Image Source: Pixabay
For some unfortunate entrepreneurs, it all begins when they notice their web traffic has taken a significant drop and further investigation reveals a much lower ranking in Google searches than they thought they had. There could be many reasons for this; we must understand that the web is in a constant state of change, with new and deleted content arising by the second, as content creators work their magic, which means nothing stays the same.
Here are a few common reasons a website might suddenly see a drop in rankings within specific Google search results.
1. A Google Penalty
A ‘manual action’ is when a human reviewer decides to impose a penalty on your website, which would be for breaching Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. This is the usual response when a webmaster is trying hard to manipulate their web rankings and if you notice a drop in your Google ranking, check with Bing and Yahoo to see if the reduction is across the board. If you have retained your rankings on another search engine, then it is likely you have received a manual action from Google.
2. Google Algorithm Changes
Perhaps the most common cause of a drop in rankings is a change in the way Google rates web content. Even a minor amendment could make a big difference and by contacting a leading SEO audit service in Australia, or anywhere else around the world, they can get to the root of the problem and do whatever it takes to regain that coveted top spot.
3. Keyword Tracking
In the event you are using keywords that are not high on the consumer’s list, this would lead to a drop in site traffic. It is important to carry out a lot of keyword research and the best people for that are the SEO agency, who can make sure that you are focused on the most used keywords and that will be reflected in your high ranking.
4. Slow Page Loading
The online consumer doesn’t like to wait and if your site has lots of hi-res images and videos, this could slow the page loading time and that will lead to users leaving the site, perhaps never to return. Worse, Google does not like slow content loading and it may de-rank a site because of this, so make sure that your webmaster optimizes for fast page loading.
5. Losing Links
If links become bad, this could cause a drop in Google’s ranking, which is why you should outsource all of your digital marketing to a local SEO agency, as they check all links on a monthly basis, ensuring that you do not get penalized for broken links. Check to see if the link loss is connected to traffic fluctuations, while the drop could be due to changed content on your website.
If you hire an SEO agency to carry out search engine optimization, this does need to be an ongoing service, due to the ever-changing nature of the web and with a team of experts in your corner, you will quickly regain that coveted first page of search results.
