There are multiple reasons why a site can drop in rankings due to a core algorithm update. The reasons may reflect specific changes to the way Google interprets content, a search query, or both. The change could also be subtle, like an infrastructure update that enables finer relevance and quality judgments. Here are eight commonly overlooked reasons for why a site may have lost rankings after a Google core update.

Ranking Where It’s Supposed To Rank?

If the site was previously ranking well and now it doesn’t, it could be what I call “it’s ranking where it’s supposed to rank.” That means that some part of Google’s algorithm has caught up to a loophole that the page was intentionally or accidentally taking advantage of and is currently ranking it where it should have been ranking in the first place.

This is difficult to diagnose because a publisher might believe that the web pages or links were perfect the way they previously were, but in fact there was an issue.

Topic Theming Defines Relevance

A part of the ranking process is determining what the topic of a web page is. Google admitted a year ago that a core topicality system is a part of the ranking process. The concept of topicality as part of the ranking algorithm is real.

The so-called Medic Update of 2018 brought this part of Google’s algorithm into sharp focus. Suddenly, sites that were previously relevant for medical keywords were nowhere to be found because they dealt in folk remedies, not medical ones. What happened was that Google’s understanding of what keyword phrases were about became more topically focused.

Bill Slawski wrote about a Google patent (Website representation vector) that describes a way to classify websites by knowledge domains and expertise levels that sounds like a direct match to what the Medic Update was about.

The patent describes part of what it’s doing:

“The search system can use information for a search query to determine a particular website classification that is most responsive to the search query and select only search results with that particular website classification for a search results page. For example, in response to receipt of a query about a medical condition, the search system may select only websites in the first category, e.g., authored by experts, for a search results page.”

Google’s interpretation of what it means to be relevant became increasingly about topicality in 2018 and continued to be refined in successive updates over the years. Instead of relying on links and keyword similarity, Google introduced a way to identify and classify sites by knowledge domain (the topic) in order to better understand how search queries and content are relevant to each other.

Returning to the medical queries, the reason many sites lost rankings during the Medic Update was that their topics were outside the knowledge domain of medical remedies and science. Sites about folk and alternative healing were permanently locked out of ranking for medical phrases, and no amount of links could ever restore their rankings. The same thing happened across many other topics and continues to affect rankings as Google’s ability to understand the nuances of topical relevance is updated.

Example Of Topical Theming

A way to think of topical theming is to consider that keyword phrases can be themed by topic. For example, the keyword phrase “bomber jacket” is related to both military clothing, flight clothing, and men’s jackets. At the time of writing, Alpha Industries, a manufacturer of military clothing, is ranked number one in Google. Alpha Industries is closely related to military clothing because the company not only focuses on selling military style clothing, it started out as a military contractor producing clothing for America’s military, so it’s closely identified by consumers with military clothing.

Screenshot Showing Topical Theming

So it’s not surprising that Alpha Industries ranks #1 for bomber jacket because it ticks both boxes for the topicality of the phrase Bomber Jacket:

• Shopping > Military clothing
• Shopping > Men’s clothing

If your page was previously ranking and now it isn’t, then it’s possible that the topical theme was redefined more sharply. The only way to check this is to review the top ranked sites, focusing, for example, on the differences between ranges such as position one and two, or sometimes positions one through three or positions one through five. The range depends on how the topic is themed. In the example of the Bomber Jacket rankings, positions one through three are themed by “military clothing” and “Men’s clothing.” Position three in my example is held by the Thursday Boot Company, which is themed more closely with “men’s clothing” than it is with military clothing. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Thursday Boot Company is closely identified with men’s fashion.

This is a way to analyze the SERPs to understand why sites are ranking and why others are not.

Topic Personalization

Sometimes the topical themes are not locked into place because user intents can change. In that case, opening a new browser or searching a second time in a different tab might cause Google to change the topical theme to a different topical intent.

