Earlier this month, folks began to notice the side effects of Google's recent algorithm change. Websites that ranked well for key terms suddenly fell in ranking, often times by several pages. Clients go into panic mode, and the same question is asked over and over again. "What should we do?"

Don't Panic

When Google updates its algorithm; it's like shaking up a bottle of oil and water. The best thing to do before making changes to your website is waiting for the oil and water to separate again. While clearly your website was negatively affected, until your top ranking pages are crawled and indexed again, it is hard to say what the final change will do to your rankings. This holds true for your top competitors as well. Even after you have been re-indexed, your final spot in the pecking order will not be clear until your competitors have been re-indexed and ranked. This could take as much as a month or so, depending on the keywords, verticals, and websites.

Invest in Yourself

Paid search marketing campaigns are always a good way to augment the shortcomings of organic search. This holds true for algorithm changes as well. The loss in traffic to your website during an algorithmic shake-up can be costly to your bottom line. Running a paid search marketing campaign for your fallen keywords until they recover will help maintain your traffic flow.