There are dark times afoot.  Google PageRank has recently updated and we’ve seen solidly designed and optimized websites with PageRanks of 5 and above drop by one point or more.  Some sites that had good rank even dropped to zero!  That’s Depression-era ranking, my friends. 

So, why the sudden drop in rank? Only Google knows, but here are some steps you can take to safely ride out this PageRank recession and you don’t have to spend a dime on it.

Let’s call this a “Bail Out Package for Your PageRank”! 

• Sit Tight!

There’s no need to panic.  You may want to run to your SEO manager or your handy Dreamweaver software and start implementing site wide changes in the hopes that something, anything, will help your ranking.  I don’t recommend this for two reasons.  The first reason is that Google PageRank updates quarterly.  It is not dynamic and won’t reflect an immediate return.  You’ll be sitting at your desk, sweating, for up to three months before you see a change in ranking.  That’s a lot of nails to chew while you’re waiting!

The second reason is that you don’t know why your ranking dropped.  You could very well ruin a good thing by second-guessing Google.  Wait at least a month or two before implementing carefully considered changes.  There’s every chance that your ranking will be reversed and improved by Google, so relax and read on…

• Do your homework

This is a good time to sit back and reflect on your site.  Read respected blogs and websites about working with search engines and start strategizing.  Talk with your SEO project manager if your business enlists the service of one and put your heads together.  What is your site missing and what can/should you do about it?  Do you need fresh content or should you review your title tags and meta descriptions? 

There is a lot to consider and educating yourself will definitely give you a leg up in improving your site for the search engines and hopefully increasing your PageRank.  Also, there is the added benefit that with a little knowledge you can rest easy, now that the sometimes nebulous world of SEO is a little more clear and easy to access!  You’ll also be able to better discern between helpful and good advice and the misleading information about SEO that’s floating around on legitimate-looking sites.

• Review and Refresh Your Website

Now that you’ve gotten things into perspective and made a game plan, put your good decisions into action on your website.  Freshen up your content, adding some here, improving some there.  Review your keywords.  Are they out of date or still fresh and performing well in the search engines?  Some keyword research will be helpful here and show you weak spots that you can fix up right away.  Explore strategic link building as a way to bring in quality links to your site and help push your PageRank back up.  Make sure your website’s pages are strong enough to link to.  You want visitors to come back again and again to see what you site has to offer.

• Diversify your ‘investment portfolio’

There are more ways to skin a cat, in terms of developing a strong web presence!  Consider starting a business blog, or becoming active in popular forums and blogs about your industry.  Get your name and web address out there in places with appropriate and valuable web real estate and you’ll see the traffic to your site grow and your PageRank will certainly be influenced by this, also.  You could also work on optimizing your site for other popular search engines. Google isn’t the only beast in the sea, with Yahoo and MSN providing steady competition.  They use different methods when determining a site’s position in the SERPs and you can easily see your site performing at the top of those engines with a little work!

• Re-evaluate

After a few months, take a look at where you are.  Has your PageRank improved or tanked even more?  Maybe you’ll be a solid 3 for a while and that’s just that?  Your site may need a full audit to determine major or minor trouble spots or you may need a new site entirely (a worst-case scenario, for sure).  Best case?  You’re a 5 again or even a 6 this time around and life is grand! 

Just take it all in stride and we’ll all weather this storm together! 

This blog post was inspired by an older post on PageRank and blogs.  I thank the writer profusely for his insight on dealing with PageRank drops of this magnitude.

Share This

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 4:21 pm and is filed under General, Google & Other Search Engines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.