Search engine rankings change a lot, sometimes unexpectedly - but nobody wants to leave the top 10 for the #46 spot. Uncle Arthur is here to tell you that this is a bad sign. It depends how long the change lasts, and what you can do about it. You need to learn why your webpage dropped so much in the rankings before you can get a hold of the situation. And then maybe you can prevent these drops from happening. Uncle Arthur will give you the Big 6 Six Reasons for Drops In Search Rankings.

1) Spam Damage - The search engines hate spam and they associate any cloaking, hidden text, doorway pages or other spam-like elements to spam. Make extra sure you do not use these types of techniques - just take them off the pages now.

2) Technical Difficulties - A server with problems can be a reason for a drop in ranking. If your website is not available or is  very slow the search engine bots will not give your web pages good rankings - they don’t know your webpages. If your website shows the correct web page in the web browser but your host gives the error code you won’t get indexed either. Make sure you have a quality server with no downtime and also check the HTTP status code that your website shows.

3) Algorithm Changes - Search engines change their algorithms periodically to test and to upgrade their search abilities. A change can cause your website to move up or down. After a week if the ranking stays below your usual ranking then you will have to find out from other webmasters what adjustments to the algorithms need to be made. You should change your optimization to get your website back up to rank.

4) Website Changes - Webpages need to change occasionally. If changes are small there should be no big problem. However a redesign of your website or adding new keywords on a page might lower your rank for a while on the SERPs. Google has a mechanism specifically for changed web pages. It gives a low ranking temporarily before it makes a complete measure of your page by its algorithm. Do not change any of your webpages that have high SERP ranking unless necessary.

5) Changes in Links - Well established websites with plenty of inbound links are not affected by loss of a few links. If you have a larger percentage of paid links that are missing when the bot comes to visit then this can cause a significant drop. Major changes in linking structure of a webpage can drop your rank too. If you do use a lot of paid links you should also try to get inbound links with more duration. Continually adding links is necessary to maintain good rankings. Without new links your website will slide gradually down the rankings.

6) Changes in Competitors - Your competitors have webpages that can pass you in the rankingss if they are better optimized and get better links. Your competitors use the same keywords as you. You must write better content and
get better links than they do or it’s only a matter of time.

Every website has significant ranking drops from time to time. Don’t panic, get even, then pass your competitors. Find out the reason for your drop and work on a plan to fix your rank.

You Light Up My Life,
Arthur Browning