My site penalized after 301 Redirect or redesign?

[salvyy]

Hi,

I have a question regarding my site (http://www.pokeronlineitalia.com) that has, all of a sudden, lost rankings on several keywords; plus, Google Analytics and the plug-in Clicky installed on my site (the site is built on WordPress) claim that my site has no visitors/visits anymore.

I would like to provide a little background of what has happened. Three weeks ago I asked my web hosting company to do a 301 redirect from http://pokeronlineitalia.com to http://www.pokeronlineitalia.com. At the same time I asked a web hosting company to to a redesign of the site. Strangely, the day after the new redesigned site went online Google Analytics and the Clicky plug-in showed that my site, from one day to the other, had no visitors/visits anymore (I had installed Google Analytics and Clicky before the 301 redirect). In addition, I noticed that I had lost positions on many keywords for which I used to rank on the second page.

However, the PR of the site has remained intact and Google is indexing it without problems. Plus, I still rank high for a keyword. I tend to believe that because of this, my site was not penalized by mighty Google...but I'd like an SEO expert to tell me what he thinks about it. In particular, please answer this: has my site lost rankings because of the 301 redirect? Has my site been penalized because of the redesign? Is this only a temporary situation?

Thank you very much for your help.

• Sal

[RobertFisher]

salvyy

My suggestion, given your location is to first look at those on SEOmoz who are available in Europe or Italy. As to cost, I am not sure what they charge there. I do know there are some brilliant SEO people in Europe and Italy. (Yes, I know Italy is in Europe and am making a distinction ) If you choose a company from the US, I would look for someone on SEOmoz as well.

I would suggest finding at least three no matter where they are from, PM them, and give them all the same list of what you need. Then, ask each to provide a proposal and quote. You choose based on what you come up with that best fits your needs.

Best

[salvyy]

Hi JourneyMan,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. No, apparently the web designer did not include the GA code in all the pages. I'll ask the web hosting company to put it back ASAP.

You say that my site has a lot of SEO related issues. I wish I knew what you are talking about. I'll try to find a reliable/trustworthy company that can work on the site and solve the issues you are referring to. Hopefully, she will not forget about the GA code...:-)

Thank you and have a great day.

• Sal

[salvyy]

Hi Robert,

Thank you so much for your feedback. I am learning so much from people like you!

The problem with me is that I study a lot of SEO but I am really bad at taking care of the technical issues (coding, web design, etc...). I have to ask other people to do it for me. As you know, sometimes you hire people who do not care about your site and problems emerge. I would have never found out about the fact that the web designer forgot to include the GA code in the site, for instance.

Thank you for your recommendations on how to make the site more SEO-friendly. I'll follow them. Finally, I'd like to know if it is possibile to find a reliable (and not too expensive :-)) company I can hire to do just that: analyze my site and get rid of all the those technical problems (bad coding, missing WordPress plug-ins that are good for SEO, et similia) that I cannot detect, as I am incredibly ignorant in this field. I feel that it's the technical issues that prevent my sites from performing a little better.

Thank you again and all the best to you!

• Sal

P.S.: I love and miss the wise US sayings

[RobertFisher]

Sal, Eyepaq is correct. It does appear that the redirect worked and was likely done correctly. I would also suggest setting the www. subdomain of the site as the preferred in GWMT.

I have to say this as well, to quote the kind eyepaq, "You do have a lot of SEO related issues...."

I always wonder with poker sites, betting sites, vitamin, etc. that the questions are "I did something correct, did I get penalized." One thing that I have learned through the Q&A is that Google is not nearly as strict with some of these issues as one might think. If they were, I am a bit unsure how some sites would rank on page 100.

Here is something to consider: What if you reduced the number of links on the page to your best 10 or 20? What if you had a poker site that did not try to capitalize on every affiliate offer on the planet and instead focused on providing the best clients to the top 10 or 20 sites and that provided content so compelling that novice or pro would want to read it.

There is a saying regarding real estate often heard hear in the US: You want to be the cheapest or most expensive house in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, with so many gambling sites, it is all about being like the rest of them. If you want to truly succeed, find a way to differentiate yourself from the pack.

Good luck. Good move on the 301.

[eyepaq]

Your site is still in the index, ranking for several terms - so no heavy penalization in place.

You do have a lot of SEO related issues on the site that can and will harm you in the future but it doesn't look it's that heavy to go from x to 0.

Did you check if with the new redesign has all things in place ?

The team that did the redesign didn't place / implemented the Google Analytic code in the new design.

I don't see it in your source code in any of the pages I've checked.

It must look something link this in the head section of the source code.

var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-1']);
  _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.yoursite.com']);
  _gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);
  _gaq.push(['_setAllowAnchor', true]);  

  _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 5,'User-Type','free', 2]);

      _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);  

**Ask your developers to put the code back on ever page and **

**everything will go back.**

**Redesign can cause some issues so is the 301 redirect but in **

**this case it's not the issue !**

Hope it helps.