Have you notice that lately, and quite suddenly, your website has been buried in the search results with Google?

Ya, mine too.

Do you rely on website traffic to sell your stuff?

Ya, me too.

I just found out that the Google Gods once again, changed its algorithms, and in a really big way.

Freakin’ hell.

My real estate assistant training and certification program through my company, REA University, had been going gangbusters and then all in a sudden CRICKETS. I’ve been racking my brain ever since. What gives? It’s an incredibly scorching market – why wouldn’t someone so inclined, want to become a real estate assistant?

Cue Google…

Imagine my surprise (read: disgust, dismay, ARGHHHHHH!) when I found out what Google had done: They did a major update/overhaul of the algorithms and buggered so many of us… again.

I searched Google for “real estate assistant training” and by page 5, I was still no where to be found. WTF(iddlesticks)? We were always on the first page, and most often in the first or second position.

Oh. My. Gawd. No wonder I’ve had so few new students. No one can find me!

I repeat – ARGHHHHHHH!

So, here’s what I learned.

Head over to Google PageSpeed Insights and pop in your URL, then click ‘Analyze’. Give it a few minutes and then check your score. I hope yours is better than mine was – a whopping 32 out of 100. (Yikes! Google’s looking for at least 90/100!)

After doing a few things, I’m now at 72/100 (much more to do), but I wanted to take some time out to give you a heads up about what’s going on and maybe save you from losing any more revenue.

Google is ‘rewarding’ sites based on:

• Fast-loading sites
• User experience

I haven’t gone down the research rabbit hole to figure out what they mean by “positive user experience” yet, but at least I’ve been making headway with my page loading speed. Here’s what I’ve done:

After reading Google’s suggestions under ‘Opportunity’ on the PageSpeed Insights results page, I’ve followed some of the recommendations so far. I’ve installed and configured a few free plugins to my WordPress site and now I’m examining what is loading on my pages that doesn’t need to. (Following the links in “Opportunities”.)

A word of caution: Running some of these plugins can “break” your site. I tried another of the plugins recommended (Autoptimize) and it broke my connection to Leadpages, disabling it. I had to reactivate and install the pages again. I found that Autoptimize didn’t give me the results I was looking for, so I’m trying WP Fastest Cache, and it seems to be a bit better.

Oh, and… deactivate and delete any unnecessary plugins – they can also slow your site down.

I hope this helps you to know why your traffic may have dried up and what you can to about it.

P.S. Do you like my little devil drawing? It’s one of my first attempts with my Apple pen and iPad, using Procreate. Fun! 😈