Lost Links in Google Webmaster Tools
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Last week I had over 1800 backlinks showing up in GWT. 4 days ago I had 20, and now I have 5. I have a very diverse link profile ranging from social bookmarks to YouTube, to Business Listings (Yelp, etc), and they're all gone. Clearly there is not a particular segment of my links that are being targeted here, they've all been completely wiped out. My rankings have fallen, and where I was on page 1/2 for all my targeted KWs, I'm now on Page 3, 4, and 5. There are no penalties showing up in GWT, so I'm completely at a loss as to what is going on. Please help!
Website is: http://brownboxbranding.com
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Hi Jeff, thanks for your question! Did you see the responses from Dana and Donna? They asked some very good questions. We'd love an update, thanks!
Christy
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Possibly, if the change was recent. But I'd expect the impact to be temporary, until Google catches up to what has changed.
It would help if you standardized on the way you linked to your site from various profiles. I did a sampling and I noticed Yelp, Twitter and G+ link to http://brownboxbranding.com whereas Facebook and YouTube link to the www version of your site. That doesn't explain your problem though.
Have you (Jeff) checked your site to make sure Google Analytics is still installed on all pages? Is the same code installed on all pages? You should be able to tell if there's been a change by looking at your traffic reports as well. If there's a sudden drop on some pages, there's been a change.
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I checked your site in OSE and looked at both versions of your URL: http://brownboxbranding.com and http://www.brownboxbranding.com
Has something recently changed with the way your domain is redirected? I ask because it looks like the lionshare of authority and links all are on http://www.brownboxbranding.com which redirects to the "non-www" version.
It seems to me like the redirect should be the other way around. i.e. the "non-www" version of your domain should redirect to the "www" version. I would also make sure that Google Webmaster Tools is set to reflect the correct "preferred" domain.
Anyone else see this as the possible problem?
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