There are many reasons for a Google rankings drop. New search algorithms might shake things up, competitors with highly targeted search engine optimization (SEO) strategies can leapfrog your brand, and technical issues on your website can drag key pages down. It might feel like your SEO efforts have been derailed, but it’s possible to respond quickly to the shift and reclaim your position atop the rankings.
You’ll have to play detective to figure out why your visibility has plummeted since the reasons aren’t always evident. I’ll walk you through common causes of a decline in rankings and how to diagnose them. I’ll also outline tactics to restore your visibility and safeguard your brand from major drops in the future.
How To Detect a Google Rankings Drop Early
Nobody wants to see their brand tumble in the search rankings, but if you catch the decline fast enough, you can mitigate its impact. SEO tools such as Google Search Console, Semrush, and Ahrefs have built-in features for tracking search positions. Dedicated rank-tracking tools such as SE Ranking and Serpstat can also keep tabs on your visibility.
How To Monitor:
For many marketers, it isn’t feasible to log onto monitoring tools every day. Take advantage of automated alerts for ranking and traffic changes. You can configure settings on Semrush, for example, to notify you if your Google rankings drop beyond a certain threshold. You can also customize alerts on Google Analytics for various insights, such as dips in organic traffic.
When you’ve identified a problem, use Google Search Console’s Performance Report to identify affected URLs. Navigate to the Pages table and sort by “Clicks Difference” to see which of your URLs lost the most clicks. This can help you determine if the problem is site-wide or limited to certain pages.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Problems can escalate if you don’t catch issues early. A drop in visibility affects click-through rates, site traffic, and revenue. Make sure you’re monitoring search performance regularly and receiving alerts so you can swiftly restore visibility and maintain your competitive edge.
Diagnosing the Cause of Your Google Rankings Drop
Small changes in search ranking aren’t a concern if your page is performing well overall. But if your Google rankings dropped dramatically, do some investigating to see if there’s a larger issue at play.
1. Algorithm Updates & Google Penalties
Sometimes, a ranking drop in the search engine results pages (SERPs) is due to activities behind the scenes at Google. A few times a year, the search engine rolls out core Google updates intended to show users the best results for their queries. These updates don’t target specific URLs but can impact web pages that aren’t aligned with Google’s current search priorities. There are also smaller, more frequent Google algorithm updates that the company doesn’t announce.
It’s also possible that Google found an issue with your site during a manual review. In this case, your site receives a manual penalty that drops it in the rankings or removes it entirely from the search index.
How To Diagnose:
It’s good practice to stay on top of SEO news to get your site in line with search engine guidelines. If you notice a drop in rankings, review the Google Search Status Dashboard for algorithm updates and other issues, and read industry websites to see if other brands experienced a similar drop. When a potential unannounced update has been released, you’ll see an increase in “chatter” and lots of volatility on Semrush Sensor.
For manual action penalties, check Google Search Console’s Manual Actions report. Penalties against your site are listed in this report along with steps to fix the problem.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Don’t overreact to ranking fluctuations with radical fixes that could make things worse. Review the algorithm changes closely to see if they apply to your site. Make sure updates have completely rolled out as the shifts may sort themselves out as the changes take effect.
2. Hosting & Site Downtime Issues
If your site is slow to respond or experiencing extended downtime, you may see a temporary rankings drop or delay in indexing new pages. Search engine crawlers need reliable access to your website to gather information about its content. The bots will continue to try to reach your site, but if it’s consistently unreliable or offers a poor user experience, your search rankings may take a hit.
How To Diagnose:
Check that your website is consistently online and responsive to search engines and users. Automate monitoring with tools such as Pingdom and UptimeRobot, which check as often as every 30 to 60 seconds to ensure your site is up and running. These tools can also confirm uptime from different locations around the world.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Don’t lose valuable uptime by failing to catch outages or disruptions with your site. Set up alerts so that you’re notified immediately if your website is down.
3. Technical SEO Issues Impacting Rankings
Even if your site is up, there are various technical issues that affect search performance. Pages may be slow to load or blocked from crawlers. Rendering issues on mobile devices can also result in lower positions in the SERPs.
How To Diagnose:
Use the following tools to evaluate your website’s technical health and ensure it’s SEO-friendly:
- Google Search Console. Use the Page Indexing Report to find server errors or mistakes with robots.txt files that prevent pages from being added to the search index. The Core Web Vitals report highlights URLs that are slow to load or respond.
- PageSpeed Insights. This tool measures user experience on mobile and desktop according to various metrics, including Core Web Vitals. Pages are categorized as “good,” “needs improvement,” or “poor,” according to recommended thresholds, so you can identify and prioritize URLs needing attention. This tool also integrates some of the capabilities of Lighthouse. Use these features to audit pages for performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO. (Learn more about PageSpeed Insights vs Lighthouse.)
Mistakes To Avoid:
Even if your site is running smoothly, performance hiccups can occur at any time. Don’t forget to check your site’s technical health regularly to optimize its performance.
