Website owners have been asking: Where is my website? I can’t find it anywhere.
Many businesses have seen a massive drop in organic rankings. Once ranked at the top of Google, their site has dropped off the map.
99% of the time, it has nothing to do with their website and has everything to do with changes in ‘Google search.’
Moreover, search engine industry professionals agree that Search Generative Experience will negatively impact websites.
For instance:
a. Loss of website traffic
b. Lesser click-throughs
c. Lower conversion rates
d. Little to no customer inquiries.
I put the question to Google Gemini AI.
Question:
Hey, Google. Why doesn’t my website rank well anymore? For example, dozens of websites ranking well for multiple keywords at positions 1, 2, or 3 have fallen back 20 or 30 ranking positions.
Here is Google’s AI Response.
There are several reasons why websites that were previously ranking well on Google may have suddenly dropped in the search results. Here are some possible explanations:
1. Google Algorithm Updates: Google frequently updates its search algorithm to improve the quality of its results. These updates can significantly impact website rankings, and it’s possible that the websites you mentioned were negatively affected by a recent update.
2. Changes to the Websites: If the websites in question have undergone significant changes, such as restructuring their content, removing pages, or experiencing technical issues, this could also lead to a drop in rankings.
3. Increased Competition: If new websites have entered the market or existing competitors have improved their SEO efforts, this could push other websites further down in the search results.
4. Technical Issues: Website problems like slow loading times or broken links can negatively impact rankings.
5. Manual Actions: In rare cases, Google may penalize websites for violating its guidelines, which can significantly drop rankings. To determine the specific cause of the ranking drop, you could investigate the following:
Check for Google Algorithm Updates: See if there have been any recent updates around the time of the ranking drop.
Analyze Website Changes: Review any changes to the website’s content, structure, or technical aspects.
Monitor Competitors: Monitor your competitors’ websites and SEO strategies.
Check for Technical Issues: Use tools like Google Search Console to identify and fix any website technical problems. By investigating these factors, you can better understand why the websites experienced a drop in rankings and take steps to improve their SEO performance. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
[ End Google AI Response ]
A closer look at Google’s AI answers and suggestions.
Technically, all Google AI’s suggestions are valid and can be categorized as ‘Best Practices.’
However, the most apparent reason search traffic and inquiries have dropped off is that ‘the nature of Google Search has changed.’
The new evolution of AI Search is here.
Hema Budaraju, the Senior Director of Product Search Generative Experience at Google, told us that the link cards within AI Overviews generate a higher click-through rate than traditional web search results. However, Google will not break down impressions and click data for the AI Overview link in Google Search Consoles.
Furthermore, Google’s AI Overviews appear in 15% of queries, but previously, it appeared in 84% of all search queries. (This will change daily.)
How generative AI impacts website rankings and traffic.
First and foremost, organic, direct, referral, and affiliate traffic will decrease.
Gilad David Maayan, CEO and Founder of Agile SEO analyzed traffic drops for 23 websites after Google’s AI Overviews launched.
His study uncovered that organic traffic drop was 18-64% after Google’s AI Overviews was launched.
Google gets the traffic, and small business websites get kicked to the curb. Moreover, AI Overviews could push the little guys (like you and me) out of the search results for a bigger brand.
Click to see Google Search Generative Experience in action. Look, ma, there are no links- until you scroll down the page!
Otherways, Google AI and Chat GPT impact websites.
When you publish a page, post, article, video, or complete website, Google has to crawl, render, and index a massive amount of content, growing with AI-written content.
Furthermore, Google’s data centers can’t handle it.
So, Google is implementing shortcuts like reducing the crawl budget for websites with lots of content but low trust ratings. In other words, if you have thin, unhelpful, generic AI-generated content, Google likely won’t index it.
Once a search engine detects the similarity of content (aka AI-generated content ) across all those websites, it will categorize it as unoriginal.
Therefore, the optimal way to get your website content seen by Google is through content written with experience and opinion. AI cannot write based on human experience.
Google Generative AI will affect your website traffic for better or worse.
The rise of AI will likely shake up your website traffic, and the sad reality is that generative AI is here to stay.
It’s no longer about following “Best Practices.”
Critical, out-of-the-box thinking is now a prerequisite for winning. Above all, we should keep experimenting, evolving, and pushing the boundaries to see what works and what doesn’t.
Here are some steps you can take to improve your ranking!
1. Updates and content freshness matter. Google looks at dates, so date your content and keep it fresh and updated often.
2. Page titles still matter. Google has a feature called (titlematchScore) that is believed to measure how well a page title matches a search query.
3. Google uses the author information associated with content to determine whether an entity is the document’s author. Therefore, add yourself as an author and build your authorship brand.
4. Low-quality content on part of a site can impact a site’s ranking as a whole. Don’t rely on AI alone to generate your content. Write content that is engaging and original. Make sure your content doesn’t suck!
5. Google uses clicks in ranking. Share your website on social media and email. Encourage people to visit your website. Build those clicks!
6. Google determines whether a document is or isn’t a core topic of the website. Stay on topic. Do not post information that does not align with the primary subject matter of your website.
7. Build a notable, famous, well-recognized brand in your space outside of Google search. For example, extend your brand on Facebook, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other 3rd party networks. Also, see 7 Platforms to Optimize Beyond Google and Trusting Google’s Advice.
# Why doesn’t my website rank anymore?
Also, see 3 Important SEO Trends to Watch.
IMAGE CREDITS:
Scary Alien with Google death ray gun image courtesy of Bing.com/create
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