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New Day Same Frustrating Results
Posted by on June 26, 2020 at 1:01 pm**New project problem:** The first thing we do with a new client is update all their on-site technical issue. Clean up duplicates, remove 404, etc. We try to get their health score as high as possible.
This tends to give some benefit in ranking. Their site will moderately improved in tracked keywords.
**Problem** is with in a week or two their ranking falls worse then their baseline. Anybody see something like this? Any advice on this one? Any thoughts on what you tell clients. -
6 Replies
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You need to change how you look at natural search as a channel.
It’s not an instant result channel like paid search or paid social. Even if you make lots of changes, it takes time for Google to recrawl or revaluation of the index.
At my agency, we’ve adopted a more realistic approach that keeps clients for longer and happier. Some of the major benefits for SEO is that it has significantly lower cost per acquisitions. But one of the major drawbacks is that it’s a lot slower.
We help clients to see that their good work is making improvements, it’s just part of a bigger picture. Helps smaller businesses to mature and see SEO as a channel and not as their whole digital marketing strategy is where you’ll drive real value.
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What u/InsolubleFluff says…
Plus I think you perhaps need to spend some time gaining experience.
Start your own website/blog. See what works. Try different strategies.
It sounds like you have learned SEO from being told what to do and what to think, probably by an SEO manager who doesn’t really understand how SEO works themself.
Learn SEO. Learn what timescales to expect results from specific actions.
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How confident are you the technical changes were necessary?
Sometimes health scores can be a bit vague and misleading, so don’t be afraid to manually check the site factor-by-factor.
That being said, drops like this have happened to me before. This is just speculation, but I like to add new content/pages alongside any technical reductions (e.g removing duplicates). It helps soften the blow of your site losing ‘quantity’ from cleaning it up.
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The one word I didn’t see in your description of the problem is “content.” Fixing and optimizing the technical components is good – it’s a best practice – but it’s not what gets results. I’m guessing there’s something about the content on these pages that just isn’t good enough to compete for higher spots.
Rankings will always fluctuate, and I’ve typically seen a newly published page that I know was written with a high caliber jump to #8 – fall to #28 – jump to #11 – fall to #36 – and then a few weeks later it’s #6.
I would focus more on dissecting the writing and page structure. Is there a clear heading order on each page? Are paragraphs chunked into understandable segments? Are there relevant internal links? What about external links to back up some of the information presented?
These are the components you want to look closer at IMO.
EDIT: And as far was what to tell the client, let them know that since the technical aspects have been completed, it’s time to take a hard look at the content. You need to inform them that content is ultimately what search engines scrape.
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I find with page changes the ranking jumps a lot. I believe this is because Google knows it has changed and spends a while testing it, looking at user behaviour like CTR, bounce etc and deciding where to place it. I wouldn’t personally be concerned about a short-term change, just keep an eye on it and manage expectations with the client.
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Do a backlink audit, there might be some spammy links pulling it down with High Da
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