My site fell off the serps for two keywords I tried to optimize the home page for
-
I was doing some keyword research about 45 days ago and stumbled across two keywords that I was ranking in the mid hundreds and decided I wanted to see if I could rank them.
I went in and changed my title to my blog, and the description. Then about a week later I changed my mind and wanted to go for two other keywords so I changed it again.
Then within a day or two, my site completely fell off the serps for those two key words that I changed the title to optimize for.
None of my other rankings were effected for any of the other keywords, in fact most of my keywords have risen because of recent backlinking.
I thought it was just a temporary google bounce because I was playing with my title of my blog or something, but after almost two months I am still nowhere to be found for words that I should easily at least be in the top 1000, especially because I was at about 150 by accident.
Anyone have any ideas on what might have happened?
Thanks.
-
Hey Ryan, thanks for the tips. However as I mentioned I know I haven't done any on page optimization for those terms.
I was already in the serps, then updated my title tags a few times while I was doing different keyword searches and then changing my mind. Then I disappeared from the serps.
So I guess I should have been more clear. I am wondering if there is some sort of google penalty for changing your main title tags around too much. I don't think there is, but if I am not going to get back for those terms no matter what I do, I didn't want to spend time trying to optimize for those if it was pointless.
It is just weird that I was at least in the results and as soon as I was going to optimize and changed the title and description, then bam I was totally gone. Thought maybe someone would have a guess, but if not, I can move forward and optimize for those and give it a month and see if I show back up.
-
I don't understand why you feel your site would rank at all for the two terms you selected. They are not used once in your content.
Simply adding a title to a page does not help your SERP if you do not have supporting content. In fact, I would expect the exact result you are experiencing.
You have many opportunities to improve your page ranking for those terms. Here are some quick changes you can make:
-
Use those exact phrases in your content a few times.
-
Use anchor text elsewhere in your site to link back to your home page.
-
Change your anchor text on your home page to something helpful. "Read more" is not going to help get the results you desire.
-
Work on improving your ALT tags to helpful key word phrases
Without these changes, your site will simply not appear in the top 1000 in my opinion. A final thought. Focus on a long tail key phrase which can land your site on the first page. Improving your ranking from 150 to 40 isn't really helpful. You are still buried in the pile and are unlikely to be found.
-
-
see above for the site. How do I look back at the cache? It has been over a month and still hasn't shown back up in the top 1000
-
It would be so very helpful if you could share your site and the keywords.
On a few occasions I offered generic answers to this type of question, then when the original poster shared their site information, the root issue was something quite different.
-
It's always tough to say without seeing the site. As you know, so many variables are involved. That is strange & it would be helpful to look back at the cache to see which one it picked up before you dropped off those specific SERPs. My guess is you'll be back where you started within a few days.
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
-
Keywords problems
Hello,
Keyword Research | | Gabijaurbs
I am having a problem while I am searching for keywords - it just says "Getting serp analysis failed. Please retry your search or refresh this page" on all browsers I try it on. Hard reloaded too and still not working. Could you help me with this?
Best regards, Gabija0 -
Documenting keyword research results
I really struggle to document my keyword research results in a usable way. I know the strategy for finding keywords but I wonder if there's a spreadsheet template or some guidance on the process that could help me organise things better
Keyword Research | | Lazeh0 -
YouTube Keyword Research
MOZ has some really powerful tools available to us, but I was wondering if there are any tools for conducting keyword research for YouTube? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | Alaeddin1 -
Brand Name Keyword Stuffing
I'm targeting Roho Cushions and the category page has many products starting with Roho underneath it. I know the keyword "Roho" shows up at least 70 times. I'm not targeting the keyword Roho, but could this negatively effect the rest of my keywords that start with Roho, such as "Roho Wheelchair Cushions"?
Keyword Research | | Mike.Bean0 -
Long tail keyword research
Is there any way for me to figure out long tail key words related to keyword such as "IT solutions"? This is a competitive term. How do I figure out related keywords with high search volume and less competition?
Keyword Research | | zsyed0 -
Looking for 4 keywords for site home page
Hello, I am helping out Bentinho Massaro, a spiritual figure from Holland, for free since he is such a good guy. I want to give him 3 to 4 keywords for his home page title tag. That's all he has time for. site: www.free-awareness.com The only things I can find so far that I think will fit are: Spiritual Awakening Bentinho Massaro The reason for #2 is that he is getting more and more famous. Any help you can come with to give him 4 options would be great. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | BobGW0 -
Is using "-" in the title of a page to seperate targeted keywords bad for seo purposes?
For example "Dog-Leashes" Is that bad if I'm targeting dog leashes as my keywords.
Keyword Research | | ibex0 -
Keywords abuse?
WE are using the best keywords all over our eStore: Furnace Filter and Furnace Filters. Is it abusing when we list items like: 10x20x1 furnace filter 10x20x2furnace filter 10x20x4 furnace filter and so on... we have almost 100 different filters on sale. see example: http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/categories/Furnace-Filter-See-All/ Thank you for your help BigBlaze
Keyword Research | | BigBlaze2050