Did any one else notice rankings drops since 14th-21st Feb this year?
-
Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some guidance please. Our website saw a drop in rankings on around 14th - 21st Feb 2019 and the rankings haven't really recovered. I can't see anything significant in Search Console, there was a possible unconfirmed algorithm update during early Feb but I can't really find anything factual to determine if this was the cause.
The ranking drop seems to be across different keywords.
What else should I check?
Did anyone experience such a drop around this time and if so found out why this happened and how to recover?
Thanks for your help
Caroline
-
Hi Caroline,
Recommendations would be to do as you have suggested review keywords, & pages.
Make sure you have a robust About us section that proves you are experts, look to introduce new high quality and relevant content.
Start actively searching for relevant and quality backlinks.
Steve
-
Hi Steve,
Many thanks for sending the links over. I've reviewed them and there seems to be some suggestions that algorithm updates happened around the time mentioned (14th - 21st).
There are few posts on here: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-ranking-algorithm-update-27131.html and here: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-ranking-algorithm-update-27077.html mentioning updates around this time.
There's the Valentine's Day update:Â https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-update-valentines/293451/Â which talks about the algorithm focusing on relevance.
https://www.thewebmaster.com/google-updates/google-update-12-february-2019/Â talks about the relevancy of content, E-A-T and how we should look at the keywords each page is targeting.
So it looks like there have been algorithm updates that may have affected our site? Some of the above links talk about how people saw their rankings recover shortly after the update. Ours dropped (our rankings practically halved around 14th - 21st Feb) and remained at this level until around 18th April where they have improved very slightly.
What would your advice be? Maybe review the keywords & pages that have dropped in rankings and check if we are utilising the most suitable keywords for those pages?
Thanks again for your help
Caroline
-
Hi Caroline,
thanks for the response. It appears that you haven't made any changes that would have this sort of impact.
You have checked everything I would look at and found nothing to show that the site may be "broken" which is good.
Here are some links which show minor changes around the dates you have asked about, take a look and see if they may relate to your site. If they do please let us know. If not again let us know and we can keep on investigating.
https://www.seroundtable.com/category/google-updates
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-update-valentines/293451/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-february-march-2019-updates/297493/#close
https://www.thewebmaster.com/google-updates/google-update-12-february-2019/
https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-ranking-algorithm-update-27077.html
Hopefully this will help you.
If not as I say let me know.
Steve
-
Hi Steve,
So sorry for the delay, I've been manic. Amazing thank you for the info!
I don't think any changes have been made to sitemap.xml or the htaccess files. Sitemap.xml is automatically updated when we create new pages on the site. However, I have asked our developer if he has access to a change log just to be sure, so will let you know.
I've used Moz's On Demand Crawl and there are 73 crawler warnings (no critical crawler issues), please see a breakdown below...
- Meta Noindex (50 total) - these are all blog category or blog tag urls
- URL Too Long (12 total) - these are all blog URLs which I will improve and create 301s to the new url
- Title Too Long (5 total) - I will update these
- Missing Description (5 total) - I will update these
- Missing or Invalid H1 (1 total) - this is sitemap page on the website
I'm guessing none of the above would have affected rankings, the Meta Noindex warning has been visible in Moz for over 18 months, its not a recent warning.
I've looked in GA and I have compared the second half of the month, including the week where we saw a drop in rankings (14/02 - 21/02) with the first half of the month (14/02 - 28/02 vs 30/01 - 13/02) and below are the results:
- Organic: 2%
- Direct: -14%
- Referral: 12%
- Social: -61%
The keywords are pretty static and the vast majority are higher during the second half of the month. If I should be using different dates for comparison please let me know and I'll take another look.
I've looked to see if there is a particular site that stopped driving traffic to us but there isn't one really. Facebook and Instagram traffic reduced due to a change with campaigns but all other referrers' figures increased.
The site speed according to Google's Page Speed Insights is 37/100 (mobile) and 77/100 (desktop). We are currently working on some of the recommendations but we haven't seen a huge improvement so far. The report suggested we would benefit from around 7 seconds by serving images in next gen format (WebP). We implemented this change last night and the mobile score only increased from 33 to 37. We have also properly sized a couple of images and ensured text remains visible during webfont load.
Is there anywhere else you recommend I look into?
Thanks very much for your help
Caroline
-
Hi Caroline,
Apologies for the delay in replying it's been a busy day.
- ok that's good
- The change looks good and was made a few months before the drop in traffic so it should not be related
- you can use MOZ on demand crawl, SEO power tools or if you are using any SEO tools they should pick it up.
- Good work
Did you check the sitemap.xml and the htaccess files to see if there had been any changes?
When you look at Google Analytics is there any particular traffic source or keyword that has suddenly dropped or is it roughly the same across the board?
Again if you let me know the answers to these questions I will try my best to help further.
unfortunately, I do not have any websites in the leisure market so cannot compare there.
