Stop 7 of 8 · Later
Research mode and algorithm updates
A ranking drop, a sourced answer on what actually changed, and a note to the director that does not panic.
The week a number drops
Once or twice a year a chart falls and everyone looks at Priya. The instinct is to explain it immediately. The better move is thirty minutes of scope, then a sourced answer, then a note that is honest about what nobody knows yet.
Scope first, in this order
- How wide. One page, one group of pages, or the whole site. Compare the two periods by page, not by total.
- Impressions or clicks. Impressions down means ranking or demand. Impressions steady with clicks down means the result page changed above you.
- When exactly. A step change on one date behaves differently from a slide across three weeks.
- What you shipped. Check the deploy log and the crawl before you blame Google. An agency release the same week is the more common answer.
The scope check
[upload the Search Console page export with the comparison period covering the drop, and the query export for the same range] Break this drop down for me. Which page groups fell and which held. For each falling group, show clicks and impressions in both periods so I can see whether impressions moved with the clicks. Tell me whether the pattern looks site-wide or limited, and name the three pages carrying most of the lost clicks. Do not speculate about causes yet.
Then Research mode
Research runs across many sources in the background and comes back with a report you can click through. That last part is the point: Priya reads the primary source before she repeats anything from it.
What actually changed
Research what Google has published in the last six months about core updates and about guidance for health and medical content, and what reputable SEO sources have documented about visible changes to results for health queries. Cite Google Search Central pages first, then industry sources. Tell me what it means specifically for a multi-location physical-therapy site: location pages, condition pages, and the blog. Keep what Google said and what the industry is inferring in separate sections.
Read the citations. A summary you have not verified is exactly the thing you have been telling the writer not to publish.
The note that does not panic
Six lines for the director
[paste the scope table and the two or three sourced findings you verified] Write a short update for our marketing director, who does not know what a canonical is. Six lines: what moved and by how much, what we have ruled out, what the evidence points to with a link, what is still unknown, what I am doing this week, and when I will report again. No jargon, no recovery date, no apology.