In the case of the “bomber jacket” search results, the hierarchy of topical themes can change to:

• Informational > Article About Bomber Jackets
• Shopping > Military clothing
• Shopping > Men’s clothing

The reason for that is directly related to the user’s information need which informs the intent and the correct topic. In the above case it looks like the military clothing theme may be the dominant user intent for this topic but the informational/discovery intent may be a close tie that’s triggered by personalization. This can vary by previous searches but also by geographic location, a user’s device, and even by the time of day.

The takeaway is that there may not be anything wrong with a site. It’s just ranking for a more specific topical intent. So if the topic is getting personalized so that your page no longer ranks, a solution may be to create another page to focus on the additional topic theme that Google is ranking.

Authoritativeness

In one sense, authoritativeness can be seen as an external validation of expertise of a website as a go-to source for a product, service, or content topic. While the expertise of the author contributes to authoritativeness and authoritativeness in a topic can be inherent to a website, ultimately it’s third-party recognition from readers, customers, and other websites (in the form of citations and links) that communicate a website’s authoritativeness back to Google as a validating signal.

The above can be reduced to these four points:

1. Expertise and topical focus originate within the website.
2. Authoritativeness is the recognition of that expertise.
3. Google does not assess that recognition directly.
4. Third-party signals can validate a site’s authoritativeness.

To that we can add the previously discussed Website Representation Vector patent that shows how Google can identify expertise and authoritativeness.

What’s going on then is that Google selects relevant content and then winnows that down by prioritizing expert content.

Here’s how Google explains how it uses E-E-A-T:

“Google’s automated systems are designed to use many different factors to rank great content. After identifying relevant content, our systems aim to prioritize those that seem most helpful. To do this, they identify a mix of factors that can help determine which content demonstrates aspects of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or what we call E-E-A-T.”

Authoritativeness is not about how often a site publishes about a topic; any spammer can do that. It has to be about more than that. E-E-A-T is a standard to hold your site up to.

Stuck On Page Two Of Search Results? Try Some E-E-A-T

Speaking of E-E-A-T, many SEOs have the mistaken idea that it’s something they can add to websites. That’s not how it works. At the 2025 New York City Search Central Live event, Google’s John Mueller confirmed that E-E-A-T is not something you add to web pages.

He said:

“Sometimes SEOs come to us or like mention that they’ve added EEAT to their web pages. That’s not how it works. Sorry, you can’t sprinkle some experiences on your web pages. It’s like, that doesn’t make any sense.”

Clearly, content reflects qualities of authoritativeness, trustworthiness, expertise, and experience, but it’s not something that you add to content. So what is it?

E-E-A-T is just a standard to hold your site up to. It’s also a subjective judgment made by site visitors. A subjective judgment is like how a sandwich can taste great, with the “great” part being the subjective judgment. It is a matter of opinion.

One thing that is difficult for SEOs to diagnose is when their content is missing that extra something to push their site onto the first page of the SERPs. It can feel unfair to see competitors ranking on the first page of the SERPs even though your content is just as good as theirs.

Those differences indicate that their top-ranked web pages are optimized for people. Another reason is that more people know about them because they have a multimodal approach to content, whereas the site on page two of the SERPs mainly communicates via textual content.

In SERPs where Google prefers to rank government and educational sites for a particular keyword phrase, except for one commercial site, I almost always find evidence that their content and their outreach are resonating with site visitors in ways that the competitor websites do not. Websites that focus on multimodal, people-optimized content and experiences are usually what I find in those weird outlier rankings.

So if your site is stuck on page two, revisit the top-ranked web pages and identify ways that those sites are optimized for people and multimodal content. You may be surprised to see what makes those sites resonate with users.

Temporary Rankings

Some rankings are not made to last. This is the case with a new site or new page ranking boost. Google has a thing where it tastes a new site to see how it fits with the rest of the Internet. A lot of SEOs crow about their client’s new website conquering the SERPs right out of the gate. What you almost never hear about is when those same sites drop out of the SERPs.

This isn’t a bad thing. It’s normal. It simply means that Google has tried the site and now it’s time for the site to earn its place in the SERPs.

There’s Nothing Wrong With The Site?

