Over the past few months, you may have noticed that your Google website ranking has dropped by over 50% or more. This can be a painful and frustrating experience, especially if you’ve put a lot of time and effort into your website. However, there are a few possible explanations for why this may have happened. More recently, Google released a core SEO update in May of 2022.
First, it’s essential to understand that Google’s algorithms constantly change. This means that what worked to improve your ranking a few months ago may not work now. Additionally, your competitors may be making website changes that could impact your order.
Another possibility is that you lost some backlinks. Backlinks are links from other websites to your website and are essential to Google’s ranking algorithm. If you lost a few backlinks, it’s possible that your ranking would drop as a result.
Your website’s content may no longer be relevant to your target keywords. If you’ve made changes to your website without adequately optimizing your content for those changes, it could result in a drop in ranking. Another possibility is that your website is not regularly updated with fresh content. Search engines favor constantly updating websites with new and relevant information. If your website has become stale, it could be causing your ranking to drop.
Here are “TOP 10 REASONS WHY YOUR GOOGLE WEBSITE RANKING DROPPED BY OVER 50%.”
1. Manual search engine penalty:
There are several reasons why your Google website ranking may have dropped. It could be due to a manual search engine penalty, a change in Google’s algorithm, or a sudden drop in web traffic.
If you suspect your website ranking has dropped due to a manual search engine penalty, you should first check your Google Search Console account. If you see a message from Google saying that your website has been penalized, it will usually state the reason for the penalty and provide instructions on how to fix it.
If you don’t see a message from Google, it’s possible that your website ranking has dropped due to a change in Google’s algorithm. Google frequently updates its algorithm, and these changes can sometimes cause a sudden drop in website ranking. However, it’s important to note that this and your website ranking are usually temporary.
2. Off-page negative SEO:
There are many reasons why your Google website ranking may have dropped. One possibility is that you have been the victim of negative SEO. Negative SEO is when someone tries to sabotage your website’s ranking on Google using black hat techniques. This can include building spammy links to your website or adding malicious code to your website. If you suspect you have been the victim of negative SEO, you should immediately take action to clean up any wrong links or code and secure your website.
However, one of the most common reasons for a ranking drop is off-page negative SEO.
Off-page negative SEO is when someone tries to hurt your website’s ranking by building wrong links or creating spammy content about your site. This can be done manually or through automated software. Either way, it’s essential to be aware of this activity and take steps to protect your website.
If you suspect that off-page negative SEO is the reason for your ranking drop, there are a few things you can do to combat it. One of them, you can try to remove the wrong links by contacting the website owner.
Website hacking:
This website ranking drop is caused by a malicious third party that hacked into your website and injected spammy and low-quality content onto your pages.
On-page violations:
It is no secret that Google’s algorithm is constantly changing. Google makes over 500 algorithm updates every year. That’s over one update per day! While most of these updates are minor and go unnoticed, every once in a while, Google will release a significant update that can significantly impact website traffic.
One such update is the recent “on-page violations” update. This update targets websites that have On-page violations on their website. These violations include misspelled words, broken links, or duplicate content. If your website has any of these violations, your website’s ranking will likely drop in Google’s search results.
Google’s web ranking algorithms assume that websites will provide accurate and up-to-date information. However, their ranking may be punished when sites violate this assumption by providing inaccurate or outdated information.
User-generated spam:
Google website ranking dropped by user-generated spam. This is a severe problem that needs to be addressed by the Google team. User-generated spam is when users create fake and abusive content on websites. This can include creating fake reviews, fake profiles, etc. This type of spam can be difficult to detect and negatively impact a website’s ranking.
Sneaky Redirects are malicious scripts that redirect a user to a different website than the one they intended to visit. This can happen when a user clicks on a link in an email or on a website that has been hacked. Sneaky Redirects are often used to trick users into giving up personal information or infecting their computers with malware.
If you suspect that you may have been a victim of a Sneaky Redirect, you should run a virus scan on your computer and change any passwords that you may have used on the affected website.
Unnatural outgoing links:
If you have a website with many outgoing links, you should monitor your website’s ranking closely. If you see a drop in your website’s ranking, you may need to adjust your outgoing links accordingly.
3. Competitors outrank you in Google:
If you’ve noticed that your website’s ranking on Google has dropped recently, it’s likely because your competitors are outranking you. This is a common occurrence in search engine optimization, and there are a few things you can do to fix it.
The first thing you need to do is take a look at your website. Are you using the right keywords? Are your titles and descriptions optimized? If not, you’ll need to make some changes to your website so that Google starts to see it as more relevant.
In addition, you’ll need to keep an eye on your competitors. Their websites may be ranking higher than yours because they’re using better keywords, or they may have more backlinks. Whatever the reason, you’ll need to find out what they’re doing right and replicate their success.
