The news broke last week that Google Search Console has begun sending new notifications upon noticing a ‘substantial’ dip in a website’s ranking or traffic.
According to those who first picked up on the new alerts, Google Search Console, or GSC, does this by comparing your clicks from Google search results to those from the previous week. If the data has fluctuated week to week, Google now notifies the verified website owner on Search Console.
Vance Moore III first shared the news via a screenshot he posted on Twitter. Here’s what it looks like.
Screenshot from Vance Moore III’s Twitter post
Some members of the SEO community weighed in on his post and pointed out that this move is an interesting one, because similar info can be uncovered in the SERPs when making queries while logged in.
Kristine Schachinger said that the decision to send explicit notifications through GSC could potentially “…cause lots of unnecessary conversations with higher-ups.”
As stated above, Google looks at your week-by-week data and sends alerts based on sudden major changes within that time-frame. In Moore’s case, the email was received after a 48% drop in weekly clicks, though it is important to note that this data is drawn only from clicks through the Google search results page.
The clearest cause of major drops in clicks or even impressions is a drop in page rank. If you have a page that previously ranked well, but has been knocked out by another contender, it follows that the click-through rate will fall.
It’s also possible that your page has just finished experiencing a large spike in traffic. If it was relevant to a particular news cycle, once that cycle has ended, your page will become less relevant, and your audience will no longer need to click.
If it’s the latter of these two, there’s not much you can do – experiencing pits and peaks is just part of the game when publishing time-sensitive content. If it’s the former, however, there are a wide variety of reasons your page may drop in the rankings, and that’s when an SEO audit can help uncover potential technical shortcomings.
Many site owners using GSC rarely monitor their analytics, so new reports like these will keep them in the loop of changes to their performance, without expecting them to go back to Search Console every day. This helps them stay on top of any potential SEO roadblocks that are getting in the way of their business.
Want to rank at the top of Google search? Pure SEO can help your business thrive, helping you generate more leads and impressions with our qualified team of experts who can keep track of rankings and traffic dips for you!
Contact us online, or give us a call at 0800 SEARCH to talk to our experts today!
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