Steve
-
Hi Steve,
Many thanks for your reply
The website is for a leisure company, their site has been live for over 18 months
1. The site has been on https for a couple of years
2. The only change to robots.txt was made by myself in Dec where I added the below, no other changes have been made as far as I can think:
Disallow: /basket/
Noindex: /basket/3. What is the best way of detecting redirect issues? Is there a particular tool you recommend?
4. We have 1 x 404 which I've just corrected and I've just created 2 x custom 404 reports in Google Analytics for future reference.
Is there anything else I can check please?
Thanks again, Caroline
-
Hi Caroline,
it would really help us to help you if you could share more information, such as the topic of the site(s), URLs if you can (we understand this is not always possible) but if you could give us an idea as to the topic this will really help us.
Otherwise, we can only provide generic information and guestimates.
Some things to check
- Did you make any significant changes to the site - implementing HTTPS for instance
- Has someone changed your sitemap, robots.txt or htaccess files
- Are you having redirect issues?
- Are you getting more 4xx errors in Google analytics
Steve
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
-
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
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Diluting your authority - adding pages diluting rankings of other pages?
I'm looking after a site that has around 400 pages. All of these pages rank pretty well for the KW they are targetting. My question is: if we add another 400 pages without doing any link building work, holding DA the same, 1) would the rankings of those 400 previously good pages diminish? and 2) Would the new pages, as more and more new ones are created, rank less and less well?
Algorithm Updates | | xoffie0 -
What are tips for ranking on Google Maps?
I have another thread going where everyone is saying to keep both the Places profile as well as the Google Plus Local profile I have for my company. Â I have another person telling me that it has a negative effect to have both accounts at the same time so I'm assuming thats why the listing never comes up on places unless you zoom all the way into the map to the address of the storefront. With that being said, can anyone provide some good tips for ranking first page on google maps? Goole Plus Local - https://plus.google.com/114370561649922317296/about?gl=us&hl=en Google Places - https://plus.google.com/103220086647895058915/about?gl=us&hl=en
Algorithm Updates | | jonnyholt1 -
Do links from unrelated sites dilute your rankings for your key phrases?
do links from unrelated sites dilute your rankings for your key phrases? i've always heard don't get links from unrelated sites but if that mattered, then how would sites with totally diverse pages such as newspaper sites, sears, and other catalogue sites rank for these diverse subjects on their site? How does Facebook rank when it gets 100,000 links a day from sites that have nothing to do with a social media site? I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on this. Also, Do links from unrelated sites give less push than related links? Take care,
Algorithm Updates | | Ron10
Ron0 -
Correlation of Rankings with Personal Pronouns?
Has there been any tests or studies that associate writing in the first person or using "emotional" feeling phrases to higher rankings.  More specifically to a blog structure. I'm trying a blog option with a  local telecommunications company, however I'm having flashbacks of writing those 5 paragraph essays when taking the SATs.  The owner decided he should take on the responsibility and it's like he just can't bring himself to write from a personal perspective. He's a bit stuck in the "professional" mindset and worried about appearing unprofessional.  I empathize with his perspective, but I know it's not going to work..or maybe it will? it's just not going to be interesting to readers, but perhaps google will appreciate the fresh content.  I don't think letting an employee takeover will be an option as he's very protective of the company's image. So would you ditch the blog? or continue with the dull posts?
Algorithm Updates | | squareplug0 -
Decline in traffic but no change in rankings
I'm comparing our best search traffic month in 2011 (March) with our current traffic (April)and have seen significant declines in traffic, despite no change in our rankings or even improved rankings for the same terms. Trying to sort out an explanation. We have been a white-hat SEO site since our inception over 10 years ago.  Our SEO consultant doesn't think we've been affected by any algo changes, at least not to any significant degree. My only explanation for this possibly anomaly is: decrease in the use of the KW terms in search over time (how to determine?) generalized increase in PPC instead of organic search driving traffic possibility that Adv Web Rankings is no longer accurately collecting SERP rankings Does anyone have any other thoughts or considerations that might explain the decline in traffic, despite maintenance or improvement in rankings? Thanks.
Algorithm Updates | | ahw0 -
Are the latest Ranking Reports counting the new large format site links as positions?
Received my weekly ranking report this morning and noticed a specific keyword that I've been ranking in the 3rd or 4th spot has dropped a significant amount of positions. I tested the results myself and it appears the site links of the manufacturer are being counted as positions? My keyword has me in the 3rd position (although it is much lower on the physical page now because of the new format). I'm really wondering how this will affect organic listings going forward - this new format could be a game changer.
Algorithm Updates | | longbeachjamie2 -
Was I Kicked Off Google Page One by Panda/Farmer?
Took over this site in March. Got a Panicked call from client Mid-March that all of a sudden keywords that put the site on Page One weren't working. There are still 9 that work, but apparently there were more. A large percentage of the backlinks are from Article Directories and Link Farms. Is this my problem? Also, a large percentage of the 149 pages suffer from keyword stuffing and were obviously written for Search Engines and not people. How much of a difference does that make?
Algorithm Updates | | reeljerc0