No one wants to see a website of their’s tank in the rankings, but unfortunately, it happens all the time, even to the best internet marketers. Why? A number of reasons can force a website to plummet. We’ll look at all of them, grouped into convenient sections.
1) Matters beyond the control of the webmaster
Call these “Acts of God”, if you will, where God is the search engine. If a search engines changes the way they rank pages, there isn’t a ton of things you do to fix it. At least not immediatedly. All you can do is adapt, and make changes on the fly.
2) Matters under the control of the webmaster
These are the niggling detail issues which can knock you off your game. Troubles with 404s and 301s and other various technical issues can sink you. These can be fixed by proper knowledge being applied. Staying on top of technical issues can be a big part of the game.
3) Matters not directly under the control of the webmaster or an Act of God
Events like “losing links” can affect your ranking order. There are several incidences where you may be affected without knowing exactly what caused it. Scour your backlinks for possible answers, because you may just find the answer.
The search engine could just be wrong
Don’t overlook this very important fact. The search engines make tons of mistakes. Don’t get too upset when your rankings are done. It just may be temporary. Wait at least a full week to completely panic.
Just keep in mind that many of us have been in the same boat as you’re in. You can come back, just take your time and take a good hard look at the site.