Let’s say that you’re blogging away, generating income from your words of wisdom and then suddenly your Google ranking drops.  What’s that all about? There are several factors that contribute to your ranking going haywire and a post on ProBlogger gives some good insight into the whole ego-deflating deal.

Darren Rowse, the Australian guy behind ProBlogger, admits that at least 5 times in the past 7 years, his ranking has dropped significantly.  Rather than cry into your keyboard (and who hasn’t), he offers several tips for getting back on track.

1. The key is not to make massive big changes to your site’s SEO too quickly or as a gut reaction to a change in your ranking.

2.  If the traffic doesn’t come back after an extended period you might want to get some expert SEO advice and make some larger changes.

3. Have you done anything Black Hat?…If you are caught breaking the rules by Google you’re likely to be penalized.  If this is the case for you, you have two choices:

* fix what you did that was wrong and ask for a reconsideration into the index

* keep doing what you’re doing and suffer the consequences

Rowse’s experience as a blogger and someone who’s familiar with Google rankings makes these tips even more valuable.  His final solution for dealing with wobbly rankings: don’t rely on the rankings so much. Good advice.