My site is on and off Google...why?
 

My site was off google for some time and suddenly went to some high ranking for 6 months. Now it completely gone from google. I can't search with key words, even with my business name. There are not much change in my site, I'm just wondering why.....its so random....

Do some searching (on Goggle of course!) about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Web ranking is a totally dynamic thing and what keeps your website on the 1st of second page is adding fresh content all the time, carefull selection of keywords and, especially, if it's content is linked to frequently other websites. Some people earn a decent living just advising on all this stuff, it's that important to understand well for so many businesses. Rankings change day to day, week to week. Just having a website and doing nothing with it will almost automatically mean it'll be about page 55 or below in any web search (and who searches beyond the second page?).

This is why I work very hard at trying to keep my own business website updated every few days - lots of work - but it means I usually get very high ranking (usually first page) with the terms that I think my potential clients might use to find me. Constantly adding new content, written as well as video, that people want to view is very much key. I test my ranking at least monthly, more often if I have time, with "blind searching" of relevant key words (with a cleared web cache).

That being said, 95% of all my work comes by word of mouth/personal recommendations by clients I've worked for who recommend me to other corporate clients and not via my website!... :-). But, at least the odd enquiry that I do get by my website is worth the considerable effort I put in to try and keep it fresh. For sure, my website is by no means perfect/where I want it to be (at least not yet!) - but you've got to start somewhere and build on that.

Just having a website is not enough. Think of it as being in a stationary car and all the other websites are driving forward, REALLY FAST! You need to get it in gear and start driving or you're going to get left well behind. All eyes are on them as they are the ones moving, doing something more exciting!

Also, I'd strongly recommend you set up Google Analytics on your website. Look at what people view, how long, from where, via which route...tons of useful info (and it's free). Use it to monitor if things you do increase traffic of your target audience or not and so on...like I said, it can be a full time job in itself...and then you can always do wedding videos in your spare time! :-)

Fun being a one man band isn't it! Hope this helps!

Andy,

I just checked out your site for the first time. I love it. Very polished. The demos I watched had a harmonious blend of technical precision and artistic flair. Must be that engineering background you mentioned.

Well, enough rambling. You have an inspiring site. It's certainly stimulated my thinking.

Thanks Roger for the compliment about my website :-) I appreciate it. Good luck!

If it helps, you could always use this site to see your web page as Google's bot would see it.

View a Web Page as 'Googlebot'

Andrew

Well I had a quick look at the source of your website and you are missing the description and keywords meta tags, so that won’t help your search engine ranking.

Also as mentioned try finding the keywords that you think you clients might use and incorporate that in readable copy on every page, do not duplicate. Search engines like regular fresh content, so things like forums and blogs get good rankings whereas website often become stale and get bumped down.

If I type in ‘SODE Wedding Video’ in a search engine I get your blog, facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and DVInfo.net. So that kind of proves my point about fresh content.

I have just designed a new website and blog myself and I’m working hard to improve my rankings to. At present I am lacking content on my website but my blog is gaining more and more traffic every day.

Knowing how someone arrived at your site is absolutely invaluable. That helps strengthen your keywords!

Another thing that search engines loves is links to other sites, plenty of them, the more links you offer the better they think your content is. Plus your readers will thank-you to.

Ensure that you have alt tags and titles on your images for improved search engine ranking.

Hope this helps a little.

On a minor technical note ... Although Google would have used them at one stage, keywords are no longer used by Google at all.

Matt Cutts at Google says so ... Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag in web search

Andrew

True but other search engines do. As for the description that is very important for google. The aim is to make your site as friendly as possible for ALL search engines and ALL browsers. Now thats easier said than done.

I make sure theat the main browsers work with my site such as Explorer, Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

As for search engines; Google, Yahoo, Bing and so forth. Many smaller search engines are still using keywords and for the time it takes to include them, why not.

But inbound links from reputable sites that Google etc loves are still king. So why not add your own web site hyperlink to your sig, instantly enabling it to appear in many more places at once?

Andrew :-)

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Get your video at Studio Solutions - Brisbane, Australia

It is in the sig :)

Oh, yes! And the text that is hyperlinked is also taken into consideration by Google.

Andrew :-)

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Really good video in Brisbane, Australia

Yup :) Your right about Google loving links and it sure does help with ranking.