How to Identify and Fix Keyword Ranking Drops and Regain Lost Traffic

So, you’re a business owner or digital marketer looking for ways to create top-notch SEO strategies. 

To achieve that, you need to keep a tab on your keyword rankings, the lifeline of your online visibility. They are your armor on the battlefield of search engine optimization. 

At Mavlers, we have over 120+ SEO experts with 10+ years of experience; they have worked as an extended team to enhance the SEO strategies of over 7000+ brands globally. 

Through our experiences, we’ve learned that your keyword rankings determine how easily your potential customers find you on search engines. 

But has it so happened that your Google ranking suddenly dropped? 

Well, there are several reasons that contribute to this. You have got to tackle a lot of factors, including frequent algorithm updates and technical mistakes to finally edge past your competitors and rank at the top. 

If you’re ready to prevent this nosedive and beat the fierce competition,

here is the Table of Contents that we’ll go through in this blog. 

Keyword Ranking Drops: Why Should You Be Worried? 

What Could be the Reasons for if my Google Ranking Suddenly Dropped? 

Tools and Techniques for Diagnosing Keyword Ranking Drops 

How to Fix Keyword Ranking Drops: Step-by-Step Solutions 

Pro Tips to Prevent Future Keyword Ranking Drops 

So, are you ready to reclaim your spot? 

By the end of this blog, you will be well-equipped with the necessary tools and information to identify and correct an unforeseen nosedive in your keyword rankings. Let’s dive right in. 

Keyword Ranking Drops: Why Should You Be Worried? 

Imagine putting rigorous hard work into strategizing and implementing your SEO strategies only to discover that your Google rankings are dropping instead of improving. 

It’s a worrisome state to be in because if your SEO ranking dropped, your website would have less visibility and fewer conversions. 

When your keywords rank higher in search results, they attract more clicks and landing page visits, and eventually, more sales will be conducted through your website. Now you know how your SEO rankings directly affect your business revenue. 

So, if you’re still perplexed about “why has my site dropped in Google,” it’s time to identify the symptoms that may have caused it. 

Here are a few symptoms that indicate a drop in your SEO ranking. 

• You observe a noticeable drop in your website’s organic traffic. 
• From Google Search Console, you find that your web pages have low impressions and fewer clicks. 
• You find that there is a decline in conversions and sales. 

To fix the issues that arise, you must know exactly what to look into. Let’s deep dive.

What Could be the Reasons Why My Google Ranking Suddenly Dropped? 

Sometimes, a drop in rankings isn’t a sign of faltering. It’s an opportunity to strive and achieve the top ranking. Here are the possible reasons why your Google rankings dropped.  

1. Google’s frequent algorithm updates. 

Google releases algorithm updates to enhance the search results and show relevant content at the top. There is a possibility of reshuffle in rankings based on parameters set by Google. 

For example, Google Core Update impacts the rankings of indexed pages. It is released on an average of every two or three months. 

2. Your competitors’ improved SEO strategies. 

It’s plain and simple. When your competitors move above you on search engine results, you have to settle for a lower ranking. So, keep an eye on what your competitors are doing and what strategies they are implementing. And for this, you can use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. 

3. You’re committing technical errors in your website’s SEO. 

Check out for problems like broken links, indexing issues, faulty interlinking, etc.

4. Your website’s content is not up to the mark. 

Check for duplicate and outdated content. Also, ensure that your website does not contain keyword cannibalization. Otherwise, Google may punish such activities. 

5. Your website is losing high-quality backlinks. 

Losing high-quality backlinks or gaining toxic backlinks can hamper your SEO rankings. 

6. Your website offers a poor user experience. 

Google analyzes key performance metrics of your website, such as bounce rate, dwell time, clicks, engagement, etc., to evaluate how valuable your content is for visitors. 

The above factors help us determine where the problem really originates from. 

Now, it’s time to learn about some tools and techniques for tackling the sudden drop in SEO rankings. 

