Lost ranking once optimised a page

[mybabyradio]

Hello, we're a new member of SEOMOZ and love it but have a problem. Obviously the reason for joining is to learn more about SEO and hopefully get our website ranked a lot better than it currently is.

However, one particular page we've chosen to optimise (based on your tips) has since lost ranking and we can no longer find it in the searches. Is there a reason for this? We've only made the on page changes you suggested and also added more external and internal links so I can't understand why it would no longer be listed in the searches?

I look forward to your reply/feedback.

Many thanks

Peter

[kwoolf]

Hi Ryan,

Looks like you're using Wordpress. To take care of those redirect issue, try the following in your .htaccess file. Test thoroughly on a demo site before going live with this. Wordpress plugins that you're using might have options that reach the same effect, so look into that as well.

RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks

#Force trailing slash
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www.)?mybabyradio.com/$ [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.)/$
    RewriteRule ^(.)$ http://www.mybabyradio.com/$1/ [R=301,L]
#Redirect non-www to www
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mybabyradio.com$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mybabyradio.com/$1 [R=301,L]

[RyanKent]

Hi Peter.

I am not clear what you mean by "swapped around". If the position of the href and rel properties were reversed, that is fine.

As far as which version of your link is used, with or without a trailing slash, that is up to your preference. I tend to think that a trailing slash represents a folder while a lack of a trailing slash represents a page. My preference for the conjunctivitis would be without the trailing slash.

The canonical tag, like most tools, can be used correctly to help your results. If used incorrectly, your results can worsen. It is a very important piece of code along with 301 redirects. I highly recommend taking a bit of time learning about both. My best advice is google "Matt Cutts canonical" and reviewing some of the results, along with "Matt Cutts 301".

[Hurf]

I had a very similar problem with my own site disappearing from the SERPS, but showing as it should on any other PCs (that I hadn't previously used.)

The problem then related to Google's personalised search. Essentially, I had accidentally deleted my site and prevented it showing up in personalised search - though it still worked in any other browser that wasn't displaying my personalised results. ( See this article: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-test-lets-users-vote-add-and-delete-sites-in-serps/6031/ )

To remove personalised search take a look at: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=54048

This sounds to be a likely suspect for the issue you are having.

Personalised Search can also provide false results as you are seeing personalised results, based on your search history, activity and preferences, rather than the non-personalised results as they actually appear without personalised bias in the SERPS.

You can see your web history settings here: https://www.google.com/history/

Hope that helps!

[oznappies]

Any unsafe sites will be removed from the pages. So if you are 15 and there are 2 unsafe sites between 1 and 15 your rank will move up 2 spots to replace the pages that cannot be shown and so your rank will show 13.

[oznappies]

The canonical do help as they funnel the links to provide rank for the http://www.mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/conjunctivitis page. If you leave it out and follow Google webmaster tools you will see duplicate content errors showing up with the 4 urls Ryan mentioned highlighted.

[mybabyradio]

Hi Ryan, for now, I'm gonna take the canonical tag off as I'm not sure it's right or if they're even helping sites. Just read some horror stories about these tags. Look forward to your reply in due course.

Many thanks

Peter

[mybabyradio]

I agree, strange but more testing is required me thinks. In regards to the canonical tag this is what it looks like in our source:- Thinking on shouldn't it look like this

[mybabyradio]

Hi Ryan, I've added the canonical tag, but when I've saved it it's swapped around the the way you've listed it. Check it out in the source and let me know what you think? Also, all the URLS should be like this http://www.mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/conjunctivitis/ How do I do a 301 redirect?

[RyanKent]

You used to see the search result at #13, I see it at 13, and your iphone sees it there as well. I am going to go with the ranking of 13.

The other search results can be affected by numerous factors. Search Safe, your location, which Google search engine is used (uk vs .com vs others), past browsing history, and numerous other factors can be used to adjust the search results. These changes can happen even if you are not logged into Google.

With the above noted, the results are jumping around too much for my taste. I would suggest you perform additional tests, try clearing cache, try other browsers ( ie / chrome ) on the same pc and see what you come up with.

Good luck.

[RyanKent]

Your htags look good to me.

The code for a canonical tag looks like:

The canonical tag can go anywhere within the tag of your page.

Once you decide upon a URL style, be consistent throughout your site. You can decide on www vs non-www, and whether pages should end with a trailing slash.

[mybabyradio]

Oh, and as another slant. I've just done a Google search on my iPhone and it appears at number 13. Obviously there's a discrepancy somewhere?

[mybabyradio]

Also, just been downstairs and done a search for the term on two separate PC's on a variety of browsers with different IP's than what we use upstairs and our searched term didn't appear in google's searches. Now I'm baffled.

[mybabyradio]

Hey Ryan, thanks for the on page assessment above I will narrow down the keyword to 6 in the article. I take it I'm ok with it in the htags. Not sure how to do these canonical tags though. Where do you put them and how do they look?

Now, just gone into IE and seen our listing ranked at number 4. This is getting a bit weird now.

[RyanKent]

Peter, I am using FF and tried private browsing. The result is the same.

Rather then troubleshoot FF, can you try opening up a IE or chrome browser and checking your result?

You can also try FF or any browser from another pc.

[RyanKent]

An additional note. You did a good job of optimizing the page for your keyword. There are a few opportunities for improvement.

1. Add a canonical tag to your page. There are at least 4 URLs which lead to the same page:

http://mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/conjunctivitis

http://mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/conjunctivitis/

http://www.mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/conjunctivitis

http://www.mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/conjunctivitis/

Those are considered 4 separate URLs, each of which can be linked to and divide your page's ranking. Adding a canonical tag will ensure all of your link juice flows to the correct page.

2. Decide which version of your URL is preferred for your site, www or the non-www. Once you decide, add a 301 redirect to enforce your decision, then take a look at your site and ensure all your links use the correct URL.

3. Optimizing is a great idea, but using "conjunctivitis" 24 times on a page goes far past anything needed for a search engine. There is not any exact number but I would say using the term four times should be sufficient, and six times is very safe. I would advise adjusting the content for the best readability and resist the urge to use the keyword at every opportunity.

[mybabyradio]

Hi Ryan, very odd. I've just clikced your link and I still can't see it. I use firefox and whenever I want to get a clean search I go into > tools > private browsing. Is there something else that I need to do or plugin I need to use?

Cheers

[RyanKent]

I went to google.co.uk and searched for conjunctivitis and found you at...spot 13 just as you suggested.

If you are not seeing yourself there, perhaps you are using google.com, not google.co.uk? Or perhaps your browser is customizing your results based on other factors?

http://www.google.co.uk/#q=conjunctivitis&hl=en&prmd=ivns&ei=njD3Ta1TgbqxA_CdybEH&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=72a27cabded3e8a4&biw=1920&bih=927

[mybabyradio]

Hi Ryan, this is the URL it currently sits on:- http://www.mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/conjunctivitis/ look forward to your reply. Oh, the term is "conjunctivitis". Last time I checked it was appearing at number 13 in Google searches in the UK. Now, it's gone, where I haven't a clue. Or even why?

[RyanKent]

If you are willing to offer the URL of this particular page, along with the terms you optimized the page for, I am very willing to help.