How to Stop an SEO Decline

A common enquiry we get is from potential clients who have seen an SEO decline over the previous months. Organic traffic is down, they’re having to increase spend on PPC just to make up for it, and they don’t really know what’s gone wrong. Sometimes, if SEO performance dips you can feel like you’re chasing shadows, but there’s generally an underlying cause and sometimes even more than one.

In today’s post, we take a look at some troubleshooting steps to help you identify what’s gone wrong, and how to turn it around.

Confirm It’s a Real Decline and Not Just a Blip

Sometimes, assuming an SEO drop can be a knee-jerk reaction when actually there are other factors at play. Google don’t always serve the same results to the same people, so always try to benchmark with a rank-tracker so you’re comparing like-for-like.

Think about whether the drop could be down to seasonality – compare year-on-year numbers and correct for the day of the week or month. Double-check your tracking is working and hasn’t been knocked out by any dev changes. Google Search Console is a great tool to get a fair view of year-on-year stats, and if you’re seeing a steady decline here then its likely to be real.

Check for Google Updates

Google rolls out core updates every few months, and they often create ranking volatility. Check for updates around the time the decline started – if the dates line up then there’s a strong likelihood that they’re connected. Google’s updates are generally related to content quality, relevance or authority so this means your decline is less likely to be down to technical issues.

Check for Technical Problems

Run a full site crawl using tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb or Ahrefs to spot:

• Broken links
• Crawling or indexing issues
• Redirect loops
• Slow page speed
• Missing meta data
• Mobile usability errors

Even small issues (like a noindex tag left on by mistake) can tank a key page.

Also check in Search Console → Indexing → Pages to see what Google is excluding — and why.

Identify Which Pages Dropped (And Which Didn’t)

One of the best tools in your armoury is checking which pages specifically experienced drops, and which didn’t. Go into Google Search Console → Performance → Pages. Compare the date ranges before and after the decline.

Ask yourself:

• Which pages lost impressions/clicks?
• Which queries dropped?
• Is it just blog posts, just service pages, or a specific section?

This helps you to pinpoint why the decline might have happened – is it a load of blog posts for example that weren’t delivering much value?

Review Content Quality & Relevance

Google is more ruthless than ever with thin, outdated, or irrelevant content. For any pages that lost ground:

• Is the content still up to date?
• Does it actually satisfy search intent?
• Could it be merged with a better-performing page?
• Does it have a strong internal linking structure?

If your site has lots of old content that no longer drives traffic, consider pruning or updating it. “Content decay” is one of the biggest drivers of long-term SEO decline, but often businesses can be in denial about it because its ‘fine’ or because you’re just so used to looking at it, you struggle to be objective about the quality.

One exercise that can be useful is comparing your key pages to those of your top competitors – they might be doing something slightly better than you which is why they’re gaining ground and you’re losing it.

Check for Lost Backlinks

Use Ahrefs or Majestic to see if you’ve lost any high-value backlinks recently. Backlink drops, especially to key landing pages, can lead to ranking losses.

If this is the case:

• Reach out to the site and see if they’ll reinstate the link
• Build new, relevant links to help fill the gap
• Strengthen internal links to that page from other parts of your site

Often, businesses overlook PR and brand-building because they’re already well-established, but if your old links drop off and you have nothing to replace them, it can be time-consuming to fix.

Review Competitor Moves

As mentioned above, sometimes one of the smartest things you can do is keep one eye on your competition. If you’re losing ground, then chances are someone else is gaining it.

Use a tool like SEMRush to identify whether any competitors are leapfrogging you in the SERPs, and take a look at what they’re doing differently. Do they have more engaging content? A big PR campaign? It’s never great to copy someone else, but you might get an idea of where you’re lagging behind and what areas you need to improve to stay competitive.

Avoid a Knee-Jerk Redesign or CMS Change

It’s tempting to blame your platform or decide “we just need a redesign”. Unless it’s backed by solid analysis however, this can make things worse. Major site changes should be planned carefully and include full SEO migration support.

If a redesign or CMS switch did happen before the drop, review:

• URL changes
• Redirects
• Meta data carried over
• Canonicals and crawlability

There are so many factors in play when it comes to a web migration, but hopefully you have historic data from the old website to compare with the new so that you can identify what changes might have caused the decline.

Improve E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust)

Especially after recent Google updates, your pages need to demonstrate trustworthiness and first-hand experience.

Ask yourself:

• Is the content written by someone with genuine expertise?
• Does it cite reliable sources?
• Are authors named and profiled?
• Is the brand trustworthy and transparent?

Once again, if you’ve been with a business for a while it can be hard to see the wood for the trees, so this is where doing some research into other websites can help. Improving your E-E-A-T signals can help recover from traffic losses after core updates.

Have a Plan, Then Give It Time

Once you’ve identified the likely causes – and it might be a long list – work up a logical plan to fix them and then stick to it. SEO recovery isn’t instant, and if your decline has been going on for several months then what you ideally want to see is a reverse of the trend and a gradual climb back up.

Work through your list, track the results, and don’t be tempted to make massive changes due to frustration.

We can help

SEO drops aren’t the end of the world, but they are a wake-up call. The key is to diagnose the issues before you act on them; reacting without understanding the root cause often wastes time and can make things worse.

If you’re seeing a persistent decline and want an expert to review your site, content and strategy, get in touch. Sometimes a second pair of eyes can spot what you’ve missed.