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Search Engine Optimization">At first I thought that the decline in visitor numbers to my Website was related to the Global Financial Crisis. GFC or not, I had to make my Website attract more potential customers. I tried to find my Website using "Visual Basic Programmer" or "Access Database Programmer" in the Google listings without success. This after having been on the first page of the search engine listings for years. I read every bit of advice I could find on the Internet. I could not relate the Google Panda updates to my Website. I had never used any of the "Black-Hat" or spam techniques that were a no-no. My Website may have the odd Backlink from a dubious directory, but surely not in sufficient numbers to warrant such a drop in the SERP Rankings. Search Engine Optimisation I then re-examined every aspect of Search Engine Optimisation that I could tweak. The first issue that I discovered was that Google was ignoring the "Sydney, Australia" that I displayed in the Sidebar of the Website. The only away around this was to include the town and country in the Title of every Web page. And consequently, I had to reduce the other descriptions in each Title. Next I made sure that the Keyword density on each page was not excessive. This was rather difficult. For example, an article on the usage of LINQ (Language Integrated Query) would mention LINQ many times, but not in my view, excessively. Reducing the incidence of the word LINQ makes reading the copy unnatural. After the Optimisation The consequence of the Title change was an increased visitor number each day, although not to the previous levels. But the visitors were much more targeted, with now fewer from overseas. I never have had a query for my services from anywhere but Australia, so this was not a bad outcome. I am now back on the first page of the results page listings, but only if the visitor adds "Australia" to the search. Why the massive hit? But it still begged the question - why had the Panda update affected my Website so severely? A bit more research answered this question. The Article submission directory had taken a massive hit from the Panda update. As I have relied almost entirely on the "link juice" from my articles submitted to this directory, my Website was also massively affected. Incidentally I had always found the editorial standards of the Article directory to be high. All the advice that I could find had the meaningless phrase of "too many eggs in one basket". Google is the only game in town, the only avenue open to me. The effort to promote my Website on Twitter or Facebook or some other social media will be time wasting and not helpful. To submit articles to the rather low-level Squidoo or Hubpages (which were unaffected by the update - talk of low quality content, go figure) will be equally meaningless. Google and low quality content I applaud Google on their efforts to stamp out low quality content. But research shows that many small businesses have also had their visitor numbers decimated. It would seem to me that Google will need a lot more changes to their algorithms, before what they are doing harms the bad guys more than the good guys. So much for the Google mantra "Do no evil". I can only hope that my Article submission directory will soon be returned to its former glory, and every winter turn to spring. So runs my dream. (my apologies to Tennyson) Neville Silverman, based in Sydney Australia, has been a Visual Basic programmer and Microsoft Access programmer and Database design specialist for many years. He has created numerous Microsoft Access databases, SQL Server Databases and Microsoft Visual Basic systems for clients. He develops and supports software systems for the small to medium sized business. Administrative systems are custom built to fit company requirements - software solutions that are cost effective, efficient and user-friendly. Optimising Access Database systems is his speciality. He has extended the useful life of many an Access Database system, avoiding the effort and cost of an SQL Server upgrade. This Author is a huge fan of Search Engine Optimization
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