Survey Says: Most SEOs Experience Unexpected Google Search Ranking Drops

Sep 29, 2021 - 7:31 am 3 by

Google Ranking Drop Poll

Aleyda Solis posted a Twitter poll asking if SEOs have experienced an "unexpected" Google search rankings drop and why. The poll had less than 300 responses but the results do not surprise me too much. In short, most SEOs have experience such a drop and most say it was due to a Google search algorithm update.

The first question was "Have you experienced *unexpected* search rankings and (as a consequence) traffic drops (due to any reason: rankings drop after update, manual penalization, implementation error, etc.) in the sites you've worked on?"

82% of those who responded said yes they have, while 18% said they have not. I guess those 18% were super lucky.

The second poll asked "What has been the main reason for most of the rankings/traffic drop cases you've experienced?"

71.2% said it was related to a Google search update, 14.7% said it was related to an implementation error, 3.3% said related to a manual action (penalty) and 10.9% said something else.

Here are the tweets:

Honestly, these results do not surprise me...

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Simchat Torah.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Updates

Google Search Ranking Volatility Gets Heated Again February 10th

Feb 10, 2026 - 8:18 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Performance Max A/B Experiments In The Wild

Feb 10, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google

Grokipedia Seeing Decline In Google Search Visibility

Feb 10, 2026 - 7:41 am
Other Search Engines

OpenAI ChatGPT Ads Go Live With User Ad Controls

Feb 10, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google

Google AI Mode Tests Citation Icons At Bottom Of Answers

Feb 10, 2026 - 7:21 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Dynamic Results Count Under Search Box

Feb 10, 2026 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google's Query Interpretation May Shift Over Time As Searcher Intents Change