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Coping With Constant SEO Changes

For a website owner, a drop in page ranking can be quite a distressing occurrence. Faced with such a downturn, many website owners feel a surge of panic and quickly scramble to find out the reason for the dip in ranking. However, it is important to maintain focus at this crucial juncture, and to realize that lower rankings don’t happen overnight. It is actually a cumulative process that so often results from poorly implemented practices and neglect in keeping updated with changes in the SEO world. SEO remains the single most important factor in determining the performance of a website and getting the all important high page ranking that most any website owner strives to achieve.

SEO or search engine optimization is a carefully orchestrated set of methods by which a website can be made more attractive to search engines as well as the Internet audience. It is comprised of a number of essential steps, and neglecting any single one can hinder the effectiveness of the entire SEO campaign.
 
Making things even more challenging for website owners is the fact that ranking criteria change periodically. The past several months in particular have seen a number of important changes in Google’s ranking criteria, many of which have an impact on the effectiveness of standard SEO practices. While some websites have managed to weather the storm and come out without any significant changes in ranking, many website owners found themselves suddenly left out in the cold as the changes implemented by Google laid all their SEO efforts to waste.
 
What is the reason for this discrepancy? Why have some websites managed to stay afloat while others have sunk to the back pages of the results? The interesting thing about all this is that SEO remains at the heart of the issue. SEO is still the single most important factor in determining website rankings. The only thing that has changed is how Google now considers individual SEO measures in determining the ranking of websites.
 
Of course the changes are still in effect, and there is no going back. You simply can’t keep on doing what you have been doing all along and expect Google to reinstate your website. In order to get the high ranking you want for your website, you will have to stay on top of these changes and leverage them to your advantage. Here are some tips on how to do that:
 

Familiarize yourself with the playing field

At this point, you simply have to accept the fact that SEO today is a much different game from only a few years ago. The next important step therefore is to familiarize yourself with the changes in Google metrics and what changes you will have to make in your own SEO in order to cope with these changes. Be thorough with this process as doing so will help you in dealing with the next crucial step.
 

Find out where the lines have been redrawn

As important as it is to find out where Google has made changes, it is equally important to figure out what hasn’t changed. Keep in mind that Google ranking criteria aren’t all thrown out overnight. Google metrics is more the result of a few key changes rather than a full makeover. Some of the ranking criteria that you have worked with in the past are still in effect to this day. Changing your entire approach is therefore not the most effective way to stay ahead of the curve. Instead, you should make only the changes that are necessary for you to stay on top of the Google algorithms.
 

Identify areas that need improvement or updating

At some point, you will have to make an honest assessment of your SEO campaign and pinpoint the areas that will have to be improved or revised. If necessary, you may even have to do away with some practices altogether. It is important to be very honest–and even brutal–about this step, as doing so will help you develop a more streamlined and effective SEO campaign. Get rid of any practices that seem to be doing more harm than good, no matter how much success you may have had with them in the past. Remember that the changes that Google has made are pretty significant, so any movies you make will have to be significant as well.