Has it ever happened to you that you wake up one fine morning to see that your website ranking has changed completely and it no longer appears on Google’s top 10 search results? It is definitely a scary tale to tell but do not panic as we are going to tell you why exactly Google rankings drop suddenly. We will also tell you how you can come out of this situation. So, let us have a look at some of the most common reasons for your website’s ranking to drop suddenly:
1 Manual search engine penalty: Manual search engine penalty is one of the biggest reasons why your Google ranking drops suddenly. Manual penalty mainly occurs when your website has been hacked. It can also occur if your website contains user-generated spam or unnatural backlinks. Another big reason for manual search engine penalty is thin content.
It is quite easy to detect manual penalties. You can use the Google Search Console to check whether your website has indeed received a manual penalty. In order to fix this issue, first and foremost, you need to find out what exactly brought harm to your website. A few things that you must look for are unnatural backlinks, website hacking and user-generated spam. You can also take the help of Zutrix to look for manual search engine penalties.
2 Google algorithm update: Google algorithm update can affect your website in two ways. It can either improve your web ranking or it can even deteriorate your ranking. The easiest way to check for Google algorithm updates is to check your search engine news. In case there is an update, you will find some news about it. Google normally confirms the update before updating their algorithm.
Although there is no way to keep your website protected from further Google updates, there are different ways by which you can fix this issue. One way is to take the help of popular SEO tools. You can also design a mobile-friendly website to retain your ranking on Google and other popular search engines.
3 Your competitors outrank you in Google: It may also be possible that there is actually no nothing wrong with your website. It is just that your competitors are performing better. Although this is a rare cause of sudden drop in Google ranking, your competitors’ activities are also worth investigating. You can take the help of popular seo tools and resources to check how the Google ranking has changed for you.
In case you notice that your website’s rank is dropping because of your competitors, then you will have to design new and advanced strategies for your website. Try to adopt the SEO strategies that are currently trending in the market. Also, try to use relevant keywords in your website content. Only then will you get back your lost ranking.
4 Lost backlinks: Low quality backlinks can also impact the performance of your website on search engines. To check whether backlinks are the cause of your ranking giving drop, you can use SEO tools. You can also get in touch with the webmaster to know how to reclaim your lost backlinks. It is always important for you to regularly monitor your website. This will ensure that there is no sudden change in the ranking of your website.
4 Website changes: Making essential changes to your website like changing your Content. Management System or redesigning your website can also affect your ranking. A small change can cause a huge impact on your SEO performance. Various tools are available using which you will be able to measure how your ranking has been affected because of the changes made by you to your website.
5 Mobile-first indexing: Your SEO ranking may also drop if your website is not mobile-friendly. Search engines have a habit of prioritising the mobile-friendly website. That is why you must make it a point to optimise your website for mobile devices. This will help you to get a really good SEO rank.
And these are some of the ways by which you can improve your SEO rank even if there is a sudden change in your ranking. You can also increase your followers on social media platforms to improve your SEO rank as seen on john chow blog