{"id":207970,"date":"2023-12-12T16:30:40","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T08:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/?p=207970"},"modified":"2024-10-03T09:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T01:24:48","slug":"recover-google-rankings-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/recover-google-rankings-drop\/","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming Your Google Rankings: An 8-Step Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/recover-google-rankings-drop\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"fpi-shvzz\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-207971 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Blog-Cover-Identifying-Keyword-Rankings-Drop-727x545.png\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Blog-Cover-Identifying-Keyword-Rankings-Drop.png\" alt=\"How to Recover After a Google Rankings Drop\" width=\"600\" height=\"768\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 600px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 600\/768;\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">No matter how often you work on your website, there will come a time where you\u2019ll see fluctuations with your site\u2019s performance \u2014 and worst comes to worst, sudden and <em>drastic<\/em> drop in Google rankings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">I personally have seen my website go from sitting at #1 for my keywords for months with no issue, then one morning falling entirely out of the first page results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Experiencing this can be a daunting scenario for anyone. And if you can\u2019t recover quick enough, expect to see a lot less organic traffic and conversions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">However, it&#8217;s not the end of the road. With my 8-step recovery plan, you can diagnose, rectify, and bounce back stronger from this setback.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Understanding Why Keyword Rankings Drop<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">SEO is a complicated, constantly changing game. You\u2019re not only trying to meet all the requirements Google looks for, but all the content that\u2019s pushed out by competing websites, every day. It\u2019s why even seasoned SEOs still experience drops in their rankings. If you\u2019re seeing it on your website, know that it can be caused by multiple factors:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Search Algorithm Updates:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Search engines like Google constantly update their ranking algorithms to improve search results&#8217; relevance and quality.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Competitive Landscape:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> SEO is an ongoing battle. Your competitors might also be optimizing their sites and creating high-quality content. If they outperform your efforts, their rankings might rise while yours could experience a drop.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Changes in User Behavior and Trends:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Trends, seasonality, and shifts in user behavior can affect keyword popularity and therefore search rankings.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Website Modifications:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Any changes you make on your website\u2014like adding or removing content, updating backlinks or images, or restructuring your site\u2014can impact your rankings. Even minor changes can cause temporary fluctuations.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Technical Issues:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Redundant coding, broken links, site downtime, slow loading speed, or mobile unfriendliness can lead to ranking drops.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Geographical Factors:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Search engine rankings also consider the searcher&#8217;s location. Different regions might see different rankings for the same keywords, which could translate to fluctuations.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Webmaster\u2019s Note:<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>This post is part of our advanced guides to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/keyword-optimization-guide-introduction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keyword Research and Optimization<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/content-strategy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Content Strategy<\/a><\/strong><\/i>, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">where I cover everything you need to know about picking the right keywords for your website, and ranking for them in Google. I also cover strategies for winning SERP features, building topical authority, using long-tail keywords, and more in this series.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #1: Acknowledging the drop<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">When it comes to keyword ranking, you shouldn&#8217;t jump to conclusions at the first sign of a slight change. It\u2019s normal to experience small fluctuations in your rankings due to the ever-changing search algorithm landscape.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">So if your rankings dropped one or two spots, I recommend keeping an eye on it, but not panicking just yet. You might see your page go back to its original spot in a few days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">However, a significant drop \u2014 think five or more spots \u2014 requires your immediate attention.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">To accurately watch your rankings, you need to use SEO tools that track the performance of your keywords over time. I go over <\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/how-to-track-keyword-rankings\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how to track your keyword rankings<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a previous post.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">With a clear understanding of your situation, you can then move forward with investigating and finding the possible causes for this sudden change.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #2: Identifying Webmaster Guidelines Violations<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Google&#8217;s Webmaster Guidelines lay out the best practices to help Google find, index, and rank your site. Violating these guidelines can negatively impact your site&#8217;s ranking in Google search results, or even lead to removal from Google&#8217;s search results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Below is a breakdown of how I differentiate webmaster guideline violations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google&#8217;s guidelines cover three main areas \u2014 content and design, technical, and quality.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Content and design guidelines provide recommendations for building a site with a robust information architecture that&#8217;s helpful to users.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Technical guidelines mainly focus on allowing search engines to crawl and index your site.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Quality guidelines offer advice to prevent manipulative practices, such as duplicating content from other websites, keyword stuffing, or creating tricky redirects &#8211; often known as black-hat SEO tactics.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">You could use Google Search Console to look for any crawl errors, manual actions, or security issues that might affect Google\u2019s ability to index your site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Many of the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/best-seo-tools\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO tools<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I use also have audit functions, which I often use to identify any issues with my on-page, off-page, and technical SEO factors.