Just relaunched a website - why did it fall in Google's SERPs?

[matt-14567]

I work for a marketing agency that just redesigned, rewrote and relaunched a client's website. They used to rank #4 on Google for the company's name (which is a fairly common one, for what it's worth). Now they're at #10 and want to know why.

I'd like to explain to them what happened but don't know myself.

Can someone explain it to me? And can I tell them if/when their ranking might go back up?

In case this matters, I can tell you that it looks like Google hasn't yet crawled the new site.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[ResslerMotors]

There are many variables involved with a redesign.  The biggest concerns being:

1. Are you using the same url's from your previous pages?  If not, did you 301 redirect them into the new corresponding pages?
2. More importantly, did you make sure to check which pages had links pointing at them, and make sure those were reused or redirected?
3. Is the new redesign more efficient?  urls like domain.com/blue-widget instead of domain.com/reallylongstretchofcharacters
4. Have you submitted a new sitemap?  Did the sitemap change?
5. Is the website faster/slower?  Do a google speed check to see how its doing <80, you may need to make a couple minor changes.
6. Has Google went through and indexed your website?  How many pages have been indexed?
7. Do you have well developed content that is created with keywords in mind - without being spam?

Anyway, if you made sure to 301 redirect all of the old pages, or reused the urls, you should see a recovery.  I'd advise that you do a big link building push right away, though, in order to speed up the process, as well as be beneficial all around.

[pauledwards]

Have you changed the domain? if so that could be why.

Also if you have content and internal links brand related which have since been replaced with the new site design - this could also have affected it possibly.