Keywords Suddenly Dropped in Rank on Google?

42 replies
  • SEO
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I have a local website that was ranked 1st for 5 keywords and 4th or 5th for keywords and other keywords were ranked 6-8th on Google. I was getting between 15 - 30 calls a day throughout the day (12am-12am)

I changed the title of a page from "Pricing" to "Pricing/Policies" and added the policy to the page. In approximately 5 days the keywords dropped in rank to 13th, 20th and below and traffic all but dried up.

I restored the website to the old page and site where the rankings for the keywords were high.

A few questions please;

Why did the keywords drop when text was added to the page?

Since I restored the site to where it was when they were high, will the keywords return to where they were?

If not, what is the remedy to get them to return?

Any help greatly appreciated and additional input as well.

Thank you in advance

Tracy
#dropped #google #keywords #rank #suddenly
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    I doubt that changing the page name or even title tag in addition to adding policy information had an effect on the ranking.

    More likely, a recent algorithm core update caused the ranking shift and reverting back to the way it was won't have an effect. Of course, it's always worth a shot - controlling the one thing you did that MIGHT have caused it. You should probably know within 30 days if it helped.

    If reverting back doesn't work, Google says there is little you can do when these core updates are released other than making your pages better (a clue for how to do that is looking at the pages that are now outranking yours).
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    • Profile picture of the author Trafficstorm
      Yeah i also agree with dave_hermansen about the answer. I don't think that your update of website dried up your traffic. Its probably the effect of algorithm update.
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    • Profile picture of the author upmatthews
      Hello
      What am I looking for when looking at higher ranked sites?

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
        Originally Posted by upmatthews View Post

        Hello
        What am I looking for when looking at higher ranked sites?

        Thanks
        In a word ... everything. The type of content that is ranking, the amount of content, the keyword phrases being used as well as the LSI (related) phrases on the page, the number of backlinks and from where those backlinks come.

        Look at the top 10 results and you'll likely find commonalities and things your previously ranking page could be doing better.
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    • Profile picture of the author chrismx
      Hi,
      Google is constantly reviewing its algorithm. this is why the quality and ranking of keywords is lowering. Try to make another keyword research ang go deeper withing google search engine. Also compare with the other search engine. tally up your list and add them to your webpage.
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    • Profile picture of the author jefrin adams
      Yeah I also agree his points...
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  • Profile picture of the author Enfusia
    Google just had a large algo update.


    It's not likley that what you did caused the drop.


    Watch to see if you bounce around for a while and then see where you settle.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ravi Talwar
    algorithm update probably hurt your ranking so far, so identify your backlinks
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  • Profile picture of the author surajbag94
    Anyone not follow the google algorithm, so when google update their 200 more than algorithm. your keyword rank decrease on google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arsath
    Adding extra thing on your page is the problem because it might be against Google algorithm try to fix that and request for reindexing in webmaster.
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  • Profile picture of the author markmiller24x7
    Whenever Google comes up with a new Algorithm, tons of websites ranking got affected, same happened with yours. Can't do anything for this.
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  • Profile picture of the author NateOlsen
    Leave it alone and wait. I saw a lot of fluctuation since the core update and the majority of my clients bounced right back up! If not start looking at site structure and everything from a broad spectrum all the way down to content and page speed.
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  • Originally Posted by upmatthews View Post

    I have a local website that was ranked 1st for 5 keywords and 4th or 5th for keywords and other keywords were ranked 6-8th on Google. I was getting between 15 - 30 calls a day throughout the day (12am-12am)

    I changed the title of a page from "Pricing" to "Pricing/Policies" and added the policy to the page. In approximately 5 days the keywords dropped in rank to 13th, 20th and below and traffic all but dried up.

    I restored the website to the old page and site where the rankings for the keywords were high.

    A few questions please;

    Why did the keywords drop when text was added to the page?

    Since I restored the site to where it was when they were high, will the keywords return to where they were?

    If not, what is the remedy to get them to return?

    Any help greatly appreciated and additional input as well.

    Thank you in advance

    Tracy
    So basically, you changed the title on a single page of your site, and the rankings for your whole site went out of whack?

    It is possible that the change you made caused the decline.

    But, very unlikely.

    Especially such a small change. On a single page.

    Well, unless you haven't made any changes on your site for over a decade. It may have caused some reshuffling. But unlikely.

    What niche is your website in?

    More likely, the change was caused by...

