How to Recover from a Drop in Google Rankings: 2025 Troubleshooting Guide

Introduction

Struggling with a question: How to Recover from a Drop in Google Rankings? and why your website doesn’t get the right exposure it deserves? You’re not alone. Many website owners face this issue despite their best efforts.

SEO ranking factors, algorithm updates, and technical SEO issues all play a role in your site’s search visibility. If your site isn’t appearing in serp results on the first page, it’s crucial to diagnose the problem and implement the right strategies.

SEO is constantly evolving, and staying up to date with the latest best practices is essential. From understanding Google’s search intent to improving user experience and technical site structure, multiple factors influence search rankings.

If your website isn’t ranking, it could be due to issues with content, backlinks, technical SEO, or even a search intent mismatch—understanding how to recover from a drop in Google rankings starts with identifying these core problems.

In this guide, we’ll break down the most common reasons why your website isn’t ranking high, discuss why google may be ranking your website low. We will show you how to fix these issues, and discuss best practices to boost your SEO.

Lets get started.

Common Reasons For Drop in Google Rankings

Ranking low can be frustrating—especially when you’ve put time into creating content and now see a drop in Google rankings.

Let’s break down some of the most common reasons your site might be hiding on page two of serp results (or worse), and what you can do about it.

Weak Keyword Strategy

• Are you targeting the right SEO ranking factors?
• Have you researched search intent for your keywords?
• Are your on-page SEO optimization techniques effective?

Many websites fail to rank because they target high-competition keywords without considering long-tail keywords.

Using only broad, highly competitive keywords means your website is competing with major authority sites. Additionally, keyword stuffing, using outdated tactics, or failing to optimize for natural language processing (NLP) keywords can harm rankings.

Examples of NLP keywords for – “sudden drop in google rankings”: “search engine ranking factors”, “Google algorithm update”, “search intent”, “content quality”.

Targeting high-competition keywords might seem like a great strategy to rank for popular search terms, but it can actually hurt your SEO efforts and cause GSC to show lower rank for your website.

Optimize for long-tail keywords that have low competition but high search intent using keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner in order to improve google website traffic rankings.

• Use primary keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and H1 tags.
• Ensure semantic keyphrases and NLP keywords are naturally integrated throughout your content.
• Perform competitive analysis to identify keyword gaps and opportunities.
• Optimize for voice search queries, as more users rely on conversational search.

2. How to Recover From a Drop in Google Rankings: Technical SEO Issues

If Google can’t crawl or index your site, it won’t appear in search results. Some technical SEO issues include:

• Slow site speed – Affects user experience and increases bounce rates.
• Mobile-friendliness – Google prioritizes mobile-optimized sites.
• Broken links – Can harm site authority and dwell time.
• Duplicate content issues – Leads to keyword cannibalization.
• Incorrect robots.txt or noindex tags – Can block pages from search engine spiders.
• Poor URL structure – URLs should be descriptive and keyword-rich.
• Lack of structured data – Helps search engines understand your content better.
• Use GSC (Google Search Console) and PageSpeed Insights to identify technical issues—an essential first step in understanding how to recover from a drop in Google rankings.

Google Search Console Keyword Ranking Check:

Step 1: Open the “Performance” Report

On the left-hand sidebar, click on “Performance”. This will open a report showing how your site performs in Google Search over time.

Step 2: Enable the “Queries” Tab

In the Performance report, make sure the “Queries” tab is selected. This tab displays the search terms (keywords) that triggered impressions and clicks for your website.

Step 3: Review Key Metrics

You’ll see a list of keywords along with important metrics:

• Clicks: How many times users clicked your site from search results
• Impressions: How many times your site appeared in search results
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): Clicks divided by impressions
• Average Position: Your average Google ranking for that keyword

Step 4: Filter by Date Range

Click the date filter to choose a specific range (last 7 days, 28 days, 3 months, or custom range). Comparing performance over time helps you see how your keyword rankings evolve.

Step 5: Apply Filters (Optional)

To narrow down your analysis:

• Use the “Query” filter to check specific keywords
• Use the “Page” filter to see rankings by URL
• Add “Country”, “Device”, or “Search Appearance” filters for more insights

Step 6: Export the Data

Click the “Export” button (top-right) to download your keyword data in Excel, Google Sheets, or CSV format. This makes it easier to track changes or share with your team.

Step 7: Analyze & Take Action

Use the data to identify:

• Keywords with high impressions but low CTR → Improve meta titles/descriptions
• Keywords ranking on page 2 → Optimize content or build backlinks
• Declining positions → Audit for content freshness or technical issues

Monitoring Google Search Console keyword rankings offers valuable insights into how your site performs in search results, especially when diagnosing an impressions drop in Google Search Console.

