SEO REPAIR: AFTER THE SWITCH
Rankings Dropped After Switching SEO Companies? Find Out What Left With Them
You fired one SEO company, hired another or just stopped paying, and the phone went quiet. The drop is usually 1 of 2 things, and you can tell which in an afternoon.
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You left an SEO company or web designer, or let the contract run out. Then rankings fell, or you hired someone new and nothing moved. Something came apart in the handoff, and that is the kind of SEO repair we have done since 1998.
The fastest way to know what happened is a free website analysis. We look at what the old company owned, what they took, what they never did, and what the new company has touched. Lost assets and lost work need different fixes, so we tell you which one you have.
Watch: So Who Owns your Domain?
CONFIRM THE PROBLEM
Why did my rankings drop after I switched SEO companies?
A drop after a switch comes from 1 of 2 places. Either something you depended on left with the old company, or the work stopped and the site is sliding back to where it was before anyone touched it.
The 2 look different in Google Search Console. Lost assets hit fast. Rankings fall within days of the cancellation, pages return errors, or your map listing changes hands. Lost work hits slowly. Clicks drift down over months while competitors who kept working pass you.
There is a third shape. You switched, the new company has billed for 6 months, and nothing moved. Often neither company ever did structural work. Our page on an SEO company not delivering results shows how to check that in 30 minutes.
Start by pulling dates. In Search Console, mark the day the old company lost access, the day you canceled, and the day the new company started. Then run your domain through our traffic drop analyzer to see which pages fell first.
WHAT LEAVES WITH THEM
What does an SEO company take with them when you leave?
Beth teaches this with a picture. Your domain is your house. Your website files are the furniture. Your hosting is the lot. Too many owners find out at the breakup that they rented all 3. Here is what most often walks out the door.
- The domain. Beth gets calls every week from owners who do not know where their domain is registered or whose name is on it. If the web company registered it in their own name, you do not own your address, and getting it back is slow and costly.
- The hosting. If the old company hosted the site, it lived on their server, and when the bill stops the site can go dark. Beth’s rule is simple. Any company should be as easy to leave as it was to sign up with. A company that has to hold you hostage is not keeping you on service and quality.
- Google Business Profile ownership. If the old company verified your profile under their Google account, they are the owner and you are a manager at best. Your map pack rankings, reviews and photos sit under their login.
- Search Console and Analytics. When these were created under the agency’s account, your history and your only honest view of Google traffic go with them.
- Rented links. Some companies rent placements on sites they control. Stop paying and the links come down, and the rankings they propped up come down with them. Beth will not put a client on bought links for this reason.
- Pages hosted somewhere else. Landing pages, a blog on a subdomain or a city page on the agency’s platform ranked for you but were never on your site. One of Beth’s clients left a photo platform and could not take his site with him. He had to rebuild from scratch.
- Call tracking numbers. If the old company put their tracking number on your site, profile and citations, that number is theirs. Cancel and the calls ring to nobody.
If the company that built the site also did the SEO, read web designer does not know SEO. What they left behind matters as much as what they took.
CHECK IT YOURSELF
How do I tell if the drop is lost assets or lost work?
You can sort this out without a technical background. Work through these checks in order.
- Look up your domain. Log in to the registrar and read the name, address and email on the account. If the record shows the old company’s name, you have an ownership problem before an SEO problem.
- Confirm who hosts the site. If the answer is the old company’s server, your site is still in their apartment.
- Open Google Business Profile. Check whether you are the primary owner.
- Open Search Console and Analytics. If you are not a verified owner, add yourself now.
- Test your old ranking pages. Paste your top pages from before the switch into a browser. A 404 error or a page on a domain that is not yours means the content left with them.
- Pull your links. A sharp drop in linking domains at the cancellation date means links were rented.
- Call the number on your site and on your profile. If either is a tracking number you do not control, change it before you do anything else.
If every item checks out and you still lost rankings, the drop is lost work, and the fix is a real plan, not a scramble for assets. If the drop lines up with a new host, platform or domain instead, start with rankings dropped after website migration or host change.
Check it yourself
Find out what you still own in 20 minutes
BEFORE YOU FIRE ANYONE
What should I collect from my SEO company before I leave?
If you have not canceled yet, do this first. The time to get your keys is while they still want to keep you. Beth tells every class the same thing. Asking for your logins is not a question. It is a demand.
- The domain registrar login, with your name, your address and an email you control on the account.
- The hosting login, or a full backup of the site files and database you can restore anywhere.
- Primary ownership of Google Business Profile moved to a Google account you own.
- Owner access to Search Console, Analytics and Google Ads under your account.
- Every link they built or paid for, and what happens to each when you stop paying.
- Every page or blog that lives off your domain.
- Any tracking numbers in use, and a replacement you own.
Then go behind them. Beth has seen owners handed a password and the account still in the webmaster’s name months later. Log in yourself and confirm every account shows you as owner before the last payment. Then renew the domain years ahead. Beth keeps her own renewed 10 years out.
Put the same list in front of anyone you plan to hire. Our guide to hiring a web designer covers the questions that show whether a company expects you to own your own site.
THE FIRST 30 DAYS
What should a new SEO company do in the first 30 days?
A good takeover starts with a diagnosis, not a proposal. Our first month on an inherited site looks like this.
