New content cause for drop? Still showing old cache though...
-
About 10 days ago I added about 750 words of new text to a homepage as it was simply a sign up landing page and rather sparse. I presumed that by adding content it would help google understand the content of the site as it is a single page on the root domain (as soon as users sign up they go to a subdomain). Yesterday though the site recieved a huge drop in traffic and now recieves almost no organic traffic at all from google. I've done the obvious like checked WMT for messages but I'm not sure as to what caused the drop. As far as I'm aware there were no confirmed google updates on 7/6/13.
The strange thing is that when I check the google cache its about 3 weeks old so I'm guessing google is using the old cache to reference my site content against search queries. Does that mean the changes I made are not the cause for the drop in rankings? The title tag however has changed when the site is showin in the SERPS. How can that be if google has an old cache?
-
Samuel, I'd like to start over fresh in answering your question because there are too many thoughts going on here at once. Let's start with the obvious: Can you provide a link so we can have a look at the content you wrote? It is possible that you have crossed some sort of content overoptimization threshold if it seems to be keyword-stuffed.
Regarding timing, Google has a lot of databases and they don't all update simultaneously. It isn't uncommon for the title tag to update in the SERPs before the page content updates in the cached snapshot. Furthermore, algorithmic calculations, including whether or not to apply a filter or penalty, do not always happen at the same speed that indexation happens.
All of this is to say that just because a drop in traffic happened after you updated content doesn't mean the content was the cause of that drop. Post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) is a logical fallacy. But there does seem to be a strong temporal correlation so it is the obvious place to start ---> Can you share a link to the content?
-
Hi Sam, Here is info about this from Matt Cutts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk&feature=youtu.be
I hope this helps,
use Google Web master tools fech as a google bot then add to index all links
Hope this help,
Tom
-
I only added the subdomain yesterday with a wordpress blog. The main site is html only. The rankings drop were before I added the blog on the subdomain.How I instruct google to recoginise the subdomain as part of the main domain. Is that what you're saying?
Thanks.
-
Please accept my apology I'm doing this on a cell phone and trying to Doug in a couple other things.
It is definitely because you are using a subdomain is your master site like www.
and if you were to change that then you'll will lose Rank Unless you instruct Google to recognize the root domain as part of the same URL as the sub domain the site is subject to being treated as a new URL with out the subdomain for what ever you use as subdomain this case www. Or not maybe? Regardless what you done is tell Google that this URL is not on the fully qualified domain name which could include www. .is no longer your homepage so it gave it what it we give any brand-new website homepage you need to add the subdomain then it should work.
If you use OSE on a subdomain like test. Example.com it is going to be less powerful check using Moz rank, trustUntil google is made to understand that this is part of the fully qualified domain and simply there to be part of the FQDN and put to index and treat it like its part of the Subdomain that was ranking well already it will not rank just like
I would not want to use some of my subdomain that I use for other purposes like video.Example.com domain it gets low rank It's not relative content wise to my primary domain.
There are exceptions with content delivery networks ranking very well
So
Please do not confuse what I said about CDN being bad for ranking at all. CDN's help rank and having a subdomain that is a CDN.Example.com will. Help rank your site very highly depending on the CDN and the cookie configuration it gets much more technical regardless I am not saying anything negative about CDN's and ranking it is simply a popular way of creating a subdomain and will most likely boost your ranking I was just using it as an example as it is a very popular way of adding a subdomain
all the best,
tom
-
Sorry your home page is a sign up only page?
And the news homepage coming up the root domain then you made a change to the structure of it which I'm sure was indexed by Google. Or should be if it's not. It sounds to me as if you should tell Google Webmaster tools that your homepage is a gateway and you do not consider it your actual homepage or to the traditional thing it allows sign-ups along with creating content
-
3 week old cache could be nothing or could be slow server and bad site design java, too many links on pages , PageRank you can do wonders with a site audit and a fast host what type of website EG WordPress , just HTML who do you host with?
-
In google Use site: then whatever your new page is not just your home page to see if its been indexed. If not fetch it in GWT.
Your server sends the changes to your site changes they will show up when the DNS + server say not google.
Google will then index as it likes.
If you took a loos I would look at what you added.
