{"id":7247,"date":"2018-07-12T00:02:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T05:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ilfusion.org\/dev\/staging\/?p=7247"},"modified":"2023-06-29T02:51:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T07:51:46","slug":"5-things-to-do-when-your-seo-rankings-have-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ilfusion.org\/dev\/staging\/5-things-to-do-when-your-seo-rankings-have-dropped","title":{"rendered":"5 Things to Do When Your SEO Rankings Have Dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s digital landscape, search engine optimization (SEO) is quite possibly one of the most crucial strategies in digital marketing. With a thorough SEO strategy, you can effectively target users who are already actively looking for your products or services online. The higher your SEO rankings, the better the chances of attracting the right audience and converting them to sales.<\/p>\n

SEO is continually changing, and it always<\/i> does at a dramatic pace. In fact, Google updates its search algorithm at an average of 500 to 600 times<\/a> a year. While most of these updates are minor and may not significantly affect your rankings, Google occasionally rolls out major algorithm updates that could massively affect organic search results.<\/p>\n

Though ranking fluctuations are inevitable, if you notice a huge drop in your SEO rankings, it\u2019s important to take action and reverse the trend. There are various tools available to check your rankings, including Google Search Console, Stat, Moz, and SEMrush. The good news is that with a few simple optimization strategies, you can safely pump up your rankings in no time. \u00a0Here are five important things to do when your business website\u2019s SEO rankings have dropped:<\/p>\n

1. Check for Google algorithm changes<\/h5>\n

As mentioned, Google updates their search algorithm multiple times per year as part of their continuing effort to improve search engine results. However, Google is quite subtle in rolling out these updates, and often, some of the algorithm changes are not confirmed nor officially announced by Google.<\/p>\n

As a marketer, it\u2019s important to periodically track Google updates. Check SEO blogs such as the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Search Engine Journal, and Search Engine Land. It\u2019s also a good idea to follow influencers like Google\u2019s Gary Illyes, Danny Goodwin, and Barry Schwartz on Twitter to get in the loop on breaking developments in SEO.<\/p>\n

2. Correct algorithmic penalties<\/h5>\n

Following a major algorithm update, the drop in your rankings may possibly be a consequence of an algorithmic penalty. Google usually penalizes websites who use SEO techniques that do not comply with their new algorithm updates\u2014or it could also be an intentional negative SEO attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Either way, the important thing is to take immediate action to remove the cause. First, you need to know why you were penalized. Google Search Console is the primary way Google communicates with webmasters, including notices about penalties. Check for new messages and the \u201cManual Actions\u201d section under \u201cSearch Traffic,\u201d and follow their recommendations, if any, on how to correct the penalty.<\/p>\n

3. Check for errors in Google Search Console<\/h5>\n

Oftentimes, a drop in SEO rankings could be the result of crawling errors. It\u2019s possible that some of your important pages are being blocked from search bots, interfering with the indexing and visibility of your website.<\/p>\n

To check, go to Google Search Console and then under the \u201cCrawl\u201d section, select \u201cCrawl Errors.\u201d Here you will see if there are Site and URL errors, which you will need to fix manually. Once you\u2019ve fixed every error, mark the issues as fixed. Additionally, under \u201cSitemaps,\u201d check if there are discrepancies with the number of URLs submitted and the number of URLs indexed by Google. If there are discrepancies, you can opt to crawl your site with a scanning software such as Screaming Frog to quickly fix errors.<\/p>\n

4. Perform an SEO audit<\/h5>\n

If you aren\u2019t exactly sure what the problem is, a complete SEO audit can help you see granular data about your website, including information on areas of your site that need improvement. Technical SEO elements<\/a> such as no index tags, broken links, unoptimized heading tags, incorrect canonical tags, and content that cannot be rendered can have an adverse impact on your ranking performance.<\/p>\n

There are various SEO audit tools available for free, or opt for more features at a reasonable price, such as SEMrush, Neil Patel\u2019s SEO Analyzer, Moz Pro, and Site Checker Pro. Most of these tools provide suggestions on how to fix errors and to further optimize your site.<\/p>\n

5. Check your content<\/h5>\n

Sometimes, the culprit of a decreased ranking performance is simply your content. It may be that you\u2019re targeting the wrong keywords, your content\u2019s quality isn\u2019t considered valuable, or if you have duplicate content in your site.<\/p>\n

A manual analysis of site\u2019s content can help remedy this. If there are pages in your site that have been modified or are outdated, you can ask Google to remove the content. To check for duplicate content, Copyscape is a good tool to use. Google also has a Keyword Planner Tool that can help you determine the right keywords for your site to help it \u00a0rank well. If the quality of your content doesn\u2019t comply with Google\u2019s content standards, you may want to rewrite it altogether.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ranking is just one of the many SEO metrics that you need to continually monitor. Other aspects such as website visitor behavior, site structure, online trends, and mobile-responsiveness also need to be taken into account for a solid and successful SEO strategy. The beauty of SEO is that it has trackable and quantifiable metrics that can help you further refine your digital marketing efforts for maximum results.<\/p>\n

If you want to know more about effective SEO strategies, or for Ilfusion to help you with your digital marketing efforts, give us a call at 888-420-5115<\/a>, or send us an email to creative@ilfusion.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In today\u2019s digital landscape, search engine optimization (SEO) is quite possibly one of the most crucial strategies in digital marketing. With a thorough SEO strategy, you can effectively target users who are already actively looking for your products or services online. The higher your SEO rankings, the better the chances of attracting the right audience… view more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1280,21],"tags":[719,1466,98,17,19,1427,1467],"class_list":["post-7247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-articles","category-seo","category-web-articles","tag-digital-marketing","tag-google-algorithm","tag-search-engine-marketing","tag-search-engine-optimization","tag-seo","tag-seo-audit","tag-technical-seo"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Things to Do When Your SEO Rankings Have Dropped - Ilfusion Creative<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Things to Do When Your SEO Rankings Have Dropped - Ilfusion Creative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In today\u2019s digital landscape, search engine optimization (SEO) is quite possibly one of the most crucial strategies in digital marketing. 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