Pagerank and SERP rankings downhill after site update
-
Our site underwent a major update in September 2012. We put the entire site in WordPress and did away with our static pages. Then, in February 2013, we moved our shopping cart pages from a subdomain to our main domain (in WordPress). In both cases, we had to implement a massive 301 redirect through htaccess as most of our URLs changed with the update. Our site consists of the shopping cart (WooCommerce), blog, and supporting pages.
We noticed traffic starting to drop around the last week of November (2012) and it has steadily declined ever since. None of our shop pages have a pagerank with virtually all them showing a gray bar with question mark. Only the shop homepage has some pagerank -- that too from 4 previously to 2 now. Some of the words we used to rank very well for before, we don't even show in the first five pages anymore. At first, we thought it was a temporary situation that would self correct over time, but it doesn't seem to get better at all. All said, we have lost over 80% of our traffic from Google organic.
Upon repeated reviews, the 301 redirects seem to be done correctly and we don't see any serious mistakes that could cause such a huge drop. So the question is are we missing something? Are we not looking at the right places? Any ideas where we might start looking? We're simply looking for ideas and a fresh perspective.
-
It's quite possible that the changes to the link structure affected the way PageRank is flowing through the site and thus the authority of pages. It's also possible that changes in Google (like the Penguin 2 update, the EMD update, and others) have affected the PageRank of both pages and the entire site and that those effects just happen to coincide with the website move.
Without a detailed investigation into the site, I can't really say what may have caused the problem and, even with a detailed investigation, it may not be possible to figure it out at this point. It may be better to simply evaluate the site as it is now. Look for ways you can improve the on-page optimization and internal link structure first. Then work on creating great content, connecting with others, and building up the authority of the site.
Kurt
PS - The other thing to keep in mind is that the Google Toolbar PageRank isn't reliable at all. Even Matt Cutts has said not to pay much attention to it. I would focus more on traffic and rankings than the Toolbar PR.
-
There were some changes in the footer links. All the content pages were imported pretty much as they were before. We took care to make the main navigation menu as close to the prior site as possible, but there might have been some differences. Of course, because of the way WordPress handles tags, categories and page/post structure, I am sure the internal linking was probably altered somewhat, but it was mostly unintentional.
-
Chris,
With the switch to the new URLs was there also a change in the navigation menus and internal linking structure?
Kurt
-
Kurt, for most part, the redirects were set up for every page (product -> product, category -> category, old shop main page to the new shop main page etc). There were some fringe pages (like /help_options.asp?ID=9) that were sent to the corresponding parent page (frequently-asked-questions). Also, previous pages with query strings (like ReviewsList.asp?SortBy=Newest&Page=1&ProductCode= or BulkDiscounts.asp?ProductID=28&ProductCode=) were sent to the new shop main page.
-
Were the 301 redirects setup for every page (i.e. every page redirects it's old URL specifically to it's new URL) or did you do a blanket redirect (i.e. all pages redirect to the homepage or some category pages)?
Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com -
We were using a Volusion shopping cart, which required a sub domain. We did not have any known problems. The move allowed us to consolidate everything into a single CMS (Wordpress).
-
Why did you move the domain? Were you having problems on an old domain?
Just askin' because if you had Panda, Penguin or other problems on the old domain they might have followed you and are getting activated by new Google actions.
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 do you influence the default site title?
Hi, We have noticed that on brand searches, a site's page title is replaced with the name of the site or the business, we can understand that this is due to the fact that a CTR enticing title is not as important when the customer is looking for a certain brand. What tells Google what company name to display in this instance? We're having trouble with our French site displaying the page title, we are moving the position of the title code earlier in the page, but can't see why a) Telefleurs is not displaying the title chosen and b) why it is displaying EuroFlorist when our French brand is Telefleurs. Any advice on this would be much appreciated! Thanks, Sam JgLwnGV.png
Web Design | | seoeuroflorist0 -
Services\Companies that expertise to improve WP site speed ?