- Secure the assets. Domain, hosting, Google Business Profile, Search Console and Analytics move into accounts you own. Nothing else happens until that is done.
- Read the history. We compare Search Console before and after the switch to find which pages and terms fell and when.
- Audit what was left behind. Title tags, navigation, headings, internal links and redirects. Beth can tell in seconds whether a site was ever optimized, and most sites we inherit were not.
- Check the link profile. If the old company bought links, we want to know before Google asks.
- Restore what was removed. Pages that lived on their platform get rebuilt on your domain, with 301 redirects where the URL has to change. Tracking numbers get replaced everywhere.
- Fix the structure. Service pages that name what you sell and where, a menu Google can follow, and related pages linked together. Most owners were never getting this work.
- Set the baseline. Clicks, positions on your money terms, calls and form fills, so month 6 can be measured against month 1.
If the first 30 days was a slide deck and a list of 200 keywords, you did not switch SEO companies. You switched invoices.
WHAT NOT TO DO
What mistakes make a drop after switching SEO companies worse?
The most expensive mistake we see is switching twice. The owner leaves company A for B, nothing recovers in 90 days, so they leave B for C. Nobody ever diagnosed the site. Each company changes URLs, titles or the platform to put its own stamp on it, and every change dilutes what was left. Beth has watched sites go from point A to B to C with nothing accounted for along the way, and by the end there is little left to recover.
- Do not rebuild the website to fix the rankings. A new site does not bring back a lost domain, profile or links, and a designer who does not know SEO can turn a drop into a cliff. If a rebuild started the slide, see website traffic dropped after redesign.
- Do not buy links to replace the ones that left. You tell the new shop the last company was not building links, and they are happy to sell you a package. Beth has lost accounts for refusing, because when that site gets banned she does not want to be the one responsible.
- Do not let the new company buffalo you. A shop that inherited the site and only makes minor changes can make this far worse. Ask what was moved, what was accounted for and what was left behind.
- Do not change what is still ranking. Leave the URL, title and content of any page that held its position alone until you know why the others fell.
- Do not wait a year. The sooner the assets are back in your name, the more there is to recover.
RECOVERY TIME
How long does it take to recover rankings after switching SEO companies?
It depends on which problem you had, and we will not promise a date. A Google Business Profile transfer can happen in days when the old company cooperates. A domain in someone else’s name can take far longer and sometimes a lawyer.
Once the site is yours and the structure is fixed, Beth tells students to expect roughly 6 months before new SEO work starts to flow, and longer if the site moved to a new domain or platform during the switch. Judging the new company at 60 days is too early. Judging at 18 months with flat clicks is not.
Rented links do not come back. The only fix is to earn links you own, which is slower and also the reason you will not live through this again.
We measure progress in Search Console month over month. If you also stopped showing up in AI answers after the switch, see business not showing up in ChatGPT and AI search..
WHY VERTICAL WEB
Who should I call after an SEO switch went wrong?
Beth says our best customers have always been the ones who came from somewhere else with a flip gone wrong. Here is the honest case for us.
- We teach it. Beth Guide has taught SEO since 2003 for the SBA, the University of Houston SBDC, Lone Star College and HCC. The ownership checklist on this page is the one she gives students at our free monthly Internet Marketing Clinic.
- One in-house team since 1998. Design, SEO, hosting and domains are handled in our Houston offices. Your domain is in your name, your site can be moved, and your Google accounts stay yours. Beth does not want anyone saying this lady took my stuff.
- The original 1998 client is still here. We have never needed a contract to keep a client.
- We tell you what not to buy. If your drop is lost assets, we help you get them back before we sell you a page. If the old company did honest work and the problem is your site or budget, we say so.
Start with a free website analysis. We will show you what left with the old company, what was never done, and the order we would fix it in.
Questions
Rankings dropped after switching SEO companies: common questions
Not the rankings, but they can take what holds them up. Rented links, pages on their platform, a tracking number, or ownership of your domain, hosting or Google Business Profile all leave if they were never in your name. Move them into your own accounts before you cancel.
Not overnight, but they do not hold forever. Competitors keep publishing and earning links, and a site nobody maintains slides back over months. A fast drop within days of canceling points to something removed, not stopped work.
Ask in writing for the domain to be transferred to a registrar account in your name. Many companies will do it. If they refuse, proof that your business has used and paid for the name matters, and an attorney may be needed. Treat it as property and renew it years ahead.
Not before someone diagnoses the site. Switching twice without a diagnosis is the most expensive mistake we see, because each company changes something and the damage compounds. Get a free website analysis first, then decide whether the company, the site or the budget is the problem.
Links earned on real sites stay. Rented links usually come down when payments stop, and the rankings they propped up fall with them. Ask for a list of every link they built and what happens to each when you leave.
Yes, when the first month went to securing your accounts and fixing structure. Beth tells students to expect roughly 6 months before new work starts to flow. What is not normal is 6 months with no title tags changed, no pages rewritten and no accounts in your name.
Keep reading
Other ways a site gets broken, and how we repair each one
Not sure which one is your problem?
Request the free website analysis and we will tell you what is actually wrong, in plain English, before anyone touches your site.
Galleria 713-703-3030 | Kingwood 281-852-8253 | info@verticalweb.com