Audit the page then the site.Some change is normal use Moz with
authority tools or SERPS.com to see SERPS changes.Use Moz tools with http://marketing.grader.com
To see what you can do to better your site.
Hope this was of help,
Thomas
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
-
Dynamic links & duplicate content
Hi there, I am putting a proposal together for a client whose website has been optimised to include many dynamic links and so there are many pages with duplicate content: only the page title, h1 and URL is different. My client thinks this isn't an issue. What is the current consensus on this? Many thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | lorraine.mcconechy0 -
Will changing my home page cause rankings to drop?
We are looking at doing a major change with our website. Upper management is wanting to have our home page be our store page, instead of just a landing page. So basically we would be eliminating our current home page, and replacing it with our store page. This is a very large site and our current home page gets a lot of traffic. Issues to deal with will be ranking of the current page content; Internal links to both pages; external links (backlinks) pointing to the two pages, and of course, a potential drop in rankings and traffic. Any ideas on how to best do this? Or not do it at all. 301 redirect? Thanks, Brad
On-Page Optimization | | tdawson090 -
Duplicate content with a trailing slash /
Hi, I 've pages like this: A) www.example.com/file/ B) www.example.com/file Just two questions: Does Google see this as duplicate content? Best to 301 redirect B to A? Many thanks Richard PS I read previous threads re the subject, it sounded like there was a bug in SEOMoz but I was not absolutely clear. Apologies if this is going over old ground.
On-Page Optimization | | Richard5550 -
Creating Duplicate Content on Shopping Sites
I have a client with an eCommerce site that is interested in adding their products to shopping sites. If we use the same information that is on the site currently, will we run into duplicate content issues when those same products & descriptions are published on shopping sites? Is it best practice to rewrite the product title and descriptions for shopping sites to avoid duplicate content issues?
On-Page Optimization | | mj7750 -
Why is cache being shown like this
Google is showing strange cache for the site - http://shop.surfcity.co.nz/ . Why is 404 error being displayed ?
On-Page Optimization | | seoug_20050 -
How to avoid duplicate content on ecommerce pages?
I am currently building the site architecture for a very large ecommerce site. I am wondering how I should build it out if I have products that I want to include in multiple categories within my site. For example: Lets say I sell fitness equipment and I have categories for things such as: Treadmill, Exercise Bike, Stair Stepper, Weight Benches etc. But then I also have specific brand category pages such a: Precor, Life Fitness, Hammer, Body Solid So my question is how do I structure this so I am building this correctly? If I sell a Precor Treadmill I will want to include that product under the "Treadmill" category page as well as under the "Precor Equipment" category page. Can I get some advice for the best way to structure this? It's obviously something I want to avoid at all costs of doing improperly and having to fix later. Thank you Jake
On-Page Optimization | | PEnterprises0 -
Are Forum Links To Website Causing Rankings To Drop ?
For many years our top keywords hve ranked in top 5. Usually top 3 for a few in particular. The last few months those particular keywords have dropped to 25 +. Our other rankings are doing pretty decent and are remaiing the same. We are members of about 6 forums since they relate to our website and sometime we have contests on them. I do know that the forums are based on those particular keywords and are linking to our website, as well as other forum members linking to us. Each forum has roughly 300 links to our website. It does not seem as if our competitors are affected by this, as they are members of the forums as well. What could be causing this for these certain keywords? If those forums were affected by Google's new algorythm would this have an affect on our website?
On-Page Optimization | | hfranz0 -
Cross Domain Duplicate Content
Hi My client has a series of websies, one main website and several mini websites, articles are created and published daily and weekly, one will go on a the main website and the others on one, two, or three of the mini sites. To combat duplication, i only ever allow one article to be indexed (apply noindex to articles that i don't wanted indexed by google, so, if 3 sites have same article, 2 sites will have noindex tag added to head). I am not completely sure if this is ok, and whether there are any negative affects, apart from the articles tagged as noindex not being indexed. Are there any obvious issues? I am aware of the canonical link rel tag, and know that this can be used on the same domain, but can it be used cross domain, in place of the noindex tag? If so, is it exactly the same in structure as the 'same domain' canonical link rel tag? Thanks Matt
On-Page Optimization | | mattys0