Webmaster tools - a drop in Views and Searches
-
Hi everybody
I'm experience a very odd thing in Webmaster Tools (and Google Analytics). 4. March I can se a drop of views from about 2000 views a day to 250 views a day and the days thereafter they views are close to zero. Also some of the search term looks weird after this and is terms like w www.youtube.com, youtube musicas and youtube i put a spell on you, placing them in SERP in top 10 and refering to our /Youtube site (which is a blank site with no content).
5. March we got some new content on our site regarding danish flyers, and even though Webmaster Tools shows that our views are close to zero, Google Analytics shows an increase of trafic to our site from search terms from about 150 visits 4. March to about 600 visits 16. March. So what Webmaster Tools shows about views do not make any sense to me and especially not why we would rank on the term Youtube. I have also searched on some of these Youtube search terms and I can't see us ranking in SERP on these terms in top 10, but in Google Analytics I can see that we have got visits on these Youtube search terms.
The domain we are using is an old domain that hosted an e-mail and chat site and I am a bit worried about the external links to our site. But the external links that Webmaster Tools and Open Site Explorer shows I don't see as bad links and the site has not had anything to do with Youtube clips. Our site is a https site - I don't know if that could have anything to do with it?
So I'm really puzled about why Webmaster tools says our Views have dropped to zero, why Google Analytics says there is an increase of trafic from search to our site and what Youtube search terms have to do with our site?
-
Hi Maja,
Thanks for your question. It can be hard to diagnose without looking at the site in question (the links you provided to Webmaster Tools won't work for anyone not given access to the account) so I'm shooting in the dark a little.
Gut feeling says that this is a technical problem. Did you make any technical changes to your website around those dates?
A few other suggestions:
-
I'd suggest going back and double checking your code for Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools code to make sure they are working correctly. You can use a Chrome plugin such as Google Tag Assistant to do this.
-
Check the hostname in your Google Analytics report to see if any other domains (not your own) are showing up in your reports. This can happen sometimes if someone has started using your Google Analytics code and your data can get very messed up.
Here is a more in-depth article which may help you:
-
Use tools such as Spyonweb and Nerdydata to search for your Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools code snippets to see if other sites may be using them.
-
Narrow down the problem by adding in landing pages to your Google Webmaster Tools report. This report allows you to see which landing pages people are landing on and may help to de-bug the problem a little bit more.
I hope that helps!
Paddy
-
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
-
Google Search Console International Targeting - Works for Hungary, but not Ireland - Why?
company.com (root)
International SEO | | scottclark
USA - lang="en" | GSC target: USA (shows US site in SERPs for "companyname" search)
company.com/hungary
Hungary - lang="hu" | GSC target: Hungary (shows Hungarian site in SERPs for "companyname" search)
AWESOMENESS company.com/ireland
Ireland - lang="en" | GSC target: Ireland (shows US site (doh!) in SERPs "companyname" search)
NOT RIGHT! It is our theory [please weigh in!] that because we don't have a company.com/usa folder, the TLD targeting (EN) is overriding other English language sites in some manner. In other words, the reason it's not overriding Hungary is because it's a different language. What must we do to get the Irish site ranked for "companyname" searches and to show by default in Ireland?0 -
International SEO Two Subdomains Showing Up in Google Search Results
Hi I have a client that is having two subdomains showing up SERP when you Google their name. Here are the details. They have two subdomains us.companyname.com and en.companyname.com us.companyname.com is for the US and has completely different products and content than en.companyname.com en.companyname.com is the site designed for Europe and it is in English. How can I make it so that only the us. version shows up in the search results? Thanks in advance!
International SEO | | JohnWeb120 -
What strategy is better for a multilingual site for the SEO point of view?
Hi everyone, in a case for a site with two languages like spanish and english, how would do you deal with it? I can see 4 cases, which is better?? 1. With differents domains: mydomain.es (for spanish version) and mydomain.com (for english version). 2. With subfolder mydomain.com/es/ and mydomain.com/en/ 3. With Subdomain: es.mydomain.com and en.mydomain.com 4 With URL translation (any url is translated in ther languages but not use of subdomain or subfolder): mydominain.com/hola and mydomiain.com/hello Thanks very much for your answers (i love this forum). 🙂
International SEO | | webtematica0 -
What's the difference between 'en-gb' and 'en-uk; when choosing Search engines in campaign set up?
Hi What's the difference search engine wise and which one should I choose, i presume GB since covers entire British landmass whereas UK excludes Ireland according to political definition, is it the same according to Google (& other engines) ? All Best Dan
International SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Understanding the "Index Status" Data Inside Google Webmaster Tools
Currently there are total 2,787 Articles added to my Blog. The Index Status shows the following report under Index Status>Advance Total Indexed = 12,505 Blocked by robots = 8,659 And when I do search for site:techmaish.com in Google.com, it shows; About 12,200 results (0.15 seconds) Now my question. 1:- Is it normal Or there is something wrong? 2:- If there is something wrong then what is that? Thanks in advance. _ Attached is the screenshot of my GWT._ 7dk.png
International SEO | | techmaish0 -
International SEO Question with regards to Sub Folders in Webmaster Tools
So, we have a website in 18 or so different languages. bluewidgets.com/br bluewidgets.com/cn etc I have added each sub folder in Google Webmaster Tools and 'pointed' them to be at their respective geographic specific. However, the United States version of the website is sitting on the root domain. Is there any issue with me pointing the root domain at United States Google, considering there are 18 sub folders already pointed at different regions?
International SEO | | LukeyJamo0 -
Website Internal Search
Hi I'm looking for ‘location search’ functionality to cover an extensive range of global locations to help increase the visibility I have been looking to use Google Places functionality, which has an extremely broad list of locations Would anyone have any experience in using Google places to power their websites internal search as well as if there is a cost to integrate it and other factors to be aware of? Thanks Simon
International SEO | | simonsw0 -
Improving Search Rankings in other Countries for an existing site
Hello SEOmoz, I have a very well respected international client who ranks high in the US and for English language Google search results worldwide. However, the client's foreign language pages for specific countries do not show up on the first page of SERPs in those specific countries. The foreign nation/language pages are served on the same root domain as the main English language site it this fashion: www.client.com/france www.client.com/brazil Here are my questions: What can we do from an SEO standpoint to improve SERPs in Google.fr or other countries What is the best way to prevent duplicate content errors or prevent the wrong page from being indexed abroad. What are some best practices when using Google Webmaster tools in this regard? Thanks
International SEO | | BPIAnalytics0