Ortiz
• How To Build Links That Google Love? – by Jane

 

Another thing that you can do to avoid looking suspicious is to buffer yourself. You can do this by establishing a barrier of sites and profiles between your website and the links you are building. Instead of having every single link you create pointing straight at your home page, why not direct a few to your social media profiles, a blog, an author profile in an article directory, etc. Anything that is a trusted authority type site is also good, so don’t say no to Squidoo or Hubpages accounts just yet. You can then link to your home page from these other sites and profiles, creating a buffer.

What a top blogger says about “buffering” your site:

• The Importance Of Web 2.0 Buffer Sites And How To Maintain Them – by Sté Kerwer

 

And last, make sure anything and everything you post is original and useful! Google (and your site’s visitors) love unique, original, and useful content and this impacts your rankings in a good way while keeping you out of the hot seat with Google. If people who visit your site find it interesting and helpful, they’re more likely to stay and surf around a bit and then share your site with someone they know. This is the kind of advertising you’re looking for, so encourage it! What you do not want to do is try to get a lot of content out there fast by using automated software to create new content for you, and/or post it to hundreds of no-name directories all over the web. This is basically jumping up a down waving a red flag in front of an angry bull… you’ll get noticed all right, but not in a good way!

How can you write original content? Check this out:

• Writing Good Content – by Darren Rowse

 

But wait, there’s more!

 

Stay tuned to find out more in Part Two: What to do if your website is “gone”

 

Have you had a site that has been penalised by Google? If so, what happened?

Have your sites been safe so far, and what are you doing to stay on the right track?

 

If you learned something from this post, please share it with someone you know!

Your Website Needs Fresh Content

It is a simple fact that content can make or break a website, so of course better content would increase your chances of doing well! One of the ways that you can provide better content to your customers is by keeping that content current. And this does not necessarily mean you can only post current events, content for the long-term is just as valuable and can offer you benefits as well. What matters most is the frequency of your updates; you want to get into a steady rhythm that shows both customers and search engines that you are serious about serving up fresh content. Customers like to know there is someone at the controls when they visit a business’ website, and search engines like to see updated content for the same reasons; no one likes a stale website!

 

Getting Fresh Content

 

You might be asking yourself where you are going to get this content, or where you will be able to put it, and this is a good question.

Many businesses have a website with a few pages including a home page and a few internal pages that might hold information about the company’s location, a contact form, and pages for different products and services. This is wonderful as these are pages that you can fill with the important basics about your company and the products and services you offer. It can be difficult to update these pages frequently, because many times the information on them does not change very much from week to week (for example, your company’s mission will likely be the same for a long time, so no need to update the mission statement every week) or even month to month.

 

So how does a website get fresh content?

 

The easiest way to get fresh content for your website is to blog. With platforms like WordPress it is easier than ever for business owners to have a blog set up and designed for them that they can then take over and manage afterwards. With a blog, your company has a voice that goes beyond your website. Your business now has the opportunity to weigh in on current events in your industry or events that will affect your target market! You can also post content that is going to be relevant for the long-term like reviews of products and services (yours and those of other companies) in your industry, how-to and instructional materials, free advice, and much more. It is very easy to perform a little market research and start building a list of things your customers are looking for and interested in reading about.

Need fresh content ideas? Check these out:

• Keeping your website content current – by Kristeen Bullwinkle
• Keeping Your Website Content Current – by Amanda Kopp

 

Benefits of Fresh Content

 

One of the main benefits of fresh content is increased traffic to your website. By keeping your basic web pages up to date (updating them if anything changes with your company) and making regular posts to a blog, your company is staying fresh in the minds of search engines and potential customers. If you’re writing unique, useful content about things that are relevant to your business you will start to see more traffic coming your way. Part of this will come from search engines when people search for terms that are related to your business; optimizing your content to increase your ranking in search results is part of something known as SEO, or search engine optimization. In short, when fresh content is part of an overall SEO strategy for your company it can result in many benefits for your website.