By understanding which queries drive traffic, and tracking shifts in rankings over time, you can fine-tune your content strategy and SEO efforts for maximum visibility.

It’s a simple yet powerful way to stay aligned with what your audience is searching for.

Lesser-Known Technical SEO Issues That Affect Google Search Rankings:

When most people think of SEO, they focus on keywords and content—but behind the scenes, technical issues can quietly tank your rankings. If you’ve optimized everything and still find yourself wondering, ‘why do I rank so low on Google?’, it might be time to dig deeper.

Here are some overlooked yet critical technical SEO problems that can negatively impact SERP performance:

1. Orphan Pages (Pages Without Internal Links)

• Orphan pages exist on your site but have no internal links pointing to them, making them hard for search engines to crawl—often contributing to low traffic and rankings. Addressing these is a key step in how to recover from a drop in Google rankings.

• Why it matters: Google struggles to discover these pages, leading to poor indexing and ranking issues.
• Fix: Regularly audit your site using tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to find and link orphan pages strategically.

2. Soft 404 Errors

• Unlike regular 404 pages, a soft 404 appears when a page returns a “200 OK” status but has little or no content, tricking search engines into thinking it’s valuable.
• Why it matters: Google devalues these pages, affecting crawl budget and site rankings.
• Fix: Identify soft 404s in Google Search Console and either remove them, redirect them, or add valuable content.

3. Faceted Navigation Problems

Improving your Google low website traffic rankings starts with creating valuable, SEO-optimized content that meets user intent

• Sites with filtering and sorting options (common in e-commerce) often create hundreds of unnecessary URL variations, leading to possible duplicate content penalty.
• Why it matters: Google wastes its crawl budget indexing non-important pages, leaving crucial pages undiscovered.
• Fix: Use canonical tags, robots.txt rules, or parameter handling in GSC to prevent over-indexing.

4. Poorly Implemented Hreflang Tags (Multilingual SEO Issues)

• Hreflang tags help search engines understand language versions of a website. However, incorrect implementation can cause confusion.
• Why it matters: Google may display the wrong version of your site in search results, reducing organic traffic.
• Fix: Use Hreflang testing tools and check that all language versions have proper self-referencing hreflang tags.

5. Incorrect Canonical Tags

• Canonical tags tell search engines which version of a page is the primary one to prevent duplicate content issues.
• Why it matters: If set incorrectly, Google might ignore your important pages and rank the wrong version instead.
• Fix: Ensure that your canonical tags are pointing to the correct URLs and not self-referencing when unnecessary.

6. Infinite Crawl Loops

• Happens when poorly structured pagination or redirect chains create endless loops that trap search engine crawlers.
• Why it matters: Googlebot wastes time crawling non-essential URLs, leading to crawl budget issues.
• Fix: Implement proper pagination, avoid unnecessary redirects, and check with GSC for anomalies.

7. Missing Structured Data (Schema Markup)

• Schema markup helps Google understand your content better and enhances rich snippets.
• Why it matters: Without structured data, your SERP listings are less engaging, reducing CTR.
• Fix: Use Google’s Rich Results Test to ensure your pages have the correct structured data markup.

8. Non-Secure (HTTP) Pages Mixed with HTTPS

• Google prefers HTTPS, and mixed content issues occur when some elements (images, scripts, or CSS) still load via HTTP.
• Why it matters: This can break page rendering, trigger security warnings, and impact SEO.
• Fix: Scan your site using Chrome DevTools or SSL-checking tools and update all elements to HTTPS.

9. Crawl Budget Waste on Low-Value Pages

• Google assigns a limited crawl budget per site, and low-value pages (e.g., archives, tags, search results) can drain it.
• Why it matters: Your important pages may not be crawled or indexed regularly.
• Fix: Block unimportant pages using robots.txt, noindex tags, or canonicalization.

10. JavaScript Rendering Issues

• Some sites rely heavily on JavaScript, but search engines struggle to properly render and index content hidden within JS scripts.
• Why it matters: If Googlebot can’t see your content, it won’t rank in SERPs.
• Fix: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and Lighthouse to test how Google renders your pages, and implement server-side rendering (SSR) or dynamic rendering if needed.

Solution:

• Check GSC (Google Sech Console) for indexing errors.
• Optimize images, enable caching, and improve page speed.
• Use structured data for better search visibility.
• Implement canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues.
• Ensure XML sitemaps are up to date for better crawling.
• Improve website security (HTTPS) for better trust and rankings.

