Drop in rankings, next step

[laidlawseo]

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.

[laidlawseo]

What do you mean by over-optimized?

[kchandler]

There are many possible reasons. Try resubmitting a new xml sitemap to Google Webmaster tools and that should speed up the process.

[SimonCullum]

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.

[laidlawseo]

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?

[kchandler]

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).

[laidlawseo]

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.

[SimonCullum]

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