Today I was asked to review a site that had recently gone through a complete redesign and as a result, dropped from Google’s rankings. This is an ecommerce site that depends on holiday sales to survive.

Unfortunately, I have been feeling very ill today and I’m not sure I did a very good job explaining what the situation was and what to do about it. I am definitely off my “A-game”.

Since this is Google we’re talking about - the biggest, most important search engine (and seemingly most fickle), I’ll concentrate on the scenario presented but this methodology applies to any site that takes a hit in any of the SEs.

1. Find out what went wrong

In this particular case 301 redirects were used to move the old store to the new one but as I told the client what Google says and what Google does when it comes to 301s is very different. The reality is Google has a difficult time with 301 redirects, much more so than Yahoo or Live (formerly MSN). Expect anywhere from a couple weeks to several months for Google to get strait on this.

In case you are wondering there are other ways to get penalized by the search engines.

2. Make the corrections needed

In this case, the site is delisted except for the home page which Google shows a recent cache for (good news - the site isn’t banned!). Because the new layout is all-new to Google it is important to make sure Google knows where the new content is. A Google Sitemap will help. Also, be sure to include an HTML sitemap. Because of the urgency involved I also recommended creating an RSS feed as described in the Get Indexed Fast article. And to help things along I fell on the old standard of “get more backlinks” to add urgency to Google’s crawling schedule (sites with more links get crawled more often).

3. Do “normal” SEO upkeep - just more urgently

Building links, personal networking, asking questions, etc. The point I was making to the client is that getting back in Google’s good graces is going to take work. And lot’s of it. A solid link-building campaign is essential. I pointed her to the Free Backlinks article and also suggested that this may be a good time to rent or buy links from a broker. What I didn’t mention at the time, but wish I did, was all the great link-building tips SEOmoz has to offer including how to get links from .gov and .edu sites.

4. Forget about it and move on

Once you’ve done all you can to make things right with Google, don’t wait for things to come around. There is more to online promotion and success than just Google!

• I suggested setting up a Squidoo Lens as Squidoo is popular and has been driving a small, but steady amount of traffic to this site since I set up mine. In fact, Squidoo has sent enough traffic that I set up a couple other lenses and have plans to make even more. Squidoo also offers SquidU and other resources to help you out.
• Another suggestion was looking for forums related to the products she sells. This client has a very particular niche so making friends to promote her products shouldn’t be too difficult.
• I mentioned include link-bait but I’m drawing a blank as to what that would look like for her site (I did recommend SEOmoz for this).
• PPC campaigns like Adsense or YPN can work but they have to be managed effectively.
• A PR campaign (the press kind) would be a great idea and can be fairly inexpensive if you can find some good press distribution sites.
• Creating a buzz with ReviewMe would also help and should generate some solid backlinks as well. I have written both a review and a follow up of the ReviewMe service.
• Finally, I recommended setting up a blog to promote. She was two steps ahead of me on this as she has recently launched two blogs! Blogs are important because they just can’t be beat when it comes to communicating with customers and building consistent traffic.

I’m sure there are more tactics that could be used (I’d love to hear some of your favorites!) but for someone that isn’t afraid to put the effort in and doesn’t really have a big budget I though this was the way to go.

One final thought: whatever you do be organized about it. Recognize when something is taking more time than it should and cut it loose in favor of stuff that will be more effective sooner. This is not the time to get caught up in the details - volume counts!

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