Google Ranking Dropped Dramatically? Here’s How We Recovered (Step-by-Step)

The sudden drop in Google search rankings is because of the most recent algorithm update, intent mismatch, de-indexation of pages, technical issues, content cannibalization, loss of high-quality links, and more.

We’re saying this because we’ve experienced it ourselves. It took us several months to overcome the issue; still, we believe the efforts were worthwhile, as now we are more aligned with our target audiences’ needs and are gaining leads, traffic, and business opportunities like never before.

Here, We’ve Complied Steps You Can Follow to Regain Your Website Lost Rankings

1. Possible reasons for rankings drops
2. How we regained our rankings on some of the most competitive transaction terms
3. Step-by-step process to identify the root cause of ranking decline
4. Strategical way to handle ranking drop (what and when to make changes)
5. Recovery time for each optimization

First, Let’s Discuss 12 Possible Reasons Why Usually Sites’ Google Ranking Drops (Insights from 1000+ Sites)

Everyone cites a Google algorithm update as the reason for a ranking drop. We believed the same until we analyzed case studies of sites that lost rankings.

Based on the examination, we deduced that algorithm updates are not behind the ranking drop every time. There exist other factors that drag a site’s position in search results.

Feeling a bit surprised?

Well, let’s take a closer look at all the possible reasons.

Here, we are listing down the reasons that we got to know after reviewing the actual situation for many sites, starting with the obvious one:

Reason 1 – Google Rolled Out an Algorithm Update

As technology evolves, search behavior also changes. Users who once relied on typing queries now prefer voice commands. Mobile has become their preferred device for placing orders or accessing information.

They know what they want, and that’s why their search query has become more specific from generic.

To keep up with all these changes, Google updates its algorithms. This helps them align web results with users’ real search intent and reduce outdated or irrelevant content on their top pages.

Do you know? Google has a history of such updates (Search Engine Journal), through which it caught sites that practiced manipulative SEO tactics. To punish them, it either penalized or dropped their rankings.

Such sites just want to make search engines happy and not users. However, Google rolls out every update to improve the user experience. If you take care of your users and keep them happy as a site, even Google will love you.

So, focus on solving your users’ pain points; this way, even algorithm updates will not affect your site.

Reason 2 – Your Content Is Not as Strong or Relevant Anymore

Google has set some quality standards; a ranking loss cannot be avoided if your site content fails to meet them.

While ranking any specific content, Google checks a couple of things: originality, the inclusion of the latest facts, readability factor, structure, keyword optimization (in a balanced way), the relevance of content specifically for users and not for search engines, and most importantly user’s search intent.

If a site compromises on any of these aspects, it will either lose keyword ranking or Google will simply deindex its page from the search engine results.

Reason 3- Your Competitors Are Doing Better

Maintaining a strong position in the search results is difficult, but more challenging for sites operating in highly competitive markets.

Every player strives for top ranking, and they consistently improve their on-page SEO, update existing content, target high-value keywords, and acquire backlinks from authoritative sources. They pay attention to every small aspect that boosts their user’s confidence.

Despite updating your strategy, if you wonder why you are not mentioned in the top results, remember that your competitors are also working to serve every demand of users.

They work behind a user’s ‘why,’ intent, and expectations of the visitors after landing on their website.

Reason 4- Using One Focus Keyword for Two Pages (One of the Biggest Mistakes Most Site Owners Do)

When multiple pages on a site target the same or similar keywords, the site is likely to see negative outcomes for its rankings; this is keyword cannibalization.

In such a scenario, search engines cannot decide which page of that particular site is most relevant to the user’s search query, resulting in no ranking for any.

Sites dealing with this issue are generally old. They accidentally cannibalize keywords because they have previously covered similar topics, leading to a loss of rankings.

Reason 5- Your Site Underwent Migration (Technical SEO issues)

Sites that do not handle migration carefully likely see ranking losses as a common consequence.

After migrating, their URL structures, domain names, site architecture, and schema markup changes. Additionally, the link equity of backlinks decreases.

All these changes, if not handled with proper planning, break the effectiveness of SEO, and ultimately hurt a site’s ranking in search results.