    ... the recent algorithm update which Google implemented over the last week.

    Tons of sites were hit.

    Huge and popular sites.

    Like the Daily Mail.

    With losses in search engine traffic ranging from 50 to 90% almost overnight.

    Sites hit were especially in the natural health space, financial (such as cryptocurrency), and some gambling sites.

    The changes were (seemingly) more politically driven than anything else.

    So if you were in, or near, any of those niches, you have a higher probably of getting hit.

    Other possibilities?

    - You might have been hit by a negative SEO campaign.
    - Your competitors might have overtaken you.
    - And more.

    But looking at the recent SERP reshuffling...

    ... getting hit by the algorithm change is most likely.

    Have a look at the pages that are currently ranking for the keywords that you dropped.

    See what they have in common.

    And then take a look at your site.

    It may give you a better clue. As to what Google's now looking for for those keywords.

    It has been said that branding, expertise and authority are critical factors specific niches at the moment.

    Especially those I mentioned earlier...

    It is also possible that your site may jump back up after a while.

    The update reshuffling was pretty huge. And may not have completely settled yet.

    You may see changes in results without doing anything in a week or two.

    But that is hard to say...

    It may be best to look for other traffic sources for the time being.
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  • Profile picture of the author NetMan
    Originally Posted by upmatthews View Post

    I have a local website that was ranked 1st for 5 keywords and 4th or 5th for keywords and other keywords were ranked 6-8th on Google. I was getting between 15 - 30 calls a day throughout the day (12am-12am)

    I changed the title of a page from "Pricing" to "Pricing/Policies" and added the policy to the page. In approximately 5 days the keywords dropped in rank to 13th, 20th and below and traffic all but dried up.

    I restored the website to the old page and site where the rankings for the keywords were high.

    A few questions please;

    Why did the keywords drop when text was added to the page?

    Since I restored the site to where it was when they were high, will the keywords return to where they were?

    If not, what is the remedy to get them to return?

    Any help greatly appreciated and additional input as well.

    Thank you in advance

    Tracy
    Umm, that might happen to be just the consequences after a very recent Google update only a few days ago.

    Check this out for all the updates https://searchengineland.com/library...orithm-updates

    And here is the most recent one which happened just a few days back.
    https://searchengineland.com/google-...-update-317741

    Andy
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  • Profile picture of the author Radhika Shah
    Keywords Suddenly Dropped in Rank on Google It could happen due to low-quality content, onsite technical issues, algorithm updates most likely cause for major websites, a Google penalty
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  • Profile picture of the author bob1313
    You need to be calm. Then you can better analyze the situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author siddhant synkom
    my website ranking is also dropped, the keywords usually I am finding in top 20, now they all are listing very down somewhere in 100. My content is unique, I have done on-page, some off page seo also, what else I need to do to rank them in top 10.

    Kindly suggest.
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    • Profile picture of the author himmatrathore
      [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author insubh
    Majorly the "Title" is the culprit.
    Or
    You need to examine where you should not placed the "text" to make any negative effect on your ranking.

    Note: If you just changed your title then better you need to wait for 2-3 weeks to see the effects on a full phase.
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  • Profile picture of the author virtualprincipal
    No doubt, it was the algorithm update.

    My question is, "are you using PBN's"?

    If so, I would rethink that strategy for local...
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    • Profile picture of the author upmatthews
      Don't know what a PBN is, but I am not using any. Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author himmatrathore
      [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author whayden
    For what it's worth, and I will probably get hammered for saying this, I purchased a product called "Site-Pop" John Limbocker for exactly this reason. It doesn't solve the problem, but it boosts a site from page 2-3-4 back up in the ranks with actual searches. I bought the extra package in case I needed it for later, if you want to give it a try to see if it helps let me know. You can just try it to see if it helps, and if it does and you want to keep using it I can let you keep it for really cheap as it is pretty much excess unused stock I am not using at this point.
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  • Profile picture of the author XenG
    If I am not mistaken, right about this time, Google rolled out the June Google core algorithm update. Things seem to be back to normal now. The update, according to Google, was the regular core update that they usually do.
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  • Profile picture of the author sonamg9291710
    It is a common issue in everyone, due to low-quality content, algorithm update, onsite technical issues or Google penalty it will happen so you have to check.
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  • Profile picture of the author rnaura
    help full advice ..thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author gloriousbach
    With so many algorithm changes, it is almost impossible to keep track of google and its changes on a day to day basis.
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  • Profile picture of the author naeemak01
    you should wait now Atleast couple of week and see activity of your website . There are several reason dropped keyword but now you need be cool . the error you'll find but with a cool mind .

    if you change structure it will be recovered within 1 month

    Maybe googlel core update affects on your website but again i'll see sit and see now
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  • Profile picture of the author jefrin adams
    Check for the latest update in 2019 you will get the solution why your site drop
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  • Profile picture of the author Amarjeet Verma
    Google released a June 2019 Broad Core update, maybe your ranking dropped due to that.

