Promoting blog on Google
March 22, 2009 6:21 PM Subscribe
Hi,
My website (rather, blog) used to show up in Google search on the 1st page itself when using certain keywords. Now it has slipped to 3rd/4th page.
The same keyword search in Yahoo shows my website in the 1st page itself.
I want to understand the sudden reason why my website has been 'demoted' by Google page rankings, and how can I bring it back to 1st page for specific keywords.
If I create multiple blogs and link to my main blog, will it help ?
What are the other ways? I have already used the keyword in several places in my blog.
If I create multiple blogs and link to my main blog, will it help ?
What are the other ways? I have already used the keyword in several places in my blog.
If I create multiple blogs and link to my main blog, will it help ?
Link farming is a really, really good way to have your pagerank fall through the floor. SEO blackhats came up with that one years ago and Google figured out how to detect it and to penalize the people who are doing it, also years ago.
The best answer is to stop obsessing about this. What's wrong with being #4?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:40 PM on March 22, 2009
Link farming is a really, really good way to have your pagerank fall through the floor. SEO blackhats came up with that one years ago and Google figured out how to detect it and to penalize the people who are doing it, also years ago.
The best answer is to stop obsessing about this. What's wrong with being #4?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:40 PM on March 22, 2009
Write high quality entries that get linked from other high-rating websites.
posted by SirStan at 6:54 PM on March 22, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by SirStan at 6:54 PM on March 22, 2009 [3 favorites]
You and everybody else.
Google's ranking algorithm is a notoriously mysterious and chimerical beast. No one but Google is quite sure how it works, and those who seem to have figured out a piece of it quickly find the algorithm adjusted and their page's ranking nuked.
Links from sites that themselves have a lot of links seems to be the best way of doing this. But as others have pointed out, the only effective ways of improving your ranking are generally only marginally effective, because the truly effective ones have a tendency to get you removed from the results list altogether.
posted by valkyryn at 7:04 PM on March 22, 2009
Google's ranking algorithm is a notoriously mysterious and chimerical beast. No one but Google is quite sure how it works, and those who seem to have figured out a piece of it quickly find the algorithm adjusted and their page's ranking nuked.
Links from sites that themselves have a lot of links seems to be the best way of doing this. But as others have pointed out, the only effective ways of improving your ranking are generally only marginally effective, because the truly effective ones have a tendency to get you removed from the results list altogether.
posted by valkyryn at 7:04 PM on March 22, 2009
Was your dropping placement in the search results all at once or was it gradual?
If it was gradual, then my guess is that other more relevant results came into play... if it was all at once, it may be one of the algorithm changes or maybe something you did (differently?) on your site that caused the drop.
Chocolate Pickle, just dropping from result #1 to result #3 or 4 is a big change in traffic, but in this case the OP is actually talking about dropping from 1st page to 3rd or 4th page which is pretty huge no matter how you look at it. I agree with not obsessing, but I'd be concerned too if i went from 1st page to 3rd or 4th page.
posted by polexa at 7:20 PM on March 22, 2009
If it was gradual, then my guess is that other more relevant results came into play... if it was all at once, it may be one of the algorithm changes or maybe something you did (differently?) on your site that caused the drop.
Chocolate Pickle, just dropping from result #1 to result #3 or 4 is a big change in traffic, but in this case the OP is actually talking about dropping from 1st page to 3rd or 4th page which is pretty huge no matter how you look at it. I agree with not obsessing, but I'd be concerned too if i went from 1st page to 3rd or 4th page.
posted by polexa at 7:20 PM on March 22, 2009
The Google pagerank algo is about the best arbiter of internet quality there is. If you want an improved ranking, produce quality work. The 'net will catch up.
posted by unixrat at 7:28 PM on March 22, 2009
posted by unixrat at 7:28 PM on March 22, 2009
I've had this happen before. One of my blog posts was in the top 5 results for a specific keyword, and then suddenly it dropped to #50 or so. Then about a month later, it was back up in the top 5. There are lots of things that might have changed. Google messed with the algorithm, some other person gamed the system and got their sites listed first, some influential blog that links to you did a revamp and lost pagerank. Etc, etc.
If you truly have content on your site that is exactly right for the keyword, then make sure that you have made all the content on your site as search engine friendly as possible. Have you done an audit to check for all the easy-to-fix SEO things? That's where I would start.
posted by gemmy at 8:05 PM on March 22, 2009
If you truly have content on your site that is exactly right for the keyword, then make sure that you have made all the content on your site as search engine friendly as possible. Have you done an audit to check for all the easy-to-fix SEO things? That's where I would start.
posted by gemmy at 8:05 PM on March 22, 2009
Seconding the "learn how to be more relevant" vibe. If you produce consistently good content, everything else will follow.
posted by secret about box at 8:38 PM on March 22, 2009
posted by secret about box at 8:38 PM on March 22, 2009
Response by poster: "Link farming is a really, really good way to have your pagerank fall through the floor. "
Eh, I was just wondering if we can create blogs and link to other websites to make their ranking fall through the floor ?
How does google detect that the other blog which is linking to yours is your own creation or somebody else's creation ?
posted by inquisitive at 1:03 AM on March 23, 2009
Eh, I was just wondering if we can create blogs and link to other websites to make their ranking fall through the floor ?
