SEO – Why my Rankings Start Degrading, and Why I am Still Unable to Regain the Rankings?

“Why my website’s keywords rankings start degrading, and why am I still unable to regain the rankings?” – This was the question I came across last week, when one of our old client get back to us with the same.

2011-12 – We were doing the SEO

The story goes something like this; back in 2011-12, we were taking care of the SEO campaign for our client. During then, we used to take care of all the Search Engine Optimization activities such as Article Writing, Article Submissions, Press Release Writing & Submissions, Backlink generation, and much more… all adhering in respect with the Search Engine Optimization, and guidelines as recommended by Google during then. The website was soon able to get first page rankings for almost all the keywords, which were about 5 to 6. Again, the keywords were quite generic with stiff competition, yet the SEO strategy in place, during then, was placed and implemented extremely well, which thereby helped to get the desired results.

Switch for a (Possibly) Cheaper Option

Overall, everything went well, yet once the Search Engine Optimization plan / contract duration of 1 year was completed, the client wished to stop the services with us (Yes, despite of the fair good rankings). One of the main reason was the pricing, wherein the client was able to search for some better options.

The client was right in his part, as almost every individual has a psychology to opt or at least go through the cheaper option once. Additionally, during the time, when we were working on the SEO for the client, the client has done a lot of research on the Search Engine Optimization, and had also asked / verified the same with us, wherein we had given several inputs / suggestions, overall our SEO strategy in much detail that could eventually help to increase the rankings.

Applied same SEO Strategy, yet no results

Suddenly, last week, the client approach us that despite of him doing almost everything that we used to do for him for the Search Engine Optimization, the website’s rankings are degrading, and he is still unable to regain them. The client also added that he modified his SEO strategy as well, and is now currently opting for Blog Content Writing / Submissions, and a few other activities, yet to no avail. The client admitted that he had made the mistake in opting for a different vendor and / or trying something on your own, which may have affected the overall SEO performance, yet now, was seeking for a solution.

Root Cause

Client approaching us after an absence of almost 2-2.5 years with a genuine concern, it was a challenge for us to first of all identify the root cause, why the rankings are degrading and why there is no improvement at all. We quickly ran through some basic SEO checks, and came across that the client had kept on doing the old SEO activities such as bulk article & press release writings & submissions, bulk back linking, and so on.

All these ongoing activities has penalized the website, as it contradict the later Google updates, which was released in 2012-13, wherein the Google has recommended to not to pursue with these activities. Besides, the activities the client was doing currently includes guest blogging, which again was no longer supported by Google. Overall, these activities were working previously during the time, when we were doing SEO for the clients, yet google now no longer supports it. The client acquiring the Search Engine Optimization knowledge from us during then, continuing plying the same activities with almost no changes in the SEO strategy adhering to the Google updates. This ultimately had cost the website and its overall Search Engine Optimization performance a lot.

As the next steps

We informed the client that what might have went wrong, which may have resulted in the degradation of rankings, and no progress. We plan out the strategy, wherein we informed that the first thing that should be taken care of is the removal of all the old links, manually, as well as via Google Disavow Tool. We also informed upfront that this would take nearly around 4-5 months from Google’s end to remove all such dead / bad links. Simultaneously, we have to work on the new SEO strategy, adhering to the Google updates, which includes:

• Blog writing & submission on the website’s dedicated blog site
• Blog sharing on social media channels
• Info-graphics Creation & Sharing
• YouTube Video creation & sharing
• Slidesharing
• And more…

Most importantly, we informed the client that SEO is a process, which has never been in 100% control of the SEO companies. It always depends upon the frequent and ongoing search engine updates by Google, Bing, and Yahoo. In order to provide the best Search Engine Optimization and Effective Search Engine Optimization service, and in order to keep the rankings up-to-date, it is important for any SEO firm to be updated with all the search engine updates, and keep on changing the SEO strategy accordingly.