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Diagnosing and Fixing a Drop in
Rankings
By Using the Appropriate Tools
Holly MillerAnderson
Former SEO Product Manager, Macy’sTECH

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Who am I?
SEO Strategist
(technical & content)
Digital Marketer Product Leader

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Rankings
Source: Google, Bing, Yahoo!
Things to know:
Traffic
Source: organic, direct, referral
Conversions
Source: product page, on page
optimization

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Enterprise SEO Software + site crawl capability
Google Analytics (GA) & Search Console (GSC)
Leverage internal teams (Product & IT)
Market insight tools (i.e. GoogleTrends)
Run a crawl, identify site errors & warnings. Cross reference with GSC.
Check GA traffic sources. Cross reference with online visibility trend in SEO software.
Get perspective from market research tools; changes in consumer search behavior?
Check in w/ internal teams, awareness of the feature release schedule.
Spot check common issue areas: Robots.txt, SiteMap, Canonical tags, 301
Redirects, Backlink profile, improper site migration.
Chef Anderson

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These tools will help you diagnose which URLs lost rankings:
Tool Snapshot
Enterprise
Software
TrafficTools InternalTeams Market Insight
tools
Searchmetrics
BrightEdge
SEO Clarity
Google Analytics
Google Search
Console
Adobe Analytics
Tableau
Product
IT
Marketing
GoogleTrends
SparkToro
Glimpse
eMarketer
PinterestTrends

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Something
changed on
your site
Ranking drops occur due to three basic aspects:
Google
changed
something
External
factors are
affecting
rankings

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• Code updated or changes pushed live
• Folder(s) moved
• Robots.txt blocked from crawling
• Changes to Sitemap, Canonical tags, Redirects
etc.
• Incurred spammy backlinks
• Received a Manual Penalty from Google
Possibility #1: Something changed on your site…
INTL.

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• Google Search Console – Core Web Vitals
• Google Analytics
• Enterprise SEO software
• Talk to your dev/IT teams
Tools to validate if changes to your site affected rankings
INTL.

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• Algorithm update
• improving overall site quality signals Expertise,
Authority and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
• page speed
• user experience (UX)
• SERP layout: more ads/ elements / KW relevance
Possibility #2: Google changed something…
XT.

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• Enterprise SEO software
• Check official Google Blog/ Twitter account
• MOZ Algorithm Update History
• https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
Tools to validate if an algo update is affecting rankings
XT.

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• Market changes
• Shift in consumer search behavior
• Global pandemic??
• Competitors…
• overtook you in rankings
• consolidated their pages resulting in
rankings increase
• increased their PPC spend
Possibility #3: External factors changed things…
TREND

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• Google Trends
• Spark Toro
• Glimpse
• eMarketer
• Pinterest Trends
• + a curated list of industry pros
Tools to validate when external factors affect rankings
TREND

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Let’s start diagnosing!

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1. Enterprise software
2. Traffic tools
3. Internal teams
4. Market research tools
Tools to check in on:

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What can enterprise SEO platforms tell us?
1. Insights about our overall domain visibility in relation to direct and
indirect competitors.
2. Which high search volume keywords we lost rankings on.
3. Which URLs of our domain lost rankings.
4. Technical SEO factors to address.

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Step 1: Enterprise SaaS Software
Data:
1. SEO Visibility
2. Winner/Loser keywords
3. URLs by folder or groups

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5 questions to ask yourself inside Enterprise software
1. Which high Search Volume terms lost rankings?
2. Did our URL rankings drop while direct competitors increased?
3. Did any indirect competitors overtake us in rankings?
4. Did our domain along with direct competitors lose rankings?
5. Which specific areas of our domain lost rankings?

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Data: winner/loser keywords
Diagnosed as…
Algorithm update if your competitors also lost rankings on those same
keywords.
OR
You did it if content was updated on X date and now Google doesn’t
perceive it to be relevant.
Which high search volume terms lost rankings?

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Did our URL rankings drop while direct competitors
increased?
Data: SEO Visibility + site crawl to identify
errors
Likely means…
Something about our website changed.
Direct
competitor
rankings
Our domain
rankings

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Did any indirect competitors overtake us in rankings?
Data: SEO Visibility
Likely means…
Something they did that improved their website.
i.e. investments in improving content or architecture changes.

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Did our domain AND direct competitors lose rankings?
Data: SEO Visibility
If yes, it likely means…
An algorithm update occurred.

