Maintaining good search ranking and visibility is really important for an online business in order to be able to reach its target market effectively on the internet. And the drop in site ranking is one of the biggest SEO nightmares. Are you experiencing something similar with your business website? Not sure what is causing it? Then this article can be really helpful for you. What causes site ranking drop? Read on to learn about some possible reasons.
In order to have a great online presence and keep reaching the target market effectively on the internet, a business needs to optimize for search engines. And what do we not do to optimize for search engines? Invest in content marketing, website development, SEO services, and so on. Still at some point, you may find that the rankings of your website are dropping.
In some cases, it may not worth causing an alarm. In other cases, your site might be in danger. If you have noticed dip in your site ranking, then you need to take quick action. And it starts with identifying the problem first. Consider the following possibilities.
Possible reasons for site ranking drop
#Search algorithm update
Search engine like Google update their algorithms once in a while. If you are not the only one whose ranking is going down suddenly—if SEO forums on the internet are filled with such observations—then possibly, there’s been an algorithm update. Solution? Google says there’s no solution to it as such. In fact, it should be confused with penalization. Your website is not penalized. Instead, some other sites have got better ranking. Google explains it like reshuffling and suggests just focusing on the quality of your content. Ranking lost in such core updates are generally recovered in the next update.
#You have lost links
A possible reason for drop in site ranking is losing of links. Using tools like Cognitive SEO or Majestic Ahrefs can help you find if your website has lost any links in the past 90 days. If you find you have lost inbound links, make sure to investigate each link separately and try to find out why they have be lost and how can you recover them.
#Buying links
Inbound links indeed play a significant role in SEO. Therefore, businesses are focused on earning more and more backlinks. Getting hasty, some make the mistake of buying links. However, this can rather lead to penalization when Google algorithm spots this. And if you have bought links, then this is what may be leading to drop in your site ranking. It is crucial to understand that the quality of the links weigh more than the quantity of it. So, make sure to focus on natural link building instead of sorting to such things.
#Link swapping
Now, this one is again about links. It justifies the fact how important a role backlinks play in SEO. In the wake of earning backlinks, many digital marketing agency in Dallas found that businesses often indulge in arrangements like link-swapping. However, Google algorithm is not smart enough to spot such activities. And such things can lead to penalization. Thus again, the takeaway is to focus on building links naturally.
#Keyword stuffing
Keywords are an integral part of search engine optimization. However, over-doing keywords can have adverse consequences. Digital marketing agencies in Chicago found that it is common for many small businesses to indulge in keyword-stuffing, both intentionally and unintentionally. Now, this indicates Google that you are stuffing so many keywords to get your website ranked better and that it may not necessarily have quality content. As a result, it can penalize you. Thus, this is another thing to keep in mind. Using tools like Yoast can be really helpful in making you ensure that you use just the right amount of keywords in your blogs.
#Penalization
Sometimes, the drop in your site’s ranking is not caused by algorithm but manual actions. If you find that your rankings haven’t changed on other search engines but have significantly dipped on Google, then it is almost certain your website is being penalized for violation of some guidelines given by Google. So, make sure keep checking your Google Search Console for such notifications. This will allow you to locate the problem.
#Broken 301 Redirects
Another possible reason for site ranking drop can be broken 301 Redirects on your website. This can be caused by actions like site migration, launching a website, and other structural changes on your website when you don’t have a 301 redirect plan in place. Therefore, make sure to have one before taking such actions.
#Your competitor has improved
Sometimes, the reason you experience drop in site ranking and traffic is not because you have done anything wrong but simply because a competitor of yours has improved and thus, has been given a ranking boost which consequently brought your rankings down. Research your competitor to find out what improvements they have made and upgrade your website and methods accordingly. And there are always digital marketing agency in San Francisco that can help you with that.
#Slow website loading and page speed
If your website takes too long to open and your page speed is poor, then there is nothing to wonder why your site’s ranking has dropped. Slow website leads to poor user experience which further ads to bounce rate and harms dwell time. And hence, a website faces drop in search ranking.
#Website not optimized for mobile
If your website is not already optimized for mobile phones, then you are already far behind. You have lost the rankings you could have lost already because mobile optimization became a necessity long back. Thus, you need to make sure that your website is optimized for mobile phones and yields great view and functioning on such devices.
Final Word
Site ranking drop is a complete SEO nightmare for a business. And though, there are many possible reasons why a site may experience drop in ranking and web traffic, I have listed some of the most common ones. So, make sure to check them all out and scan your website for the same. And if you are still not able to locate the real problem, there are always digital marketing agency in Los Angeles that can help you!
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