Emergency SEO: How To Recover When SERP Rankings Suddenly Drop
•
6 likes•6,951 views
Drops in Google rankings are common and can be caused by a variety of factors. To recover from a sudden drop: Scope the impact by identifying which queries and pages were affected to find patterns; review recent website changes like technical issues, content changes, or internal link structure updates; catch up on recent Google algorithm updates; consider changes to the Google search engine results page layout; explore shifts in search intent or user behavior; and keep track of new emerging competitors. The first step is to verify a drop actually occurred using analytics and Google Search Console before determining a recovery plan.
Report
Share
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Emergency SEO: How To Recover When SERP Rankings Suddenly Drop
Similar to Emergency SEO: How To Recover When SERP Rankings Suddenly Drop (20)
More from Search Engine Journal
More from Search Engine Journal (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Emergency SEO: How To Recover When SERP Rankings Suddenly Drop
- 2. Ryan Maloney Customer Success Team Lead Emergency SEO: How To Recover When SERP Rankings Suddenly Drop
- 3. Artificial Intelligence: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Google SERP Changes & SGE Chat GPT The World of Organic Search In 2023…. So Far The Rollout of GA4 Google Core Updates Summer of SERP Volatility
- 4. How Would You Describe Your Current Keyword Performance On Google? Poll Question #1
- 5. Don’t Panic! ● Don't panic—this happens to all of us. The ebbs and flows of organic performance are part of SEO. Drops in Google rankings are one thing we can be sure of in SEO. ● Drops in Google rankings are the one thing we can be sure of in SEO, especially during periods of high SERP volatility. (Core Update Season) ● But what if your rankings don't bounce back, or if you're just worried and want to ensure everything is in order?
- 6. How To Recover When SERP Rankings Suddenly Drop
- 7. Did Your Rankings Really Drop?
- 8. Where Have You Seen These Declines? Poll Question #2
- 9. Did Your Rankings Really Drop? Dont assume and don’t jump to conclusions ● Do you have a reliable source for this information? ● Verify using analytics, Google Search Console or your tracked search performance. ● Do all signs still point to a ranking drop? If so, let’s talk about the scope.
- 11. Scope the ranking drop's impact The search queries and pages impacted by a ranking drop say a lot about the underlying issue. ● Using your most reliable source of data to identify the scope of the ranking drop's impact so you can diagnose the issues. ● Look to uncover patterns such as: ○ What cluster did the query belong to ○ Their old ranking, new ranking & the difference ○ The URL & content type that was ranking ○ Last time the page or content was updated ● Often just doing this lays out a pattern. It could be that the ranking drop only impacted specific sections of your website.
- 13. Review Recent website changes Large changes to a website can cause ranking drops. ● When you've migrated a bunch of pages, rolled out a (responsive) redesign, or reworked a lot of content, you'll sometimes see big fluctuations in your rankings. ● Ask around within your organization. ● Changes to review: ○ Technical changes ○ Internal link structure ○ Content changes
- 14. Technical Issues
- 15. Investigate Technical Issues on Your Website If Google's been having technical issues crawling and indexing your site, this can impact your rankings. ● Double-check that search engines are still crawling and indexing your website in the same way as before. ● Log file analysis - What are your log files telling you? ● Blocking Googlebot - Test to be sure! ● Load time - Have the load times significantly increased for pages affected by the ranking drop?
- 17. Catch Up On Google Algorithm Updates We’ve had a few of these this year, especially with the recent flurry this fall ● February 2023 Product Reviews Update ● March 2023 Core Update ● April 2023 Reviews Update ● August 2023 Core Update ● September 2023 Helpful Content Update ● October 2023 Spam Update ● October 2023 Core Update ● November 2023 Core Update
- 19. Consider Google SERP Updates Not every Google update is about their algorithm. ● Google also changes their search engine result page (SERP) layout. ● Adding other elements can push down your snippet or attract more attention than your snippet. ● Always mimic searcher behavior and look at what the SERP returns for the queries you're targeting.
- 20. Change In Search Intent & Behavior
- 21. Explore Changes In Search Intent & Behavior Sometimes Google may decide to change its idea on the intent of a search query ● Search Intent & behavior is always evolving ● User interest can significantly shift search intent & behavior. Take, for example: ○ Taylor Swift & the Jets ○ Oppenheimer & Barbie
- 23. Keep Track of Emerging Competitors Your competition is constantly making moves… Are you watching? ● Competition can play a role in your ranking drops. ● Investigate if there are emerging competitors in your space and discover who you lost your rankings to. ● Determine how they managed to beat you. ● Examples: ○ Featured Snippets ○ Better content ○ User Experience