4. On-Page SEO Problems
Another potential reason for a rankings slide is weak page- and site-level optimization. A confusing site architecture prevents search engines from discovering and understanding your content. It can also frustrate users and increase bounce rate, which suggests to search engines that your site doesn’t meet audience needs.
Here are some on-page SEO issues that can impact visibility:
- Changes to site structure that make your site difficult to understand
- Removal of internal links, which can reduce page authority
- Poorly structured title tags and meta descriptions
- Broken links and page errors that impact user experience
How To Diagnose:
Systematically evaluate your on-page SEO tactics.
- Audit your meta titles and page descriptions using a tool such as Screaming Frog. Make sure your site isn’t missing tags and optimize existing ones for keywords and clarity.
- Check that your website is logically organized and easy to navigate. Watch for site errors that may impact crawling or cause users to bounce.
- Review your internal linking structure. Removing too many links can create orphan pages and impact findability. Check that key pages have inbound links to demonstrate their importance and outbound links to lower-performing pages to share authority.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Making large-scale updates to your site can impact ranking if you don’t consider the SEO effects. Monitor performance closely after implementing site updates so you can catch potential issues before they escalate.
5. Content Issues
Search engines may downgrade pages that aren’t unique, helpful, or relevant to a query. For example, your content can lack originality or depth compared to newer pages published by other brands. You might also have created duplicate content, leading to keyword competition within your site. You should also be careful when making updates to top-performing pages — you don’t want to remove keywords or pertinent details that are helping the content to rank well.
How To Diagnose:
Use the checklist below to find content quality-related problems on underperforming pages.
- Did you create new content that duplicates or is substantially similar to existing content? Use a canonical tag on the page that search engines should display in the SERPs to avoid confusion, or make each page unique.
- Is your content thin or outdated, especially compared to competitor pages that better serve users? Refresh the page to add depth and improve its value.
- Was a page significantly altered? Make sure you didn’t remove keywords or change the content’s relevance.
- Was a URL inadvertently deleted? Check if a page was moved or deleted, and fix redirect errors.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Refrain from focusing only on keywords when updating content. Google rewards pages that are compelling and interesting to a human audience. While your content should be guided by keyword intent, the final product should be comprehensive and offer value to readers. Quality content should address concerns your target audience has. While search optimization is obviously important, writing for people is critical.
6. Search Intent & Trend Changes
While your SEO strategy may have been on point when you first implemented it, user behaviors change and new trends enter the market. As different products become available, audiences may change the nature of their queries. You might also see a shift in the type of content consumers prefer, with Google showcasing more videos in the SERPs, for example. In some cases, a drop in traffic can also occur if keyword usage is seasonal.
How To Diagnose:
Review your SEO and keyword strategy and update as needed if you’re seeing industry-wide trends.
- Use Google Trends to analyze the popularity of a keyword over time. If a keyword is trending downward, you may need to revisit your audience research to see what search terms your customers are using.
- Examine the top-ranking search results for a particular keyword. Compare your page to the content that Google is prioritizing to see what you’re missing.
- Use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to compare traffic to your site from year to year. This can help pinpoint seasonal patterns that you need to ride out.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Don’t assume that changes in ranking or traffic are always due to an issue with your website. Sometimes, consumer behaviors shift, which affects how relevant your content is for a query. You may have to adapt your content to audience search preferences.
7. Internal Linking & Indexing Mistakes
Search engines need to access your site to rank your pages, but obstacles such as noindex tags and robots.txt files can prevent crawling. These barriers can cause your pages to be removed from the search index.
Changing key links on your site can also impact crawling. For example, reducing the number of links to a page or burying a page deep in your site hierarchy can make the content seem less important to search engines. Removing links can also prevent a page from sharing authority, or it may orphan a page if there are no links at all.
How To Diagnose:
Evaluate your site’s crawlability and internal linking structure.
- Use Screaming Frog to audit your site for noindex and nofollow tags and ensure they’re used properly.
- Use Google Search Console to find pages that aren’t indexed and review the reasons why.
- Analyze your internal linking structure for broken links and orphan pages.
- Review your robots.txt files.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Being reactive often results in a mad scramble to fix problems. Instead, conduct regular site audits to monitor overall SEO health. You can catch issues early and take a measured approach to changes.
8. Backlink Profile Changes
Google uses backlinks as an indicator of the trustworthiness of your website. If you lose a significant number of authoritative backlinks or suddenly gain some suspicious links, your search ranking could drop. This might happen if you move a web page without redirecting users — the backlinks will no longer work. Your referring domains can also remove links to your site by deleting pages or choosing to point visitors to another site instead.
How To Diagnose:
Various SEO and backlink analysis tools can provide a list of lost backlinks to help you determine if this is the cause of your ranking drop. On Ahrefs, you can see the reason you lost the backlink as well as filter them to find the best ones to try to reclaim. Majestic includes the date that referring domains stopped pointing to your site. To make monitoring easier, set up alerts to notify you of changes in your backlink profile as they occur.