4. Lost backlinks:
Backlinks are one of Google’s search algorithm’s most important ranking factors. So, it’s no surprise that search ranking can drop when a website loses backlinks.
There are several reasons why a website might lose backlinks. Perhaps the most common reason is that the website’s content is no longer relevant or helpful to users. If users stop linking to a website, it’s a clear sign that the site is no longer valuable to them.
Another reason a website might lose backlinks is if the site’s design or URL structure has changed. This can often happen when a website is redesigned or migrated to a new domain. If the new website doesn’t correctly redirect old URLs to the new ones, then all of the backlinks pointing to the old URLs.
In the meantime, Google advises webmasters and website owners to focus on creating quality content and building high-quality backlinks.
5. User behavior changes:
Google’s website ranking can drop as user behavior changes. The main reason for this change was the shift from desktop to mobile devices. Users are now spending more time on mobile devices than desktop computers, and this trend is only expected to continue.
Desktop computers are still important, but the days of them being the primary way people access the internet are coming to an end. This change in user behavior has significantly impacted Google’s website ranking.
Several other factors have also contributed to this decline, including the rise of social media and the increasing use of ad blockers. However, the shift to mobile is the biggest reason for decreasing website ranking.
6. SEM traffic cannibalization:
There are many potential reasons why your Google website ranking might have dropped. One possibility is that your website is experiencing SEM traffic cannibalization.
SEM traffic cannibalization is when multiple pages from the same website compete with each other in the Google search results. This can happen if you have multiple pages targeting the same keyword. When this happens, Google will typically only rank the most relevant page from your website. As a result, your other pages will see a drop in traffic.
If you think SEM traffic cannibalization might cause your ranking to drop, there are a few things you can do.
- First, consolidate your pages so that you only have one page per keyword.
- Second You can also try optimizing your pages to be more relevant to the keywords you’re targeting.
- Select different keywords for each page.
- You can use negative keywords to ensure that your pages don’t compete against each other.
- Finally, you can adjust your bids so that only one page appears in the search results.
7. Mobile-first indexing:
Mobile-first indexing is a change to the way Google crawls and indexes the web. Historically, Google has used the desktop version of a page’s content when ranking pages from that site. But with mobile-first indexing, Google will now use the page’s mobile version for indexing and ranking. This change will affect how Google crawls, indexes, and serves your web pages.
You don’t need to make any changes if you have a responsive website. Google will continue to index your pages using the desktop version of your site. However, if you have a separate mobile website, you’ll need to ensure that your mobile pages are appropriately configured for mobile-first indexing.
Mobile-first indexing is a change that is made to improve our search results for users searching on mobile devices.
If you’re unsure how to make your website mobile-friendly, you must create a responsive website design that looks great on all devices or create a separate mobile website optimized for users on the go.
8. SERP changes:
As of late, Google has made several changes to its SERP (search engine results page) algorithm. These changes have caused many websites to see a drop in their ranking. If you’ve noticed a drop in traffic from Google, it’s likely due to these recent changes.
There’s no need to panic, though. Google makes changes to its algorithm all the time, and it’s usually nothing to worry about. In most cases, your website will eventually adjust and start ranking again. In the meantime, there are a few things you can do to help your website recover from a drop in ranking.
First, make sure you’re familiar with the latest Google algorithm changes. This will help you understand why your website was affected and what you can do to adjust.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Google’s SERP changes and how they have affected website ranking. Many people have seen their website ranking drop, wondering what they can do to fix it.
It is important to remember that SERP changes are always happening, so you may not see an immediate improvement. The best thing you can do is to keep producing high-quality content and optimize your website for search engines.
9. New website:
Page ranking on Google can be a fickle thing. One day your website is on the first page of search results, and the next day it’s on the third or, even worse, the fourth page. A website’s ranking on Google can drop for several reasons, including changes to Google’s algorithm or competition from other websites.
One common reason for a website’s ranking to drop is the introduction of a new website. This new website might be related to your website in terms of topic or keywords or be completely unrelated. Either way, the new website can cause your ranking to drop simply because it is unique and therefore has a higher PageRank than your website.
You can save your ranking by making sure your website is as high quality as possible.
10. Low-quality links:
Over the past few weeks, there has been a significant drop in Google website rankings for many companies. This is mainly because Google has been cracking down on low-quality links. If your website has a lot of low-quality links, your ranking will likely suffer as a result.
So what can you do to improve your website’s link profile? The most important thing is to focus on getting high-quality links. This means links from reputable websites that are relevant to your industry. You can also reach out to web admins and ask them to remove any low-quality links to your website.
Taking these steps can help improve your website’s link profile and avoid a drop in your Google rankings.