Have you lost your Google ranking? Don’t panic.

You have worked hard to finally get your Google ranking where you want it to be.

That is, on the first page of Google for your main keywords. Over the last 3 to 4 months, you have watched your website slowly and gradually progress from page 10 up the rankings.

How fantastic is that? Business is booming, and the phone is ringing off the hook. You could not be happier.

You can see all the sales leads start to flow in and all those juicy new contracts. The business is excellent; you are employing new staff and gaining access to a new range of clients you never thought possible. All of this is due to your rankings and the fabulous work that your SEO company is doing.

Then, immediately, you check your SEO rankings and get the shock of your life! Your website has vanished from its prominent position; it’s in a rankings slump!

Your heart starts to race, you start to panic, and you can’t imagine why this has happened in your life. Google has given us a few reasons why your rankings might have dropped in their article: Why did my site traffic drop? A great read and should help you diagnose the issue.

Let me explain what has happened.

Ranking drops are common and can happen to all types of businesses that have hired an SEO company with no idea of what they are doing. 

Essentially, you have been scammed and have used an SEO agency that has taken your money.

We have seen this happen repeatedly, and I cannot tell you how many calls I receive daily from distressed business owners in deep trouble.

Let’s break down the two types of lost Google rankings for a clearer understanding.

1) There is the slow, gradual loss of ranks that happens over some time. It is not ideal, but this is the best type of rank loss (if you were to have one), which means that you have done nothing wrong regarding your SEO, but your competition for your main keywords has decided to be more aggressive. Hence, they have overtaken you. The best way to counterbalance this is to be more aggressive with your SEO campaign, which should work, and over time, you will see your rankings slowly climb back.

A point to note here is that you can’t be too zealous with your SEO campaign, or you will get a Google penalty, as described in point 2. 

Take things nice and slow, and do not rush with your link building. Remember not to panic.

2) The second reason your website has suddenly plummeted is the website penalty. A penalty is a serious issue as it can significantly affect your business’s online visibility and, consequently, its profitability. A penalty can lead to a drastic drop in website traffic, loss of potential customers, and a negative impact on your brand’s reputation. It’s a situation that needs immediate attention.

Penalties are the most common problem, and there are a few reasons why this has happened.

The main reason is that your SEO company has over-optimised your primary keywords, which appear ‘spammy’ in Google’s eyes. 

Google likes your linking profile to be as organic as possible, and if there are suddenly thousands of inbound links, this will trigger an alert within the search engines. Hence, your website will be either de-indexed or suddenly drop. You might have received a manual action penalty or an algorithmic penalty. Either way, this needs to be addressed very quickly. Search Engine Journal outlines a list of reasons in their article Google Adds 12 New Types of Manual Action Penalties to give you a clearer idea of what the standard Manual Action is and how it can affect your website.

To fulfil their promise to you over the phone of super fast rankings, many SEO companies will have to optimise to keep their end of the bargain. Watch this video to get a better idea of what some SEO agencies will do to win your business.

If they say they will rank you fast, they will, but this is not the right approach.

Another reason for a rankings drop is the quality of your website content. And Google addressed this in their Panda Update many years ago and continues to fine-tune this algorithm. Essentially, each page of your website must provide unique quality content that must be continually updated with refreshed new copy that readers and web browsers will fine useful and informative. Many website copies were plainly written to manipulate rankings with spammy, overstuffed keywords, which could be a primary reason why your rankings have sunk. I’m often going over old blog posts and web pages to ensure they’re updated with valuable more relevant information. I look at blogs written 10 years ago and cringe; they’re so outdated which is why I get in there and wash the copy through Grammarley and look at ways to add value to the copy.

What are the Steps Involved in Getting Your SEO Ranking Back?

Firstly, I understand this is a stressful situation, but there’s a solution. We can help you recover from this Google penalty. The relief of finding a solution to this problem will be immense. It’s important to remember that recovery is possible. All you need to do is understand these points and then leave the recovery process to the experts.

1) We have to work out the exact links created. We need to look at your whole linking profile, and we do this by gaining access to your Google Webmaster tools account. Most sites we see will have severe toxic links, which are links from low-quality or spammy websites that can harm your site’s SEO. Our role is to get rid of these ASAP.

2) We then look at ways to remove all of these links, which is the hard part, but our team, with their extensive knowledge and experience, know the best way to facilitate this. Because you are in this position, you have used an SEO provider who has used a poor linking strategy, and we may have to spend some time on this step due to the difficulty in getting in touch with all the web owners where your links are. Our team’s expertise will guide us through this challenging process, giving you confidence in the recovery journey.

3) we will check all your ‘on page’ titles, tags, and meta descriptions while implementing this de-linking to ensure these are implemented. In some cases, we can solve these issues with a quick fix. This possibility of quick fixes should give you hope. We also ensure that your web content is unique and not copied from other sites, which could play a significant part. I could go on for ages about content marketing and the relevance of unique content, but if your site is a blatant copy of another, you will be penalised. Google loves fresh, new, relevant content, which means that we will likely have to go through each page of your website, including all blog pages, and audit the content to make sure there’s no AI plagiarised content or spammy keyword-driven copy. Understanding and implementing these content guidelines will empower you to maintain a strong online presence.

4) Some links may be OK, and we keep these. Some links are, however, of low value and poor quality. In the past, these types of links were OK and did impact your rankings. Due to the misuse of this SEO tactic, Google has devalued the credibility of these inbound links. We will address this and ensure your website has the best and most highly ranked links.

5) Finally, and we do this when we have ticked all the boxes and are compliant, we submit your new cleaner website for a reconsideration request. We ensure we get you out of the penalty nine times out of ten, and you start to rank again.

Conclusion

If you have lost your SEO rankings and need to return to where you were before, please get in touch with us today – we will turn your nightmare around very quickly for you and get back those much-loved rankings. If, on the other hand, you unhappy with your web design and conversion rates and you feel that you’re on-page SEO has been neglected, I am more than happy to do an SEO audit of your site over the phone and give you some quick pointers on what’s missing and what’s wrong.