Most SEOs Experience Unexpected Google Search Ranking Drops

Aleyda Solis posted a Twitter poll asking if SEOs have experienced an “unexpected” Google search rankings drop and why. The poll had less than 300 responses but the results do not surprise me too much. In short, most SEOs have experience such a drop and most say it was due to a Google search algorithm update.

The first question was “Have you experienced *unexpected* search rankings and (as a consequence) traffic drops (due to any reason: rankings drop after update, manual penalization, implementation error, etc.) in the sites you’ve worked on?”

82% of those who responded said yes they have, while 18% said they have not. I guess those 18% were super lucky.

The second poll asked “What has been the main reason for most of the rankings/traffic drop cases you’ve experienced?”

71.2% said it was related to a Google search update, 14.7% said it was related to an implementation error, 3.3% said related to a manual action (penalty) and 10.9% said something else.

Here are the tweets:

…

2. What has been the main reason for most of the rankings/traffic drop cases you’ve experienced?

— Aleyda Solis ????????‍???? (@aleyda) September 18, 2021

Honestly, these results do not surprise me…

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Simchat Torah.