How to Overcome Ranking Fluctuations with SEO Tips
In most cases, the ranking fluctuation is normal because search engines work behind the scenes to determine a website’s rank. However, one can start panicking if rank drops to 20 from three suddenly. Usually, Google de-ranks a webpage when there are potential issues and glitches on the site. For instance, the new video you uploaded on the website last week might be causing substantial loading problems. Similarly, rankings also fluctuate if you are indulging in black hat SEO practices. Before trying to add more backlinks to increase rankings, understand why your site is bleeding. Assess the situation, fix the glitches, and hop onto new ranking strategies. If you are clueless about this, have a look below. Here we are unfolding five ways to overcome ranking fluctuations with SEO.
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Overcome On-Page Glitches
At times, websites are generating content and building links, yet they fall behind other sites. Perhaps, because of potential on-site errors and issues. Despite having engaging content, if your website is taking ages to load, people won’t wait more than three seconds. Likewise, if you are getting broken links or facing terrible internal linking, your rankings will fluctuate. Therefore, dig into on-page insights and inspect all problems with your site.You can download a traffic checker tool to evaluate the impact of site improvements. After fixing the broken links, check the amount of organic traffic that is coming to your site. You can also count the number of visits, user engagement and assess the mobile traffic ratio. In addition to attracting more traffic, it will help you win back your position on the search engine. However, if you can’t find any on-page errors, look into security threats to ensure your site is not under a cyberattack.
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Optimize for Personalized Searches
These days, the user’s search results are specific to their location and past behavior. As a result, it makes it arduous to ascertain where you rank for the target audience, causing fluctuations in rankings. Optimizing for local searches can help your website appear on results close to your location, but it doesn’t help rank higher. Thus, open an incognito window, clear browser cache, and check up on the search results.In addition to giving a keen understanding of where you rank for the general public, you can collect insightful data. If people are using city or town names in their searches, you can adopt a similar strategy. In case you offer legal services – target keywords like ‘lawyers near me’ or ‘lawyers in California’ to account for personalized searches.
- Keep an Eye on New Players in the Game – Competition
Did you get outranked by a competitor? Sometimes, that drastic and small drop in rankings occurs because your competitor came up with a more competent SEO strategy. If you wish to win back your position, consistently inspect and examine your competitor’s sites. Dig into their social media profile to get a clear idea of their engagement and ranking strategies. Similarly, keep a close eye on their content tactics and backlinking tactics.If your rivals are growing steadily, it means they have brilliant strategies at their end. At the same time, someone experiencing rapid growth is most probably using black hat practices. However, you don’t have to copy strategies but use insights to predict their next moves. Be creative and diverse with your content and marketing campaigns to ensure competitors can’t outrank your website.
- Secure Links
Have you lost links in recent months? Websites get penalties, bloggers remove links, and at times, the linking closes for other webpages. Thus, you might have many inbound links vanishing from the link profile. If your rankings are declining, look for harmful spikes in link velocity. Inspect your site’s lost links in the last 90 days as plenty of lost links indicate a ranking drop.You can check all the links individually to see how they got lost. If webmasters remove the links, it gives a red flag to SEO, indicating unnatural links. Hence, don’t request them back as Google can penalize your site in the future. Start building more organic and HQ links to your site to ensure credibility.
- Keep Up with New Algorithms
Google makes regular updates to its algorithms. It comes up with new versions, upgrades and also refreshes the existing algorithms. Unfortunately, failure to keep up with any of these changes directly impact rankings, creating fluctuations. You have to keep checking the SEO-related news to get an instant update regarding changes in algorithms. Identify those changes and cross-check if your website is violating Google guidelines.Once you understand all ‘panda and penguin’ updates, use those findings to your site. Moreover, if you want to avoid getting hit by a Google update, keep your brand organic. Focus on your product offerings, build a community, and fix technical issues with your site.
Final Thoughts:Today, marketers have to be cautious with how they build and market their websites. It means you have to skip the temptation of quickly jumping to top results through shady SEO practices. Sooner or later, Google gets to know about black hat practices, making your websites’ rankings suffer. Thus, use content, quality backlinks, and on-page SEO techniques to overcome ranking fluctuations. Also, keep tabs on changing algorithms to ensure your website is fulfilling Google’s regulations.