Stop Watching the Search Engine Rankings Pot!
I have a few clients that actually do check their own website rankings. Not only does this show me that you, as a site owner, are interested in your own website and how it’s doing, but it’s a good double check for me and my search engine optimization work. Search engine optimization is a service I provide, however, it’s not something I do day in and day out. It’s not necessary nor is it a good practice to check a website every day. To many rankings checks can actually have an adverse effect. A good way to think about this is: “A watched pot never boils.”
One thing that site owners seem to have a hard time comprehending is that rankings fluctuate. This is absolutely normal search engine operation. If you have it in your head that should you achieve #1 rankings it means that spot is yours and nobody else can “take it” from you, you need to get this out of your head. Any ranking at any level does not belong to anyone. Rankings go up and they also go down and this is how it works. You should not be alarmed, you don’t need to go running to your search engine person in a panic and ask questions such as: “What’s wrong?” or “Why are my rankings not what they were before?” or “What can you do to fix it?”
What NOT to Do if Your Rankings Drop
First of all, don’t panic. If you’ve been happy with your rankings and the work your SEO company has been doing, don’t jump to conclusions and assume that they’ve fallen down on the job. Certainly you have every right to check in with them, but don’t be surprised if they tell you the same thing I am.
Chances are your site is experiencing nothing more than the normal, every day ups and downs of search engine positioning. There might be something wrong (doubtful) there might be something that can be done (probably not necessary) but the answer is not to just jump in there and start doing things to try to force your rankings back to where they were before. 9 times out of 10 your rankings will rise again but you have to give it time. If you had good rankings before the dip, playing with the SEO might just send your site on a downward spiral instead of giving it a jolt up.
I had a panicked client contact me the other day on this. The rankings for two of her many key phrases had dropped a few pages in the search results and she wanted to know what I can do to fix this. The first thing I did was to go check the same key phrases she had and what I found was that these phrases were ranking in the #1, #2 and #3 positions. Why were her results so very different than mine? Ohmahgosh! This could be any one of a hundred or more reasons and it would be a total waste of time to even try to track down. A few examples of what may have happened are that:
- 1. Google has thousands of servers which are not synced with one another, which means they display different results. She may simply have hit a different Google server than she’d hit before when she searched.
- 2. There could have been a server outage on her server or any server between the one her site is housed on and the one she saw her search results in. When you view a web site or do a search, chances are it’s made any number of what are called “hops” from one server to another before your site or your search results pops up in your face. The computer you use when you view a website is likely not the server it’s housed on.
- 3. It could be a normal rankings fluctuation.
- 4. A competitor may have stepped into her previous slot. The search engines don’t play games so don’t assume this means “tag you’re it!” and that it’s now the competition’s turn to hold that spot. It does mean that if after you give things a few week’s time to readjust and your rankings are still lower than your competitor, you and your search engine specialist have to work a little harder.
Competition anywhere is tough, especially these days with the economy being what it is. If you have strong competition for your services or products it’s going to be difficult to get and keep good rankings.
SEO is NOT an Exact Science
Any reputable search engine specialist will do whatever they legally can to get your site good rankings. However, there are so many factors involved in this process that simply cannot be nailed down, predicted or guaranteed you must remember that search engine optimization is not an exact science. There is no magic formula and you can’t wave a magic wand to get the results you want. It’s a matter of your search engine company doing it’s best and you doing yours to get the very best results you can.
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Deb – would you agree that after months and $$$ with an SEO company that you should see some sort of positive progress? At least some keywords entering the first page after weeks and months of tweaking opportunity? How do you know when to can the “exact science” excuse and find someone with a better formula?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks so much for your question and it’s a good one!
There are a significant number of things that are part of good SEO. I wish I had a definitive yes or no answer for you but your question is wallowing in a grey area. With the miniscule bit of information I have about your website, what your SEO people have done, are doing (or not doing) — what you as the site owner have done, are doing (or not doing) — without doing an evaluation of the site and yada yada yada … my answer is “Maybe, but not necessarily.”
Without a doubt I can say that SEO is *not* an exact science. Are there sneaky, underhanded, dirty players out to take your money and run SEO “specialists” making promises and giving guarantees of good rankings? Unfortunately, yes. Even more unfortunately — some people are so desperate to get to the top that they get sucked into this scenario way to often. Are there SEO companies out there deliberately claiming to be experts who aren’t? Yes. Are there well meaning people trying really hard to provide a client with SEO services who think they understand it but really don’t? Yes. More yada yada yada.
On the other hand there are SEO specialists who, with the *total* cooperation of their clients, are able to achieve good results in *most* cases. Others are racking their brains and wearing out their keyboards practicing good, legal, organic search engine optimization but because of the many things that can (and do!) work against a site and despite what they do to make progress, they just aren’t able to get first page rankings for a website. Because there are sooooo many variables, they may be successful for a hundred sites but not for #101.
It’s been my experience that one of the things some clients (not YOU because it sounds like you’ve been patient) expect for their money is first page rankings and some even expect to see immediate results. I believe this mindset comes from misunderstanding how things work. Site owners should *never* assume nor expect that their site is going to achieve first page results just because they want it (who doesn’t?) and/or because they’re paying someone to help them get there. Keywords here are “help them get there.” I’ve found all to often that people literally expect miracles because they’re paying someone to “make it happen FOR them” but they themselves aren’t willing to do their part. Then they blame the SEO person for failing to do their job. Good SEO work is done by *both* the SEO specialist *and* the client and is more successful when the client understands that it’s a combined effort not an “I’ll pay you to make me successful” situation and does what needs doing on the client end of things.
I have no idea which of those your chosen SEO person (people, company) are. I’m not going to guess nor am I going to bash and I have no idea what part your company has played in the efforts. Your situation brings to mind someone (someone being your website) having been diagnosed with a serious illness, the illness being a lack of good rankings. You may want to ask yourself this: “What do people who’ve been diagnosed with a serious illness do?” It sounds to me like you’re thinking and moving in the right direction which is asking questions and seeking information to find a cure. Good for you! It’s nice to see a pro-active site owner!
Because of all the variables, there’s no definite time-frame that one should give a website to show good rankings. You said it’s been months, which may mean a couple or many. I would say if you’re unhappy with things the way they are, no matter how long it’s been, if it were me in this situation I would opt for getting a second opinion. From that I’d learn either I’m being impatient or that I need to take alternative action.
I did click over to your website for a *very* quick look, and I do mean very quick (as in a minute or two) so please understand very clearly that this is not to be thought of as a full-blown evaluation. The only thing I will say is that each search engine specialist has their own way of doing things and I saw things that I’d do differently.
I’m sorry I can’t give you a yes or no answer but I hope I’ve been of some help.
Thank you Deb. I appreciate your input :)
Deb, this is a very informative post – I learned something. SEO is not my thing (at least not in this kind of detail), so I really appreciate the education.
Lis
31dayblogchallenge.com
I’m glad you got something educational out of it, Lis :)