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12 Common Ranking Issues

Competitive Keyword Loss

Is this part of the free quick scan?  No 🙁 This issue is part of our full audit that we perform when you sign up for one of our SEO Restoration Plans. Start by running your free quick scan to see what errors you have, and learn more about our plans.

What is Competitive Keyword Loss?

Websites can lose their rankings for competitive keywords over time due to a variety of reasons, including:

  1. Changes in search engine algorithms: Search engines constantly update their algorithms to improve search results, which can impact a website’s ranking.
  2. Increased competition: As more websites compete for the same keywords, it becomes harder to rank highly for them.
  3. Lack of fresh content: Search engines favor websites that regularly update their content, so if a website does not add new content or update existing content, it can lose its ranking over time.
  4. Poor quality content: If a website’s content is not informative or engaging, it may not rank highly in search results.
  5. Technical issues: Technical issues such as slow loading times, broken links, or poor mobile optimization can negatively impact a website’s ranking.

To maintain a high ranking for competitive keywords, it’s important for websites to regularly update their content, optimize for search engines, and stay up-to-date with changes in algorithms and best practices.

You can see an example of this in the image below. Over the course of about 12 months, this website quietly lost ground on their top 10 keywords, losing 34 position in this span of time.

Ultimately, RestoreMySEO was tasked to uncover the reason(s) why this occurred, and how to reverse the trend. Our process and tools will help identify with a high level of certainty one or more issues that could be plaguing your website, followed by a plan of attack to fix those issues, and restore rankings.

How Long Does it Take To Recover from Competitive Keyword Loss?

The amount of time it takes to recover from a loss in rankings for competitive keywords can vary depending on the reason for the drop in ranking and the actions taken to address the issue.

If the drop in ranking is due to technical issues or poor quality content, the recovery time can be relatively quick if the issues are addressed promptly. However, if the drop in ranking is due to increased competition or changes in search engine algorithms, the recovery time can be longer and more challenging.

In general, it’s important to have patience and a long-term strategy when trying to recover from a loss in rankings. It can take several weeks or even months to see improvement, especially for highly competitive keywords.

Some effective strategies for recovering from a loss in rankings include:

  1. Conducting a thorough website audit to identify technical issues and addressing them promptly.
  2. Creating high-quality, informative content that is optimized for search engines.
  3. Building high-quality backlinks to the website from reputable sources.
  4. Engaging in social media and other marketing efforts to drive traffic to the website.

Overall, the key to recovering from a loss in rankings is to focus on providing high-quality content and improving the user experience on the website, while also staying up-to-date with the latest best practices for search engine optimization.

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