3 Things To Check When Your Google Rankings Drop!

It’s a given that no one wants to see a drop in their Search Engine Ranking Position (SERPs), but unfortunately it is something that can affect any business; even if only temporarily.

While there will always be some issues that are beyond our control – such as being outranked by resellers, and the inevitable changes from Google’s ad placement refinement – it’s also possible that your Google rankings drop has an achievable solution.

So before you allow the panic to set in, take a moment to breathe and read through our below tips.

Check your links.

One key factor to look into when assessing a drop in organic rankings, is to check for lost links. For example, if a website that had previously linked to your blog/site has had those referral links removed (either by accident or due to spam) this could be the source of your low rankings.

What to do

1. Check your site’s lost links for the past 90 days, and individually check as many as you can (try usingGoogle Search Console)
2. Verify if they’ve been lost, or have simply fallen out of the backlink tool indices
3. Focus on attracting ‘high quality’ links in the future from brands/customers

Check if Google recently changed their algorithm

Did you know that Google changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times each year? The good news is, most of the time these changes are relatively minor and don’t have much affect on your rankings. However, if your SERP is tanking, it’s worth investigating whether a major algorithm change has recently been rolled out – and if so, whether it will affect your rankings long term.

What to do

Check online for any updates. Personally, I find ‘Moz’ to be the most helpful.

How new is your website?

If you’ve recently launched a new website to replace the previous one, you need to be prepared for a loss in rankings. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely avoid this. However, rest assured in the fact that it will recover (usually within a few weeks) – so long as you take the right precautions and actions.

What to do

1. First – to minimize a rankings drop, ensure a proper 301 redirect plan is in place.
2. Make sure your new website is well optimized prior to its launch.
3. Check your URL’s – ensure you redirect old URL’s to the new ones
4. Be patient and invest in long term, quality SEO practices.

As with anything, it often takes time, patience and a lot of expertise to improve your SEO rankings.