Website Disappeared from SERP After Google May Update

Greetings everyone.

I'm facing an issue related to a keyword for a couple of weeks. All this happened during the Google May Update.

I was ranking for a keyword for 1 good year. You can say that I dominated the keyword because I was ranking for all the related keywords as well. (1000s of keyword from one single post). Whatever you search related to the parent keyword, my site was ranking on the 1st page.

Now, what happened is, during the May update, my site rankings went down. As time passed by, that same page disappeared from the SERP. I'm still ranking for many related keywords but the ranking for the parent keyword is gone. I'm still ranking for the remaining keywords from different posts, only this one was affected the most.

I'm not even in the top 100 results. It's surprising as I was #1 for a whole year (I know it's not much but I'm surprised because the rankings dropped in a day).

And, if you say that my content might be the problem, then I doubt that. Because all the other ranking results are not even related to the keyword. They are news websites and are not even using the keyword and the content is not even within the context of the keyword.

There is 1 site that basically copied my content and rewrote it into a longer post. That site is still on the 1st page and I'm totally gone.

Please help me figure this out, it was one of the primary keyword for my site. It used to bring about 75% of the traffic and now all I have is the remaining 25%.

I really want to restore the keyword back. Would you guys help me out?

(I'm still ranking in the Images section but not showing in the web results).

P.S. My website is not penalized. My new posts are getting indexed and there's no issue in that.

Thanks in advance.

What head niche are you working in?

dandan594594 said:

What head niche are you working in?

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It's not actually a niche site. You can say,a general Tech blog about apps, reviews, and stuff.

Cool, and are the sites now on page 1 more niche focused? I've noticed general review sites have taken a hit.

One of mine tanked, and like you had 1 high traffic article take a huge drop for main keyword. I rewrote the opening and info section of the article to be more persona based, and now I'm back at #2.

The algo update seems to scan for a connection between author, site and subject matter being more qualified to answer the question than others. Not the only factor, but one that's worked for me.

Wait and handle your horses everything will be fine just wait for few days

Sorry to hear of your ranking hit due to the May update. Since you're not experiencing a penalty and your site is still ranking for many terms, the previous advice to wait a while is good.
But you might also like to look at this post if you haven't already: https://www.mariehaynes.com/may-2020-core-google-update/
There's some good advice in there regarding content quality etc. Good luck

dandan594594 said:

Cool, and are the sites now on page 1 more niche focused? I've noticed general review sites have taken a hit.

One of mine tanked, and like you had 1 high traffic article take a huge drop for main keyword. I rewrote the opening and info section of the article to be more persona based, and now I'm back at #2.

The algo update seems to scan for a connection between author, site and subject matter being more qualified to answer the question than others. Not the only factor, but one that's worked for me.

Click to expand...

4-5 sites on page 1 have content related to the keyword. The rest of them are news sites that have articles not even close to the keyword. So, I can say that most articles are not niche related.
And I read somewhere that the Google May update focuses on Content Updation. As you said, I'll try updating my content, wish it helps.
One quick question. When you update your content, do you change the publish date to the new one of do you just change the content and update it with the old publish date?

Iamdrseo said:

Wait and handle your horses everything will be fine just wait for few days

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been waiting for around 2 weeks. Let's see what happens. I'll try updating my content. maybe will add a few more words to it.

Have you checked on mobile as well as desktop, I face a similar situation sometimes back that the site images were showing in features snippet but site was not ranking. I think it was some Google bug which sorted itself out. Otherwise, your site has been hit by some penalty, it may have conceded with Google Update, Core update generally does not hit a site that much.

mam4q said:

Sorry to hear of your ranking hit due to the May update. Since you're not experiencing a penalty and your site is still ranking for many terms, the previous advice to wait a while is good.
But you might also like to look at this post if you haven't already: https://www.mariehaynes.com/may-2020-core-google-update/
There's some good advice in there regarding content quality etc. Good luck

Click to expand...

Thank you mam4q. I'll read that article that you've mentioned. I've been waiting for around 2 weeks so I thought that it won't revert back as it was.

More sites got hit by this update, first of all disable the option of copying the content. Also, check with the competitor what backlinks they built to that specific article.

