Drop in rankings, next step
-
So based on a question asked yesterday, I am wondering what my next step is.
Yesterday's question was, I have made updates to Title and Meta Descriptions for my client's site and suddenly they are not showing up in the top 50 for numerous keywords that they used to. The only words in the page source that were edited were "fluff" words that were replaced with relevant keywords reflected in much of the on-page copy yet now the client is not showing up. Ideas?
From responses and research, it seems there's a lag time in Google to pick up the updated titles/info and these changes can cause a drop in rankings for a short time - however, I can't very well turn to my client and say sorry your website isn't showing up for a few weeks...wondering what my next step should be, or is there a greater issue I'm missing.
-
What do you mean by over-optimized?
-
There are many possible reasons. Try resubmitting a new xml sitemap to Google Webmaster tools and that should speed up the process.
-
That is frustrating for sure, seeing as no other changes have been made. There's usually a reason or two as to why such drops in rankings would occur. It's worth starting with an on-page analysis (SEOmoz's tool is great) to see if any serious errors or such like are identified. Perhaps the site is now over-optimized which can happen.
Perhaps something has happened that you don't know about, such as your client purchasing links without you knowing, or some issues with the hosting provider. Is good to rule out as many possible reasons as you can.
-
Great ideas, thank you. I actually did the term targeter for Organic T Shirts for http://greenpromotionalitems.com/organic-t-shirts.htm and got an A so that's good. I do notice that when the site does show up in searches, it is all the old meta descriptions and titles (changes were made 2-3 weeks ago). Any clue on why that may be happening?
-
The short answer for your question, yes it normally takes a week to two weeks to get sites fully re-indexed in Google. Of course there are special occasions when it turns around faster, but generally speaking 1-2 weeks. The easiest way to check if they have been reindexed, is to search for branded keywords and see your new titles/meta descriptions are in the SERPs or if it is still the older ones.
As for optimizing your pages, shoot for an A in the term target tool (http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/on-page-keyword-optimization/new).
-
Thank you for the suggestions and we will definitely be focusing in on those. I think my confusion is that for certain terms that the site used to appear for, it no longer is, even though we now have more targeted SEO for those very same terms.
-
Hi there
It could be that the new relevant keywords that you have replaced the 'fluff' words with within the Titles and Descriptions are more competitive than those previous words, resulting in a drop in rankings.
If you're now fully targeting the site towards more competitive keywords than before, it's justifiable to expect a drop in rankings.
Additional supportive content (still unique, relevant, valuable content) plus some good distribution and PR should attract some new inbound links, hopefully on relevant anchor text.
So you may well have a justifiable reason there, plus an action plan to remedy the situation, which a client will likely be appreciative of.
Regards
Simon
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to rank a product page
Hello, I have a product page and just did a little introduction ( 5 lines of text) but I have the feeling this is not enough for google. What is the solution ? Is it to increase the amount of content even though it is not going to be user friendly ? Or will google look at the product page I link too and take into account the content on those subpages to boost my "pillar / product page". Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics1 -
Rank Loss Analysis Tool
I did a detailed analysis of the loss in rankings for about 100 pages on my site over the last 6 months. For few pages the SEO clicks have dropped by 40%. This is not due to algorithm penalty but one of the following reason Competitor with a higher DA created a similar article Existing Competitors get more backlinks Search volume itself is down - (Don't care) Loss in long tail traffic can you guys recommend a system to automatically track this and make a report? Also what would be corrective action in case of reason 1 and 4
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Janki990 -
Not Ranking - Any Tips?
Hi guys, I have a client site that I've recently come onboard with that was published late last year, not really optimized for anything, and in a moderately, but not very, competitive, search space. Early April we optimized the home page and a couple of other pages and have since built about 5-6 (high quality, partial match) links to it, and a press release was done mid last month. The only other thing we did was change the site from non-www to www and set this as the preferred domain in Search Console. Over 6 weeks since that all began, and we're still not on the radar at all for any of our main keywords - nowhere. The only thing we are really ranking for is our brand name, but this is the wrong (press release, not home!) page, and it's bouncing a lot. All of the pages seem to be indexed, and we are ranking for one other (inconsequential) keyword, but 99 is the highest it has reached. An SEO friend told me to build some citations, but this is not a local business, nor are we trying to rank locally. Can anyone please suggest why it might be taking so long, and what else I could try? I imagine more links will help, but results from our outreach are hard to predict, so if there were another safe link type that could help me figure out whether this domain is in trouble or not ASAP, that would be ideal. Thanks very much in advance for any help you can provide. Ulla
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ullamalm0 -
Is my website is having enough content on it to rank?
I have less content on my website, is this okay or I need to add more content on my pages? Website is - brandstenmedia.com.au Any other suggestions for the website?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Green.landon0 -
Across the board drops in DA
Hi, has anyone noticed across the board drops in DA in specific industries lately? If you're tracking 5 companies in one industry it seems odd that all five would drop 2-3 DA points all at once don't you think? Just peculiar I think and would love some insight if there is some to be had / shared.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wearehappymedia0 -
Ranking of Travel Sites in SERPs
Hello, I have noticed that some travel sites rank for almost all the keywords but when I click the page, it has no relevant content and often no content at all. I remember Google once updated its algorithm to do away with such sites but I still found some. The question is - if they don't have relevant content or if they don't have content at all, how do they even rank? Secondly, how come they have pages for all keyword combination? How is this achieved? Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IM_Learner0 -
Site re-design, full site domain A/B test, will we drop in rankings while leaking traffic
We are re-launching a client site that does very well in Google. The new site is on a www2 domain which we are going to send a controlled amount of traffic to, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% to 100% over a 5 week period. This will lead to a reduction in traffic to the original domain. As I don't want to launch a competing domain the www2 site will not be indexed until 100% is reached. If Google sees the traffic numbers reducing over this period will we drop? This is the only part I am unsure of as the urls and site structure are the same apart from some new lower level pages which we will introduce in a controlled manner later? Any thoughts or experience of this type of re-launch would be much appreciated. Thanks Pete
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | leshonk0 -
Tumblr the next Squidoo?
What does SEO Moz think of all this SEO abuse that is happening on tumblr lately? I mean, it doesn't take much time to look around tumbler and realize pretty much every page looks like this: http://staff.tumblr.com/post/454906416/blackberry-app Below the post check out the "reblogged". With the correct settings in your tumblr profile, all you gotta do is click reblog on a couple tumblr pages and you get instant backlinks to your website from tumblr pages. Some examples from this page: aticards reblogged this from staff mymuffincorner reblogged this from staff contextual-links reblogged this from staff It's actually a followed link if you reblog. if you just 'like' you end up with a nofollowed link. Questions: Why is tumblr so blind to allow this to happen Surely google must be aware of this and devaluing links that come from tumblr posts? Thoughts? edit: 50 views and no responses. maybe my question isnt clear enough?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | adriandg0