📉 What is a Negative Ranking State?

A Negative Ranking State is when a website continuously loses rankings despite fixing issues and acquiring high-quality links.
If a site has been losing rankings for the last 12 months, it indicates it is stuck in a Negative Ranking State.

🔍 Key Indicators of Negative Ranking State:

• ❌ Continuous ranking drops even after implementing SEO fixes.
• ❌ Not recovering from algorithm updates (e.g., Helpful Content Update).
• ❌ Unable to rank even with the same content on a different domain.
• ❌ Traffic stagnation despite publishing content.

🔗 Concepts Related to Negative Ranking State:

📊 Ranking Ranges:

Websites stuck in a negative state cannot exceed a specific ranking range.

⚙️ Core Updates & Recovery:

A full recovery from a Negative Ranking State is usually not possible without a core algorithm update.
Even with improvements, recovery might not happen until Google rolls out the next update.

📝 Momentum & Publishing:

Stopping content publication can contribute to a negative state.
Websites that continue to update and publish content have a better chance of escaping a Negative Ranking State.

🚀 How to Handle Negative Ranking State

❗ Do Not Expect Immediate Recovery
Websites affected by the Helpful Content Update (HCU) or core updates won’t see improvements until the next major update.
Instead of focusing on full recovery, prioritize stabilizing traffic (naturalization).

🔄 Naturalization Strategy

• ✔️ Stop the decline first before expecting ranking improvements.
• ✔️ Focus on increasing impressions, even if clicks are decreasing.
• ✔️ Maintain SEO consistency: Do not change methodologies frequently in reaction to Google updates.

⚠️ Common Recovery Mistakes

• ❌ Stopping content publication: Many site owners stop updates once rankings drop, which worsens the issue.
• ❌ Changing strategies too frequently: Reacting to every ranking drop with drastic SEO strategy shifts can hurt long-term growth.

🔄 Alternatives to Recovery

📌 Site Migration & Redirection
If a website cannot escape a Negative Ranking State, consider moving content to a new domain and redirecting after testing for three months.
This strategy can help reset ranking status and sometimes achieve higher rankings than before.