Tools and Techniques for Diagnosing Keyword Ranking Drops 

With the latest developments in Google rankings and an increasing number of factors responsible for ranking, you need to stay updated with the tools and techniques to rank at the top of search engines. You won’t have to worry even if your Google ranking suddenly dropped

Reiterating the fact that content alone cannot do justice to your SEO ranking. You need to follow the best SEO practices as well.   

So, here are a few tips to boost your keyword ranking. 

Make it a habit to use Google Search Console to gain key insights about your website. 

This tool will help you understand where each web page currently ranks. The “Performance” tab will also help you identify the affected keywords that are triggering ranking drops. From indexing issues to key performance indicators like impressions, clicks, etc., Google Search Console can be your handy tool to identify and fix ranking problems. 

Use Google Analytics to identify the traffic trends and learn what your potential users are looking for. 

Google Analytics can help you analyze different sources of traffic. It can pinpoint where the drop is actually happening. And it will be easier for you to fix the decline in rankings. 

You can also use third-party SEO tools to monitor your rankings. 

Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz, among others, provide advanced analytics that offer deeper insights into your audience and website. You can use these tools to compare where your competitors stand against you. 

You need to conduct an audit to find all existing issues with your site. 

Tools like Screaming From, SEMrush, Sitebulb, etc., can help you conduct a thorough site audit. It will help you identify all the technical SEO errors, like broken links, crawl errors, URL canonicalization, etc. Before anything, your on-page and off-page SEO needs to be foolproof. 

Now, let’s look at the best ways to leverage these tools and techniques.

How to Fix Keyword Ranking Drops: Step-by-Step Solutions 

Here are the best practices that will help you fix your Google rankings. 

1. Optimize your content to match the user’s intent. 

Keywords are differentiated based on their intent in the form of informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. You must avoid showing commercial content when the user only seeks information. 

2. Conduct a thorough SEO audit of your website. 

An audit will help you find issues in your on-page SEO, which you can then fix. Ensure that you optimize the meta title, meta description, and headers according to the rules. 

3. You need to improve your site loading speed. 

You can use tools like Google PageSpeed to find issues with your website speed and fix issues like large JavaScript and CSS file sizes. 

4. You need to attract high-quality backlinks. 

Quality backlinks will improve your website’s DA score and entitle your authority. Avoid spammy links at all costs to prevent ranking penalties. 

5. Analyze your competitors and adapt the strategies that work for them. 

Identify their strengths and weaknesses to make changes to your SEO strategy. You can use tools like SpyFu and SEMrush to analyze your competitors and the keyword trends that are currently working. 

6. Enhance user experience on your website to boost engagement. 

You can use dynamic elements to show content suitable for a particular audience. Videos, infographics, quizzes, and timers can make your web pages more engaging. The objective is to reduce your website’s bounce rate and increase visitors’ session time. 

So now, you are in a position to find and fix your existing issues with keyword ranking drops. But does that ensure that your keyword ranking will remain protected in the future as well? 

Pro Tips to Prevent Future Keyword Ranking Drops 

We need to find ways to future-proof our sudden keyword ranking drops. So, here are the pro tips that you should implement. 

1. You must conduct regular SEO audits. They will help you identify technical issues that negatively impact your keyword rankings, such as crawl errors, indexing problems, broken links, etc. 
2. You must stay up to date with Google updates. It will help you stay aligned and compliant with recent algorithm changes. 
3. You must regularly update new content and revamp the old ones on your website. It will inform search engines that you’re not just active and up-to-date but also using current keywords by revisiting your old content. 
4. You should not solely rely on search engines to source traffic on your website. To generate traffic, you must diversify your options and leverage other marketing channels, such as social media, emails, and PPC campaigns. Striking a balance between paid and organic traffic is the key to attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones. 

Key Takeaways 

Don’t panic if your Google keyword rankings have dropped. It happens to the best of us. 

But you must avoid being nonchalant at all costs. Instead, take the proactive steps we discussed in this article to prevent mishaps with your keyword rankings. 

So, now that you are well-equipped to identify and fix keyword ranking drops, you might want to read the 10 Best SEO Automation Tools and Software for 2023 blog.