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Why has my website’s Google ranking nosedived?

Fay Roe

When you rely on your business website to generate leads and sales, you most likely have spent more time than you care to remember nurturing your digital presence. Making sure your website design visually represents your brand, writing content and proactively marketing your business online takes commitment and determination.

But, what if the website’s ranking position in the search engines results pages begins to drop or even kamikazes out of existence?

It’s hard not to feel cheesed off – the loss of organic traffic, visitors and revenue even if temporary are devastating consequences.

So, what has happened?

The first thing you need to do is take a breather – all is not necessarily lost. Here are the three most common causes of a website’s Google ranking taking a nosedive:

1. Manual penalties from Google

Surprisingly, ranking is not just about algorithms and artificial intelligence. Google has a team of people who manually check websites for quality control. If your website has been reviewed and deemed to have breached the guidelines, you will receive a manual penalty which is visible in your Google Search Console.

The good news is manual penalties are typically short-term problems and easy to fix. You have an opportunity to explain why they happened, rectify the issues identified and restore the site’s ranking position.

Think of Google manual penalties more as a slap on the wrist rather than a life sentence!

2. Algorithm updates

If your website’s visitors have dropped off a cliff, you need to check whether a Google algorithm update has been released, and research how to respond to it. If you don’t, you risk not being able to recover your ranking position; yes, it can be terminal.

It’s near on impossible to stay ahead of Google’s algorithm updates without investing time in your website – they are designed to reward the best websites to encourage quality. This is where collaborating with an SEO digital marketing agency like Digital Presence comes into its own. You can rest assured your website works within defined SEO best practices and supports Google’s mantra of E-A-T (expertise, authority and trust) which protects from future algorithm updates. Plus, if any tweaks and adjustments are needed, they are done for you.

3. User experience problems

Google’s focus on the searcher’s needs being met is not limited to E-A-T. It also ranks your website in accordance with how people behave and react to your site. Search engines assess websites in terms of the experience they provide visitors. Problems with user experience include, but are not limited to:

Slow page loading time
Little time spent on each page (high bounce rate)
Broken links
An unresponsive web design (i.e. fails to work properly on mobile devices)

It’s so important to get these things right from the off – search engines will not send searchers to a website for a poor experience. The best website designs are visually stunning, technically sound, and focus on the user’s experience.

If your organic website traffic numbers are down, think about any recent changes you have made to the site. Perhaps you’ve used a new theme or extra plugins? Have you duplicated content? Have you uploaded images or video with a high resolution? Chances are high that your latest updates have accidentally reduced the fluidity of the user experience.

Google has a habit of making webmasters feel enslaved – they play the tune and we dance to it. However, it must be remembered they are only concerned in providing searchers with the quality websites and by periodically moving the goal posts they ensure only the fittest survive.

Digital Presence is an SEO and digital marketing agency, Christchurch based but serving New Zealand. We specialise in helping small businesses reach their full potential and thrive online through responsive website design and strategic digital marketing – taking the headache out of keeping on top of the search engines results pages. If you have any queries or wish to learn more about how we can help you generate leads and revenue through search engine marketing, contact us today for a free no-obligation chat.

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