Welcome to Surviving the Storm, a guide to help website owners recover their rankings after algorithm updates. Algorithm updates can cause a lot of chaos and anxiety among website owners who rely on their website traffic for leads, sales and profits.

Maybe you’ve recently experienced a drop in your website traffic, which could be due to an algorithm update. Don’t panic! This guide will take you through steps to assess the impact of the update and recover your rankings.

Understanding Algorithm Updates

Before we dive into the steps you need to take to recover your rankings, let’s have a quick overview of algorithm updates. Well, In simple words, Algorithm updates are changes in search engines’ algorithms that determine how search engine results pages (SERPs) are ranked.

Google rolls out updates to improve search results, fix bugs, and provide a better user experience. However, algorithm updates can adversely affect the rankings of some websites. These updates are not meant to penalize you and lower your website’s ranking on purpose.

Assessing the Impact of the Update

The first step in recovering your website’s ranking is to understand the impact the algorithm update has had on your website. You can follow these steps to evaluate the impact:

  • Check Google Analytics for changes in website traffic.
  • Note changes in keyword ranking reports.
  • Look out for any manual actions on your website.
  • Check for any crawl errors in Google Search Console.

These evaluations will help you understand the scope of the update’s impact on your website.

A laptop screen showing a website's Google Analytics report.

Identifying the Cause

The next step is identifying the cause of the drop. Google updates its algorithm frequently, and several changes occur simultaneously to analyze what has led to the fall. You should keep in mind the following possibilities:

  • Technical SEO issues
  • Content relevancy
  • Negative SEO from other sites
  • Duplication of content
  • Backlinks quality

Once you have identified the cause, you can take the necessary steps to fix it.

A person scratching their head at a computer screen, trying to identify the cause of the problem.

Fixing Technical SEO Issues

Technical SEO is a fundamental factor in improving website longevity and effectiveness. Fixing technical issues can be tedious work, but here are some things you can do to address the problems:

  • Fix broken links
  • Optimize images
  • Make your site mobile-friendly
  • Improve page speed
  • Address non-responsive pages

By taking care of technical SEO, you would resolve the core issues in your website, which will lead to increased traffic.

A web developer fixing technical SEO issues using a computer.

Optimizing Your Content

Updates also consider the relevance and uniqueness of your content. The next step, therefore, is to evaluate the relevance of your website’s content. Here are some tips:

  • Remove duplicate content
  • Infuse target keywords
  • Evaluate the content’s relevance
  • Ensure sufficient information
  • Update old content

By addressing the content issues, you’ll make your website relevant and valuable to your users.

A picture of a man working on a computer and typing content.

Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is an off-page SEO strategy that can help your website recover. Here are some things to do:

  • Share your content on social media platforms.
  • Encourage social shares
  • Optimize the metadata

Social media presence can significantly impact your website’s visibility on search engines. The more people engage with your content, the more you will fare better in your rankings.

A smartphone displaying social media posts and icons to illustrate the importance of social media optimization.

Backlinks are also essential to search engine rankings. A poor quality backlink profile can significantly affect your rankings. Perform an assessment of your backlink profile and use the following tactics:

  • Get rid of poor quality, spammy links and link farms.
  • Build new high-quality links.
  • Disavow harmful links.

By evaluating your link profile, you’ll remove harmful links, which will help you earn a higher ranking.

A magnifying glass evaluating links, to illustrate the significance of backlink assessment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, algorithm updates can be pretty unpredictable, and bumps in the road of your website are just inevitable. But by following these steps, you should have a fighting chance and secure your lost rankings. Do not despair; sometimes all it takes is the right mindset and approach to improve your visibility and ranking. Remember, Rome was not built in a day.

A person walking confidently through a stormy landscape, symbolizing recovery after an algorithm update.