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Which specific areas of our domain lost rankings?
Data: folders & URL groupings
Likely means…
Internal teams change something resulting in GoogleBot being unable
to access that portion of the site.
OR
Also possible an aspect of the current algorithm(s) in play are affecting
rankings.

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1. Enterprise software
2. Traffic tools
3. Internal teams
4. Market research tools
Tools to check in on:

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1. What traffic sources have decreased and when?
2. Which pages are receiving less traffic? When?
3. Has the crawl rate decreased? When?
What can traffic tools tell us?

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1. Which pages are receiving less traffic than usual?
2. Which traffic sources have declined?
2 Questions to ask inside Analytics

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Acquisition
1. Acquisition>All Traffic>Channels
2. Acquisition>All Traffic> Source/Medium
Behavior
1. Behavior>Site Content> Landing Pages
2. Behavior>Site Content> Content Drilldown
Conversion
1. Conversions> Goal URLs
Reference – Report path in Analytics
ABC’s of Google Analytics

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• Organic
• Direct
• Referral
• Timeline is important because it can be correlated with industry
sources correlate to an algorithm update.
What traffic sources decreased? When?

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• If rankings have declined, it will
reflect in traffic received to the
site.
Which pages are receiving less traffic? When?

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• GA tracks pages viewed, not which
elements the user interacted with or
clicked on.
Pro tip: GA & GSC data never match up – and it’s OK!
Source: https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/how-to-setup-google-analytics/

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1. What has changed with page performance?
2. What areas of the site lost rankings? When?
3. Have impressions also decreased?
3 Questions to ask inside Google Search Console

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Performance
• Search results>Average Position
Index
• Coverage
• Sitemaps
Enhancements
• Core Web Vitals – NEW!
Report reference - Google Search Console

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https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-now-has-6-ways-to-measure-core-web-vitals/370824/
New GSC feature:

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1. Enterprise software
2. Traffic tools
3. Internal teams
4. Market research tools
Tools to check in on:

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Checklist of items:
• Feature release schedule
• URLs added/removed
• Canonical tags
• 301 Redirects
• Sitemap
• Robots.txt
• Page speed
Check in with your dev teams

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1. Enterprise software
2. Traffic tools
3. Internal teams
4. Market research tools
Tools to check in on:

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Market Research Tools: get context using trending # on
Source: twitter.com/ecommerce/status/1246866108700917764

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Recommendations for Fixing

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Pillars of SEO that affect rankings

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SEO industry resources - Content & UX
Quality Rater Guidelines
https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguideli
nes.pdf
E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthy)
YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)
How to Use Structured Data to Support E-A-T
by Lily Ray
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-use-structured-data-to-support-e-a-t/362946/

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SEO industry resources – Crawling & Indexing
Crawling Monday by Aleyda Solis
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/crawling-mondays/
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/crawlingmondaysbyaleyda

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1. Segment data by folder type. I.e. domain.com/shop/product
2. Separate out mobile domain from desktop
3. Set up Google Alerts on KWs you don’t want to lose visibility on i.e. high Search
Volume generic & brand terms
4. Set up basic dashboards with ranking & traffic data and circulate them to team
leads regularly
4 Proactive steps

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Holly’s go-to list of People Resources
Peeps Resources
Aleyda Solis https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/crawling-mondays/
Lily Ray Twitter @lilyraynyc
Marie Haynes
Consulting
GoogleAlgo Updates and More – A Complete List of Changes that Could Affect
Your Site’sTraffic
https://www.mariehaynes.com/algo-changes-and-more/
GlennGabe May 2020 GoogleCore update – 4 Case StudiesThat Emphasize the Complexity
of Broad Core Algorithm Updates
https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/may-2020-google-core-update-case-
studies/
AJ Kohn blindfiveyearold.com
Andrew Shotland localseoguide.com

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Thank you!
Bay Area Search
official Bay Area SEO meetup - slack channel 
https://bayareasearch.org/
Digital Marketers Organization
free virtual conferences & networking
https://www.digitalmarketers.org/

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• Aleyda Solis – https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/crawling-mondays/
• Lily Ray – Twitter @lilyraynyc
• Marie Haynes Consulting - Google Algo Updates and More – A Complete List of Changes
that Could Affect Your Site’s Traffic
• https://www.mariehaynes.com/algo-changes-and-more/
• Glenn Gabe – May 2020 Google Core update – 4 Case Studies That Emphasize the
Complexity of Broad Core Algorithm Updates
• https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/may-2020-google-core-update-case-studies/
• AJ Kohn – blindfiveyearold.com
• Andrew Shotland - localseoguide.com
Holly’s go-to list of People Resources