Webmasters across the Internet were totally floored by what happened to their Google ranking recently. Those whose pages wereranked on top seemed to totally disappear, and many who had beenranked at the bottom were suddenly in the top 10.

So what caused this phenomenon? Simply put, Google spent a lotof time (and probably money) coming up with new ranking guidelines.In Webmaster speak, "Google changed their algorithm".

Why? you ask...Google, from the beginning has been more in tunewith what people are searching for than any of the other searchengines or directories. They have always seemed to be more insync with the average surfer - in other words when you searchyou actually find what your looking for.

Well, apparently they just weren't satisfied. So they decided tomake it even better.

On first glance I thought they had made a huge mistake, but asWebmasters began reworking their websites and pages to get backto the top ranking positions, it appears to me that their ideawas right.

In case your wondering, I was one of the Webmasters whose siteseemed to disappear! And let me tell you it was scary. I lost700-800 visitors a day - and a lot of income.

I went to the Google site to try and figure out what they werelooking for, and frankly didn't find much that I didn'talready know, so I set about reworking my pages and website sothat this couldn't happen to me again.

In record time, after evaluating and reworking and submittingmy pages, they went back to the top. In fact, some that I couldnever get to the top are there now.

What I found was that although keywords are still a prominentfactor and linking was important, that the relativity of thepages became very important.

In other words, the keywords and links really have to be relevantto the entire page - and to the site as well. Google likeseverything linked internally. I'm sure the idea being that thisensures the "search results" will indeed provide what the surferis really after - and that's their bread and butter.

The bottom line is that after going thru a very harrowingexperience, my website and my profit line are all the better forit. In other words, I ended up with a better website, a better idea of what my visitors are really after, and long term I don'tthink this could ever happen to me again.

Google seems to really have come up with what people are looking for and is offering good web sites with rich content as their topranking sites. This is good news for the serious webmaster.

I know that everyone is out there giving advice and speculating,not to mention the new products that have risen up to get you listed fast!

My advice - save your money, and put the elbow grease to work - you'll be all the better for it. And if your really thinking, it won't take long.

©2005

Diane Thomas is the editor of eBook Crossroads.com specializing in resources for writers, publishersand promoters of eBooks and Audio Books. She publishes a monthly ezine,the eBook Crossroads Insider, offering articles, tips, contests, free downloadsand much more!

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