Big change - google update?

Hello guys,


Since September my website position started to drop for certain of my main keywords.


My website is an ecommerce on Shopify.


My ranking was around position 2 to 3, I had been in that position for around 2 years. But now, for those keywords I’m around 9 to 12.

My URL that is ranking is a product page that is well optimized for SEO (high quality content with a lot of entities (NLP), my keywords are in the metas h1, title, alt text, etc. good quality backlinks).


What I’m not understanding is that my main competitor has domain authority and page authority considerably lower than mine. He is now ranked position 2 and 5 (with 2 different URL). The pages that are ranking on those positions have no backlink and text. It’s just the default shopify collections page (ex: website.com/collections) that shows a list of their products. Also their other pages are not optimized for SEO and not a lot of backlink.


Another thing is that, I have more content on the subject on my site than my competitor (topical authority).


So I really don’t understand why those pages are outranking me. I have a feeling something just changed in Google's algorithm, could it be that they are now looking at different new factors like retention or CTR in the SERPs for example? That's the only reason I see why Google would choose this site over mine.


Any ideas?


Thank you !

Its google being google. Theres no rhyme or reason to the ranking these days.

Wait around for a while and see if your rankings improve. See what your competitor is doing different.

Don't blindly trust your metrics into making you think your site is at the higher ground. Maybe your competitor has just 2 or 3 links but they are from far more valuable sources that google thinks is quality.

Metrics would suck for such a site but google would boost it quite a bit.

CTR is main factor !

This thing, neither someone from Google will tell you nor those who are constantly boosting their CTR (Click-Through Rate) will tell you, just as you mentioned that someone whose website is ranking is nothing in front of your website, yet your ranking dropped, and that person web is ranking in the top 3. So, it's simple that he has taken CTR boosts, but I won't simply say to you to take them too because not everyone can use CTR boosts properly, most of the time websites get penalized.

I think Google's recent update might be favoring user engagement metrics (CTR, page dwell time) over traditional SEO factors. Check your site for technical SEO issues and user experience, like site speed. Dive into Google Search Console for insights. Consider the simplicity and user experience of your competitor's pages; sometimes less is more for Google.