Permanent Search Engine Ranking
Thursday, October 20th, 2005
Posted by Jenn Lowther
To understand the misconception about permanent results, we need to look at how search engines work. Search engines programs called ‘bots or spiders scour the internet on an ongoing basis looking for useful websites and pages to add to their index. They originally find your site when someone submits your site to the search engine, or if a spider finds a link to your site. As a spider indexes your site, it pays attention to specific items of the page according to its program (or algorithm). This algorithm is the secret recipe that search engines use to differentiate pages and separate the top results from the useless web trash. Once your site has been indexed, the spider will return on a regular basis usually monthly or bi monthly depending on the spider.
Permanent results are impossible due to the instability of both search engine algorithms and website structure. With a website redesign, page url’s are dropped, and new ones added. The outcome of a site redesign is that pages that were once indexed may lead to nowhere, and new pages will not give results until they are indexed. Evolving algorithms like the recent Google update nicknamed Florida prevent sites from staying in one position permanently. Florida took many people by surprise because their once stable top result plummeted to a position that nobody was going to see.
Ways to help your site ranking
As a re-indexing of your site after a redesign may take up to 2 moths there are a few tips that can help keep you on top.
- Blend CPC and SEO
If a site launch occurs during a mission critical business cycle (tax season for an accounting software firm) I would defiantly recommend the initiation of a PPC campaign, at least for that period, to ensure a less volatile search result.
- 404 Page
The 404 page is the page you get when there isn’t a page. If you have redesigned your site there may be links in search engine indexes that are dead. It’s often a good idea to just get your 404 page to be your home page
- Hire an SEO expert
An SEO professional will be able to give you some pointers to ensure that your site transitions as well as possible through your redesign phase. Please don’t listen to anyone who guarantees #1 rankings on Google. It’s not a guarantee that anyone can with 100% certainty deliver.
Good luck and happy searching.
