Updated August 23rd, 2018
If you are reading this post, chances are that one of your popular keywords that used to rank well recently dropped or got buried under your competitor’s website. As an Seo for Explo-Media for 10+ years now (Since 2008), I still loose sleep at night (not really but almost) when a website that has been Seo optimized and for some unknown reason drops significantly. One of the top challenging parts is finding out what happened and why the keyword ranking dropped? Google uses 200 + ranking factors and is constantly updating their search engine algorithms daily, weekly and monthly. As Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media once said:
This is why hiring a up-to-date Seo comes in handy. They are constantly on top of the latest updates and game changers to website rankings while you can focus on what you do well, your business!
At this moment you should start asking yourselves questions like:
- Did I or someone who has access to my website messed with internal links?
- Did we lose good quality backlinks pointing to us?
- Has someone or a competitor do negative Seo?
- Duplicate our content?
- Was there a Google update recently that could of impacted us?
Remember that Google updates can vary from Technical, Website Security, Content Quality, and external factors like backlinks. A simple SSL certificate could be the difference from page one to page two on search engines like Google.
However, huge disclaimer here,
since Google is constantly updating its algorithms, you can see a huge drop on your website even if you haven’t changed anything recently. See John Mueller’s response of Google about
Example #1: A website was ranking because the search algorithm thought it was good and later revisited the same site and determined it wasn’t as good as it thought:
Example #2 – Your site’s ranking dropped but nothing was changed recently – what happened? Response: “This can and should change over time – its completely normal. Algorithms are reevaluating what they think makes sense in terms of search rankings.”
Here’s what to do before you hire an Seo:
Validate that a Keyword Ranking drop really took place
Before spending time and money on this, be sure to confirm that a Keyword Ranking drop really happened. To do this, verify that:
- There has been organic traffic drops from page(s) that ranked well on your website.
You will need to have an organic report done in an analytics tool like Google Analytics to see this information.
- When looking at your organic report, try to see when the drops actually begin.
This way you will be able to determine if this is due to a recent Google Algorithm change, a loss of a backlink or something else. We use Moz to see the dates of Google Algorithm changes but you can also use:
and Ahrefs and some times Majestic Seo to see backlink loss.
- Verify if this is a seasonal drop or not.
Some businesses have busy seasons and not so busy times. Having a huge drop in organic traffic can significantly affect your Keyword Rankings.
If you have looked at your organic report and noticed a constant dropped then you need to investigate this problem deeper. This requires advanced Seo knowledge. It can also be that your competitors invested in Seo and now you can’t afford not to invest yourself. Contact our team to see what can be done on your site today!
Also, check out the Evolution of Search by Google’s very own Ben Gomes here:
