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SEO lost 30 ranks in a matter of weeks – Can’t find a reason why
Hello all, my website ranking has been tanking for an unknown reason. For the past couple years, we held 2-3 every time I checked on my phone.
Over the past few weeks, it was brought to my attention that we dropped down to #12, I have been trying to find an expert to diagnose the issue, but I keep getting the run-around.
Since then we dropped to rank #17 as of yesterday, and now today I am seeing us at rank 27.
We consistently have 40-50k monthly visitors to our site, which is far greater than the 26 slots ahead of us.
If anyone can help, that would be greatly appreciated.The keyword I am using is “Pythia”, and our website is pythiaclothing
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1 Reply
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Your front page is asking for a phone number and email. I didn’t see any content. That does not make for a good search result.
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Has your subscription display always been there? Could it be affecting your user experience?
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pythiaclothing dot com? I’m seeing you have a low DR and low amount of referring domains linking to your site. Get some branded and keyword targeted backlinks to your home page and you’ll get back up there in a few months
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I can’t analyze as it’s protected!
Maybe it wasn’t relevant to the keyword anymore. Google changes its algorithm, and it can happen.
But I can’t guess without analyzing!
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What I can suggest is that if you were making money from that keyword, then you should invest in it. Especially on link building.
Links have a direct relation with rankings
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Just from first impression: You picked a historical person as name for your brand and it’s safe to assume that the vast majority of users are looking for the term in the Greek mythology context.
So, a very slight change in the user intent the algorithm assumes can easily cause a major drop in rankings. Especially since your homepage has zero relevant content, it’s just a landing page to make users register.
I know streetwear works with these timed drops, limited numbers of items and popup stores. The problem with Google is they want actual content, permanently and you don’t have the popularity so far to be ranked high anyway because your brand is more popular than the historical Pythia.
Keep in mind: For an algorithm it’s hard to differentiate a site that had content and is now “abused” for collecting leads from what you are doing. It simply irritates Google if the site switches from having content to having none.
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Just a quick opinion. I would need more info:
When someone searches for Pythia, there is nothing about that word that automatically leads Google to think the person was searching for your clothing company.
Pythia is related to Greek mythology, so the definition would be the obvious intent for searcher to find.
The problem is when I search “Pythia Clothing” your site does not show up which automatically tells me something is wrong since there’s no other related brand and your brand should be showing, other than the sponsored ad.
I agree with others, locking content is not a good idea. Despite the fact that you were ranking, you should have a blog section unlocked and available.
You mentioned some changes were made. You need to determine how big the changes were. Big changes will affect your rank.
Check it for crawlability. Use various online tools to see if any problems show up.
I’m simplifying things because i know that nobody knows your site better than you. Google doesn’t like your site right now. Figure out when you lost ranking with keywords and cross-reference it to changes you made and any Google updates that might have affected the site.
Add a blog that Google can access. i don’t know any good reason why you’d lock out visitors.
Ultimately, why does it matter if you rank if people can’t access your site? I’m guessing you give people your url if you want them to access your site.
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Google is looking at search intent and for the search term “Pythia” it seems people want information on the oracle. It’s going to be hard to compete with that because what you would need to do is change the meaning of that search term so that when people search Pythia they click through to your site not Wikipedia etc. I’m surprised you were ever as high as you were. Has there been an increase in searches for “Pythia clothing” since you lost Pythia ranking? This might indicate anyone searching for you are adding the clothing to find you when they didn’t have to before. But my suspicion is before you never had a great CTR because your page isn’t what people wanted and Google has corrected it. I also work for a brand that’s a one word name with a historical relevance so I know these things can be a challenge, what you want is for your brand to be so reputable that when someone searches for it you’re there in the mix.
My suggestion would be to concentrate on social and PR to increase your brand exposure to get more branded search terms. I don’t know a lot about this niche and I know you say it’s common but it seems weird to me there’s literally nothing for Google to crawl, I would at least expect an about section and registered business address, contact details etc. I would think this is a scam site because it’s asking for personal data but there’s nothing to suggest what on earth it is. I can imagine Google is considering how trustworthy you are.
Also you have decent follower numbers on IG but only one Facebook review, no Google reviews. In fact there are two Pythia brands (on IG one has USA in the name) one has street wear, one has boho clothes. It’s hard to know which one you are because there’s no imagery on your site. Get your accounts verified, get some reviews, build up your brand so you are sending trust signals to Google and customers. Get more lifestyle photography (ie actual models in clothes not just inserts) There are a lot of fly by night dodgy clothing sites ripping people off and shipping Wish style quality clothes to people so you need to stand out and prove you are authentic and trustworthy. This process will also get you a knowledge panel and that’s when you’ll find Google is really understanding what you are. It’s possible that other brands with hidden websites did all this hard work before hiding away.
Good luck, this is actually a super fun project and will make a good case study for your portfolio.
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Sounds quality related. You need to do marketing and not tick box metrics
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A. Your website is locked down.
B. You have zero content on your website.Why would Google want to rank a website that has no content, repeatedly gets locked, or is constantly sold out of inventory?
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Their suggestion that a new update has come out. Google has not confirmed yet. Give it a couple weeks. Don’t do anything. Don’t panic when a big algorithm update comes out. Rankings do drop and then they recover after a week or two
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