Diagnosing Ranking Drops

Step 2: Scope the drop

How wide the drop is tells you where to look first.

• In GSC Performance, open the Pages tab with Compare on and sort by click difference.
• Filter by page URL (“URL contains” a folder like /blog/ or /services/) to see if one section carries the loss.
• Open the Queries tab to see if the loss is a few big keywords or spread across many.
• In Ahrefs Site Explorer, check Organic keywords for the same pattern and note which competitors moved up.

Step 3: Line up the timing

Pin down the first day the drop started, then look for anything that happened within a few days of it.

• Find the start date. Switch GSC to a daily view and find where the line first breaks. A sharp cliff often points to a sitewide problem (site down, robots.txt block, manual action) or a major update. A slower slide can still be technical, since a page-level noindex only takes effect as Google recrawls each page, but it also fits content, links, or competition.
• Check client site changes. Check the client master, client hub, ClickUp (or ask the MC if needed) for redesigns, migrations, URL changes, new or edited redirects, plugin or theme updates, and CMS changes (WordPress or Webflow publishes). After URL changes, some ranking fluctuation for a few weeks is normal while Google recrawls.
• Check Google updates. Compare the start date to Google’s list of ranking updates on the Search Status Dashboard, noting each update’s start and end date. A drop anywhere inside a rollout window counts as a match. Google recommends waiting at least a week after a core update finishes before judging its impact.
• Check the client’s industry. If several clients in the same niche dropped on the same day, it is more likely an algorithm update than something on one site. Look at competitors using Ahrefs to check this.

Write down the start date and anything that lines up with it. You will use this in Step 5.

Step 4: Check the causes in order

Work 4a through 4e in order. The early checks are fast and catch the most common, most fixable problems.

4a. Technical and indexing

• GSC, Page indexing report (Indexing > Pages): Did indexed pages drop, or did “Excluded by noindex” or “Not found (404)” jump around the start date?
• GSC, URL Inspection: Run the top affected pages. Confirm they are indexed, the canonical is the page itself, and the live test passes.
• robots.txt: Check GSC’s robots.txt report (Settings > robots.txt, available on domain-level properties) and the live file for a new Disallow rule. While in Settings, open Crawl stats and look for a spike in server errors or failed fetches around the start date.
• Redirects: Spot-check old URLs of changed pages. Look for chains, loops, 302s that should be 301s, and redirects pointing to the homepage. In Webflow, review Site settings > Publishing > 301 redirects.
• Sitebulb Audit: Run a fresh crawl and look for new noindex, canonical, broken internal link, or 4xx/5xx errors.

4b. Manual action or security issue

• GSC, Security & Manual Actions: Check both Manual actions and Security issues. A manual action is a penalty a Google reviewer places on a site for breaking its spam policies (like bought links or spammy content). A security issue means Google found the site hacked or serving malware or phishing, and it may warn visitors away. Both are rare but can wipe out rankings, and they only clear once the site is fixed and a review is requested. Anything listed here means escalate right away.

4c. Backlinks

• Ahrefs Site Explorer, Referring domains: Filter to lost domains for the drop window and note any strong ones.
• Lost backlinks by page: Check whether lost links pointed to the pages that dropped. Lost links to unrelated pages are unlikely to be the cause.

4d. Content, competitors, and intent

• Search the lost keywords yourself (in an incognito window). Note what now ranks above the client.
• Look at what the SERP now rewards. If the results shifted from service pages to guides, or from guides to local results, the intent changed, and the page type may need to change.
• Compare against the pages that passed you. Look at depth, freshness, and whether they answer the query more directly.
• Check for cannibalization. In GSC, filter by the keyword and open the Pages tab. If two or more of the client’s own pages trade places for the same keyword, they are likely competing with each other, so neither ranks as well as one strong page would.

4e. Algorithmic

• If nothing above explains it and the timing matches a confirmed Google update, treat it as algorithmic.
• Check the size of the drop. For small shifts (like position 2 to 4), Google advises against drastic changes. For large drops (like 4 to 29), assess the whole site, not just the affected pages, against Google’s helpful content self-assessment, and avoid quick fixes.
• Set expectations with the MC: recovery from an update usually takes time and often shows up at a later update.

Step 5: Write the diagnosis before escalating

To let the MC know what you found, please give them some details. Let them know the client, when the drop started, if it is sitewide/page/keyword, what you checked, what you found, what you think the cause is, and what you suggest should be done about it. It is fine to be unsure; the point is to show what you checked. Write down what you ruled out so the next person does not repeat it.