What To Do If Your SEO Rankings Dropped

If you are checking your website’s Google keyword rankings on a monthly basis, you will realize that your rank fluctuates, and at times, significantly. As one of my favorite SEO Evangelists, Neil Patel, said, “It’s not a matter of if your rankings will drop, it’s a matter of when.” In the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services sphere, we call these Search Engine Results Page (SERP) or ranking fluctuations. Your SERPs may increase or drop 6 to 12 points in the span of a few days. Before you freak out, remember to breathe, and keep reading!

In the initial stages of your SEO campaign, your website will be climbing up and down the Google search ladder. The outcomes may be significant, changing weekly or even daily. In the early phase of your SEO campaign, in the span of only one week, your rankings may drop from position 53 to 58, while the next week they can improve from 58 to 45.

Volatility in ranking fluctuations increases for websites found lower on Google’s 1st page, and close consecutive pages. The disparity of these variations also grows as the page numbers get higher (page number 2, 3, 4,…16) When you first earn your spot as one of the top 4 websites on page 1 of your focus keyword, you may think, “Finally! I can stop working on my SEO!” Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but not really.

You’ve accomplished a vital SEO milestone, but moving forward, your website will be involved in some bumpy fluctuations as your rank ‘stabilizes.’ This phenomenon occurs because Google’s algorithm loves new content and transitory boosts new websites.

Just as you would continue exercising to stay in shape, you would continue your SEO efforts to earn and eventually solidify your ranking and back your website’s rise to the first page! Once your website has established its place in the top half of Google’s 1st page for more than 3 months, you will start seeing less erratic variations in your ranking.

Ok, so you initially got alarmed and freaked out. Then you relaxed a bit and read some enlightening information, but where do you go from here? One of the first steps to take is to look at your ranking data in the course of more than 4 to 6 weeks. Afterwards, you want to search for patterns. If your rankings are rising consistently over this minimum period of time and there is no sudden drop in website traffic, chances are there isn’t anything to write to Google about. If you are finding the wait too much to bear and want to energize your climb to the top, we can help craft a potent SEO services campaign to speed things up.

If your google ranking dropped dramatically over more than a few pages and an upward ranking pattern had not been corrected in at least fourteen days, you should contact your SEO mechanic as soon as you can.

At Azoolu, if we ever run across this situation, we execute a comprehensive overview including thousands of data points, research any seismic activity in Google’s algorithm updates, reach out to our network of SEO evangelists, check for changes in your focus keywords’ competitive landscape, review your website code for viruses, dig for old or hidden blackhat SEO tactics, and contact Google directly if your website has been penalized. For more on how penalty corrections work, you can read our Google recovery article.