A Google Update Killed Me – Can I Make a Comeback?

It’s the worst-case scenario that millions live in fear of every single day. You open up your analytics account, check out the traffic from last couple of days and notice a drop of 50%, 75% or even up to 90% - literally overnight. And once you establish that this wasn’t a server problem, you come to the terrifying realisation that Google has worked its magic with another update and sent your site spinning into oblivion.

So of course, this is the moment when doom and gloom takes over and proactivity goes out of the window. Your link building ‘efforts’ and chosen SEO copywriting services have killed-off your website and all hope is lost…right?

Not necessarily – there’s always every possibility of a comeback, just as long as you’re willing to put in the effort and haven’t done something truly hideous/illegal that’s left you banned for life!

Don’t Point the Finger

First and foremost, don’t waste a second of time or energy pointing the finger of blame at anyone else. It doesn’t matter if you think your SEO copywriting services have let you down or you’re convinced that Google’s decision to demote your site was unfair, it’s happened and there’s really nothing you can do about it. You won’t get a refund from the SEO partners, Google won’t apologise and all the moaning in the world won’t make it any better. Instead, shout and swear your head off for a few minutes and then get ready to stage your comeback.

Aim First for Square One

Next up, you have to accept the rather painful realty that you aren’t actually back at square one with your site, but somewhere in the negatives. If you have had your credit stripped or received a black mark against your name, you actually have to work to get back to square one first rather than going out and looking for ways to once again climb the ladder. Technically, this means that even a new business that went live 24 hours ago has a distinct advantage over you, but the sooner you accept this, the better. What this means in practice is assessing why you ended up in trouble in the first place and removing/repairing the offending items as fast as possible. If it was black-hat link building, get rid of the links. If it was poor copy, remove it and replace it. You need to erase your mistakes before once again gunning for glory.

By Lisa Morton

This blog post was brought to you by Lisa Morton on behalf of Websearchseo.co.uk. Click here to find out more about WebSearch SEO’s range of innovative Internet marketing and organic SEO strategies.