Every marketer and businesses want to know about the strategies involved in getting high search engine ranking. But knowing about the factors that can drop the rank of your website is also necessary in today’s online marketing world.
Online marketing has become one of the primary sources in getting traffic. And Google is one of the widely used search engine that helps in getting an abundance of traffic on top ranking websites. Generally, Online marketers perform various SEO activities to rank a website on the top of SERP. But there are factors that marketers generally ignore and because of that, they have to face the issue related to website rank drop or surge in the website position in the SERP.
As we are moving ahead with the inbound marketing series, we have demystified different strategies on content creation, marketing, and various SEO types and activities. In this article, we will be discussing different reasons behind website ranking drop and tips on how you can avoid it.
How a website loses its rank on the search engine result page(SERP)?
Lost links
Getting Backlinks from another website is the first and foremost off-page activity performed by SEO experts. Getting an abundance of backlinks on a website may result in getting a higher rank. But sometimes the website faces rank drop by losing these links.
Various free and paid Backlink checker tools can help you in analyzing your backlinks. You can check for a web page that has faced the rank drop and you can analyze why that particular web page lost the link.
To overcome this type of rank drop issue, be updated with the number of backlinks on your website. There are paid and free tools available that can give you new, lost and broken link reports. Always focus on analyzing individual links, this practice will help you in getting in-depth knowledge of lost links. You can analyze the individual lost links through paid tools like Ashref
- Intentionally removed links are unnatural links and google can penalize you for that so do not retain those links.
- Sometimes due to website redesign, outgoing links are lost, you can retain those links.
- If incoming links are broken then you can try to fix them.
Search Engine Algorithm Change
There are various search engines like google, yahoo, bing, Baidu, etc. Among all of them “GOOGLE” is one of the most popular search engines that focus on giving an advanced search result and better user experience. And To achieve that, every year google updates its algorithm. Panda, Penguin, HummingBird, Pigeon, Possum, etc are among popular Google algorithm updates.
Updating your website according to the latest algorithm update will help you to maintain your website rank. Google updates its algorithm frequently, in 2019 google published 3 differed core updates in March, June, September. So, if you do not want to face any rank drop related issue, then be updated with the algorithm changes made by Google.
Google tests its algorithm to optimize the search result. And these tests may result in the rank shift of your website. But don’t once the testing part is done by Google your website will regain its position.
Manual Action Against Search Engine Policies
If you find a sudden drop of 10-20 rank in your website position then that could indicate a penalty from google. These drops happen because of manual action taken by online marketers.
Black and Grey hat SEO activities can drop the rank of your website. While crawling a website google bots discover these activities and mark it as suspicious against google search engine policies.
According to SEO experts and google once your websites get penalized it will be hard for you to bring it back in the same position. So, always try to avoid using black and grey hat SEO activities.
If you want to check whether the rank drop is a result of an algorithm update or it is a penalty. You can go to your website search console to figure out the reason behind the rank drop. Another way is you can check your website ranking on the other search engines. If the rank remains the same on other search engines that your website has been penalized by google.
Natural Ranking Fluctuation
This type of natural rank fluctuation happens when google optimizes its search result for the user. You don’t have to worry about the penalty from google if you see those rank shifting. By updating your website content and website design you can gain your older ranking.
Website Page Speed
Website page speed is all about the time required to load a web page and display it in a web browser. It plays an important role in deciding your page rank. A website with page load time more than 6 seconds can have more audience bounce rate. And it can reduce your page ranking because google gives preference to websites that have more engaging traffic.
Optimized page speed will help in deciding your page rank and traffic. There are third-party tools and Google page insights available that show your website load speed on mobile and desktop.
Outdated Content
Outdated or older content is helpful and required but it will not hold your website rank for long. Once you stop updating your content there are chances that you may start losing your website traffic and rank. Because every website wants to be on the top of SERP and most of them have discovered that new quality content always drives more traffic. And Google also gives preference to the traffic engaging website.
So, to be on the top try to update your content web page and add new content on your website that can drive more traffic. Follow the trend to know about the topic that can attract the audience. Check out the various steps and strategies of content creation.
Server Overload
Always choose a hosting package that can handle a sudden increase in traffic. When your website or your web page link gets featured on the top ranking website. Then probably your website may face the traffic-related issues. And there are times when server overload and crash due to a sudden surge in traffic.
If your website continuously faces the same problem of overloading then google may decrease your rank. In shared hosting, there are more chances that a website may crash. Most of the WordPress website uses shared hosting. For the initial stage, it’s good to have a shared hosting as it is cost-effective. But later when you start noticing a sudden surge in traffic then opt for hosting package that can give you bandwidth and handle your website traffic.
Change in Website Design
Redesigning a website is one of the least opted practices by any website owner. Because redesigning your website may decrease your ranking and there are chances that you may lose your traffic.
But there are a few things that you can consider if you are looking to redesign or update your website. Verify the inbound links of your current website because if you lose those links you can retain it after redesigning your website. Prepare a metric report of your older ON-Page and Off-Page SEO activities. These metrics will help you to implement previous SEO tactics to regain your website ranking on SERP.
Analyze and Track your Competitor
Always prefer to have a track of your competitor. Imagine a scenario where you see a rank drop and after analyzing so many rank drop factor you come to a conclusion that everything is fine with the website. But still, you lost your rank. What can be the reason?
It can be your competitor’s SEO strategy and effort that have brought them on the top of SERP. Your competitor was performing better than you. That’s why it is important to analyze the backlinks, keywords, content and other SEO strategies of your competitors. These practices will help you in getting your website on the top page of SERP.
Conclusion
Even if your website is ranking on the top of SERP, always keep on updating your content to maintain your position. Do not try to take any shortcuts like Black hat, Gray Hat to earn higher search ranking. You might succeed in getting top rank but it will not last for long. Once Google bot identifies this activity, there are chances that your website may get banned.
If you are looking for experts that can help and suggest you with SEO activities that can rank your website on the top of SERP. WE at SFWP experts have a qualified SEO team that has helped other websites of California in getting high ROI through organic traffic. We have marketing experts that can assist you with the marketing strategies to make your business more lucrative.
Frequently Asked Question
Why is my website ranking dropping?
If you are observing surge in your website traffic and rank then there must be some factors that you must be ignoring like
- Search Engine Algorithm Change
- Outdated Content
- Lost links (incoming links)
- Website Page Speed
Why my website ranking suddenly dropped?
If you find a sudden drop of 10-20 rank in your website position then that could indicate a penalty from google. These drops happen because of manual action taken by online marketers.
Why is my website losing traffic?
Website load time and outdated content are the main factor of losing website rank. Once you stop updating your content there are chances that you may start losing your website traffic and rank.
How do I change my website without losing rank?
Verify the inbound links of your current website because if you lose those links you can retain it after redesigning your website. Prepare a metric report of your older ON-Page and Off-Page SEO activities. These metrics will help you to implement previous SEO tactics to regain your website ranking on SERP.
Why is my Google ranking dropping?
Every year Google updates its algorithm. Panda, Penguin, HummingBird, Pigeon, Possum, etc are among popular Google algorithm updates. Updating your website according to the latest algorithm update will help you to maintain your website rank. Google updates its algorithm frequently, in 2019 google published 3 differed core updates in March, June, September.