How Nine Lives diagnoses issues

A systematic process that finds root causes, not symptoms. No guessing, no assumptions.

Data Collection

Day 1-2

We pull everything—Search Console, analytics, crawl data, backlink profiles, historical rankings. No assumptions until we have the full picture.

Timeline Mapping

Day 2-3

Correlating traffic changes with algorithm updates, site changes, and competitive shifts. Finding the inflection points that matter.

Technical Audit

Day 3-5

Deep crawl analysis, indexation review, Core Web Vitals assessment, and infrastructure evaluation. Finding what's broken at the code level.

Content & Authority Analysis

Day 5-7

Evaluating content quality, topical coverage, internal linking, and backlink health. Understanding your position in the competitive landscape.

Root Cause Report

Day 7-10

A clear diagnosis of what went wrong, why it happened, and exactly what needs to be done to fix it. No fluff, no padding—just answers.

Common failure patterns

We've seen these before. Many times. Each has specific causes and specific fixes.

Traffic Drops

Symptoms
  • Sudden organic traffic decline
  • Gradual erosion over months
  • Specific page or section losses
Common Causes
  • Algorithm update impact
  • Technical regression
  • Content decay
  • Lost backlinks
  • Competitive displacement

Migration Failures

Symptoms
  • Traffic loss after redesign
  • Rankings disappeared post-launch
  • Indexation issues after URL changes
Common Causes
  • Broken redirects
  • Lost internal links
  • Changed URL structures
  • Missing canonical tags
  • Robots.txt errors

Manual Actions & Penalties

Symptoms
  • Search Console warnings
  • Dramatic ranking drops
  • De-indexed pages or domains
Common Causes
  • Unnatural link patterns
  • Thin or duplicate content
  • Cloaking or sneaky redirects
  • User-generated spam
  • Hacked site issues

Broken Foundations

Symptoms
  • Pages not indexing
  • Crawl errors increasing
  • Core Web Vitals failing
Common Causes
  • JavaScript rendering issues
  • Server configuration problems
  • XML sitemap errors
  • Orphaned pages
  • Canonical confusion

What recovery actually involves

No magic tricks. Methodical repair based on what the diagnosis reveals.

01
Week 1

Immediate Triage

Stop the bleeding. Fix critical issues that are actively causing harm—broken redirects, de-indexed pages, server errors.

Deliverables
  • Critical fix implementation
  • Monitoring setup
  • Baseline establishment
02
Week 2-4

Foundation Repair

Rebuild the technical infrastructure. Fix crawlability, indexation, and performance issues at the code level.

Deliverables
  • Technical SEO fixes
  • Site architecture corrections
  • Performance optimization
03
Week 4-8

Content & Authority

Address content quality issues, rebuild internal linking, and begin authority recovery where needed.

Deliverables
  • Content audit & cleanup
  • Internal linking rebuild
  • Backlink profile review
04
Ongoing

Monitoring & Iteration

Track recovery progress, adjust strategy based on results, and prevent future regressions.

Deliverables
  • Weekly progress reports
  • Ranking monitoring
  • Proactive issue detection

When to call us

  • Organic traffic dropped 30%+ in a month
  • Rankings disappeared after a site migration
  • Google Search Console showing manual action
  • Core Web Vitals failing across the site
  • Previous SEO work made things worse
  • No idea why traffic is declining

What we don't do

  • Guess without data
  • Promise specific timelines for recovery
  • Blame algorithm updates for everything
  • Recommend tactics that caused the problem
  • Give you a 100-page report with no action plan

Something is broken.
Let's find out what.

We'll review your data, identify root causes, and give you a clear diagnosis with an actionable recovery plan. No guessing.

Request SEO Diagnostic
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