After optimising for SEO my ranking went down...
-
Hello,
My website was ranking for over 100 keywords but was not really optimised properly.
For example, the page title was much too long, it was segmented like this:
"keyword - Category - domain "
I followed recommandations in SEOMOZ and I removed the domain and category from the long page titles to only leave the keyword and updated the H1 to reflect also the keyword.
We dropped in ranking since even though we did not change anything, only made things more SEO optimised.
I don't understand how it made us drop in ranking??
David
-
Thank you Mike,
Very appreaciated
-
Hi David.
Okay, unfortunately this is around the time of some major Google tweaks, making it possibly harder to figure our what went wrong, as we need to try to rule out Penguin/Panda issues (feel free to take a screengrab or csv download from GA with a chart, so I can cross-check against Google's updates, and see if any of the big drop-off dates tally with major algo changes for you, as this could help rule Pegnuin in/out).
I have had a quick look at your site, and done a couple of quick Google queries, and found the following (I am NOT saying this is the cause, but this is something that should definitely be looked into).
-
LOTS (circa 1,900) of pages indexed in Google, with pretty much duplicates of your homepage title tag (I will private message you a link, rather than publishing here)
-
Possible canonicalisation issues (need to check).
David, I have triggered a crawl test of your domain, and will cast me eye over the findings when it is finished, and let you know if I see anything that may be useful.
I am leaving the office soon (especially as it is sunny! VERY rare for Bristol!), but I will check to see if the results of the crawl test are ready tomorrow, and fire you a reply once I know.
Cheers David,
Mike.
-
-
Mike,
Thank you for your comment.
The changes were made during March 2012, since then I have been checking the SEOMOZ ranking tool and have been pulling my hair out of my head.
From April to June we lost about 40% of traffic.
Each month we had much more declined keywords than improved ones.
The drop off started immediately after the updates were made.
Here are the monthly visits for non branded keywords:
Feb: 542
March: 510
April: 436
May:426
June: 288
Cheers
-
Hmmmm, and, was this change made in isolation, or were other on-page changes also made?
When you say the rankings have been going down for around 4 months, do you know what sort of date the decline started? - I ask as it may be wise to broaded the net a little in looking at the cause of this.
I am not saying the title tag changes didn't cause it, just that it would be wise to not restrict ones research... for example, did the decline start around the time of any major Google updates? (Panda/Penguin refreshes, etc).
Also, do you know how long the gap was between changing the title tags, and the drop-off becoming apparent?
So really, 3 questions:
-
Do you remember the date you made the changes
-
Do you remember how long until the drop-off was seen
-
What date did your traffic start to go down (checking Google Analytics data could show you this, switching to a 6 month view).
Sorry to answer with more questions, but I wouldn't want to put forward an opinion of what could have caused this without all the facts!
Thanks,
Mike.
-
-
Here is an example:
The title:
|
"Data centre & server room energy audits - Energy efficient design of data centres & computer rooms"
was renaimed "Data centre & server room energy audits - Energy saving computer rooms"
|
and
|
|
"Data centre Consultancy and independent advice - Data centre solutions : [Our Company Name]" was renaimed
| "Building a data centre - independent advice" |
etc. to a total of 76 page titles.
Then the pages started dropping in Google.
|
|
-
Good question.
I did not change the URL structure, I do plan on doing it as the URLs are not SEO friendly.
I will send an example.
-
Just to check the obvious, you didn't change any URL structure (of the pages) did you?
How much optimisation did you carry out on the pages, please show an example, as it is possible to 'over optimise', especially these days.
Thanks,
Mike.
-
It has been decreasing for the past 4 months consistently. I will put together some sample and post them. Thanks
-
For how long you are experiencing this drop? I mean the time frame. Some times the rankings tends to drop if there are some minor or major meta details or site update, its natural. If the meta details that you have updated perfectly suits your site/ business and the link profile of your site is good then it will not take much time to re gain the old rankings. It will be better if you provide a sample of your past and present title meta details.
Thanks,
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
-
Ecommerce - SEO Quick Wins?
Hi I wanted to find out if anyone had any quick wins for an ecommerce site & SEO. I am the only SEO and we have a small online team and an ecommerce site with thousands of product pages. It's impossible to optimise everything, and we have taken the top 100 products and optimised them - starting from scratch with keyword research. I'm now struggling to prioritize what we need next - I know we need better internal linking, content, social and lots more, but this isn't something I can get through alone. I need a starting point and perhaps something with a quick win initially? Thanks 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Can Ecommerce help with Keyword Rankings?
I am curious to know if an ecommerce website plays a role in higher rankings. we have been struggling for some time on a term and all of our competitors have an online shopping cart. we have a custom magento website with a request a quote form as our products are very costly. (range from $500 - $250,000). Is there something we can add to the code to help boost our rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | hfranz0 -
Loss of 1,000 links has negatively affecting rankings
Hey there, One of the clients we're working with has lost about 1,000 or so backlinks over the last two or three months - mainly old article and directory links - and it has massively affected the site's search rankings. The site was ranking for pretty much all of its keywords in prominent positions on Google (mostly first page) but has now seen positions dive to 50, 90 and even outside of the top 100. Is there any immediate action we can put into place to help restore our rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
Google Algorithm Update .. Author-rank finally kicking in ?
These few days I've been seeing great movement of my sites growing by 70-100% in traffic spikes. Some how I think this has something to do with AuthorRank maybe kicking in now as more of a factor in rankings? Anyone have an idea whats going on ?
Algorithm Updates | | NikolasNikolaou0 -
Do you Feel Street View for inside a local business is a ranking factor for the local algorithm?
I'm working in a market where the Google Trusted photographer is rolling out. The question came up if providing this data would boost your rankings in the local map pack. I've been asking a few fellow SEO peeps but I thought I would throw it out here for your opinion.
Algorithm Updates | | BCutrer0 -
Need some Real Insight into our SEO Issue and Content Generation
We have our site www.practo.com We have our blog as blog.practo.com We plan to have our main site in a months time from now as www.ray.practo.com The Issues - I will then need to direct all my existing traffic from www.practo.com to www.ray.practo.com Keeping in mind SEO and also since I will be generating new content via our Wordpress instance what are the best ways to do this so that google does not have difficulty in find out content 1. Would it be good if I put the Wordpress instance as ray.practo.com/ blog(wordpress instance comes in here in the directory) / article-url 2.Would it be better with www.practo.com / ray / blog/article-url I am using wordpress to roll out all our new SEO based content on various keywords and topics for which we want traffice - primary reasons are since we needed a content generation cms platform so that we dont have to deal with html pages and every time publish those content pages via a developer. Is the above - what soever I am planning to do in the correct manner keeping SEO in mind. Any suggestions are welcome. I seriously need to know writing seo based content on wordpress instance and have them in the urls is that a good idea? Or is only html a good idea. But we need some cms to be there so that content writers can write content independently. Please guide accordingly. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | shanky10 -
Google.ca English and French returning different rankings
French Keyword : "Chauffage électrique" Currently Ranking 4th on Google.ca (French) It is not even top 50 on Google.ca (English) Why so much gap between them? Both are on Google.ca, just different language. Also, when searching the keyword on Google.ca (English), all the results shown are in french anyway ! Why is mine way off ? How can I help the ranking on the EN version? Why does Google.ca FR and EN have different rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | Kezber0 -
Mobile SEO
Hello, A bit of an open question to start the week... What do you think are the key differences between Google's mobile search and web search algorithms? Obviously greater importance on site speed for mobile search!?
Algorithm Updates | | A_Q0