How does google detect that the other blog which is linking to yours is your own creation or somebody else's creation ?
posted by inquisitive at 1:03 AM on March 23, 2009
I was just wondering if we can create blogs and link to other websites to make their ranking fall through the floor
So sabotaging the competition is, to you, a better answer than self-improvement? That's just plain old mean. Plus, a lot of (likely wasted) effort that could have been directed back into bettering your own site. Maybe the other site deserves the #1 spot right now and maybe there's something positive you could do that would make your site, once again, deserve it.
posted by bigtex at 2:12 AM on March 23, 2009
So sabotaging the competition is, to you, a better answer than self-improvement? That's just plain old mean. Plus, a lot of (likely wasted) effort that could have been directed back into bettering your own site. Maybe the other site deserves the #1 spot right now and maybe there's something positive you could do that would make your site, once again, deserve it.
posted by bigtex at 2:12 AM on March 23, 2009
The best answer is to stop obsessing about this. What's wrong with being #4?
Reread the question. He's not the 4th hit, he's on the 4th page. That's pretty bad.
Google is smart and you can't play them. SEO is alchemy, and like the real thing, generally fake.
What I would recommend is just doing standard work to improve the searchable content on your page. A lot of people enter sites not through the front page, but through interior pages, so make sure that you don't ever get rid of archived content, and that all of it is available through persistent, permanent URLs, and that each page links back meaningfully to your main page and other important pages on your site.
You might not be number one for the search terms you care about, but maybe there are other search terms that people are using to get in that you don't even know about?
Add google analytics to your site; that will tell you about how much traffic is actually coming in, where they are coming from, and what pages they are landing on.
If getting more traffic is important to you and has an actual economic value, Google AdWords are not a bad idea. People pay attention to the ads at the top and sides (I know I often do when I'm shopping for something), so the best way to "game" Google is by using more of their services -- analytics and adwords.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:01 AM on March 23, 2009
Reread the question. He's not the 4th hit, he's on the 4th page. That's pretty bad.
Google is smart and you can't play them. SEO is alchemy, and like the real thing, generally fake.
What I would recommend is just doing standard work to improve the searchable content on your page. A lot of people enter sites not through the front page, but through interior pages, so make sure that you don't ever get rid of archived content, and that all of it is available through persistent, permanent URLs, and that each page links back meaningfully to your main page and other important pages on your site.
You might not be number one for the search terms you care about, but maybe there are other search terms that people are using to get in that you don't even know about?
Add google analytics to your site; that will tell you about how much traffic is actually coming in, where they are coming from, and what pages they are landing on.
If getting more traffic is important to you and has an actual economic value, Google AdWords are not a bad idea. People pay attention to the ads at the top and sides (I know I often do when I'm shopping for something), so the best way to "game" Google is by using more of their services -- analytics and adwords.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:01 AM on March 23, 2009
Stop worrying about stuffing your blog with "keywords". That will just lead to worse google rankings.
Like others said, write good blog posts with informative material, great photos, and a nice looking design and the internet will find your stuff and your rankings will improve. There's no shortcut to gaming Google that will last more than a few weeks before they figure it out, reindex your site, and reduce its ranking.
posted by mathowie at 9:42 AM on March 23, 2009
Like others said, write good blog posts with informative material, great photos, and a nice looking design and the internet will find your stuff and your rankings will improve. There's no shortcut to gaming Google that will last more than a few weeks before they figure it out, reindex your site, and reduce its ranking.
posted by mathowie at 9:42 AM on March 23, 2009
Also, I'd just like to add that there's this idea that "if you make it good, they will come." This is sometimes true, but often bullcrap. There's plenty of horrible, horrible stuff that gets linked to all the time, and plenty of good stuff that never gets linked to. So don't feel that a lack of traffic is necessarily a statement about the content of your site.
Linking is a popularity contest more than anything else, and it has reinforcing trends. A website that gets 1,000 links is going to get 10,000. If you don't get 1,000 links, you're probably going to get fewer than 100. It sucks, it really, really sucks, but those are the breaks.
It can be infuriating to hear people just tell you that a change to your content is all that needs to happen and then everything will be fixed, and you make all these changes, and nothing improves. It's probably not you. Maybe your rankings will improve; maybe they won't. Maybe people will link to your site, maybe they won't. You may as well make the site as good as it can be, but really don't take it personally if nothing changes.
posted by Deathalicious at 12:21 PM on March 23, 2009
Linking is a popularity contest more than anything else, and it has reinforcing trends. A website that gets 1,000 links is going to get 10,000. If you don't get 1,000 links, you're probably going to get fewer than 100. It sucks, it really, really sucks, but those are the breaks.
It can be infuriating to hear people just tell you that a change to your content is all that needs to happen and then everything will be fixed, and you make all these changes, and nothing improves. It's probably not you. Maybe your rankings will improve; maybe they won't. Maybe people will link to your site, maybe they won't. You may as well make the site as good as it can be, but really don't take it personally if nothing changes.
posted by Deathalicious at 12:21 PM on March 23, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
What you want to do is called search engine optimization (SEO). Since no one knows (or is telling) what the Google search algorithm is at any given time, everyone's constantly trying to game it, and catch up each time it changes. There are "white hat" (accepted) and "black hat" (will get you unlisted from Google) ways to do it.
I wish I had a single good resource to share with you but I don't. I'm sure there's an SEO person who can hook you up, though.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:33 PM on March 22, 2009