Google Ranking Drops: General Advice and Where to Start

On this page

  1. Check for Google Algorithm Updates
  2. Assess Your Site's Key SEO Factors
  3. Investigate Technical SEO Issues
  4. Period of Natural Fluctuations
  5. Check Competitor Changes
  6. Monitoring and Regular Audits
  7. FAQs

If you’ve experienced a significant drop in your Google rankings, it’s natural to be concerned. Limecube doesn't provide SEO services, but we can offer general advice on what might be contributing to the change and where to start your investigation. Here's a guide to help you diagnose potential causes.

Check for Google Algorithm Updates

Google frequently releases updates to its search algorithms that can have major impacts on site rankings. These updates can focus on specific areas like content quality, backlinks, or user experience.

  • Steps to follow: Use resources like SERoundtable to cross-check when ranking drops occurred with algorithm update announcements. If you notice a correlation, the update might be the cause of your rankings change.
  • Follow SEO experts: Stay updated on SEO trends and Google updates by following professionals like Lily Ray and Brodie Clark on X (Twitter). These experts frequently provide insights into the latest updates and their potential impacts.

Assess Your Site's Key SEO Factors

In most cases, a ranking drop is not caused by minor issues but by significant factors such as content quality, backlinks, or technical SEO.

Content Quality

  • Google rewards websites with relevant, well-written, and updated content. Review the affected pages:
    • Are they still relevant to user search queries?
    • Could the content be outdated or in need of improvement?
    • Are there missing keywords or is the keyword focus no longer relevant?

Backlinks

  • A website's authority is heavily influenced by its backlink profile.
    • Check for toxic backlinks: While Google generally ignores toxic or spammy backlinks today rather than penalising sites, it's still a good idea to monitor and disavow harmful links to keep a clean profile. Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can help.
    • Lost backlinks: Losing high-quality backlinks can negatively impact rankings, so review if valuable backlinks have been removed.

Investigate Technical SEO Issues

Some technical SEO issues can contribute to a loss of ranking, particularly after an update.

  • Check for indexing issues: Ensure that your key pages are still being indexed by Google. Use Google Search Console to identify any crawling or indexing errors that might prevent your pages from ranking.
  • Broken links or redirects: Use tools to scan for broken internal and external links, which can affect user experience and SEO.
  • Duplicate content: Ensure that you are not accidentally duplicating content across multiple pages, as Google penalizes websites for duplicated material.

Period of Natural Fluctuations

Sometimes, Google’s ranking system experiences natural fluctuations, especially following algorithm updates. Before making large-scale changes to your website, it is worth allowing a period of time (up to a few weeks) to see if rankings stabilise.

Check Competitor Changes

It’s possible that the competition has become stronger. If your competitors have made improvements to their content, backlink profile, or user experience, they may have outranked you.

  • Steps to follow: Analyze their sites using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to see if there’s been a shift in their keyword targeting or overall site optimisation.

Monitoring and Regular Audits

  • Regularly conduct audits using tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and third-party platforms like SEMrush to identify any potential issues.
  • Review past changes: If you or your team made recent modifications to the website, it’s worth cross-referencing these updates with your ranking changes.

FAQs

Minor issues are unlikely to cause a significant drop, but if there’s a combination of small problems (e.g., slow page speed, broken links, missing meta tags), this can accumulate and affect rankings. Larger factors like content quality, backlinks, and user experience are more likely the cause.

You can check for the latest algorithm changes through reliable resources like SERoundtable or by following SEO experts such as Lily Ray and Brodie Clark on X.

Wait a week or two before making any major changes, as ranking fluctuations often stabilise. If the drop persists, go back over this page from the top step-by-step. 

Can't find the answer you are looking for?

Try using searching below: