Post-August Google Updates High volume keyphrases rankings mess
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Howdy, fellow mozzers,
Couple of our clients keep losing rankings, slowly but surely, which seem to correlate to August Google updates. No major changes to the websites have been done - neither code, backlink profile nor content. It seem to affect higher search volume keyphrases, while other longer tail keyphrases are climbing up.
The screenshots of the visibility rankings are attached below.
Any ideas/news/thought about the Google update itself or what might be happening? I know that the Medic update was overall quality, yet it seems to be that these websites in particular are going down after Birthday update, not Medic itself. Google and da mighty Internets being quite.. Help!
Links to screenshots (includes higher volume keyphrases only):
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjg0MV85MDczNDkz
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjgzN185MDczNDY1
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Thanks for the response.
Conversions and revenue are down, by significant number. I know that the update is supposed to be about relativity of content to users' intent etc, and it's all good if conversions are on the same level. But they are not, that's why I am raising this question here.
_"Due to that, I'm not really seeing the same correlation which you are seeing" - _sorry, the screenshots were not as representative, here are the ones where you can see what i'm talking about clearly (I included higher volume keyphrases only here, and that's the problem we are having):
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjgzN185MDczNDY1
https://dmitrii-regexseo.tinytake.com/sf/MzAyNjg0MV85MDczNDkz
_"Are you sure you're going down - and that others aren't investing more and going up?" - _well, i don't know how much others are investing, but looking at competitive research, I'm not seeing anything extra competition is doing - across all available metrics (content freshness, amount of content, backlinks etc) - we are outperforming.
_"As you said you had done nothing on your site" - _not really, we are always improving, I'm just saying that there weren't any major overhauls or anything drastic.
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That's unfortunate in one way but positive in another. Often long-tail terms are further down the buying funnel anyway. Are conversions or revenue down? If not I wouldn't really worry about it. The much lower visibility in your attached image seems to start in October, whilst Google's significant core integration apparently 'peaked' on August 2nd.
Due to that, I'm not really seeing the same correlation which you are seeing
Remember that SEO is a competitive environment. Are you sure you're going down - and that others aren't investing more and going up?
Where you say:
"No major changes to the websites have been done - neither code, backlink profile nor content."
Sometimes this in and of itself can lose rankings. If you stagnate, others will notice and try to outdo you.
There are so many things this could be. It's likely that it's a bundle of stuff:
- Google rolled out an update which 'raised' quality standards
- As you said you had done nothing on your site
- Others adapted
- They go up, you go down
It could actually be as simple as that!
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