When you have put a lot of hard work in rising in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and your organic traffic is constantly increasing. Everything is working positively. Then suddenly, you see a massive drop in your search word ranking. All your keywords seem to have evaporated from Google's search results. It looks like a terrible dream and an impracticable challenge to get through. Regardless of how skilled you are at SEO, this can happen. The fact is your site can be eliminated from Google's index in a moment. Why does this happen? And how could it be cured? In this article, SEO services company in Chicago will guide you with their expertise in digital presence solutions. Let's get to know common reasons for dropped site rankings and steps that can be taken to recover the loss.
In most cases, this one is probably the main culprit of dropped rankings. Over time, Google makes changes to its algorithm and how it ranks sites, and as a result, your site's ranking might alter. As soon as you see a sudden drop in your site's ranking, readily go and watch the recent SEO news. Head over to MozCast. This site tracks and records changes in Google's search results and showcases them as a climate forecast. If the way your site's ranking has dropped matches the changes in MozCast's pattern, it indicates that a change influenced your site in Google's algorithm. You can also check sites like Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, or Twitter because most SEO experts head over to these channels to see and talk about the cause behind the algorithm change and then make adjustments accordingly to rectify the adverse effect. Remember that after such an update, rankings shift around a lot. So do not panic but act according to the need of the hour.
Although backlinks can be manipulated, Google still uses them as a 'top Google ranking factor.' In case there was some significant change in your backlinks, it could affect your rankings. The cure is to use backlink tracking tools such as Majestic or Ahrefs to monitor any new, lost, or disrupted backlinks. If you detect a lost backlink, dive into it and discover why it vanished and how to recover it.
If you notice that your site rankings dropped just for a particular keyword, check the links for that specific page, ranking it high. Another reason for a lost backlink could be that the authoritative site upgraded their content, and in the process, your link got removed. So you can contact the linked site again to recover the broken link.
Sometimes, it isn't the external factor that is affecting your ranking. Some internal changes can also cause a drop-down in site ranking. Google's algorithm is tricky. The slightest change to anything on the page responsible for your page's ranking can make you see a drop. This especially happens when many people have access to the site's edit options. Some of them might make a change out of goodwill but not understanding the effect it could have on SEO.
Look for these changes that might have occurred and correct them:
In such a case, first, identify what change and to which part of the site was made. Modify it. Also, to avoid unnecessary changes, set up strict rules to access and change the things mentioned above. Cautiously make changes when needed.
Google notifies you when you acquire a manual penalty. Manual penalties occur when Google detects some malicious activity on your site, which might violate Google's 'webmaster quality guidelines.' Through the penalties, Google lets you know that you accomplished something that disregards their website quality rules. The reasons can be thin content, spam content or links, or many other factors. The good thing is you can easily recognize why your rankings dropped because of the notification. It further guides you on fixing the issue, so follow Google's instructions in this regard and resolve the issue.
Sometimes the spam is being generated by the visitors, potential clients, and users. Comment spam is one such thing. The page where your site allows user's feedback (such as comments, forums, product reviews, subscription letters, etc.) can spam your site and negatively affect its ranking. The culprit content might contain unlinked company/ product mentions, spam links, or unrelated content. Eliminate those remarks, block such accounts, and add extra precautionary measures to forestall client-created spam in the future.
Go for developing a mobile-friendly edition of your site through seo services agency in Chicago . Search engines like to make the web more mobile-friendly. If you lag in developing a mobile-responsive version of your site, your rankings and traffic can drop significantly. If your competitor owns a more mobile responsive site, it is likely to outrank you soon.
Google uses machine learning to rank sites. It implies that it partly measures your page's value based on the user's click-through rate. It uses SERPs to see how long the visitors lurk on your carrier before getting back to Google. Check and monitor changes that have made your visitors stay less and respond less. Your content is important but if your site's layout is irritating, has inappropriate fonts, colors, pop-up ads, or links directing to malicious sites, visitors will leave your site. Provide them a better user experience by laying out a simple and attractive design and removing annoying links and windows.
Google Flux can be a slight or significant drop. This is something out of your control. This problem is volatile and unpredictable. It is harder to recognize. There is no definite hard and fast rule to deal with such a flux. Do not invest a lot of energy and time to discover the reason. This situation is often rare and goes away on its own.
If you have not prepared your server to cope with heavy traffic, it can bring down your site at any moment. To fix this issue, cache your entire content, include a CDN to your site, set up a cloud hosting or load balancer to get back the lost rankings.
Your site might do well with specific content for a time, but with time, your content becomes outdated and useless. Make fresher content and update it on your site to make visitors stay longer on the site. Also, obsolete content doesn't draw in links and shares. These can reduce your SEO ranking, so keep updating the site with relevant and engaging content.
