Since the internet came around, the countless number of people who go online daily continuously increase. Everyone wants to connect, reach out to people, search for answers, find entertainment, and look for products and services that respond to their needs. Today, most companies conduct their business online, knowing that it is the best way to market their brand. Any business owner who works with professionals from the likes of a reliable Indianapolis SEO company understands that digital marketing is a must for the success of their business. They are also aware of the necessity of ranking high on search results that allow more people to immediately see who they are, visit their sites, and potentially support and purchase what they offer.
There are many factors involved in developing a website that search engines like Google acknowledge as worthy to take the top spot on SERPs. Because this is a much-coveted position among web owners, they look for every means possible to make their websites meet the standards of search engines and enjoy a high ranking on search engine results. Ranking factors refer to the standards applied by Google and other search engines when they gauge web pages to organize rankings on search results. These factors are associated with the website’s content, user signals, technical applications, or other qualities relevant to search engines. Web owners should know these ranking factors for effective SEO (search engine optimization). They should also keep in mind that the only thing that remains constant in this digital world is change. There will always be new developments and trends that they need to keep up with if they want to keep up with the competition and succeed in their digital marketing efforts.
If a website has always been successful in the past, and notices a sudden drop in its rankings, there are several reasons behind it. The first step is to look into the data accuracy, ensuring that the focus is on what causes those drops. By doing so, adjustments and improvements can be made on specific details that need them rather than others that may not be the root of the problem. Additionally, traffic swings do happen, and resolving them is possible.
To help, here are five of the possible reasons why a website experiences a sudden drop in its rankings.
1. Loading speed of the page
One of the primary ranking factors of search engines such as Google is a website’s loading speed. Search engines are all about enhancing a user’s experience when they go online to search for information or seek out products and services. Through the years, users have become more impatient after experiencing going through sites that immediately pop up after they click on them. When searches are conducted, expectations run high. Successful businesses know how crucial it is to provide their visitors with immediate responses or risk losing them altogether. Competition is stiff with digital marketing. Web owners develop the best strategies with experts from Indianapolis SEO company to try and outrank their competitors. They pay special attention to how fast their pages load to avoid users getting frustrated and looking for other options. Websites that load in a matter of three seconds are already considered slow. That is how quickly users get restless and decide to move on. Any website that does not live up to the standards of users concerning loading speed not only loses an opportunity to sell but experiences a drop in ranking. Optimizing the site’s loading speed is the only recourse to get back in the game.
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Not optimized for mobile devices
More and more people turn to their mobile devices for whatever they need. Because these devices are portable, they are convenient for people to carry around wherever they go. For digital marketers, optimizing their websites to make them mobile-friendly is a necessity. This involves providing their users with an excellent experience on the page with any mobile device they use. The process involves shrinking content, images, and videos, so they are visible on a smaller screen. When users enter the site, they can easily navigate through it, read its content without difficulty, and easily view whatever the site offers. Mobile-friendliness is another vital ranking factor that web owners should focus on. Rankings will drop if a website fails to live up to the standards required for mobile devices.
2. Outdated content
Content is the heart of a website. Everything people need to know about a business and its products or services are in the site’s content. Web owners have to make sure that they consistently provide their visitors with fresh and useful content, whether they are text, videos, or images. A website that neglects to update its content cannot expect visitors to stay on its page. Additionally, outdated content does not help when it comes to attracting links or shares. For obvious reasons, search engines will take note of and reduce the ranking position of the website. To resolve the problem, it is best to keep content updated and boost its promotion to maintain a steady flow of traffic.
3. Outranked by competitors
As earlier mentioned, the competition is stiff in digital marketing. It is likely that a website’s rankings are reduced because their competitors are doing a better job and employing more effective marketing techniques. Thus, it is essential to monitor the competition too and find out what they are doing right. There are analytic tools such as Moz or Serpstat that are useful in analyzing the competition, finding out their backlinks come from, what keywords they use to rank higher, and others. Through this monitoring process, a company can determine how their strategies can be enhanced.
4. Technical problems
Technical SEO influences the way that search engine bots crawl and index the content of a site. While the website may be technically optimized, each time pages or files or removed or added, problems can still happen. Google offers a URL Inspection tool that can check how a website is viewed by search engines. Technical SEO problems affect rankings, which is why they should be monitored.
Every web owner must be vigilant when it comes to search engine ranking factors. They can spell out the success or failure of any digital marketing strategy. An experienced Indianapolis SEO company can provide invaluable service for a business to gain a higher ranking and reduce the risk of it dropping.