How to Get Google Rankings Back If Your Positions Dropped: Lack of High-Quality Backlinks

One of the biggest factors why do you rank low on Google is the quality and relevance of your backlinks.

How to build backlinks for SEO, remain a key SEO ranking factor. If your site has low-quality or no backlinks, it will struggle to rank.

Solution:

• Focus on white-hat link-building strategies.
• Get links from authoritative sites in your niche.
• Utilize guest posting, HARO, and digital PR.
• Create shareable, high-value content that naturally attracts backlinks.
• Leverage internal linking to distribute link equity effectively.

4. Poor Content Optimization

Did you know that faster loading speeds can significantly boost your website position in SERPs in 2025?.

Google values high-quality, user-focused content. If your content is outdated, irrelevant, or keyword-stuffed, it won’t rank—and understanding how to recover from a drop in Google rankings starts with improving content quality.

Solution:

• Optimize for E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
• Use engaging formats like lists, tables, and bullet points.
• Update old content regularly and add internal links.
• Ensure content provides real value, solving user pain points effectively.
• Write comprehensive, well-structured articles that fully address search queries.

5. Search Intent Mismatch

Google ranks pages that best match a user’s intent. If you don’t match your content to search intent, it won’t rank well.

Solution:

• Identify whether a query is informational, transactional, or navigational.
• Structure content based on user needs.
• Use schema markup to enhance search visibility.
• Analyze top-ranking pages for target keywords to understand intent alignment.

When you ask yourself what page of google am i on?, you need to keep an eye on your rankings with tools like GSC or Semrush.

6. Google Penalties & Algorithm Updates

Staying updated with Google’s algorithm changes is crucial—not just for maintaining strong website traffic, but also for knowing how to recover from a drop in Google rankings when it happens.

You may notice a big rankings drop after Google core algorithm update and your site may be affected by a Google penalty.

Solution:

• Check GSC for manual penalties.
• Stay updated on SEO trends and follow best practices.
• Avoid black-hat SEO tactics like keyword stuffing and spammy links.
• Monitor Google’s algorithm updates and adjust your strategy accordingly.
• Conduct regular SEO audits to identify and fix potential issues proactively.

How to Improve Your Low Website Ranking (Checklist)

If you’re frustrated with your website showing up on page 5 of Google Google SERP SEO Rankings Guide — or not at all — you’re not alone. The good news? You can learn how to recover from a drop in Google rankings and start climbing back up.

Let’s run through the checklist of some practical ways you can start improving your low rankings and get your site moving in the right direction.

How to Increase SEO Rankings:

Low Traffic Rankings on Google : Conclusion

Understanding Google website traffic ranking problems and why your site isn’t performing well requires a thorough SEO audit. Whether it’s keyword research mistakes, technical SEO issues, or a lack of high quality backlinks, identifying and fixing these issues is essential if you want to learn how to recover from a drop in Google rankings and regain your search visibility.

By focusing on on-page SEO optimization, search intent, and high-quality content, your site can climb up the rankings and gain more organic traffic.

FAQ: Why Do I Rank So Low on Google?

Why is my website not ranking on the first page of Google?

Your site may be targeting the wrong keywords, lacking backlinks, or have technical issues like slow speed or poor mobile usability. Google prioritizes relevance, authority, and user experience.

How long does it take for my website to rank higher on Google?

It can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months depending on your competition, niche, and how consistently you apply SEO best practices.

Does my content need to be longer to rank higher?

Not always. Content should match search intent and provide value. Quality, structure, and relevance matter more than length alone.

Why do low-quality websites outrank me on Google?

They may have stronger backlinks, better SEO strategies, or higher domain authority. Google’s algorithm isn’t perfect but often rewards technical optimization and engagement.

Do I need backlinks to rank higher?

Yes—high-quality backlinks are a major ranking factor. They signal trust and authority, helping you move up in search results.

Can duplicate content hurt my ranking?

Yes. Google prefers original content. Duplicate or copied content can lead to lower rankings or even deindexing.

Does site speed affect my ranking?

Absolutely. A slow-loading website negatively impacts rankings and user experience. Optimize images and code to improve performance.

How often should I update my content to rank better?

Update content regularly to stay relevant. Refreshing old posts with new information and keywords can boost rankings.

Can I rank without SEO tools?

It’s possible but much harder. Tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and SEMrush help identify SEO issues and opportunities efficiently.

Should I hire an SEO expert if I keep ranking low?

If you’ve tried optimizing on your own and results aren’t improving, a professional SEO audit and strategy may be your best next step.