Bing rankings question

[BT2009]

Hi,

We just wrapped up a website redesign about a month ago. The content stayed primarily the same. Once we launched the new site all of our rankings in Google stayed the same but we lost rank for all competitive keywords on Bing. I looked in Bing Webmaster tools and it doesn't show any penalties but it does show that we have too many H1 tags. I don't think the H1 tag thing is the issue but maybe. Do you know what could be causing this?

[katemorris]

That sounds like it. You need to add both versions of your site (http and https) to WMT and see if there is data in the https. Then make sure that you pick one (if you go https, make sure you have the right certificates set up) and redirect any requests for the other to the right one.

[BT2009]

Hey thanks!

It's really strange. In GA when I break it down by search engine it shows no drop in organic traffic from Google. On July 22nd Webmaster went from showing an average of 600 clicks a day to 100 clicks a day. During that same time period Google Analytics remained steady at about 900 clicks a day. I'm interested in HTTPS vs HTTP. Right now Google has some of our pages in https and others as http in our index. Could that be what's causing it?

[katemorris]

Hi BT,

About WMT vs Analytics, it depends on how you are looking at the data. Can you tell me the specific reports and time ranges? Remember, organic traffic in GA is not just Google, there are a number of other SEs out there. It could have to do with a number of things outside of that as well. Are you looking at the right profile in WMT? HTTPS vs HTTP and www vs non-www, plus subdomains in all of that can make a BIG difference. Same thing with Analytics, it depends on where the code is installed.

[BT2009]

Thank you everyone! You gave me a lot to think about. I will look at this further. Just wondering if you could answer one question for me? In Google Webmaster Tools clicks from search dropped dramatically, around 95 average clicks a day. However Google Analytics shows about 800 organic clicks a day on average. What could be causing the difference in data?

[donford]

Hi ATP,

There are a some post here on the forums, unfortunately with somewhat different points of view about multiple H1's. I have a feeling nobody knows for sure. However if we take Matt Cutts' word on it, you don't have much to worry about for 2-3 H1 tags on a page on Google. I can't say much about the other search engines. Apple.com uses multiple H1 tags.. but then again when has Apple ever followed the norm.

Post 1 (3 years old, okay multiple h1's for html 5)
Post 2 (1 year old, not so great multiple h1's)
Post 3 (1 year old, mixed point of view's staff endorsed)

I know all search engines behave in their own way. With that in mind, it is of course advised you always use you best judgement. If Bing drove 90% of our traffic I would be very leery of pushing the envelope with them, and if I did I would watch the results very closely.

I am not currently developing any HTML 5 site, but I do try to stay up to date on the current SEO trends. Recently a user asked about his site and view points, which I answered in similar fashion here.

Hope that helps you as well,

Don

[ATP]

Cracking response Don, can say honestly say i've learnt something today.

I have done work with HTML5 and heard of this concept but never gave it any attention as every major SEO site always talks about a single H1 being best due to the variation in different SERPS, the rise in bing traffic etc etc.

Would you say you have had good results, across multiple SERPS, with multiple H1's implimented with HTML5? Or in google only?

Are SERPS activly distinguishing different page sections with HTML5 yet or is there still the danger of H1 dilution with over use?

The article is nearly 2 years old, is there any more recent discussion on the subject (google searches lead me to the same article).

P.S: Apologies i guess im high-jacking the thread, so if don responds I will leave it there so the original poster can get the answers he wants.

[donford]

Hi BT2009,

While ATP's advice is generally the accepted advice there is reason to actually use more then one H1 tag. Most specifically in HTML5 pages which actually uses the H1 tag to break up sections of content within an article tag. This is an important distinction to the old rule. You can read a lot about this new methodology here on Tutsplus.

There are other cases in which one may use more then one H1 tag, like when changing view points for multiple devices. The basic rule of thumb in such case is the purpose of the additional tag for the users benefit? In both of these cases I still would lean more towards minimal use of multiple H1 tags.

Okay so now that we know that lets move on to the question about Bing. First, we all know that Google has way more invested in the search engine software & hardware than any other company including Bing. Bing may still be using the 1 tag rule. This may not actually be a direct penalty but as ATP points out a simple confusion point that the search engine hasn't yet adapted too. Google has flat out said it does not penalize for multiple H1 tags, but I have not seen the same comments from Bing.

Whats more is each search engine will act in its own way to a website redesign, most focus on Google since it drives most people's traffic, but in fact Bing, Ask, Yahoo, Baidu all treat new content, urls, design differently. I have seen cases were a site redesign takes a couple months before traffic gets back to normal and another few weeks before I know for sure if the redesign actually helped.

There may also be some other issues we didn't discuss here, however since you mentioned the multiple H1 tags is was obviously a concern of yours so I hope we addressed that adequately for you.

Don

[ATP]

Hey there,

A very important point to make is that you should have 1 and only 1 h1 tag per page. This is of vital importance on one of the most crucical SEO ranking factors. If your design has changed this I would address it immediately.

When you do a redesign like this and your rankings drop you should ask yourself 2 questions

1. Has google, bing or any other SERP changed their algorithm and could it have affected me? - if no...
2. What have I changed ?

If the SERP's havn't updated their algorithms then you have changed something for the negative. Look at your pages from before and now, what has changed? Make a list and cross them off 1 by 1 as you eliminate them. If you only had one h1 before and now you have multiple then this is your starting point.

Without seeing the site, the best advice I can give is to give your new design the SEO checklist.

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development contains all the basics. It may sound simple but go through and check them off 1 by 1 making sure your design takes these in mind or improves on what you had before.

My gut feeling is that something has changed (such as more than 1 h1 tag) that bing has noticed and dropped you for it. Google may not have dropped yet but could do should you not address it.

Edit: I forgot

If it is only your competitive keywords that have dropped rankings it could well be something simple like too many H1 tags.  Before those pages were screaming

IM ABOUT THIS

now they are saying

im about this

and this