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">If your self-audit unveils any issues, it&#8217;s essential to get them fixed quickly, and following Google&#8217;s guidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">By aligning your website\u2019s SEO strategy with Google\u2019s Guidelines, you&#8217;re doing white-hat SEO, and making sure your strategy will keep from unnecessary drops in ranking in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #3: Checking for Algorithm Updates<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Google is known to frequently update its search algorithm to improve the quality, relevance, and accuracy of its search results. These updates can range from minor tweaks that go almost unnoticed to significant shake-ups that cause drastic shifts in search rankings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">The most recent ones to date are the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/september-2023-helpful-content-update\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">September 2023 Helpful Content Update<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-november-2023-core-update-released-434123\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">November 2023 Core Update<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Here&#8217;s a step-by-step breakdown of how you can stay informed about these important changes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Stay updated with SEO news platforms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like this blog, Search Engine Journal, and or Search Engine Roundtable. These platforms usually provide immediate news on Google algorithm updates along with expert insights and advice on how to tweak your SEO strategy in line with the changes.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Follow Google&#8217;s Official Communications<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as it often announces significant changes on its official blog or Twitter accounts. So, regularly follow Google Search Central Blog and notable members of Google&#8217;s Search Relation team like Danny Sullivan and John Mueller.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Use Algorithm Monitoring Tools<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like SEMRush&#8217;s Sensor to track Google&#8217;s search results and algorithm changes, interpreting these into easy-to-understand weather-like reports. The &#8220;hotter&#8221; and &#8220;stormier&#8221; the forecast, the more significant the changes in Google&#8217;s rankings.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #4: Audit your Backlinks<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Backlinks, which are links from other websites pointing to yours, are a significant ranking factor in Google&#8217;s search algorithm. They essentially act like votes of trust and quality, indicating your site&#8217;s authority and relevance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Here&#8217;s how to verify and manage lost backlinks:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Use Backlink Analysis Tools<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Several SEO tools offer backlink tracking functionalities. One of the notable examples is <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ahrefs<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This tool could help in monitoring your backlink profile, keeping track of the websites linking to you, and crucially, any backlinks you&#8217;ve recently lost.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Identify Lost Backlinks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> using SEO tools that can run regular checks to identify lost backlinks. Lost backlinks can occur for various reasons &#8211; the linking page might have been removed, the link might have been deleted, or the site could have gone offline.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Analyzing Lost Backlinks is also crucial. <\/b>Once you\u2019ve identified the lost backlinks, it is time for you to analyze the quality and relevance of your referring domains. If they are high-quality, losing these links could have contributed to your rankings drop.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Remember, the goal of any good SEO strategy isn&#8217;t just to gain backlinks, but to gain high-quality, relevant ones, and importantly, ensure they stick around. Regularly verifying your backlinks can thus be a crucial part of your SEO health check and recovery plan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">You might have noticed I didn\u2019t include disavowing links to this step. That\u2019s because it\u2019s not a recommended strategy anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">If you do notice links coming from very bad sites (such as hacked sites, or sites with malware or porn), then you should disavow those. Otherwise, if your links are coming from low-quality or unrelated sites, then you can ignore them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">It used to help in the past when negative SEO was a thing. But nowadays, Google\u2019s algorithm enables it to devalue links. In a way, they themselves have a disavow algorithm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #5: Rebuilding or Replacing Lost Backlinks<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Once you&#8217;ve identified lost backlinks, especially high-quality ones, you need to mitigate their loss to recover your keyword rankings. I go over <\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/link-reclamation-guide\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how to reclaim backlinks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in another guide, but here\u2019s a quick breakdown of that process:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Reach Out to Website Owners:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If a valuable backlink was removed unknowingly or accidentally by a website owner, reaching out to them can be a good starting point. Politely mention the removal of the backlink and request them to consider reinstating it. Be sure to emphasize the mutual benefits the link can bring, such as a better user experience, useful resources for readers, and improved site engagement.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Repair Broken Pages and Links:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If you lost backlinks due to pages on your site not working or moving to a different URL, fix these broken links or implement 301 redirects from your old URLs to the new ones.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Create High-Quality Content: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your request to reinstate backlinks is unsuccessful or if the website has closed, focus on attracting new high-quality backlinks. The foundation of earning quality backlinks is truly outstanding content\u2014craft resourceful, unique, and engaging content that others can&#8217;t help but link to.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Guest Posting: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guest blogging on respected industry websites can be a great way to gain high-quality, relevant backlinks.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Monitor Your Backlinks: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, remember to routinely monitor new and existing backlinks to promptly identify any changes. This ensures you can respond quickly to misplaced or lost backlinks in the future.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #6: Conduct a Website Audit<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">A website audit involves a full analysis of factors that could be affecting your website&#8217;s visibility in search engines. This comprehensive examination allows you to gain insights about your website, individual pages, and overall traffic, helping you shape a robust SEO strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Here&#8217;s how I go about conducting a website audit:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Identify Technical Issues<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as these problems can negatively impact your site\u2019s ranking. Check for issues like slow page load times, errors on your robots.txt file, and sitemap errors. Tools like Google\u2019s Search Console and SEMrush Site Audit tool can be particularly useful.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Check Content Relevance and Quality<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to ensure that it is engaging, relevant to your audience, and unique. Duplicate or thin content can significantly harm your rankings. There are many copywriting tools to help you identify possible content duplication in your website.