Reason 6- Similar Content is Appearing on Multiple Pages (Duplicate Content Page Issue)

When similar content appears on multiple pages, either on the same site or across different websites, Google gets confused. It cannot determine the original version, leading to diluted rankings.

Mostly, ecommerce stores face duplicate content page issues. How? Let’s make you understand through an example. An online store sells a product, “running shoes,” and there exist two URLs to access them:

• www.storename.com/products/running-shoes
• www.storename.com/sports-shoes/running

Clicking on either URL will lead to the same product page, but Google will treat this as a duplicate content page issue. Wondering why this happens?

Perhaps due to negligence or incapability to handle complex navigation structures from the store owner’s end. Yet, sometimes, even a few CMS platforms generate multiple URLs for the same page due to their in-built settings or configurations.

Another common instance of duplicate content issues is when sites republish their content on another website without their original link.

In extreme circumstances, search engines de-index such pages upon noticing them.

Reason 7- You’ve Enabled Users to Share their Feedback Freely on Your Website (User-Generated or UGC Content)

Reviews, comments, forums, and other user-generated content also impact rankings. Even search engines will not favor you for top rankings if it is negative.

A few sites allow users to post comments without moderation. In this case, if the feedback is good, it will work to their benefit. However, if it is against them, the site will experience a negative effect on their rankings. As search engines perceive negative feedback as reflecting overall site quality.

Reason 8- Leveraging AI-Generated Content for Your Blogs & Articles

AI is a growing trend. Following it, a few websites use this technology for automatic content generation, thinking it as a good step to save money, efforts and time.

However, Google considers such content as of low quality. Articles or blogs written using AI tools are repetitive and lack in-depth information. They do not add anything new to the web. Consequently, the platform places such sites lower in SERPs.

Does this mean not utilizing AI tools for content generation? Well, you can, rather you should use AI tools, but not like other sites. The right way is to use these tools for research and understanding buyer personas.

You will certainly gain invaluable insights, and it would be considered the best way to present your brand in front of your target audience while maintaining uniqueness.

Reason 9- You Have a Limited Online Presence

Google tracks user engagement as an indication of relevance and quality. If you hardly update your site, users will not interact with it, affecting your rankings in search results.

Do you know even your brand’s social media presence impacts your search rankings? Additionally, your presence in authentic business directories contributes to your business’s online visibility.

Working on these aspects will also help you boost search engine rankings and vice versa.

Reason 10- Not Updating Local SEO Factors (Even if You’re Serving Internationally)

Google relies on accurate and up-to-date local business information. If your local listings, like Google My Business, are outdated or inconsistent, search engines cannot index your site, resulting in lower rankings in search results.

If you say we serve global clients and updating local SEO factors is of no use for us, then let us inform you, all aspects are considered when ranking. Only when the site passes all the SEO and user experience, does it get the top ranking.

Reason 11- Loss of Referral Traffic

When a linking website redesigns, changes its URL,

updates its content, or is affected by an algorithm update, it impacts the site that has acquired the link from it as well. Wondering what will be the loss? Referral traffic.

Their time on site, pages per session, and bounce rate gets impacted.

Google considers these metrics indicators of user experience. A decline in engagement signals that the content is less relevant, potentially leading to lower rankings.

Reason 12- You Lost a Few High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks help boost rankings for a specific keyword. What if the site linking to you gets deleted, goes offline, or removes the specific page where a backlink for your site existed?

In that situation, where once it was strengthening your site’s domain authority (DA), automatically, its absence will weaken the DA score as well as the trust factor.

So, these are the reasons why a site’s Google rankings drop. After making you aware of them, it’s time to introduce our story as well, which inspired us to write this article and analyze the reasons behind ranking decline in detail.

2. Now, Let’s Check How We Regained Our Rankings on Some of the Most Competitive Transaction Terms

We can understand how heartbreaking a ranking drop is. Just like we shared earlier, a few months ago, a successful SEO Agency like ours was in the same situation.

This was our case:

• Witnessing drop in rankings for commercial or transactional keywords.
• Domain Rating (DR) was not improving.
• Losing qualified business leads.

