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Thank you so much for the extremely long and detailed response.
Here's an example URL: https://www.bodycatalyst.com.au/technology/cryolipolysis-fat-freezing
The /technology/ sub folder is new. This target page now doesn't have a link from the homepage which I suspect is a critical factor.
Hi Moz Community,
A client of mine has launched a new website. The new website is well designed, mobile friendly, fast loading and offers a far better UX than the old site. It has similar content but 'less wordy'.
The old website was tired, slow, not mobile responsive etc but still ranked well. The domain has marketing leading authority and link metrics.
Since the launch, the rankings for virtually every word has plummeted. Even previously ranked #1 words have disappeared to page 3 or 4.
New pages have different URLs (301s from the old urls are working fine) and still score the same 98% (using the Moz page optimiser tool).
Is it usual to experience some short term pain, or are these rankings drop an indication that something else is missing?
My theory is that the new URLs are being treated like new pages, and that those new pages don't have the engagement data which is used for ranking. Thus, despite having the same authority of the old pages, as far as user data is concerned, they are new pages and therefor, not ranking well - yet.
That theory would make logical sense but I'm hoping some experts here can help. Any suggestions welcome.
Here's a quick checklist of things I have already done:
complete 301 redirect list
New sitemap
Submitted to console
Created internal links from within their large blog
Optimised all the new pages (img alts, H1s etc)
Extra info:
Platform changed from Wordpress to Expression engine
Target pages now on level 3 not level 2 (extra subfolder used)
Less words used (average word count per page from 400+ to 250)
Thanks in advance 
Hi Lucy,
The best way to 'write for SEO' is to take your subject and produce the best page on the internet, ever.
Once you're happy with the page, start to include keywords or phrases your audience might connect with, or search for.
Hi Jonathan,
I hope that I can (at least partially) answer your question.
We know that great content and positive engagement metrics are far more important than basic optimisation strategies like keywords in H1 or the URL. So, whilst some of the SEO 'low hanging fruit' is missing it actually counts for relatively little.
I've had a quick look at the page and there's a lot of very detailed content that looks like it will do a good job of being useful / helpful to users.
The challenge would be to create content that's even better, easier or more useful than this.
Hello,
Obviously you're looking for a combination of volume, relevance and difficulty. Low volume keywords which are difficult to rank for are less attractive than high volume keywords which have a low difficulty.
That said, those high volume keywords need to be as relevant as possible. I would always suggest that your content and SEO focus should be around user intent rather than specific words.
If you start with a list of what your customer's user intent is, then add in what problems your product solves, you will very quickly have written your keyword list - some of those keywords may be long tail but I don't think it matters all that much.
Example:
"software for travel agencies"
"programs that allow travel agencies to sell bookings online"
"Best travel agency software"
"travel agency online booking software"
"software for online tour operators"
etc
Hello,
Are you a Moz subscriber? If you're tracking a website and competitors, you can use the links tool to see precisely what links your competitors are getting: Domain | Linking Page | Anchor Text.
Hello,
These pages are virtually identical and I wouldn't be surprised if Google views these as duplicate or spammy.
Both of these pages serve the same user intent - moving from Gold Coast to another location - and it's therefore worth considering having just one page that covers all of the numerous destinations.
Both pages have an unnatural amount of keyword usage which may also trigger a spammy issue.
If the purpose is to rank for "moving from Gold Coast to...." type searches than this page would probably benefit from having more Gold Coast related content - geographical info, images, etc.
Good luck
Loving the new Link Explorer - it's obviously a big jump in index size and I have immediately noticed a lot more links which previously didn't show up.
Given that 'link building' is probably the hardest things for most SEOs, having a much wider list of competitor links to evaluate just made everyone's jobs that much easier - so for that reason alone, it's a brilliant new update.
Hi Jon,
I'd happily take a look at this for you. What search term are you trying to rank for?
What is your own page optimisation score for that term?
What is your PA and DA of your competition (relative to your own) in the rankings?
Thanks for taking the time to put together such a wonderfully detailed answer.
How is the best way to handle all the different variations of a website in terms of www | non www | http | https?
In Google Search Console, I have all 4 versions and I have selected a preference.
In Open Site Explorer I can see that the www and non www versions are treated differently with one group of links pointing to each version of the same page. This gives a different PA score.
eg.
Each version of the home page having it's only set of links and scores.
Should I try and "consolidate" all the scores into one page?
Should I set up redirects to my preferred version of the website?
Thanks in advance
Hello,
There are certainly a few more things you can check.
has this page been indexed yet by Google? If not, you can request an index
Which country are you searching from? Have you set Google to show results to a certain location?
How many links do you have pointing to this page? What's the PA for this page?
Lapland is in Finland right? with the country code FI. Not 100% sure where you're targeting so this may or may not be relevant.