6 SEO Issues That Can Drop Ranking

SEO ranking fluctuations are depicted because Google has more than 200 ranking factors. The wrong elements combination can result in a dramatic drop. The most common reason why you get a sudden drop in the ranking is the significant content changes in the website. This can be a Google penalty, technical issues, algorithm updates, and layout changes in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

Here is the list of the most common reasons for the drop in ranking:

1.   Google Flux

Usually, the flux is when you see keyword positions “jump” for a day or two. These fluxes take place when Google tests something new in its algorithm or performs a small algorithm update.

2.   Manual Action or Penalty

Undoubtedly, this is one of the most common reasons for the sudden drop in website ranking.

We recommend that you look for the cause of the drop by identifying whether your site received any manual action from Google. 

For this, log in to Google Search Console. Look for the Manual Actions report in the Security and Manual Actions section. If there has been any manual penalty, you will get detailed information.

3.   Algorithm Update

This is another reason for the SEO ranking drop. At times, these rankings are temporary so they bounce back to their normal stage when the algorithm completes. But certain Google updates result in a few permanent changes. Therefore, it is important for you to determine what is a new algorithm so you know what has made the drop. 

You will be surprised to know that there is no means to identify an algorithm update. Google exceptionally communicates these updates with the SEO community. But there will be a few updates that you will be unaware of.  

The Google Algorithm update category is where you can research potential updates.

4.   Broken Links and Redirect Links

Broken links are links that no longer exist. They have been due to a site architecture change or a site migration. This prevents search engines to crawl and index your content.

This drastically affects page ranking which results in drops or fluctuations.

You can identify this issue by running website audits. Clarity Audit helps you to evaluate the website for potential issues.

5.   Issues with No-index Tag

Site migration or website revamps are also common reasons for website ranking drop.

The development team adds the no-index tag to the development version of the site. So the pages don’t get indexed causing a duplicate content issue for you. 

The tag is usually removed when the new code is live and this has a lot of issues with rankings, of course. 

This issue is easily detected if you go for regular website audits. Our crawler will help you with this.

6.   Competitor Has Outranked You

Sometimes, the reason for the site drop is not in your hand. There are chances that your competitor may have simply outranked you. This pushes your keyword position downwards.

If you want to identify this, it is important for you to review the changes of your competitors’ rankings. SEO Clarity will help you with this. You will get a detailed report that will give you the changes for the specific ranking positions.

Final Thoughts

Website rankings drop, but it is not the end of the world. It is important for you to stay calm and diagnose the issue so that you fix it.

We recommend you stick to white-hat SEO techniques at all times. You will certainly not lose any links.