Many site publishers find it frustrating to be told that there’s nothing wrong with their site even though it lost rankings. What’s going on may be that the site and web page are fine, but that the competitors’ pages are finer. These kinds of issues are typically where the content is fine and the competitors’ content is about the same but is better in small ways.

This is the one form of ranking drop that many SEOs and publishers easily overlook because SEOs generally try to identify what’s “wrong” with a site, and when nothing obvious jumps out at them, they try to find something wrong with the backlinks or something else.

This inability to find something wrong leads to recommendations like filing link disavows to get rid of spam links or removing content to fix perceived but not actual problems (like duplicate content). They’re basically grasping at straws to find something to fix.

But sometimes it’s not that something is wrong with the site. Sometimes it’s just that there’s something right with the competitors.

What can be right with competitors?

• Links
• User experience
• Image content (for example, site visitors are reflected in image content).
• Multimodal approach
• Strong outreach to potential customers
• In-person marketing
• Cultivate word-of-mouth promotion
• Better advertising
• Optimized for people

SEO Secret Sauce: Optimized For People

Optimizing for people is a common blind spot. Optimizing for people is a subset of conversion optimization. Conversion optimization is about subtle signals that indicate a web page contains what the site visitor needs.

Sometimes that need is to be recognized and acknowledged. It can be reassurance that you’re available right now or that the business is trustworthy.

For example, a client’s site featured a badge at the top of the page that said something like “Trusted by over 200 of the Fortune 500.” That badge whispered, “We’re legitimate and trustworthy.”

Another example is how a business identified that most of their site visitors were mothers of boys, so their optimization was to prioritize images of mothers with boys. This subtly recognized the site visitor and confirmed that what’s being offered is for them.

Nobody loves a site because it’s heavily SEO’d, but people do love sites that acknowledge the site visitor in some way. This is the secret sauce that’s invisible to SEO tools but helps sites outrank their competitors.

It may be helpful to avoid mimicking what competitors are doing and increase ways that differentiate the site and outreach in ways that make people like your site more. When I say outreach, I mean actively seeking out places where your typical customer might be hanging out and figuring out how you can make your pitch there. Third-party signals have long been strong ranking factors at Google, and now, with AI Search, what people and other sites say about your site are increasingly playing a role in rankings.

Takeaways

1. Core updates sometimes correct over-ranking, not punish sites
   Ranking drops sometimes reflect Google closing loopholes and placing pages where they should have ranked all along rather than identifying new problems.
2. Topical theming has become more precise
   Core updates sometimes make existing algorithms more precise. Google increasingly ranks content based on topical categories and intent, not just keywords or links.
3. Topical themes can change dynamically
   Search results may shift between informational and commercial themes depending on context such as prior searches, location, device, or time of day.
4. Authoritativeness is externally validated
   Recognition from users, citations, links, and broader awareness can be the difference why one site ranks and another does not.
5. SEO does not control E-E-A-T and can’t be reduced to an on-page checklist
   While concepts of expertise and authoritativeness are inherent in content, they’re still objective judgments that can be inferred from external signals, not something that can be directly added to content by SEOs.
6. Temporary ranking boosts are normal
   New pages and sites are tested briefly, then must earn long-term placement through sustained performance and reception.
7. Competitors may simply be better for users
   Ranking losses often occur because competitors outperform in subtle but meaningful ways, not because the losing site is broken.
8. People-first optimization is a competitive advantage
   Sites that resonate emotionally, visually, and practically with visitors often outperform purely SEO-optimized pages.

Ranking changes after a core update sometimes reflect clearer judgments about relevance, authority, and usefulness rather than newly discovered web page flaws. As Google sharpens how it understands topics, pages increasingly compete on how well they align with what users are actually trying to accomplish and which sources people already recognize and trust. The lasting advantage comes from building a site that resonates with actual visitors, earns attention beyond search, and gives Google consistent evidence that users prefer it over alternatives. Marketing, the old-fashioned tell-people-about-a-business approach to promoting it, should not be overlooked.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Silapavet Konthikamee