Imagine... you go to Google.... type in the #1 phrase that describes your company... and (sigh of relief), you're website is listed on the first page.... Hurrah!!!!

Now imagine... A few weeks later.... you go back to Google.... type in the #1 phrase that describes your company... you're so excited to see your listing on the first page... and....it's not there. "Okay," you say to yourself, "we must be on page 2." You scroll through page 2, page 3, and page 4...still no listing. Page 6, page 7...nothing...you start to panic.

You wonder what on earth could have happened. You're site has been consistently on page one of Google for over a year and you hadn't made any changes to your site. Why the sudden drop in ranking? Well, don't panic, you're not alone. This is the most common question we get asked at the Harvey Marketing Group.

Although no one can ever guarantee that your site will always rank well or always appear at the top of search results, there are a few basic reasons why a site drops in rankings.

1. No changes have been made to your site, while other sites made lots of changes.

2. You haven't kept up with SEO for your site while your competitors have. i.e.: other sites added (or tweaked) their content to add more relevant search terms, they revised their META tags, added Alt links, etc.

3. The other sites ranking higher than yours may have received significant inbound links which boosted their rankings.

4. Several other competing websites that target your exact key phrase were indexed.

5. Simply, Google has changed its algorithm and your site no longer meets its criteria.

So, now that you know why your site may have dropped in rankings, what can you do about it? Keep working on SEO. Most people assume that once your site has gone through some serious Search Engine Optimization that you can stop there. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. SEO requires constant attention to remain successful. So, keep at it and soon you will see your site rise in rank once again.