You get up one good morning and find your website’s ranking drops on Google SERP. It definitely is a huge loss, as all your efforts to gain Google’s trust have been suddenly forgotten.
But you have to keep calm and think logically. Sometimes, we are stressed and do things that are not helpful and even make things worse, so it’s best to get help from a professional service for peace of mind and the best solution.
Don’t Panic, and Don’t Act Without Planning
First, don’t panic, though the matter is of concern. Generally, people start making changes without knowing the exact cause. Action without the right planning may lead to further issues.
Don’t cry over spilled milk. Take the smart moves and investigate the cause of sudden SEO ranking.
Here’s What You Need to do for the Sudden Drop in SEO Ranking
Add a Correct Form of Robots.Txt
Robots.txt is one of the key factors of SEO that you need to check, to see if Google overlooks you. It is crucial, as the file tells search engines which pages to crawl and which ones to overlook. A range of sites have robots.txt issues and, thus, cannot get the desired ranking.
It may happen that your robots.txt file tells the search engine to ignore the entire site, and this is why your site is not appearing in the SERPs. To be aware of the issues, you must check “insite: yourdomain.com.”
Make Additional Updates to Your Content as Needed
Improve your content and make it stronger and more creative, whether for SEO, user experience, or overall quality. This may apply to updating out-of-date statistics, adding additional internal links, or updating the writing style to better align with your brand’s voice.
Check for any Google Algorithm Updates
Unless you regularly keep up with Google’s algorithm updates, chances are you won’t know when one has taken place. Google rolls out multiple algorithm updates every year — and one of these could be responsible for your Google ranking dropping dramatically.
Page Speed
People don’t like to wait to consume your site’s content. You can also check the website loading speed on mobile using the Google Page Speed Insights Tool. The tool will provide you with an accurate report you can use to troubleshoot your website’s page speed. The bounce rates will increase when pages take longer to load for your visitors.
Look For Broken Links
To optimise your site properly, you need to create many backlinks. Google considers these backlinks votes that would eventually boost your site’s popularity and authority. If one of your backlinks breaks, you will lose the website’s positive impact.
To find out whether broken backlinks exist on your site, you can use a range of tools like Screaming Frog, Xenu, and Open Site Explorer, or you can get the help of an expert SEO team for better results.
Keep in mind while creating backlinks that Google doesn’t appreciate artificial backlinks. It never gets counted if you artificially create backlinks in comment sections and link directories of other websites. One of the best ways is to create original content that people would be interested to read and share
Look out for Technical SEO Issues
On-page SEO and off-page SEO are potential reasons behind a dramatic decline in rankings. If you don’t have any issues in either department, your SEO rankings drop issue could be due to Google’s penalty.
Check if Your Website is Hacked
There is nothing worse for you than getting hacked. If you find that you are getting hacked, you should take smart steps as fast as possible, as it is one of the major reasons behind the rank drop.
It can also cause you a Google algorithmic penalty, and if Google identifies a lot of issues, it can remove your website from its index. Don’t worry. Your rankings can be recovered even after getting hacked.
Fixing Your Hacked Website
Here’s a List of Tasks to Escape the Grasp of Hackers:
- You should change your passwords immediately after your website is hacked. Create your complex password to avoid a different hack.
- Your next move should be connecting with your hosting provider, which is important if yours is a shared hosting plan. Let your hosting provider know your site has been hacked, and help them check their security protocols.
- Your hosting provider can lock your account as soon as possible. Therefore, get all the data from your website and keep a copy. You need to be certain that you are not using any infected database and recover your website data from clean backup software.
Check if You are Hit with a Google Penalty
If you follow all the ethics and Google algorithms, you can be sure that you will never experience a Google penalty. However, if you make one tiny mistake or unintentionally implement some black-hat methods, you can resolve the issue with the help of an expert SEO team to get your site ranked again in the SERPs.
Most websites are penalised by Google because of minor errors made by the site owners. There can be severe effects from the Google penalty. You can see your entire site’s rank drop, and even your website can be removed from Google’s index.
The issues should be addressed as quickly as possible. Otherwise, it can cause permanent loss.
Getting Rid of a Penalty
If you are sure that your website is suffering from a Google penalty, whether through an algorithm update or manual action, and if you have taken all the steps to solve the issues. Now it’s time to submit a reconsideration request that you have to submit through your search console account.
Follow Up
After following the above-mentioned procedure, you will get a response to your request. If it is a manual penalty and everything is okay with your site, the message will declare that your penalty has been lifted. If the message says there is no issue, but your rankings still need to improve, you are charged an algorithmic penalty.
In such conditions, the only way you have is to make your site better by following the above-discussed ways.
Check to See if You’re Being Outranked
Sometimes your website didn’t “drop” rather, another site just outperformed it.
Examine what your competitors are doing differently and improve your content. You must keep an eye on the competition to understand which changes are causing them to overtake your ranking in search results.
Normally, this affects a few pages instead of your whole website.
Consult with Your SEO Team
Whether they’re in-house SEO or an agency, your SEO team should be your partners in fixing, addressing, and recovering from a Google ranking drop. Speak to them as soon as you notice the issue and advise them of any changes you’ve made. They will help diagnose the problem and ensure you have a smooth road to recovery.
Conclusion
You can do this with your website to regain your SERP position. Be patient, as Google will take time to trust you again.
Regardless, if all of the following checks don’t help you find a cause, sometimes you need to accept the mystery rather than look back. Contact the top agency that provides great SEO for a new strategy to get a more valuable page ranking.
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