google ranking sad gumbieIt’s possible that you’ve been there. You wake up one morning and you can’t find your site in its customary high first page ranking in Google. You search in vain through page 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then you spot it, way down on page 5, effectively nonexistent so far as web traffic goes.

What can you do? Scream at your SEO guy? Open up that Christmas bourbon a wee bit early in the day? Blame it on the government?

Search engine shifts happen, and while you can’t control Google, you can take action to minimize the effects such a shuffle in your ranking will mean for your business. To help with that we’ve put together 5 ways you can make the best of a bad situation.

5 Tips on how to minimize a drop in rankings

  1. Monitor your site and rankings – If you haven’t already make sure you are monitoring your site and keyword positions. This is a good way to avoid surprises, and also to see where you need help.
  2. Get more social – Having more of your content shared on social media is an excellent counter measure you can use to help minimize a rankings drop. The links and traffic will show Google that your page is indeed still relevant and popular, and will help.
  3. Check Webmaster Tools – Take a peek inside your Google Webmaster Tools account to see if you’ve incurred any penalties or if there are suggestions for your SEO. This could shine a light on your issues quickly.
  4. Check your SEO – Along with the step above, review your SEO, especially on-page, and see if you are missing any elements that need to be present. Look at titles, descriptions, alt tags, and duplicate content issues. Resolve these and it might be a major help.
  5. Diversify your content and linking – Continuing to produce quality content and getting links still matters. Try and diversify your content topics, (while still staying relevant) and also the links coming into those pages if you can control it.