Base on the existing step-by-step structural damage diagnosis method, a three-step structural damage diagnosis method is developed. According to the analysis of the characteristic of genetic algorithm, a new idea of excluding the undamaged element by means of step-by-step evaluation is developed to deal with the damage diagnosis problem. In this method, sensitivity genetic algorithm is used to exclude the undamaged element step by step and residual force method is used to fix the damage district. According to the simulation research of a 2D framed structure, it is shown that the step-by-step structural damage diagnosis method can gain the ideal results when it's difficult for a single damage diagnosis method to get the good results. It is also indicated that sensitivity genetic algorithm is a good way to exclude the undamaged element step by step.