Suddenly ranking dropped in US: What actions required to retain?
-
Hi Moz community,
Our website has global audience, visitors and clients. Suddenly our website dropped in rankings for main keyword in US; which is our primary targeting country. Not sure why? This is been happening for last 2 months, we waited it to recover and now trying to fix if we can do anything about it. Is there anything wrong with back-links? What might be the factors contributing here for global website?
Thanks
-
Hi,
There could be a variety of things that could have caused this, but I would start by asking a few questions:
- Did the drop happen quickly? Did it go from positions 1-3 to 20 below in a day or two?
- Is the SERP volatile? Has there been lots of movement for the SERP historically?
- Have other sites in your space seen negative drops? I know there has been a lot of movement in the last few weeks.
Some general things I would jump into to start looking:
-
Core technical elements.
-
Was the page de-indexed somehow?
-
Was the page canonicalized elsewhere?
-
Did the core on-page elements get re-targeted to another term or removed?
-
General health of homepage/site
-
Is your backlink profile healthy? Did you ever purchase links/did someone purchase negative links to your domain?
-
Is your content scraped or duplicated across other sites?
-
Is your website mobile friendly?
-
Does your site load quicker than 5 seconds?
-
As Nikki mentioned, it's also important to look at who is ranking now.
-
What is the DA of their site compared to yours? Is it much higher?
-
Is their quality of content better?
If the drop happened quickly it's likely that something technical went wrong or you've been hit with an obvious penalty.
If it's happened over months, it's probably less obvious and could be multiple things.
I know that's not a straight answer, but those are some starting points I could think of with the information provided. Hope that is helpful!
-
Check the websites of the competitors that outranked you. What's their on page like? Do they have a local presence in the US? Who are linking back to them? Do their sites have a better link profile than yours? Check their estimated traffic per month. Is it higher than yours? You can get the link and traffic data from AHREFS.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google June Core update massive drop in visibility and rank
Following Google Core update in June, I noticed that some websites has seen small improvements or stayed on same positions in SERPs, but our website received nearly 60% visibility drop. Now, after two weeks, some keywords shows "slight" improvement, while majority of keywords still sits on quite low places in searches. Even others big brands got hit after update, but some competitors didn't and overtook our positions. Anyone else noticed any patterns after update and can share some thoughts? Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | Optimal_Strategies1 -
Does using non-https links (not pages) impact or penalise the website rankings?
Hi community, We have couple of pages where we we have given non-https (http) hyperlinks by mistake. They will redirect to http links anyway. Does using these http links on page hurt any rankings? Thansk
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Has anyone seen any research regarding URL structure correlating/impacting rank brain results?
We are currently writing some "rank brain-friendly" content and were wondering if anyone had seen or conducted research on best URL structure practices. Any insights would be appreciated! Thanks, Zach
Algorithm Updates | | Chris-2417530 -
Its the 21st April, and my non responsive page is still ranking the same ?
Hi, As you know the new algorithm is due today, can anybody confirm why my site wouldn't appear to be affected as yet? Cheers
Algorithm Updates | | CFCU0 -
Home Page not ranking?
Hey guys, I'm working on a relatively new client and have noticed that all the initial rankings that we have point towards a sub page rather than the home page. Only a branded search appears to bring up the home page which seems really strange. Any ideas? Home page; www.geraldmiller.com Sub page (ranking); www.geraldmiller.com/dwi-dui-defense
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
Responsive websites rank better?
In the upcoming months, or even now, do you think responsive websites will rank higher?
Algorithm Updates | | CFSSEO0 -
Can someone explain the attached rankings?
I just don't understand how we can have a long list of 1's and 2's in google, but in Yahoo and Bing, some are close, some are in the 20's and some are not even in the top 50. Is there something that Yahoo and Bing care about, that google doesn't? I know about the meta language being more important for Yahoo and Bing than Google, so I added that. There's nothing I can do about the domain age, which I know is important to Yahoo and Bing. Is there anything else? thanks, Ruben [URL]]([URL=http://imgur.com/Vem594l][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Vem594l.jpg[/IMG][/URL]) [IMG]](http://i.imgur.com/Vem594l.jpg[/IMG])
Algorithm Updates | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Why is this site ranking 1st?
I'm a relative SEO newbie, so please go easy on me. I've been an SEOMOZ pro user for a few months and have used it to dramatically improve my organic rankings. However, for the life of me, I cannot determine why the site that currently ranks number one, does so. For the factors I can determine, they shouldn't be ranking where they are, but reality is different. Could someone please offer me some ideas? My target keyword is "photography classes edmonton" My site is www.bsop.ca and I'm targetting the Google Canada engine. Any and all assistance is appreciated.
Algorithm Updates | | pburwell0