Hi guys, I used few companies to improve my WP site speed but in general the results were not that good. I wanted to know if there's any recommendation for companies that expert on improving speed of WP sites ? I need companies that this is what they do and that's their expertise! Thanks in advanced
Web Design | | EdmondHong870 -
Key word rankings for subsets of professions
Hello, I am a web designer who predominantly works with WordPress at the moment but I have the ability to work on any platform. Now locally I rank high for terms like Wordpress designer nj but my broad keyword web design nj has been on the decrease. From page 1 to 5 or 6 now. I would like to rank on page1 for this term regularly as it provides the best chance at new leads. I currently do not have a page on my site dedicated to web design alone my focus has all been Wordpress. is it recommended to create a separate page to rank for web design keywords as well even though the majority of business I do is with Wordpress?
Web Design | | donsilvernail0 -
Internal linking for small site
I have a site with 13 pages, 6 are product pages, 5 are free tips pages (the other 2 are the home page and contact form). Currently I have the navbar at top of site with a "products" dropdown menu for the 6 product pages and a "Tips" dropdown menu for the 5 tip pages. All categories except the contact page are at the bottom as breadcrumbs, the homepage is "home" and the rest are relevant user friendly keyword anchor text. So I have 2 more pages to ad to "Tips" and am wondering whether to have a new 2nd level tips page that links to a 3rd level of 7 different tips pages, or keep it shallow as it is, with only 2 levels from the homepage to the other (now 13) pages, with a potential of 22 pages in the foreseable few years? (and some graphics work to make it user friendly like how Zappo's has categories to the side on each of its drop down navbar menu's and non-link text categories for its bottom of page breadcrumb links) Can those aforementioned pages linking to each other in the footer dilute link equity? (I think that's one of the primary reasons I'm curious). What do you think of this: http://www.dbswebsite.com/blog/2012/08/08/internal-linking-101-5-best-practices/ (I guess I should no follow my contact page), could it be better to have a 2nd level page for "Tips" to get more equity to that page rather than across all 7 tips pages? I have read around about this on here (hence how I found out about Zappo's) and elsewhere and wanted ask to make sure.
Web Design | | Zoolander0 -
Does a loading homepage animation effect rankings?
Our website ( panphoenix dot com) has a Javascript animation when you load it for the first time which takes just over 2 seconds to load. Does having this animation effect rankings negatively? Would appreciate your thoughts!Thanks Rob
Web Design | | roberthseo0 -
Time On Site and SEO?
Does time on site impact rankings? If a person visits your site from the serps or directly visits it by typing in your name in the search field and then leaves within a minute, will that impact your serps? What is the best way to increase time on site?
Web Design | | bronxpad0 -
Mobile sites! Any advice or suggestions for building one?
Hello Mozland, I'm looking to have a mobile site built. We have a fair amount of traffic coming from smart phones, tablets etc and want to capture this traffic better. Do you have any advice on how to have it built properly, if/how it can be optimised, what good features to include, or anything else you think might be of help? Many thanks Martin
Web Design | | Martin_S0 -
Best way to set up a site with multiple brick and mortor locations across Canada
I have a client who is expanding his business locations from 2 cities to 3, and working towards having 10+ locations across Canada. Right now we're building location based landing pages for each city, as well as keyword targeted landing pages for each city. For example, landing pages for "Vancouver whatever clinic" and "Calgary whatever clinic" as well as for "Vancouver specific service", and "Calgary specific service". This means a lot of landing pages will need to be created to target each of 10 or so desirable "service" keywords for each city's location. I've no issue with this, however I was wondering how other companies go about this? What's the best way to be relevant for certain "service" based keyword searches in each city? Many of the "service" keywords are 'localized' meaning they will show Google Places results for local brick and mortar businesses for each location. I'm quite good at optimizing locally for this type of thing. However, many of the "service" keywords are not yet 'localized' by Google, I'd want to have my client webpages show well in the SERP's. for these 'non-localized' "service keywords" as well. the new site will be built in WordPress
Web Design | | AndyKuiper0