It’s one thing to have achieved front page Google rank- and another to maintain it. I cannot emphasise enough, the need to ensure uptime for your website. That means, it needs to stay online and accessible. No “under construction” or “can’t find the server” message in the visitor’s browser window.
If you want to keep any Google rank you have worked so hard to acquire, then your content- your website’s pages- must be there when a visitor clicks through on search results, and also when the Googlebot comes back to check on you again.
Keep your Google rank, by maintaining your website’s online integrity.
I had one of my own front-page organic ranking websites go down the other day. Of course, I only found out about it when someone called me, curious that they couldn’t access the site.
It was a MySQL site- like this one- which means the content sits within tables in a database, and the whole ensemble resides on the hosting company server where the site was developed. That’s all fine if your host is still in business- but now they aren’t.
Open the door to the backup folder- the place where all our websites- and those we manage for our clients- are stored offsite. Even all the database sites are zipped and ripped- downloaded from the server at regular intervals- and tucked away safely in three different, secure locations.
The whole process took a few hours- finding a new host, running the archive expander, setting up the configuration, and breathing a very long sigh of relief, followed by catching up on missed caffeine.
Another 20 minutes was spent restoring the content missing from the archived copy- that content which was added to the website before the backup was made. It sure beat redeveloping the framework, doing all 50 articles, and uploading and optimising in excess of 200 images.
I hate to think of the effect this had on the website’s awesome front page Google organic rank.
I know one thing for sure- I’d be a lot worse off without the backup.
How prepared are you for when disaster strikes? Close your computer, and get organised.
Now.
Call us if you need help.