The Rise and Drop in Keyword Rankings

It is impossible for a website to always rank at the top. Google rankings fluctuate, and marketers cannot assure you of them. You are not the only business working on your SEO, so it is natural, and once in a while, another business might be able to create better strategies than you.

If your Google ranking has suddenly dropped, there can be different reasons for it. You can easily pick it up if you are careful with the following things.

Data Accuracy and Broken Links

Google wants its users to find their answers as quickly as possible. Hence, the search engine recommends content that is accurate and valuable for the users. If the data on your website is not accurate, Google will not consider your website credible, and there will be no use in recommending it to the users. It is essential for you to publish accurate and up-to-date content on your website and social media so Google can keep indexing and crawling your pages and find value within.

Another thing that can cause a drop in your ranking is broken links. In order to make your website credible, you follow a link-building plan and link other authentic websites to your content, so Google considers you a trusted business. However, linking the websites is not the end of it. You need to regularly run an audit to identify any broken links in your content. If your customers land on an error page, it will affect your ranking, so make sure that you get rid of all the broken links on your website.

Website Hacking

Google only wants to recommend trusted and secured content to its users. One of the biggest problems with internet marketing is that customers are sceptical about adding their personal data to websites. Hackers can easily hack sites that are not well-protected, and using http to exchange sensitive information with visitors can make the security of your site weak. If Google finds out that your website is not as secure as it should be, there is a good chance that it won’t recommend it to the users.

User-Generated Spam

There is a page on most brands’ websites where they get customer reviews and other user-generated content. Negative and spam comments can also have a negative impact on your ranking. It is essential to get through the user-generated content and remove the spam comments or anything that can affect your ranking in a bad way.

Keywords

Another major factor that can cause a drop in Google’sGoogle’s ranking is the use of keywords. Keywords are an essential part of Google ranking. Businesses need to use relevant and useful keywords in their content. Only then can Google identify whether they are valuable for the audience or not. 

Earlier in the day, Google used to accept keyword stuffing, and content creators only had to incorporate as many keywords as possible multiple times in the content. This was beneficial for business owners as it made ranking easier for them. However, it affected the user experience. Because Google gives the most value to user experience, it changed for the better, and the same strategy doesn’t work anymore.

Marketers need to use relevant keywords in the right places in their content. If you still use keyword stuffing, unfortunately, Google will now identify that your content is not worth recommending to the users. Marketers need to spend a good amount of time and effort before choosing the keywords. There are many different tools that help them search for relevant keywords. If you hire a local SEO company for local SEO services, they can help you find the right set of keywords for your content.

Local SEO

Recently, there has been a rise in the popularity of local SEO. If you have been working to promote your business on the internet, you must have heard about local SEO in the past 2-3 years. Since COVID-19, there has been a significant increase in search results mentioning “near me.” This made it crystal clear to Google that people are not looking for businesses that are nearby and started promoting websites optimised for local SEO services.

Optimising your website for local SEO leads you to have more in-person visits from your customers, and you can do it by making your content for the local audience. You need to look for keywords mentioning near me or the location you are aiming to target. 

Read our detailed blog on local SEO services to know how you can benefit from this SEO strategy.

Many business owners have this misconception about Google ranking that you cannot face the fall once you get to the top. Google ranking fluctuates more than you think, and you can be down in a blink if you don’t pay enough attention. You need to do the following things if you face a drop in your keyword ranking. If you do these things right, you can easily get back to the top with the help of your local SEO company.

Don’t Panic

The very first thing business owners tend to do when their ranking drops is panic, and it doesn’t help. Panicking will not bring you anywhere, and you might just end up pressurising all the people working on your local SEO services. Understand that it is not the end of the world, and a drop in ranking doesn’t mean that you get a penalty. Relax and consider the factors that may have caused this fall. Work with the marketers, identify the reason, and make things right.

What was the Impact?

Once you have analysed the factors that affected your Google ranking, the second thing you need to think about is the impact of this fall. When your ranking dropped, it must have impacted your website in some way. You need to identify whether it is a huge impact or a smaller one so you can undo the damage. 

The size of the drop also matters because it determines how difficult it would be to get back on track. While you are identifying the impact, you also need to know how large it was and how much loss your website faced so you can create strategies that can gain you the same amount and bring you into the game again.

Who Took the Position?

If your ranking has dropped, Google must have replaced you with another website. You need to know which brand took your position so you can see what things they are doing on their website that are better than yours. It will enable you to have more ideas, and it is also always advised to keep a check on your competitors strategies so you can have the edge.

The drop can also happen if your competitor makes better content than yours. You might think that you haven’t done anything wrong and your content is just as great as before, but you still end up facing the fall. This can happen if the competitor manages to outdo themselves. However, the good thing about this is that if a competitor has taken your place, you can take it back anytime. You just need to make your website and content even better.

