7 Proven Actions to Recover from a Significant Drop in Organic Search Traffic

In the face of a major downturn in organic search traffic, we turned to seasoned SEO experts and company founders for their recovery strategies. From correcting sitewide SEO errors to revamping content for E-A-T principles, discover the seven unique actions they implemented to bounce back.

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Corrected Sitewide SEO Errors

Sitewide web changes can (often unintentionally) affect your SEO. For one of our clients in the garden buildings sector, a core algorithm update in late 2023 significantly knocked their visibility and keyword rankings. After a thorough investigation, we found that a sitewide update had removed part of the optimized headers on each page—meaning they no longer made sense.

After correcting the issue and re-optimizing the metadata, we very quickly saw a rise in both visibility and ranks—even managing to surpass our previous results.

Paul Friend, Head of SEO, The SEO Works

Investigated Technical SEO Issues

We realized something was wrong when we saw a significant decline in the number of people finding us through search engines. It turned out that the issue was caused by some unforeseen modifications to the way search engines interpreted our website. I thus got involved and conducted some research. I investigated the technical aspects, looking at things like headers, meta tags, and site speed. Trying to figure out where things went wrong was like working as a detective. 

In addition, I thoroughly examined the structure of our website using a program called Screaming Frog to make sure everything was in working order. We were able to identify and resolve the problems after some time. Following that, we noticed a return in our organic traffic.

Kartik Ahuja, Digital Marketer, kartikahuja.com

Disavowed Toxic Backlinks

When RankWatch faced a significant drop in organic search traffic, the moment called for immediate and innovative action. As CEO & Founder, I led our team to conduct a thorough backlink audit. This wasn’t just a routine check; we dove deep into our profile to identify and disavow toxic backlinks that were silently eroding our SEO efforts. This process, while meticulous, highlighted the critical influence of a clean backlink profile on search rankings.

The turnaround was dramatic. Cleaning up our backlink profile not only helped us recover from the drop but also improved our overall search engine credibility and rankings. This experience underscored a valuable lesson for us at RankWatch: the backbone of robust SEO isn’t just about building new links but also about maintaining the health of existing ones. It was a clear testament to the power of proactively safeguarding your site’s reputation through regular audits and adjustments, ensuring that your SEO foundation remains strong amidst the constantly changing algorithms and internet landscape.

Sahil Kakkar, CEO & Founder, RankWatch

Performed a Comprehensive Technical SEO Audit

One specific action I took to recover from a significant drop in organic search traffic was conducting a comprehensive technical SEO audit to identify and resolve any underlying site issues that may have been suppressing performance.

After noticing a worrying decline in traffic from Google over several weeks, I utilized tools like Screaming Frog and Google Search Console to crawl my entire website and analyze it through an SEO lens. This allowed me to uncover several problems, such as improper canonicalization leading to duplicate content, broken links creating dead-end paths for crawlers, excessive page load times due to large image file sizes, and outdated XML sitemaps.

Once I had this technical SEO checklist of high-priority issues to resolve, I systematically went through and made the necessary fixes—updating canonical tags, removing/consolidating duplicate pages, fixing broken links, compressing images, generating a new XML sitemap, and more.

In addition to the technical optimizations, I conducted a content audit to identify any thin or underperforming pages that could be updated, expanded, or merged to create more authoritative resources.

After implementing all those SEO best practice repairs, it took around 6-8 weeks to see organic search traffic levels start rebounding as Google’s algorithms picked up the improvements. Keeping a close eye on Search Console data helped validate which specific fixes moved the needle.

Brian Meiggs, Founder, My Millennial Guide

Conducted In-Depth Content Audit

When we experienced a significant drop in organic search traffic, I decided to conduct a comprehensive content audit across our travel blog. I didn’t just skim through pages; it was a deep dive into what content was performing, what wasn’t, and most importantly, why. We identified outdated articles, those with thin content, and topics no longer aligning with our audience’s interests.

The action taken was twofold: updating older, valuable content with fresh information, relevant links, and new images, and removing or consolidating pages that no longer served our audience or our SEO goals. This approach improved our site’s relevancy and UX and gradually restored our organic search traffic.

Swena Kalra, Chief Marketing Officer, Scott & Yanling Media Inc.

Optimized Underperforming Pages

After analyzing the drop in organic search traffic, I conducted an in-depth audit of our website’s SEO performance, identifying areas for improvement. One specific action I took was to optimize underperforming pages by updating meta tags, improving content quality, and fixing technical issues.

I implemented a content-refresh strategy to keep our website relevant and engaging for both users and search engines. These efforts led to a gradual increase in organic traffic, demonstrating the effectiveness of proactive SEO optimization in recovering from significant traffic drops.

Perry Zheng, Founder and CEO, Pallas

Revamped Content for E-A-T Principles

After experiencing a significant drop in organic search traffic, which caught our team at Digital Web Solutions off guard, we immediately dove into a diagnostic deep dive. I’m Vaibhav, the CEO, and I lead from the front. We identified that a recent Google algorithm update was the culprit. Our action wasn’t just reactive; it was strategic and informed. We revamped our content strategy to align more closely with the E-A-T principles (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), creating high-quality, valuable content that resonated with our audience’s needs and search intentions.

This shift wasn’t instantaneous, but the results were clear and rewarding. Within months, not only did our organic search traffic recover, but it also surpassed previous levels. This experience reinforced a crucial lesson: agility and adherence to quality standards are our best tools for resilience in the ever-evolving landscape of SEO. It underscored the importance of staying updated with industry changes and being ready to pivot strategies in response to new search engine criteria, ensuring sustained organic visibility and engagement.

Vaibhav Kakkar, CEO, Digital Web Solutions

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