Gone on google, where am I?

[allyballybee]

I just wondered if anyone can explain this. My website used to come up 2nd in google search, but now I'm nowhere to be seen. I've recently asked my web designer to do some small changes to info on site, could this be the problem?

 

[kylieb]

It depends on how much traffic you have on it. Everytime someone visits your site it will go up the rankings. Well that's how it got explained to me. But you can't try and be clever and click on it yourself as Google will know. Ruth is the right person to ask. Ruth where are you???? lol xxx

 

[allyballybee]

Yeah, I google beauty salon in my town all the time, it always comes up with me as 2nd. Now, I'm nowhere to be seen, suddenly disappeared!

 

[kylieb]

Oh completely gone?! List yourself on some more directories. Post your website address on here...we will all click on it and hopefully get it back x

 

[trulyscrump]

Google is more complicated in the way it delivers search results I'm afraid. For starters, there are multiple Google data centres. This means that the results you get will depend on where you search from. Also, if you have a Google account, Google will deliver you relevant results based on your previous searches.

So, as such, where you sit in 'your' Google is not as important as you'd imagine as your results will be skewed.

A good way of getting a more rounded overview is to get your design to load Webmaster tools on your website:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

It's free.

This will show you where you sit in Google for the most searched for phrases (as long as your website is in the top 50). It also shows what people click on.

The key thing to remember is that Google is looking for two key points:

1. Relevance. Does your website have the words on the page that people are searching for. More often than not, they don't.

2. Authority. How many people link to your website with relevant links about what you do. You can check this in Google by typing in the search box:

"links:www.yourdomainname.co.uk"
eg. "links:www.trulyscrumptiousbeauty.co.uk"

please note, you don't need the quotes marks either side.

The more links you have the better.

If you send me a link to your website, I can take a look. Also, I wrote a free book about basic search engine optimisation once if you are interested, I can post the link.

A final point just to complicate things. Google are currently undergoing a massive change to their search engine results with big shift towards "quality". It's known as Google Caffeine:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6537200/Google-Caffeine-ready-for-roll-out.html