Issues That Were Impacting Our Website

Our Domain Rating score was 45 in 2020 and remained the same till the beginning of 2024. After inspecting, we identified a couple of issues that were impacting our ranking and reputation. These were:

1. EEAT factor was missing: Our articles lacked the EEAT factor—Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

We were not highlighting our authority and the depth of our knowledge through our articles as we should have.

Expert opinions were missing. We realized we needed to improve our approach to ensure our blog articles offered both valuable insights and the credibility readers expect.

2. Unnecessary Elements Present on Blog Page: We included a table of contents for our blog posts and articles to help readers, but it increased bounce rates.

3. Lower Topical Authority: We covered a few subject areas, and due to a lack of in-depth coverage, we had lower topical authority.

This made us realize that our content strategy needs to be refined and to enhance our credibility, we must provide thorough information for each topic.

4. No Link Building for Our Brand: We had no source to share important updates or achievements with our target audience. This caused a lack of brand awareness for us.

5. Failed Core Web Vital Score: We even checked the score when Google rolled its update regarding Core Web Vital optimization, and to our disappointment, it was quite low and needed improvement.

6. Presence of Irrelevant and Outdated Content: Upon checking, we found that old content existed on our blog page, and some of the articles did not serve any purpose to our target audience.

7. Keyword Cannibalization: More than two blogs were targeting the same keyword, which was confusing search engines and diluting our content’s effectiveness.

8. Generic Titles for Guest Posts: We used generic and less engaging titles for guest posts, which is why readers hardly bother visiting those posts.

Issues had been identified, and now it was time to take action. We were ready and determined to bring about positive change.

Our Approach – What Exactly We Did

Current Overview of Our Website

Here are the changes we made that not only helped us regain lost rankings but also boosted our rankings to a higher level:

1. Revamped Older Content: To stay relevant to the latest updates, we optimized and refreshed our older content (all done manually). All the elements that serve EEAT were added, and the intent of each piece of content was ensured to be aligned with our target audience’s search query.

2. Secured New Links: To boost our site’s authority, we actively sought new links and requested link insertions and exchanges. Our blogger outreach team executed this process. They secured links primarily by publishing new content and inserting links to one of our blog pieces (that had good organic traffic) rather than on the services page.

Here, we are sharing a few examples of link insertions:

Live Link: https://www.ranktracker.com/blog/ctr-manipulation-does-it-work/

Anchor Text Used: Each Keyword

Target URL: https://seoexpertscompanyindia.com/keyword-research/

Sample Link 1 – Acquired for SEO Experts Company India from Ranktracker

Live Link: https://www.zonkafeedback.com/blog/effective-content-strategy

Anchor Text Used: Your Content

Target URL: https://seoexpertscompanyindia.com/content-development/

Sample Link 2 – Acquired for SEO Experts Company India from Zonkafeedback

3. Improved User Interface: We removed the table of contents and changed the font to create a more user-friendly blog experience. By improving it, we saw a good reduction in the website’s bounce rate. Users started spending more time on our website, and the average session time increased, which ultimately boosted our search engine rankings.

4. Developed Content Clusters: To rank our ecommerce SEO services page, we created a cluster of topics first, as you can see below:

For each topic, we added tips and insights that we gained from our experience. Also, ensured that an internal link from the blog post to the services page was provided with natural anchor text or where it fit right in the flow.

As a result, we are ranking in the top results of Google for “e-commerce SEO services.”

5. Press Releases: To enhance our brand’s visibility and credibility, we wrote and distributed press releases. These efforts helped us build trust among Google and our target audience. Publishing these press releases helped us gain some high-quality backlinks as well. With this activity, we saw a huge improvement in our rankings for many pages and keywords. We can say delightfully that the press release creation made us understand the power of branding.

Example Live Press Release Done: SEO Experts Company India Expands Offerings with Conversion Rate Optimization Services to Drive More Sales in Less Traffic

 

6. Updated Core Web Vitals: We optimized our site’s performance in response to Google’s update and ensured a smoother user experience for all visitors.

As you can see, the current status of Core Web Vitals on our website through the picture, or you can even check the score yourself.

