Positions dropping in SERPs after Title and Snippet change
-
Hi!
I switched to a better title and meta description today for our page. Instead of ranking us better and displaying the new title - google let us fall from Position 10 to Position 16 (still dip laying the old title and meta description). Why is that? (I only changed it for the homepage)
Cheers
Marc
-
Hi Zoe,
thanks a lot for your reply.
I checked the ranking position through pws=0 and also by Moz's Ranktracker. In Moz it showed up ok but with &pws=0 it seemed to have dropped over several positions.
Please see my response to Cyrus if you're interested in what might have caused the drop.
I did not know that Google does not update meta data in real time.
Thank you very much !
Marc
-
Hi Cyrus,
thanks for your detailed answer. As I found out the main cause was human stupidity
I just saw that somehow Wordpress did not publish the changes unless I deleted the cache in WP. Thereafter the homepage looked kind of destroyed because of a false setting in WP. Maybe this might have caused the drop although the page looked ok to me before deleting the cache...
Thank you very much.
I took learned a lot from your posting!
Marc
-
There are a few possible reasons Google might adjust rankings after seeing a change in your title and meta descriptions. Among them: (keep in mind these are only possibilities)
1. The algorithm determines that the page is less relevant to the target query keywords
2. The title change deviates from earlier anchor text pointing at the page, meaning the page might not be as relevant to the query
4. After changing your title+description, you experience a lower CTR in search results. In theory this could lower your rankings. But because you describe the old title/description still showing in SERPS, this is less likely
5. The drop in rankings is temporary, or is unrelated to any changes you made.
If Google is still showing the old title/description, #5 is a strong possibility. You may want to check Google's cache of the page to see if it's picking up on the changes. Depending on the site this can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks.
If nothing else, you can always change the title/description back to the original version and test what happens.
-
Hi,
How are you checking the rankings? Through looking at the SERP, or through a tool like Moz? If it's just been changed today, I'd say this is probably coincidence, depending on what you've changed it to. Google doesn't update meta data in real time, and so you'll probably not see a change for a couple of hours-up to a week, depending on how often Google re-indexes your site.
This is more likely to be caused by something else, from the sound of it!
Hope this helps,
Zoe
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
-
Website Snippet Update in Search Console?
I have a company that I started working with that has an outdated and inaccurate snippet coming up. See the link below. They changed their name from DK on Pittsburgh Sports to just DK Pittsburgh Sports several years ago, but the snippet is still putting the old info, including outdated and incorrect description. I'm not seeing that title or description anywhere on the site or a schema plugin. How can we get it updated? I have updated titles, etc. for the home page, and done a Fetch to get re-indexed. Does Snippet have a different type of refresh that I can submit or edit? Thanks in advance https://g.co/kgs/qZAnAC
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jeremyskillings0 -
Traffic and keyword drop
Hello, On one of the sites that I manage - http://www.zalikihotel.gr/ , there was a significant decrease in keyword positions over the last 10-15 days. Sample screenshot is attached. Some of the keywords even dropped for 17-18 positions. From the end of April, organic traffic dropped by 30 percent. Website is mobile optimized, so that shouldn't be a problem. In the last 3-4 months, we had traffic increase. Domain authority went up by 3 points after the last index. On-site SEO was completed, and currently I'm focusing on link-building and working on bringing back to life forgotten social media. Does anybody knows what might be the case for this negative affects on our site? Do you think it's a temporary fluctuation or not? Thanks in advance. 8dSBELm.png?1
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | socrateskirtsios0 -
Rich Snippets stopped showing up in SERPS
i had some rich snippets (recipes nad stars) showing on my site, but the last few days they have gone, has anyone had this happen, if so what did you do to get them back? The example URL is as follows http://www.gourmed.gr/syntages/pestrofa-sto-tigani-synodeyomeni-me-sauvignon-2003-karypidis everything seems ok in Google Structured Data Testing Tool. Any thoughts on why?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | canonodigital0 -
After reading of Google's so called "over-optimization" penalty, is there a penalty for changing title tags too frequently?
In other words, does title tag change frequency hurt SEO ? After changing my title tags, I have noticed a steep decline in impressions, but an increase in CTR and rankings. I'd like to once again change the title tags to try and regain impressions. Is there any penalty for changing title tags too often? From SEO forums online, there seems to be a bit of confusion on this subject...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Felix_LLC0 -
Serp and visitor is dropping everyday, Any suggestion?
Hello, My site was getting 1500-2500 visitor and the serp rank was very good, position 2nd to 4th. But now rank is dropping day by day and also the visitor. Its my present serp http://goo.gl/vHB6o and my site URL is secretlovemessages.com Can anyone suggest me whats am i doing wrong and what should i do to get a concreate serp and steady visitor. Thanks to all
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | purplerimon0 -
Need help in Title tags
Hi I have word press site and it has 24 pages and the main keywords is Stairlifts there are various kind and type of stairlifts and all the 24 page has the title tag stairslifts , i have tried to make each unique but i cannot avoid using the keyword stairslift. Will that have a negative impact if my main keyword is stairlifts. My target page for stairlifts is the home page. Any suggestions please Many thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | conversiontactics0 -
Rich Snippets Publisher errors
Hi all. Happen to do a bit of testing with some of our microformat and microdata markup when I noticed our linked Google+ Publisher markup has stopped working. It definitely was working, and nothings changed, but now we are flagging errors, and I've noticed some of our competitors also have the same problem. publisher linked Google+ page = https://plus.google.com/103929635387487847550
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sjr4x4
Error: This page does not include verified publisher markup. Learn more. If I actually add a duplicate rel="publisher" then I get the following results: Extracted Author/Publisher for this page publisherlinked Google+ page = https://plus.google.com/103929635387487847550
Error: This page does not include verified publisher markup. Learn more. publisherlinked Google+ page = https://plus.google.com/103929635387487847550/ The second line doesn't seem to flag an error? I know this is still all pretty new, so is anyone else having problems or odd results, or is Google having some problems? All our other rich snippets such as reviews etc are working fine, just seems to be the publisher bit. cheers Steve0 -
Some things I have noticed SEO which showed a positive
Hi, Just a few small things I have noticed which has made a difference in ranking, thought I would share, small things but every little helps. Looks like more content on a page the better the ranking, in a test I have done this is what I found: page with 0 content - Google page 11 page with 250 content - Google page 5 page with 500 content - Google page 2 page with 1000 content - Google page 1, position 3 Looks like Google might count the words on a page (like you can do in Microsoft word) and then apply a score against it. Tweets and likes (78) showed a jump from page 1, position 8, to page 1, position 1 (this was the only form of link building and no changes made apart from adding the share plugin). Kind of makes me think if your starting a new site or page then add 750 - 1000 words of good content (tutorial or whatever) with a social sharing tool and let this run will give you a better chance of ranking when you start to introduce products and services.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | activitysuper0