Sudden GMB Ranking Drop for all keywords

[yigitc]

I was in the top place for all important keywords. 4 days ago my gmb rankings dropped and have not recovered yet. What are the possible reasons of this? Same thing happened twice last year but recovered only 2 days later. This is the longest time.

 

[StephanieNewton]

Hey @yigitc. Please can I ask what industry you're in?

We have a free tool that tracks changes in local SERPs called Local RankFlux— if there's been a lot of movement then the number will be higher (it reflects the avg. number of position changes across all industries). This past week we saw a couple of high days (Tues and Thurs), but certain industries would have seen bigger changes than others, so I'm wondering if you may be in one of them.

How many positions did you drop?

 

[yigitc]

Hello StephanieNewton,

Thanks for your answer. I am a lawyer and I was in number 1 spot for a lot of keywords. Tuesday night I lost my all spots and have not recovered yet. I wonder if Google updates affect all places same, for example I am in Turkey and you guys are in UK or USA or India.

 

[StephanieNewton]

Thanks for the info! Legal practices actually seem to be less affected versus other industries but, that said, you are right – Local RankFlux uses data from US cities, so it wouldn't reflect your results in Turkey.

I take it you didn't make any major changes to your listing that could have resulted in such a quick drop? The other thing that could be affecting your rankings would be an increase in spam — something I know is really prominent in legal SERPs.

Do the businesses ranking above you look legitimate? (Look out for keyword stuffing, virtual offices, working out of residential homes, etc.)

 

[Alan D]

check your positions from the google.com/adpreview tool. Change the location to out of town and then change the location to a local zip code. I have noticed that google local algorithms change when you get closer to the location of the business. Hope that helps.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'd suggest using Bright Local's Tool instead. The Ad Preview tool has been known to have very inaccurate organic results. It's accurate for ads.

FREE Local SERP Checker - Local Search Results Checker for Google

FREE Local SERP Checker tool. View localized Google search results for any city or zipcode to see what's ranking.

www.brightlocal.com

 

[tyler.hammer]

Thanks for the reminder of this tool. Do you think it is more accurate than an incognito tab with the gs location changer extension

 

[sixthcitysarah]

I am currently having this issue - last month we had 56+ terms in the local pack. Now we have 6. Our listing is still live, nothing wrong with it to my eyes, but all of a sudden on Aug 1 it dropped.

 

[JoyHawkins]

It could be related to this:

 

[sixthcitysarah]

It could be related to this:

Thanks! Carrie actually responded to something I tweeted with this as well. I replied to Gabe too, he said he doesn't know much about local but the timing is right on with it. Not sure what industries his examples are in, but it is just for 1 of our locations, others are doing great/no changes. Curious if it is happening for others!!