A website owner, just like many others in the industry, had been happily watching their site’s traffic grow steadily. Organic traffic had been climbing for months, the rankings were improving, and everything seemed on track. But then, something strange happened — a sharp drop in rankings.

At first, it seemed like a glitch, something temporary. But as the day went on, the situation didn’t improve. In fact, the rankings kept plummeting, and traffic was down more than 70%.

Frustrated, they checked Google Analytics, hoping for a sign that everything would bounce back. But there was no sign of recovery — the site had disappeared from the search results.

That’s when the real work began.

Step 1: The First Clue — Slow Page Load Speed

The website owner wasn’t a stranger to SEO, so they decided to run a few tests. The first tool they checked was Google PageSpeed Insights. Their stomachs dropped when they saw the results. Page load speed was a serious issue.

The pages were slow, and visitors were leaving the site before it even finished loading. The bounce rates were high, and it was clear that this had become a huge barrier for both users and Google.

The Fix:

• They started with image compression, reducing their image sizes without sacrificing quality.
  
  
• Minimized HTTP requests by combining JavaScript and CSS files to reduce delays.
  
  
• Implemented browser caching, so repeat visitors would have a faster experience.
  
  

While it took some time to notice an improvement, within a few days, the bounce rates decreased and rankings began to climb again. The slow-loading pages had been fixed, and the site felt faster and more efficient.

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Step 2: Mobile Usability Was the Next Roadblock

After improving page speed, they realized the next issue: mobile usability. Google’s mobile-first indexing had been rolling out, and their site wasn’t quite ready. The design wasn’t responsive enough for mobile users, and important content was getting cut off or hidden on smaller screens.

The Fix:

• They used Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to pinpoint exactly where their site was falling short.
  
  
• Redesigned the site to be fully responsive, making sure the layout adjusted to all screen sizes.
  
  
• Optimized buttons and navigation menus to make it easier for mobile users to interact with the content.
  
  

The result? The site became more user-friendly on mobile devices, and mobile traffic started flowing again.

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Step 3: The Crawlability Problem

Next came an issue that many overlook: crawlability. After checking Google Search Console, the owner discovered multiple crawl errors — some pages were being blocked from being indexed. Certain important pages were hidden, and Google couldn’t get to them.

This was a huge problem. How could Google rank the site if it couldn’t even crawl the most important pages?

The Fix:

• They checked their robots.txt file and realized it was unintentionally blocking Google’s crawlers from accessing key pages.
  
  
• They used Screaming Frog to identify broken internal links and fixed them, ensuring that all pages were accessible.
  
  
• Set up 301 redirects for any outdated URLs, guiding both users and crawlers to the correct pages.
  
  

Once everything was fixed, the site was once again crawlable and indexable. Google could now properly rank all of the content that mattered.

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Step 4: Duplicate Content Was Confusing Google

As they dug deeper, another issue came up: duplicate content. They found that a few pages were too similar, and Google didn’t know which version to rank. This duplication was causing confusion in the search results.

The Fix:

• They consolidated the duplicate content and implemented canonical tags to let Google know which page was the primary one to rank.
  
  
• For content that was too similar, they rewrote the pages to make them unique and valuable for users.
  
  

With the duplicate content cleared up, Google could confidently rank the correct pages, and the site’s visibility started to improve.

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Step 5: Alt Text Was Missing for Key Images

A problem they didn’t notice right away was that many of their images didn’t have alt text. This meant that Google couldn’t properly index them for image search, and visitors were missing out on the visual content.

The Fix:

• They went through every image on the site and added descriptive alt text, ensuring each image was keyword-optimized for search.
  
  
• They focused on using relevant keywords in the alt text, while keeping it natural and descriptive.
  
  

This small fix helped the site’s image search rankings, and they started to see traffic coming from images in search results.

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Step 6: Broken Backlinks and User Experience Issues

One of the final things they checked was their backlink profile. They realized that many backlinks were leading to 404 error pages. Visitors who clicked on those links were greeted with a dead end, which wasn’t great for the user experience.

The Fix:

• They used Ahrefs to identify and fix broken backlinks, either by updating the URLs or redirecting to relevant pages.
  
  
• They also streamlined the user experience by making sure the site was easy to navigate and didn’t overwhelm visitors with intrusive pop-ups.
  
  

After making these changes, visitors were more likely to stay on the site, and page views increased.

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Step 7: Structured Data for Rich Snippets

The last step was implementing structured data (also known as schema markup). They realized that their content wasn’t showing up in rich snippets, and without it, they were missing out on a valuable opportunity to improve their visibility in search results.

The Fix:

• They added schema markup to their product pages, blog posts, and other important pages.
  
  
• They used Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure the markup was correct.
  
  

The result was an increase in rich snippets for their pages, which led to higher visibility in Google’s search results.

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The Takeaway: Regular Site Audits Are Key

Through this process, the site owner realized that regular audits were essential. They couldn’t afford to neglect the technical side of SEO. The website wasn’t perfect, but by fixing these technical SEO issues, they had made their site faster, more mobile-friendly, and easier to crawl.

By staying on top of technical SEO, they were able to recover rankings and, most importantly, improve the user experience.

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Final Thought: Don’t Let Technical SEO Issues Hold You Back

This story isn’t unique. Many site owners are losing rankings because of overlooked technical SEO issues. But with the right knowledge and a little effort, these issues can be fixed, and rankings can bounce back.

If your website is facing similar issues, take action today. Audit your site, fix the problems, and watch your rankings improve over time. It’s never too late to get back on track.

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