Rule #1: Don’t Panic

 

When you see a client take a big drop in rankings, it is most likely that it is a temporary situation and their organic rankings could bounce back up the very same day…or in a few days.

 

___Quickly check to see that their site is up and running. 

If they are suspended for non-payment, there’s your answer.

It’s possible that the domain is expired or that there is another issue. Let Leah know and she will look into it. 

 

 

___If all is well with the site, do a quick Google search using their Biz Name and city.

 If you do not see their business profile appear on the SERP or in maps, log into their GMB and see if there are any issues. 

 

____If all is well on the website and Google, let it ride for a few days. 

It will probably come back up to where it was if not higher. You can track this by looking at the detailed rankings in SE Ranking

              

 

If it has been a week or two since there has been an upward movement in rank, then dig a little deeper:

 

___Is everything on their site as it should be? Title tags? Plug-ins? Content? 

Some clients will add things to their sites without telling us, or we may have missed something.

 

____Has Google done an update lately? 

Even if the update is unannounced, and no other SEOs are talking about it yet, you may be able to identify a pattern that makes sense. 

 

____Was there a link built (by us) recently?

 If so, it could be a bad link. If not, we may need to be more aggressive.  

 

_____Is there another SEO company working with them? 

Run them through the backlink checker tool in SE ranking to see if there are any weird links. Are their citations good? Duplicate Yext listings and others can cause a drop….

 

_____Is the business address a good one? 

Sometimes Google will verify an address and rankings will increase, but then later Google decides that they don’t approve. It could also be that a competitor (or someone else) has reported them. 

 

Stuck

 

If you notice a site has been stuck at the bottom for a month or more, do some detective work, and make note of your findings in the SEO log. The action to be taken will need to be determined on a case by case basis….” it depends”.