7. Removed Irrelevant Content: We eliminated outdated and irrelevant blog posts to keep the content provided under our brand focused and valuable.

By doing this activity, we saved Google’s crawl budget, which even saved us from being de-indexed by the platform.

For some of the articles that we identified as valuable but outdated, we refreshed the content with the most current data and insights. This helped us ensure accuracy and relevancy to our blog readers.

8. Addressed Keyword Cannibalization: We fixed issues where multiple articles were competing for the same keywords by implementing 301 redirects to consolidate rankings to a single page.

9. Modified the Titles as User’s Pain-Point Oriented: For guest posts, we updated our titles to be more user-friendly and natural, replacing random titles, and improved our use of anchor text.

The end goal here was that whether we are publishing content on our website blog or on third-party sites as guest posts, the topic of the content should make sense and contribute to the end goal of giving a ton of value to the readers.

10. Refined Link Strategy: Instead of linking directly to our services page, we directed links to our blog content.

However, we ensure adding a link to the services page within that blog. This approach helped us secure more valuable do-follow links from high authority websites.

All these efforts helped us elevate our DR score, which is 50 at present, as you can see in the screenshot below:

And, the efforts to raise the score are still ongoing.

3. It’s Your Turn to Identify the Root Cause of Ranking Decline (Step-By-Step)

In this section, we are going to share a step-by-step process to identify the cause of ranking drops. You can follow these steps and find the real concern.

Let’s go!

Step 1: Use Google Search Console to Identify Technical Issues

When diagnosing a ranking drop, Google Search Console is the best tool you can rely on. It will help you identify the issues that are not immediately obvious.

a. Manual Actions

When Google finds something wrong with a site, like harmful content or spammy links, it sends them a notification regarding manual penalties.

Here is how you can check whether Google has issued any notifications for your site:

• Log in to Google Search Console ➡ Security & Manual Actions.
• Expand the manual action description panel.
• See the pages affected, the issues flagged, and the steps to fix them.
• After fixing the issue, select Request Review and describe your execution steps in detail.

b. Crawl Errors

Google reports URL errors when it cannot crawl a specific page and triggers site errors when it has difficulty crawling the entire site.

Here’s how you can identify crawl errors:

• Log in to Google Search Console and select your website from the property list.
• On the left-hand side menu, click on “Index” and then “Coverage.” This section will show you information about the indexing status of your pages.
• In the Coverage report, look for the “Error” tab. Here, you can get the list of all crawl issues that Google encountered while trying to index your site. Common errors include:
• 404 Errors (Not Found): Pages that cannot be found.
• Server Errors (5xx): Issues with your server’s response.
• Redirect Errors: Problems with incorrect or broken redirects.
• Blocked by robots.txt: Pages that are blocked from being crawled.
• Click on the specific errors to see the list of URLs affected by that issue. After clicking, you will get insights into what caused the crawl error and when Google detected it.
• If you’re concerned about a particular URL, you can use the URL Inspection tool (found on the left-hand menu). Enter the URL, and Google will show you the crawl status, indexing details, and any issues.
• Based on the identified issues, take the necessary actions and return to the Coverage report after resolving errors. Click “Validate Fix” for each error type to notify Google that you have addressed the issue.

c. Core Web Vitals

If a site’s speed, interactivity, and visual stability are not up to Google’s standards, it issues a Core Web Vitals issue.

Understanding the basics of Core Web Vitals beforehand will be a great option.

Here’s how you can check:

• Log in to Google Search Console and select your website from the property list.
• In the left-hand sidebar, click “Experience” and select “Core Web Vitals.” You will then be able to gain insights into your website’s loading, interactivity, and visual stability.
• Review both mobile and desktop performance reports. They will show you which elements are performing: Good, Need Improvement, and Poor.
• Click on the ‘poor’ results. You will learn the problems and the number of URLs involved.
• After inspecting problematic URLs, optimize them and then use the Validate Fix option in the Search Console to confirm the problem has been resolved.