How was your website performing by 17th May? Did you see any additional changes in your keywords after the tweak/"completion" on 18th May? If so, up or down?

ranga said:

Have you checked on mobile as well as desktop, I face a similar situation sometimes back that the site images were showing in features snippet but site was not ranking. I think it was some Google bug which sorted itself out. Otherwise, your site has been hit by some penalty, it may have conceded with Google Update, Core update generally does not hit a site that much.

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Hello ranga. Yes I've checked both the desktop and mobile ranking and I'm not ranking on either. I'm quite foggy about the penalty as my site is ranking for other keywords and is getting indexed regularly.
And about Google updates, usually the site gets a hit, traffic gets down for about a month, but the site reverts back to the previous state.

Wish same thing happens this time.

Glad to hear that your issue was fixed.

Wait for few days it’ll come back

Deepesh Sharma said:

One quick question

Click to expand...

Stuck with old publish date. Recheck articles on page 1, and look for words or phrases within the content that could trigger the reader to think "Ah, I didn't even know I need to know that" and "Yes, that's what I thought, but good to double check".

Even sites these articles are linking to will have an effect on the quality of info they provide.

SeoSprout said:

More sites got hit by this update, first of all disable the option of copying the content. Also, check with the competitor what backlinks they built to that specific article.

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Hello sir. Yes I've disabled the copying of content of my site. When I wrote the content, I was the first one on the internet writing an article about that topic. The next sites referred to my site and rewrote them. So it's not just copy paste.
I'll check the backlink profile of the competitor site. Thanks.

chipsie1102 said:

How was your website performing by 17th May? Did you see any additional changes in your keywords after the tweak/"completion" on 18th May? If so, up or down?

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My site was doing well before the update. When the update started, I saw a few bumps in the keyword. Like from #1 to #8, #26. And then suddenly, I disappeared from the SERP.
My ranking status have been down since the update started.

Mr Positive said:

Wait for few days it’ll come back

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Yeah I've decided I'll update the content and just wait. Let's see what happens.

dandan594594 said:

Stuck with old publish date. Recheck articles on page 1, and look for words or phrases within the content that could trigger the reader to think "Ah, I didn't even know I need to know that" and "Yes, that's what I thought, but good to double check".

Even sites these articles are linking to will have an effect on the quality of info they provide.

Click to expand...

The content ranking on the first page is of poor quality but I'll do read it. Maybe they used some extra keywords or phrases. I'll find them and use them in my content.
I'll check the backlink profile for those sites. Thanks

1. Wait for some time to see if it bounces back.
2. Tweak Title tag, Publishing date and add more content in1st paragraph
3. Check if that specific posts got any new suspicious backlinks recently

If nothing works, then change the url of the post and 301 old url to new one...

seoz87 said:

1. Wait for some time to see if it bounces back.
2. Tweak Title tag, Publishing date and add more content in1st paragraph
3. Check if that specific posts got any new suspicious backlinks recently

If nothing works, then change the url of the post and 301 old url to new one...

Click to expand...

1. I heard that the May update rolled out. So I thought that my ranking won't come back. I'll wait for a few more weeks to see what happens.
2. Yes I'll update the content and keep in mind the things you mentioned.
3. No, the page didn't get any backlinks. (I guess you're talking about spammy backlinks attack, idk what it's called)

I'll try that 301 redirect method if nothing works.

Thank you.

Deepesh Sharma said:

1. I heard that the May update rolled out. So I thought that my ranking won't come back. I'll wait for a few more weeks to see what happens.
.

Click to expand...

Just wait till tuesday..if nothing changes during the weekend then there is a high chance that it wont change later

My site was doing well before the update. When the update started, I saw a few bumps in the keyword. Like from #1 to #8, #26. And then suddenly, I disappeared from the SERP.
My ranking status have been down since the update started.

Click to expand...

I'd continue to wait another week and see where everything stands before thinking about any major changes.
When was the last time you updated the content for the article? Perhaps you could tweak it a little, freshen it up and what-not.

The May update started around the 4th, and was then completely rolled out on the 18th but my own experience and from what I've read from many other people here, it looks more like there was a tweak to the update on the 18th since SERPs have been dancing around like crazy again - it's best to treat 18th as another update and wait 2 weeks for things to settle down, whatever your standard procedure is when Google releases an update. If your website started going down on the 4th, it's possible you might start seeing a recovery with this tweak.