You can also use Google Search Console to run a backlink profile. If you find a significant number of low-quality, unnatural links to your site, you can disavow the links to tidy up your profile. Google recommends only doing this if you have received a manual penalty or believe you’re at risk of one.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Don’t assume that your backlinks will remain stable or grow over time. In the same way you monitor your site’s technical health, keep tabs on changes in your backlinks and make an effort to add new authoritative links.
9. Competitor Activity Impacting Your Rankings
Your site can also be pushed down the SERPs when your competitors improve their SEO game and edge past you.
How To Diagnose:
Analyze competing websites to see how they’re getting ahead of your brand. They may have a faster backlink velocity, surpassing your site’s authority. Or, they may be publishing exceptional content that demonstrates information gain compared to your web pages. Identifying where competitors are focusing their efforts can help you overcome some of these strategy gaps and recover your search positioning.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Don’t automatically assume that ranking drops are due to changes in search engine algorithms or ranking factors. Consider whether your competitors are using stronger, more comprehensive SEO strategies. Regular competitive analyses help you stay on top of what other brands are doing and be proactive about finding opportunities to rise in the rankings.
10. SERP Feature Changes
As Google continues to add new features to its search engine results pages, there’s less real estate available for organic search snippets. Depending on the query, your web pages may slip down a few positions because of AI overviews, featured snippets, knowledge panels, Local Packs, video thumbnails, and “People Also Ask” features.
How To Diagnose:
Run a query for your target keyword and analyze the enhanced features that appear in the SERPs. Optimize your content to land in one of these prized positions.
- Answer search intent clearly and concisely.
- Use natural, conversational language.
- Implement local SEO, if applicable.
- Format content for readability by using headers and bullet points.
- Use structured data to clearly convey the meaning of your content.
Mistakes To Avoid:
Don’t overlook the benefits of appearing in a Google search feature. In addition to better placement in the SERPs, you can increase click-through rate and traffic to your website.
How To Recover & Future-Proof Your Google Rankings
All is not lost if you experience a drop in visibility. Depending on the reason behind the shift, you can use the tactics below to recover from the drop. This is also a good opportunity to work through the list to strengthen your site and overall SEO efforts. You’ll build a strong foundation to safeguard your web pages against future drops and make it easier to bounce back from fluctuations.
Technical Fixes
To rank well, your website needs to be technically robust and easy for search engines to crawl and understand.
- Fix issues identified in Google Search Console’s Page Indexing Report to make your content discoverable.
- Resolve problems with page speed and Core Web Vitals to ensure content loads quickly and reduce the risk of users bouncing.
- Optimize server and network configurations and use caching techniques to prevent slowdowns and crashes.
- Implement uptime monitoring to respond swiftly if your site goes down.
- Review your site structure and organize pages into a logical hierarchy, being careful not to place key content too deep in the site.
- Mark up pages with structured data to convey the meaning of your content to search engines and prepare your pages for rich snippets.
- Optimize title tags and meta descriptions to reflect keywords and relevance and encourage clicks.
Content Optimization Strategies
In addition to getting the technical side of your website in order, you need exceptional content worth recommending to users. Thin content won’t rank; you must meet audience needs and provide value.
- Evaluate pages that have dropped in ranking to ensure they’re helpful and prioritize the needs of readers over search engines.
- Refresh content to ensure it’s current and relevant.
- Expand thin content to enhance its usefulness.
- Diversify content with images, video, and infographics to provide a richer experience.
- Watch for keyword cannibalization and ensure pages have a distinct purpose and focus.
- Remove duplicate content or apply canonical tags.
- Improve readability with section headers and bullet points, and highlight key text to emphasize importance.
- Understand and demonstrate principles of E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness).
Strengthening Your Backlink Profile
Google views your site as trustworthy and deserving of a higher ranking if authoritative sites are sending their readers to you.
- Monitor your backlink profile for lost backlinks and reclaim valuable ones.
- Work to grow your backlink profile through online citations, guest posts, PR outreach, unclaimed mentions, and broken link building.
- Disavow links from spammy or low-quality sites.
Proactive SEO Monitoring & Ongoing Strategy
Your day-to-day SEO efforts should include a contingency for catching — and staying ahead of — potential problems.
- Monitor search rankings for your site and competing websites to detect shifts and identify new entrants to the market.
- Create alerts to catch ranking drops early so you can recalibrate.
- Perform regular competitive analyses to understand strategies used by competing websites.
- Monitor SEO blogs and websites for industry news and critical algorithm updates, and adapt your strategies accordingly.
Get Expert Help Recovering Your Google Rankings
Plummeting search rankings can be discouraging, but it’s possible to recover from the decline and boost your organic search traffic. If you need help understanding why your rankings have changed so you can improve your site’s resilience, get in touch with our team of experts.
At Victorious, we use data-driven SEO strategies to understand how your site is impacted by internal and external factors, helping you make informed decisions going forward. Schedule a free consultation to investigate your ranking drops and reclaim your position in the SERPs.
