It can happen to anyone, where they think they’re in the top spot, and then overnight, the rankings drop like a rock. it’s annoying, and the initial shock is ever-so frustrating. But, there are ways to figure out the source of it, and here, we’ll talk about the best ways to do it so that you can figure out a fitting solution.
First place you want to check is the google search console. This gives you a ton of information on a whole variety of issues, whether it be manual actions, crawlability issues, and schema problems that can happen. You can use this to identify a variety of issues, and by using overview, you can start with the bigger picture and then go deeper. The URL inspection is also an awesome tool since you can look at all pages through the eyes of Google in a sense, and this is good when you’ve got page problems that don’t cause obvious issues in the front-end line of things, but for Google, it does. If you get manual penalties, it’s a result of a violation of the webmaster guidelines, but even small mistakes can be found within the manual actions section, and the google search console also gives you a notification of penalties, allowing for more for you to do with this.
Next, check the nonindex nofollow. This is something that can happen when you move from a new website to a developing one, and it can happen at any time. This can be as simple as clicking the wrong setting when putting together WordPress or a plugin, which causes the pages to be deindexed. You can look at the search engine visibility at the bottom of the reading section, leaving it unchecked, and look at the index setting of any SEO plugins that you have.
Finally, check to see if the site has been hacked. When you think of hacking, you probably think of people looking for identity theft. But, it’s actually not just that. Hackers are looking to play a numbers game, and the website is another vector where you can exploit others, namely the visitors. By hacking the site, it spreads viruses and malware to the users that go to your site, but it’s more than just that.
Inbound links can actually be hacked too, and they can be embedded in the websites, and you will want to make sure that they’re not being hid in older links and posts to disguise them. Deleting old content, or having outbound links that are shady, bad content, or malware and viruses are others, and this can cause search engines to remove sites. So, moral of this story is always make sure that you do take the time to put together a good fortification, where you can look at where any outbound links are, and handle this. If anything, check this first because it’s a common issue, but one that people don’t realize is bigger than they really think.