{"id":17665,"date":"2023-04-16T06:55:34","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T06:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/googles-gary-illyes-on-sudden-keyword-ranking-drops\/484558\/"},"modified":"2023-04-16T06:55:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T06:55:34","slug":"googles-gary-illyes-on-sudden-keyword-ranking-drops-via-sejournal-mattgsouthern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/?p=17665","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s Gary Illyes On Sudden Keyword Ranking Drops via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the latest edition of Google\u2019s SEO Office Hours, Analyst Gary Illyes addressed a concern raised by a website owner regarding their site disappearing from search results for a specific keyword.<\/p>\n

Despite ranking first previously, the website owner could no longer find their site, even though the page was still indexed.<\/p>\n

Illyes reassured them it\u2019s unusual for a website to lose its ranking for one keyword.<\/p>\n

In most cases, he said, competitors have outranked the site.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really uncommon that you would completely lose rankings for just one keyword. Usually you just get out-ranked by someone else in search results instead if you did indeed disappear for this one particular keyword.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here are more insights from Illyes on investigating ranking drops.<\/p>\n

Investigating Keyword Ranking Issues<\/h2>\n

To determine whether the ranking drop was an isolated incident or part of a broader trend, Illyes suggests checking if the issue is occurring globally.<\/p>\n

To do this, he recommends asking friends that live in other locations to search for the keyword and see if they can find your website.<\/p>\n

Search results can be influenced by a user\u2019s location and search history.<\/p>\n

If a website\u2019s disappearance for a specific keyword is limited to a particular region or individual users, it could be due to geo-targeting or personalization factors.<\/p>\n

Illyes states:<\/p>\n

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\u201cFirst I would check if that\u2019s the case globally. Ask some remote friends to search for that keyword and report back. If they do see your site then it\u2019s just a \u201cglitch in the matrix.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You can accomplish the same on your own using a virtual private network (VPN) to change your location and simulate searches from different countries.<\/p>\n

This will allow you to see if your website\u2019s ranking is consistent across various locations.<\/p>\n

If your site is consistently absent from test searches, you may have a more significant problem.<\/p>\n

Illyes continues:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf they don\u2019t [find your website in search results], then next I would go over my past actions to see if I did anything that might have caused it.<\/p>\n

Have I changed my internal link structure or page layout or acquired more links or if I use the disavow tool and so on each of these may have some effect on ranking. So going through them is probably going to help.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Adding on to Illyes\u2019 advice, there are other reasons why a website might disappear from search results for an individual keyword.<\/p>\n

Some of the potential causes include the following:<\/p>\n