How to Recover Your Website from a Google Ranking Drop
Have you suddenly noticed a drop in your Google website ranking and wondered why your site received a Google penalty?
If you have a medical or dental practice, then your goal is to get your website to the first page or top of Google rankings. If you’re one of the first sites listed in organic search results, your website will get seen more, and the placement will suggest that you’re a leading healthcare practice in your local area.
Earning a high Google ranking through healthcare SEO can take a lot of time and continued dedication to building your online presence. Once you get there, you might be tempted to relax and take your foot off the gas. Just remember that achieving and keeping a high ranking is not guaranteed, as Google rankings can change daily.
What Causes a Sudden Website Ranking Drop?
It happens all the time. You may wake up one day to see a major ranking drop for your website. Even worse, you might see that your website has completely disappeared from Google. It’s one of the most discouraging, frustrating parts of owning a healthcare website. If there’s a sudden drop in your site’s visibility, there’s a good chance you may have been victimized by an algorithm update or been overtaken by a competitor’s stronger SEO efforts. Google typically updates its algorithm at least once or twice each year.
As Google and other search engines continue to update their ranking systems, you will likely have to update your website’s SEO strategies continuously just to keep pace. Remember that the strategies that were used by so many healthcare SEO services just a couple years ago may now be considered spamming, which can cause all of your hard work to be erased! Instead of freaking out over such a change, remind yourself that while your road to recovery may not be as rapid as you’d like, there are at least three major steps you can take to overcome your ranking drop and return your website to its previous high ranking, if not higher.
1. Identify what caused your website ranking drop
Your first step to recovering your lost ranking is to discover and understand what changed. What caused a Google penalty? Why does Google no longer consider your website to be among the best results for a certain search query? Here are some of the most common problems that can lead to a ranking drop:
- SEO tactics like keyword stuffing, spammy links or duplicated content
- A new Google algorithm that favors an approach you are not using
- Changes to your link portfolio or a loss of backlinks
- An error that occurred behind the scenes on your website
- A competitor upped their SEO game and now their page outranks yours
- You revised your content and inadvertently deleted critical keywords
These are just some of the many reasons why your page can suffer a website ranking drop. The best way to begin recovering from these problems is to familiarize yourself with recent changes in Google’s algorithm, check your site’s overall health, and uncover the reason(s) why your website may no longer be the best resource. Armed with this information, you can more easily determine what impacted your online visibility and Google ranking.
2. Make the necessary changes
After you’ve identified all of the potential problems with your website, you can take action. You can eliminate any ‘black hat’ SEO such as keyword stuffing, spam links and duplicate content. You can expand your pages to become more valuable resources. You can improve your content to make it more SEO friendly and you can correct any errors on your site.
To make these changes, it is critical that you use the most up-to-date healthcare SEO strategies. These include strategies that better align your website with the most current search engine algorithms. If you have received a manual action notice and penalty from Google, you must first address that issue. You can then use the Google Search Console to request removal of your penalty.
3. Be patient and monitor your progress
Once you have made all the necessary changes, it’s time to monitor your progress. Be patient, because it takes time for Google to process updates to a website. If you’ve received a manual action penalty, you’ll have to wait for Google to determine whether you solved the problem. If you did solve it, Google will remove the flag, and your site and ranking should return to normal. However, if you have not made sufficient changes to correct the issue and your site is still violating Google’s guidelines, you will be notified. You should then move forward and attempt to reverse Google’s penalty.
If you received an algorithmic penalty, make sure you have addressed all the potential problems with your site, then wait for Google to re-index your page and remove your penalty. If you still do not see improvement, then your efforts were insufficient, and you should reevaluate the problems with your medical marketing SEO team and continue correcting issues until the next Google update.
Healthcare SEO Services and Readers Matter
When it comes to medical marketing and the latest healthcare marketing trends, healthcare SEO matters. Keep in mind that if you are penalized or your site drops even lower in the rankings, it’s because Google doesn’t think your current strategy is helpful to readers. Although a big negative change in your website’s reach and a ranking can be upsetting, remind yourself that you are changing your online marketing strategy to better serve your patients and prospects. After all, they are the main focus of your medical marketing, not to mention your healthcare marketing plan.
Need Help? Look to a Healthcare Digital Marketing Agency
Your healthcare practice has to evolve with the times. So, too, do your SEO efforts. At Practice Builders, our team is experienced with implementing SEO strategies that have already proven successful for many clients. Our healthcare SEO services team gradually adjusts their efforts to follow the latest best practices and healthcare marketing trends to achieve the best possible Google rankings.
Ensure that you properly address problems with your website and regain your rankings by leaving the tasks to our dedicated professionals. Consult with a healthcare digital marketing agency that has a wide variety of SEO solutions. You can make your life much easier and make you practice more profitable by partnering with Practice Builders. Learn more by visiting practicebuilders.com or calling 855-898-2710.