As I have mentioned previously, recent changes in the Google Algorithm have left many websites that previously had a ton of traffic at the bottom of the search results. Did Google in an effort to combat spam throw the baby out with the bathwater? Maybe, but now that the changes are there, crying about it won't change the fact that you still need to get some Google love. So what do you do if you've lost rankings but your site has good content and you want it to come back in the rankings??
Social sharing–it's the new back link so to speak. We shouldn't be shocked that this is the case. Google started showing social mentions and posts, etc. from friends in personal search results.
Now although I'm not particularly happy with how Google has handled certain things (including the possibility of negative SEO which I wrote about a few weeks ago) using social signals to help determine rankings makes sense. Search engines are about people so people voting on content is a great strategy.
You also may have been a victim of localized results–meaning if your business appears to be location based to Google even though you are national–you might have to add more content that makes it really clear that you are national. The more content you have, the older your site, the more authority it has, will all help you in the rankings.
So here's a few things that matter now in the new world of Google search:
- Now, this is a bit personal, but really take a look at your site and its content. Is it compelling? Did you dial it in? Or is it up to the standard of what you would like to read?
- Make sure you have a FB like or a G+ share button on every page and post on your site. (Author authority seems to matter and our limited tests show that G+ somehow counts more than FB.)
- Details count–content should be original and well written. Share it on social sites and if good, will go viral.
- On Page factors are more important so make sure each page has title tags, keywords and descriptions.
- Don't abuse internal linking — that used to work great (where you'd have a word highlighted on your site to go to a specific page on your site)–overdoing it creates a penalty.
- Press releases–don't forget to press release news worthy items.
- Guest blogging–get your content disseminated on other blogs by being a “guest” writer.
Anyway, it stinks if you lost some rankings, but what goes up must come down and conversely, what goes down can come up. With a little effort and the right strategy, you can raise in the rankings again.
Oh, there is also Pinterest–which is a pretty cool site–I'll be writing another article on this next week.