Or if you want to check without logging in your search console, you can directly check here on Google page speed insights tool.

d. Mobile Usability

In case there is an issue with the Mobile usability of your website, here are the steps you can follow to check:

• Log in to Google Search Console and select your website from the property list.
• On the left-hand sidebar, scroll down to the “Experience” section and click on “Mobile Usability.” Here, you will find a report showing whether your site is optimized for mobile devices.
• This report will be categorized into two categories:
• Valid – This means there is no mobile-usability issue.
• Error – This will show pages with mobile usability issues.
• In general, common errors are:
• Text too small to read: Text size is too small for mobile users.
• Clickable elements too close together: Links or buttons are too close to each other, making it difficult to click.
• Content wider than the screen: Content exceeds the width of the mobile viewport.
• Viewport not set: The page lacks a viewport meta tag, which defines how it displays on mobile devices.
• Now, fix the identified mobile usability issues. After resolving them, return to Google Search Console and use the “Validate Fix” option. This way, you inform Google to recheck the pages and confirm that the issues have been resolved.

Step 2: Analyze Algorithm Update Patterns

After tracking data from Google Analytics, if you see a sudden fall in organic traffic or ranking fluctuations, there is a high chance that your site got hit by algorithm updates.

Here is how you can check:

• Note down the dates when your site showed changes in ranking or traffic patterns. Cross-check that with the algorithm update date. If both coincide, then you have the reason for the ranking decline.
• Next, investigate the type of update, whether it is related to content, backlink profile, or user experience.
• After identification, you can use tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to analyze the pages that lost traffic due to the update.
• Based on your findings, adjust your SEO strategy to align with the algorithm update. After implementing the changes, we recommend tracking any improvements in traffic or rankings.

Step 3: Conduct a Content and Keyword Audit

Just like we mentioned earlier, search behavior continuously evolves. What captivated users yesterday might not be relevant for them today.

Even high-quality content loses relevance if it no longer meets users’ needs. For example, a user typed a query about ‘famous places to eat in Los Angeles’ a few years ago. The intent was simply to get a list

of top-rated restaurants in the area with brief descriptions and star ratings.

However, it is different now as the user expects a more personalized experience and wants to see the latest reviews, photos, and videos of each hotel’s different aesthetics.

In such a scenario, Google will prioritize pages with richer, user-generated content or personalized lists. Sites ranking earlier will be replaced with sites with more detailed reviews and graphics.

To be aligned with the search intent, you should conduct a content and keyword audit periodically. Here are a few questions that, if you resolve, will strengthen your approach:

• Are the primary keywords we focus on still valid?
• Do these keywords still hold the same intent?
• Is every piece of content focused on a different keyword?
• If competitive pieces rank higher than yours, what specific information have they included?

Refresh, re-optimize, or consolidate content accordingly.

Step 4: Backlink Audit and Competitor Comparison

To lessen the impact of poor-quality backlinks on your site’s ranking, here are the steps you need to take:

• First, make a list of all the backlinks you have gained (extract data either through Ahrefs or Google Search Console).
• Now, analyze the following metrics of your backlink profile:
• Quality – Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR) of the referring domains.
• Anchor text – Review the anchor text optimization level.
• Link type: Identify the type of your backlinks (are they nofollow or do-follow). If those are do-follow, they will pass SEO value; in the case of nofollow, they do not.
• Link Placement: Check where the link is placed on the referring page. Contextual links within content are usually more valuable than links in footers or sidebars.
• Next, with the help of any backlink analysis tool, identify lost and toxic backlinks. To regain the lost backlinks, you can either make an outreach to request the relink or acquire a new backlink from a high-quality site and replace them.
• To get rid of toxic backlinks, you have two options. Either use Google’s Disavow tool and inform Google not to consider these backlinks while allotting you rank, or contact the webmaster of sites with toxic backlink to remove it.

