If your website’s Google ranking suddenly drops, it could be due to a variety of factors. At Agile Development, we’ve created a blog post to guide you through recovering from a drop in your website’s Google ranking. If you find this information helpful, keep reading to learn more.
What Causes a Drop in Google Rankings?
Several factors can lead to a decline in your website’s Google ranking. These include algorithm updates, technical issues, improvements made by competitors on their websites, changes to the search engine results page (SERP) layout, or penalties issued by Google.
What Should You Do If Your Google Ranking Drops?
First and foremost, don’t panic. Fluctuations in Google rankings are a normal part of search engine optimization (SEO). In many cases, there’s no reason to be alarmed. Drops can result from issues with rank tracking applications or minor adjustments to Google’s ranking algorithm. Check your rankings again the following day to see if they have returned to normal.
If your ranking hasn’t returned to its usual position, it’s time to investigate whether your website is experiencing SEO-related issues.
Steps to Take When Your Google Ranking Drops
Here are some actionable steps to help you address and resolve ranking drops effectively:
1. Verify Whether the Website Ranking Truly Dropped
Before taking action, confirm that the ranking drop is real. Begin by visiting the rank tracker’s website to check if they are experiencing any technical issues.
Both Google and rank trackers undergo updates from time to time. When Google updates its search engine pages, rank trackers may need to perform software updates, which can temporarily affect the reported rankings of websites.
To ensure accuracy, use an alternative rank tracking application for cross-verification. You can also utilize web analytics tools and Google Search Console to confirm if rankings and organic traffic have genuinely dropped.
2. Assess the Impact of the Ranking Drop
It’s essential to evaluate the impact of the ranking drop to diagnose the underlying issues effectively. Use tools like rank tracking applications, web analytics data, Google Search Console, and Bing Webmaster Tools to analyze the situation.
Key Steps to Assess Impact:
Identify the search queries affected by the drop. For each query, document:
- The cluster it belongs to.
- Previous ranking.
- Current ranking.
- The difference between previous and current rankings.
- The URL currently ranking.
- The content currently ranking.
- Whether the page is indexable.
- Any important details, such as the date of the last update.
This detailed analysis is crucial for pinpointing specific areas affected by the ranking drop.
When using Google Analytics, you can further identify impacted sections by reviewing the page list, page path, and screen class. Analyze the timeframe, region, and other patterns, comparing the period of the drop to the period before it occurred.
3. Review Recent Website Changes
Significant website changes are a common cause of ranking fluctuations. For instance, migrations, redesigns, or the addition of substantial new content can all result in temporary ranking drops. These changes are usually normal, and rankings often stabilize over time.
To investigate:
- Review your project management software for any activity related to recent changes.
- Monitor your website to ensure it is being crawled and indexed correctly by search engines.
Common Causes of Ranking Drops from Website Changes:
- Old Redirects During Migration: Expired security certificates or misconfigured redirects can disrupt indexing.
- Technical Changes: Overwritten, removed, or improperly placed code can impact the site.
- Internal Link Structure: Adjustments to links on the homepage, authoritative pages, sidebar, or footer during a redesign can affect SEO performance.
4. Evaluate Content Changes
Search engines prioritize content relevance to match search queries. Sudden changes to your website’s content can significantly affect rankings. For example, removing important pages or altering key elements can lead to a drop.
Check for Changes in the Following Areas:
- Titles: Even minor title changes can have a significant impact on rankings.
- Meta Descriptions: While they don’t directly affect rankings, meta descriptions influence click-through rates.
- Headings: Search engines consider headings to determine relevancy for queries.
- Body Content: Google places significant focus on body content to assess its relevance.
If content changes are suspected, crawl your website to identify any alterations and assess their potential impact.
Ongoing, real-time monitoring of your website is crucial for detecting SEO changes and problems promptly. This includes tracking:
5. Monitor the Website in Real Time
- Technical updates.
- Content modifications.
- Any unexpected shifts in internal or external link structures.
Maintaining consistent oversight will help you identify and resolve potential ranking issues quickly, minimizing their impact on your business.
6. Technical Issues
If Google encounters technical issues when crawling and indexing your website, it can negatively impact your rankings.
Log File Analysis
Log files record activity from visitors and search engine crawlers. Review these files to examine the affected URLs. Look for signs such as reduced crawl activity and an increase in 4xx and 5xx status codes, which indicate errors.
When rankings drop, the crawl rate is often affected as well. Analyzing log files can help identify potential issues that may be devaluing your site. Understanding the timing of a ranking drop is critical, as it allows you to make necessary changes or updates to resolve the problem.
Additionally, check the load times for the affected pages. Have they increased? You can review crawl stats and page load times using Google Analytics 4 to pinpoint performance issues.
7. Google Algorithm Updates
Ranking fluctuations are common after Google releases an algorithm update. These drops don’t always happen immediately. If your rankings decline gradually, it may be due to Google recalculating and reprocessing large amounts of data to reflect the changes.
Changes to Google’s search engine results page (SERP) layout can also affect rankings. Google may introduce new elements, such as featured snippets, which can impact the ranking and organic traffic of certain websites.
Rank trackers sometimes interpret featured snippets differently. To assess the impact, conduct searches as a typical user would and observe the SERP for the queries you’re targeting. This will help you understand how Google’s updates are influencing your site.
8. Changes in Search Behavior and Intent
Google’s interpretation of search intent can change over time, leading to shifts in what websites are deemed relevant for certain queries.
For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, search behavior changed dramatically. Products and services such as concert tickets saw a sharp decline in demand, while items like toilet paper experienced an unprecedented surge. Monitoring these changes is essential to keeping your content aligned with current search intent.
Do you want to improve your website’s ranking? Incorporating effective SEO strategies is key, and Agile Development can help. With more than 12 years of experience, we specialize in Web Development, Web Design, and Search Engine Optimization.
If you have questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out to us. Call us at 385-685-0642 or email us at admin@agiledev.org.
What are you waiting for? Contact us today!