    Check out about the update at Google twitter handle.
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    See How I Rank This Website No#1 on Google With Only 3 Exact Match Anchor Text Backlinks Packers and Movers in Pune - One of the Backlink is Here in My Signature!

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  • Profile picture of the author Medon
    Yes, the changing of the wording may not have been the cause of the drop in the ranking. I think changes in algorithms are responsible for the drop. So just get in touch with an SEO guru and you will be back in the driving seat.
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  • Profile picture of the author Monir106
    Search Engines are evolving very fast and there is a sea changes in the factors that they used to rank web pages if we see even a few years time span. There is now new methodology used to crawl, index and rank search terms against pages.

    Following are the reasons that traditional SEO might not be working for you

    Backlinks: in a series of updates, popularly called the penguin updates Google has made sure that spammy links are penalized and ant delta ( speed of acquiring ) of links have to be verified. Sources from where you are linking is important, anchors used for backlinks are crucial and most importantly topical relevance of the sites from which you are getting inbound link is important.

    Content: There was a time when simple keyword stuffing on a page was enough o get you ranked. Now Google has even develop topical modelling capacity for evaluating topical strength of a page and hence shallow content do not stand chance to rank now and every Panda update penalizes pages with shallow content

    SEO is moving towards natural link building, optimizing for following best search engine guideline in terms of usability and user experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author webenliven
    I also facing the same situation. Looking for suggestions here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Huenelde
    Order SEO promotion. This is a great solution for promoting and raising the site in the ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author seomark122
    if the keywords have been stuffed in to the website and the main website ranking is due to the site in which gray hat seo is done then when a google updates come its algorithm gets changed and this change in algorithm can hurt the tactics of the page range you have done and which might result in the fall in the ranking of the keyword
    yoursite have to be updated with the google new updates and rules and regulation
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  • Profile picture of the author Naman1234
    Search Engines are evolving very fast and there is a sea change in the factors that they used to rank web pages if we see even a few years time span.

    Check index status - whether your website is indexing in search engines, search with the brand name.
    Robots Tag - View source of the home page and check for robots meta tag, if it is having noindex, nofollow, then this could be one reason for drop of keyword ranking
    Robots.txt file - Check if you are blocking your website in robots.txt file.
    Google search console - Check out your GSC to see if there is any manual action spam or messages.
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  • If you are changing your meta titles and descriptions, it's sure that it will affect all your ranking in search engine. Since you restored your site. It not sure that it will place at the same place, where they are first.
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  • Profile picture of the author sn1b
    server configuration, headers changed? implemented another compression method?
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  • Profile picture of the author justinhanger12
    Adding extra thing on your page is the problem because it might be against Google
    algorithm update probably hurt your ranking so far, so identify your backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Subho D
    It is not that uncommon for a page or keyword to drop on Google. The search engine giant runs on different algorithms; therefore, the new updates may have affected your page.

    Further, as you said, that you restored your page, is it possible that you have modified, or somewhat changed the content on your page? If yes, then you should know that SEO plays a significant role in such cases, and the modification on your page may have caused the issue. However, the different keywords may bring less traffic to your page; hence, you should look up for the trending keywords and SEO techniques, compatible with your page.
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  • Profile picture of the author surajbag94
    when google update the their algorithm, many website search engine rank effected and dropping the keywords.

    In your situation, you have changed the your website content it is not good if your on page seo well and keyword also in ranked google first page. You should not changed the content your website although you can add or update your website content.
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  • Profile picture of the author idbssoftware
    Because of changes in titles rankings get affected , so don't change the meta title continously it affect the rankings try to add that new keywords in description or starting it self you can add the latent semantic keywords in title tag related to ( root keywords ) if you do like this less chances of often changes in meta title
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  • Profile picture of the author Medon
    Either an algorithm update or construction of more websites in the same niche may have caused the problem. Give it time to see how it will behave.
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