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Ensure Mobile Optimization <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means it primarily considers the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking. Therefore, ensuring your website is optimized for mobile users is crucial. <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/test\/mobile-friendly\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google\u2019s Mobile-Friendly Test tool<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is free and that can help with this.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Evaluate Page\/URL Structure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as these should be SEO-friendly \u2013 concise, descriptive, and include keywords. Each page should have a unique URL. Additionally, check that your site structure is understandable and logical, both for users and search engines.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Review Metadata of your website. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check all titles, meta descriptions, and alt text to ensure they include targeted keywords. They should accurately describe the page\u2019s content.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Assess Site Navigation <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as all websites that are easy for all users to navigate not only enhance the user experience but also improve your SEO. Broken or complex navigation can lead to a high bounce rate, which will negatively affect your rankings.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Conducting a comprehensive sweep over your website is a must if you\u2019re seeing widespread, drastic drops in your Google rankings. I have a longer guide on <\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/complete-guide-perform-seo-audit\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how to perform an SEO audit <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you can follow for this step.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #7: Cleaning Up Your Content<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">I always say that<\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201c<\/span><\/i><b><i>Content is King\u201d<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as it is a crucial part of SEO. High-quality, relevant, and engaging content attracts users, keeps them on your site longer, and encourages other websites to link back to your site.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Here&#8217;s how to effectively clean up and optimize your content:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Update Out-of-Date Content. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The world moves faster than you think, and what was relevant three years ago may no longer be accurate. Regularly review your content and update any of the old or outdated information. This could involve updating facts and figures, adding new sections, or even rewriting entire posts.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Eliminate \u2018Thin\u2019 Content <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or pages with little relevant content, which can relatively impact your rankings. Enhance such pages by adding more valuable information, or consider consolidating them with similar content, if applicable.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Improve Content Quality. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High-quality, engaging content is rewarded by search engines. Make sure your content provides valuable insights, is well-written, and appeals to your target audience.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Add or Refresh Internal Links.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Updating your content also provides an opportunity to refresh your internal linking strategy. Make sure your content links to other relevant pages on your site to enhance navigation and user experience.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Cleaning up your content not only enhances the value of your existing pages but can also have the added benefit of increasing user engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Remember, your content is the foundation of your website, and keeping it clean and well-maintained is key to success.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Step #8: Look for Manual Penalties<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Checking for manual penalties involves verifying whether your website has been penalized by a human reviewer at Google. Google issues manual penalties when it finds that a site doesn&#8217;t comply with its quality guidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Here&#8217;s how to check for and deal with such penalties:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Use Google Search Console<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to investigate. Under the &#8220;Security &amp; Manual Actions&#8221; category in the left-side menu, click on &#8220;Manual Actions&#8221;. If Google has taken any manual action against your site, it will be listed here as the reasons for the action.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Understand the Type of Penalty<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> given. The manual action report will describe the nature of the penalty. Common examples include &#8220;Unnatural links to your site&#8221; or &#8220;Thin content with little or no added value&#8221;. The report will often provide examples or identify pages where the violation occurred.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Take Corrective Actions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> once you figure out the penalty &#8211; then the next step is to correct violations. If it&#8217;s related to unnatural links, you might need to remove or disavow these links. If it&#8217;s thin content, improving the quality and uniqueness of the content might be necessary.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Re-submit Your Site for Indexing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. After you have rectified the issues causing the manual penalty, you can file a reconsideration request through Google Search Console. In this request, explain the steps you&#8217;ve taken to correct the violations. Google will review your website and the penalty will be lifted if they&#8217;re satisfied with the changes made.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Bear in mind that just because your site has experienced a drop in rankings doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean it has been hit with a manual penalty. This step should be considered if you have exhausted other possibilities and haven&#8217;t seen any improvements or if you directly receive a notification from Google. Manual penalties are generally infrequent, but serious, and quick action is necessary if you receive one.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\"><b>Key Takeaway<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">If you&#8217;ve seen a sudden drop in your SEO keyword rankings, it&#8217;s a call to action. Recovering from a Google rankings drop requires a strategic approach. Through these steps, you can regain (or even improve) your standings in the SERPs, up the quality of your site, and better your SEO strategy for future algorithm updates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: georgia, palatino;\">Remember, recovery may take time, but with patience, consistent monitoring, and methodical effort, your rankings can return to their first-page ranking. <a href=\"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/seo-philippines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SEO<\/a> is a marathon, not a sprint, so keep striving for quality and relevance, as these are always rewarded in the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wl_entities_gutenberg":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[100019,100021,100008,102074],"tags":[],"wl_entity_type":[102583],"class_list":["post-207970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-link-building-seo-school","category-on-site-optimization","category-seo","category-technical-seo","wl_entity_type-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Recover After a Google Rankings Drop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Facing a sudden Google rankings drop? 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