Step 5: External Factors You May Be Overlooking

If ranking decline is not due to your site or backlinks, then it is about external factors taken by the search engine itself. Like:

• SERP Layout: To cater best to its users, Google frequently changes the structure of search engine result pages (SERPs). Featured snippets, People also ask box, media results and the one that is just enrolled – AI overview. All these elements somewhere captivate the user’s attention and, despite ranking good, reduces a site’s click-through rates appearing in the top organic results.
• Seasonality: For all the seasonal businesses, ranking fluctuations are quite obvious. If it is not your season, then your site will suffer, certainly. As it is all a matter of shifting search trends.
• Change in User Behavior: Users are the real masters. Their taste decides a lot of things. If they are more into viewing graphic results, then despite being in the top organic results, you will not be able to get traffic.

4. After Identifying the Root Cause, Here’s a Strategical Way to Handle Google Ranking Drop (what and when to make changes)

Now it’s the right time to discuss the chronology of fixes you should follow. Doing this way, will improve your approach, save time and show quicker results.

Immediate Fixes: What You Can Tackle Quickly

Here are the issues that can be resolved within less time yet will bring faster improvements:

Technical Issues: Start with addressing crawl errors, broken links and Core Web Vitals optimization using various tools. It will make your site fast, secure and well-performing on mobile devices.

Tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs and Google Page Speed Insights will help you with this.

On-Page Optimization: Update on-page elements like meta titles, descriptions, headers and images based on the intent of the keyword. This will help you place better in search engine results.

Next is Mid-Term Adjustments: Updating Your Content Strategy

You have done quick fixes, now it’s turn to improve your content performance:

Refresh Content: It’s better to start with optimizing your existing content. Identify underperforming pages and update them with the latest information, attractive graphics and most importantly, ensuring internal linking. While giving a fresh look to your content, ensure it is satisfying the current search intent of your audience. Further, adding all the elements of EEAT will make your content more authentic and Google prefers showing the most authentic content to its users.

New Keywords for Content Generation: Let us share one secret way to fetch new keywords. Go to your search console report, there you will find a goldmine of keywords. You will not find them in any of the keyword research tool.

To know more about this, click here: https://x.com/nathangotch/status/1833549176350593268

Now, the Last One, Long-Term Recovery: Building High-Quality Backlinks and Publishing Useful Content for Your Users on Regular Basis

After optimizing technical, on-page and content, your next focus should be on backlinks. Yes, in comparison to others, it will require more time. That is the reason suggesting you it as your final step. Here are the ways to build and protect backlinks:

Recover Lost Backlinks: You can reach out to the sites that have removed your backlinks and build relationships to regain those links.

Acquire New Backlinks: You can outreach to high-authoritative sites for guest posting. This will boost your domain authority over time.

5. It’s Time Now to Answer the Most Asked Question – Recovery Time for Each Optimization

It’s true that everybody needs a quick solution, but the fact SEO recovery takes time holds as well. Yeah, you can fix technical issues and get immediate results but building new backlinks or recovering from an algorithm update will definitely take its time.

Along with these factors, the timeline for recovery also depends on the expertise level of the professional who is handling the task. Here, we are giving a rough idea to recover for different aspects of SEO. Take a look:

• For Algorithm Updates: 2 to 5 months – As soon as you adapt to the algorithm change, you will start seeing improvement within a few months. However, we advise you to monitor and adjust your strategy whenever it is necessary.
• For Content Quality and Relevance: 2 to 4 months – Recovery time depends on the depth of content improvements, search engine crawl frequency and number of articles. Generally, it takes 2 to 4 months.
• For Resolving Technical SEO Issues: 4 to 8 weeks – In comparison to others, technical issues take lesser time. Generally it takes one week or few days, but if multiple pages of your site are loading at slow speeds or facing indexing issues, then it can take time up to 4 to 8 weeks.
• Backlink Profile Changes: 4 to 8 months – It will take some time as you have to outreach to another site and request them to regain lost backlinks or remove toxic links. In general, it takes 4 to 8 months. We even want to mention here that even after building a robust backlink profile, you will see gradual and not instant improvement.
• Seasonal Variations: Depends on the season – In this case, recovery occurs naturally when demand for the product or services is in peak again.

Conclusion

With this, we’ll wrap up our post, hoping you feel more confident about handling a ranking drop. Instead of getting overwhelmed, focus on taking action and working through the solutions.

If you need any help along the way or would prefer us to handle it for you, just reach out to us.