If you are maintaining a blog you are also providing people with something to share with others via social media, and this can bring more traffic to your website as well. The goal of keeping up a flow of fresh content is to establish a reputation for delivering quality information that is reliable and accurate for readers and search engines. If you are not delivering quality content, it will not matter how often or regularly you update, you will not see the same benefits as you would if you were only serving up high-quality content on your website or blog.

Here is what top bloggers are saying about the benefits of fresh content:

• The Importance of Fresh Unique Content for Your Website – by Reston Tech Wiz
• SEO Benefits of Regular Fresh Content – by Matt

 

Wrapping Up

 

In summary, your business can definitely benefit from posting fresh content on a regular basis. Many businesses reach this goal by adding a blog to their website and using it to provide fresh content to people who visit their website. If you are interested in adding a blog to your website, consider where your content is going to come from. A lot of business owners like the sound of a blog and the potential benefits having one can bring their company, but do not have the time to maintain one on their own. Luckily there are entire companies and freelance individuals out there who would be happy to help maintain a blog for you. These companies and individuals do charge for their services, but the benefits of having regular updates of fresh content are well worth the investment.

If you are a bit short on funds or want to introduce some variety into your updates, who not consider a guest blogger? Some business owners, bloggers, etc are happy to write occasional pieces for other blogs in exchange for a link back to their own website or blog in the post they make. You can also consider interviews with important people in your industry as these are a great way to make a quality post in a short amount of time.

Want to know more? Check out this post:

• Should Your Business Blog Publish Evergreen or Current Content? – by Dana Prince

 

Do you know of other ways to provide fresh content on your website or blog?

Are there any benefits of fresh content that we missed? If so, please share your stories with us in the comments.

 

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with someone you know!

 

Try going through your Twitter or Facebook feeds.  You can probably find two types of status messages being posted by people that you know: 1. “I love my job because I work for a great company.” 2. “ I hate my job and I work for a terrible employer.” Believe it or not, both scenarios could have harmful effects to your company. Yes. BOTH.

The second scenario seems to pose the most immediate danger. Valid or not, when an employee says negative things about the company he or she is working for, it immediately causes some form of harm to your company’s image. Especially when that employee’s status message or tweet manages to illicit feedback from friends and co-workers. What started as a post that was visible only to those within that employee’s own network will then become visible to the networks of everyone who comments or replies to that post or tweet.

However, the first scenario, even when done with the most benign of intentions, could still cause some harm to your company. Picture this. Your employee posts “I love my job because I work for a great company”. Then a friend of his goes “Glad you’re enjoying your new job.”. Then, your employee then says “Thanks, Friend. Yes, it was recently announced at our meeting this morning that because we exceeded our target of $14 million for this quarter, I got a raise, and we’ll be upgrading our facilities and expanding our reach to three additional areas.”

Do you see how that post made a complete turn for the worse in a matter of only two replies? Having your employee state that because you exceeded your targets he’ll get a raise is okay, but having your employee accidentally reveal confidential company information is obviously not.

That is why in this day and age, it is not only practical, but imperative that your company drafts an employee policy about social media.In fact, you should have two: one for employees using social media for their job and one for employees using social media in their personal lives.

The first policy should cover aspects of your company’s social media marketing initiatives: establishing the team and the individual roles and responsibilities, the overall strategy and schedule, visual and verbal branding guidelines.

The second should be handled by Human Resources, and covers employees and their use of  social media in their personal lives, and what they can and cannot say about your company on their personal site.

As early as the hiring process, human resources needs to be upfront with potential employees that your company reserves the right to monitor employee use of social media regardless of location, whether  at work or at home. Reinforce to new and current employees that negative remarks about your company online can lead to consequences. Client information, trade secrets, and even trips or employee locations might also need to be kept confidential.

A positive way to present this policy is by developing a “brand induction” seminar or session. These talks should be positive and far from threatening. During these events, provide positive reinforcement and guidelines and remind all employees that they are all brand ambassadors, carrying your company’s reputation with them at all times.