What to Do When Your Website Goes to Google Jail

This year Google made many changes to the "algorithm" or method for determining inclusion in their index, as well as the order of the listings in their search results. The "search engine results page" or "SERP" is the one place anyone with a website wants to be seen, preferably on page 1 (or top 10 positions).

For many businesses, this year's changes caused a severe loss of traffic to their websites. When a site isn't "ranking" in the SERP, traffic plummets, and a site's value and the business's revenue may also plummet.

Google improved its algorithm to review sites for many issues, such as information with little or no added value (per Google's definition) and bad neighborhoods (links to or from questionable sites).

Google seems to focus on many issues. However, two particular issues stand out:

This year Google made many changes to the "algorithm" or method for determining inclusion in their index, as well as the order of the listings in their search results. The "search engine results page" or "SERP" is the one place anyone with a website wants to be seen, preferably on page 1 (or top 10 positions).

For many businesses, this year's changes caused a severe loss of traffic to their websites. When a site isn't "ranking" in the SERP, traffic plummets, and a site's value and the business's revenue may also plummet.

Google improved its algorithm to review sites for many issues, such as information with little or no added value (per Google's definition) and bad neighborhoods (links to or from questionable sites).

Google seems to focus on many issues. However, two particular issues stand out: