Having your website at the top of every search engine results page is the number one priority for any webmaster, no matter what type of website they’re running. This is not a simple achievement, and most definitely not a permanent category, mainly because search engines constantly work on improving their ranking algorithms. This constant change in the way search engines rate the relevance of online content is forcing webmasters, left and right, to constantly work on detecting recent issues and apply the best possible solutions.
But let’s not blame it all on Google and its fellow search engines, a lot of influence on this matter, if not the most, is assigned to people that manage and create the web content. For this reason, it’s every webmaster’s bread and butter the ability to detect what is causing the drop on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) and what tools should be used in order to recover from the drop in the shortest amount of time.
The recovery process is a trial and error type of work most of the time, which means it is necessary to check potential issues and see if handling them shows desired results. So let’s see what each webmaster should pay attention to when it comes to SERP drop.
What if Google penalized you?
Not only Google but all other search engines have a certain set of rules that everyone should follow if they want their site to even be visible in search results. These guidelines inform us what is legal, what frowned upon, and which actions could lead to penalties. If we detect a drop on Google’s list it is a good idea to open up webmaster tools page and see if there is a message that informs us of breaking any rules.
The solution to this issue is to check why Google took those measures against the website and see them rectified as soon as possible. Only then we could send a reconsideration request and ask Google to revoke the penalties. This could take some time to show some effect on the SERP, but it will ultimately work to your benefit. It’s a good practice to check your web content in the meanwhile and see if there is any other potentially incompliant content on your website.
Your backlinks are gone
Creating compelling content that is able to captivate the readers and raise the interest of other web publishers is extremely important for any website. The better you design and produce the content there is a higher chance that some of your pages will end up being shared on some other web locations. Now, this doesn’t have to mean someone removed those links intentionally; there are several reasons to why backlinks are not active anymore.
- The website that had your backlinks is offline for some reason
- Google could have issues connecting to the host
- The page or content that carried backlink is moved or replaced
There’s not much to do if this is the reason for the drop on search lists except contacting the webmaster that hosted your links and ask if there is anything they could do in order to help you. Keeping track of backlinks that lead to our website is one of the safest methods of prevention.
Your host is underperforming
No matter how amazing your web content is, there are always things that could lead to a poor user experience which mainly result in lower traffic. Lower traffic means your rating is going down unless the competition is doing badly also. The time it takes to open up a website is the crucial argument in visitor’s decision to leave the website at an early stage. Simply put, nobody wants to wait forever in order to open a page and access its content.
The solution to this issue is simply getting a better hosting service or spending a bit more cash on a better hosting plan. Avoid using shared hosts as they spread resources between multiple websites, consequently leaving everyone “hungry” for some more.
Recently redesigned website
One might think that redesigning a website would earn a pat on the back by search engines and a few places higher on the latter. However, the results of redesigning a website could show a drop on the Google list for various reasons.
One of the main reasons why websites lose their rating after a redesign process is because someone forgot to install redirects. 301 redirect plan is the best way to make sure all your visitors and Google are being sent to the new and improved content.
Someone else outranked you
It is well-known fact that sometimes no matter how hard we try someone else is simply doing a better job than we are. Search engine rating is an ongoing competition with new participants coming in and the old getting out of the field during the game. The rules keep changing; money often plays a large role when it comes to performance meaning it’s difficult to get on top and takes an even greater effort to stay on top once we get there.
It’s not the end of the world if someone takes your place, on the contrary, it could serve as a motivator for even better results in the time that’s ahead. Just do your best to keep your website SEO friendly and up to date. In addition, putting an extra effort into creating a better content could show results that are in your favor.
Joan Selby, Digital Marketing Strategist working for EduGeeksClub once wrote: “Titles and meta-descriptions play an important part in how search engines rank your blog pages. If the titles are catchy, and the content organic, you stand a better chance of ranking well.” So if you see your competitors closing in on you, just take this piece of advice into account, it might help.
Google Flux influence
Since Google is a digital learning machine, it changes its MO from time to time. This leads to changes in SERPs for no reason other than Google liked it better that way. No matter what we do, how well we organize our content and whichever precautions we take to prevent the drop in rating; Google flux does its own job and this is something that nobody can stop.
Keeping track of best practices in SEO could help with this issue and minimize the damage to your rating, but there are no promises.
Conclusion
There is no magic formula that promises grand success when it comes to search engine optimization. The algorithms change constantly, things that worked yesterday could have a negative effect tomorrow so webmasters have to stay up to date with the latest events. This article is more a guide that should help you understand where you went wrong. To really master SEO, one should learn new things every day and still could stay behind.