Why did the Drop Happen?

You know that your keyword ranking drops, but that alone cannot fix your problem. You also need to know why this happens so you can avoid the same problem in the future. There can be many reasons for the drop in keyword ranking. 

• You change something in your website or have some errors or broken links.
• Google has changed something in its algorithm.
• Your keywords used are outdated.

To tackle these issues, you first need to determine that the keywords you used in the content are all up-to-date. If they are, then you need to run an audit of your website to identify any errors or broken links. You may not know this, but broken links can cause way more damage to your website than you know. Google doesn’t want its users to land on broken pages, so if a website has broken links or pages, Google automatically lowers its ranking. 

If everything seems fine, your keywords are relevant, and you have no errors or broken links attached to your site, then Google must have changed something in the algorithm, and your website is not up to the updated criteria. In this case, you need to create new SEO strategies with the help of your local SEO company.

Google doesn’t announce its changes publicly, so if you want to stay updated with the changing algorithms, it is important to hire professionals for local SEO services. They are experts and well-versed in digital marketing tools. They can identify the changes made by Google sooner than an inexperienced person. Once you know the updates, you can create SEO strategies that are suitable for the updated algorithm.

Check the Trends

The sudden shift in trends can also cause your keyword ranking to fall. This could mean that a new topic suddenly becomes so popular that your existing content becomes outdated in its competition, and your competitors cover that topic before you get the chance. There is no way you can control trends as they are unpredictable and impossible to plan ahead. What you need to do is keep an eye on the market and create strategies as soon as a new trend starts getting popular so you can update your content timely.

Old Content

As we have mentioned, Google continuously updates its algorithm, and users need updated information. You must have a lot of old content on your website that is not proving any value to your site because Google doesn’t consider it relevant anymore. Sometimes, a bunch of useless content on your website can also be the reason for the fall in your local SEO. It is important to know which content needs to be removed from your website and which can be left with some updates. Optimising your old content for local SEO is also beneficial for your ranking. Hence, while uploading new content on your website, don’t forget to focus on existing blogs and articles.

New Content

In order to rank higher on Google, you obviously need to post new content regularly. When you do that, Google indexes your content, and it affects the overall ranking of your website. Good content can bring your entire website up, and bad content can bring it all down. It is important to create good and valuable content with relevant keywords so it can lift your website’s quality because all the content on your website is linked, and one page can affect the entire site.

URL Change

Not many businesses make this mistake, but some still do. Changing your website’s URL is a big change, and for Google, it simply means that it is a new website with all of your old content. It affects your ranking as Google considers the content copied and doesn’t deem it valuable for the audience. If you make changes to your URL, Google might think that you are an imposter, and this is not a good sign for your ranking. Stick to your existing URL so you can avoid being misunderstood by the search engine.

SEO Strategies

Business owners hire local SEO services to have expert marketers create SEO plans and strategies for their businesses. It is vital to have a strong team that updates SEO strategies and tries to come up with new ideas. However, there is a possibility that all of your strategies might not be favourable for your website. Some can also negatively affect your ranking, and you need a dependable team to avoid this problem.

Temporal Interest

Temporal interest tends to come and go. Many businesses offer special sales and promotions on specific occasions like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, etc. People start shopping for these things ahead of time, and if you don’t make content for it, your competitors might beat you to it. Businesses that will publish good content faster are likely to secure their position at the top of Google ranking. To make the most of temporal interest, you need to fasten the content creation process and put it out as soon as possible. Otherwise, other businesses will do it before you and take up your position.

Conclusion

There’s no 100% surety when it comes to SEO. You cannot predict whether your ranking will fall or not. Even if you think you have everything under control, you might still end up facing a fall in Google ranking. Local SEO services are needed to handle your SEO strategies and enable your business to rank at the top, at least on local search result pages. 

Hiring a local SEO company allows you to have a dependable team of marketers create SEO strategies for your business. They have professionals who are passionate and knowledgeable about marketing, and their expertise can help you avoid problems related to SEO.

Even if you want to handle your SEO on your own, no one can stop you. Follow our guides and create your SEO strategies. Working alone without sufficient experience might take more time, but it is not as difficult as people think. You can follow the above-mentioned tips to ensure that your keyword rankings don’t fall.

However, if you are still facing issues with your local SEO, visit Trajital. We are a leading local SEO company in the UK and have worked with several clients over the years. Our quality of work says all about our experience with diverse clients. We aim to build trusted relationships with our clientele and offer affordable packages to fit your needs.

Contact us now and get started with your SEO journey with a dependable marketing team at your service.