My websites position has dropped, any ideas why?
-
Hi,
First off im new here, so hello to everyone.
Now to the reason why I have joined.
I am currently trying to rank for 2 terms:
**UK Bank Holidays 2013 (Term 1) **and Bank Holidays 2013 (Term 2)
The page which im trying to rank these terms on is:
http://www.followuk.co.uk/bank-holidays
Now some background history:
On the 29th Dec 2013, term 1 was 5th and term 2 was 7th - rankings achieved through guest blogging.
Last night I changed the h1 tag from 'Bank Holidays 2013' to 'UK Bank Holidays 2013'.
Re-worded the meta description to try and increase the CTR.
And removed the term 'Bank Holiday' from the end of each sub-heading - Ex: 'New Year's Day Bank Holiday' to 'New Year's Day' - I did this because I felt it was to much so in total 'Bank Holiday' term had been removed from 5 sub-headings.
Ok, so I went into WMT and resubmitted for indexing, over night the page got reindexed - the term 'UK Bank Holidays 2013' stayed at the same position (5) BUT the 'Bank Holidays 2013' term dropped into hell at roughly position 250.
I'm thinking of changing everything back and crossing my fingers that term which dropped comes back BUT maybe im being to rash and it might jump back as the page stands.
I did a grade test using SEOMOZ and both terms generate a grade of 'A'.
Has anyone got any ideas? Sorry if the thread is a bit messy im currently crying all over the keyboard as im typing.
Thanks
-
"The guest blogging I did was through the MyBlogGuest system so 99% of the time links are do-follow.
Roughly 15 guest posts have been put up, the anchor text was split from 'UK Bank Holidays 2013' to 'Bank Holidays 2013' so roughly 8 each."
I made an assumption regarding the links you built as being manipulative, and based on your feedback so far it is likely I am correct. Can you post a link to one of the blog articles you wrote?
Regarding your traffic / ranking drop, it could have happened due to the changes you made or your links being devalued as manipulative or other factors. The links are my largest concern at this point.
-
Uh thanks for coming to have a look Ryan much appreciated.
The page itself is roughly 2 months old.
The guest blogging I did was through the MyBlogGuest system so 99% of the time links are do-follow.
Roughly 15 guest posts have been put up, the anchor text was split from 'UK Bank Holidays 2013' to 'Bank Holidays 2013' so roughly 8 each.
I am a little confused with your statement about guest blogging because I thought guest blogging was a good way of generating good links, I have seen a few videos from Matt Cutts and Rand on this subject but maybe I am doing the wrong type of guest blogging.
I understand what your saying about flux and term positions for different locations but I have consistently generated 50 visits a day from the term 'Bank Holidays 2013' and in the last 24 hours this has dropped to 0.
If it is as you say and it's just the way the cookie crumbles im fine with that and I know I need to generate more auth links but my worries are have I effected the ranking from the content changes I made, by the sounds of what your saying probably not.
Thanks again Ryan for looking into this.
-
You are trying to manage SEO as you would a PPC campaign. SEO does not work in this manner.
How old is this web page? New web pages naturally bounce around in SERPs as Google tests the performance.
What kind of "guest blogging" did you do? It is highly likely any links you created to your site via a guest blog was either nofollow, in which case it does not directly benefit your SERP results, or is viewed as a manipulative link in which case the link is more likely to harm your site rather then help it.
Google rankings are not static. They are influenced by your location, which Google site you are using, your browsing history, and much more. You may see yourself in #5 where another person might not see you at all for the same term. I am not suggesting you completely ignore rankings, but neither should you use them as the holy grail. Examine your traffic.
With the above noted, I see your results in Google.co.uk as follows:
uk bank holidays 2013 #5
uk bank holiday #9
uk bank holidays #7
bank holiday 2013 #6
bank holidays 2013 - not in top 50
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
-
Hi. Has anyone seen a drop in their PA recently? We have over 40 clients and 80% dropped and it has been like this for the past 2 months. I wanted to check if other websites are also experiencing this drop or is it just us?
I'm specifically asking for drops happened in the last 2 months, because before that we had a normal trend. Some websites would go up in their PA rankings and some would drop. But seeing 80% of our clients drop like this is just weird. Just wanted to see if other market leaders are also having the same issue so I can stop attributing it something X-Filish! Our clients are all .EDUs if anyone was wondering. Also the maximum drop has been 4 points in a month.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AP_Search0 -
Would you redirect Website A to Website B, when Website B is in the middle of a HTTP=>HTTPS migration?
Hey guys, I'm curious on your thoughts around this scenario... Website A: 35,000 monthly pageviews 1,000 pages 375 root linking domains currently HTTPS focused on one topic weak rankings for competitive keywords Website B: 3M monthly pageviews 32,500 pages 3,500 root linking domains started HTTP to HTTPS migration 1 week ago. 1/3 of pages indexed as HTTPS. focused on many topics strong rankings for competitive keywords Requirement: I want to have a reliable read on how Website A's keyword rankings change after redirecting it's pages to Website A. This post-migration analysis will be used as a basis to assess the risk of redirecting another website we own that is similar to Website A into Website B. My question: Would you wait until most of the pages on Website B are indexed as HTTPS before doing a 301 of Website A to Website B? Please back up your answer with reasons why or why not 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jeremycabral0 -
My website is ranking well on most of keywords. How do I find more keywords in order to drive more traffic to my website?
I have a website which is ranking well on some good keywords ie generic and long tail. It is also ranking for some really competitive keywords. and now getting constant traffic. I want to increase organic traffic to my website. What are the best possible ways to do this? How to research more keywords and how to identify that they will really work? Please help, I am confused.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rishi.ast0 -
Can anyone tell me if this website was built with Frontpage or another cookie cutter drag and drop website creator by looking at the source code?
Can anyone tell me if this website was built with Frontpage or another cookie cutter drag and drop website creator by looking at the source code? http://naturespremiumpestdefense.com/ Thanks, Russell
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ULTRASEM0 -
International Version of Website
Our website is AluminumEyewear.com and we're considering launching a specific version for Australia, naturally I want to avoid any dupe content issues but the content would largely remain the same. I have read through this post and wondered if the options given here are still relevant? I'm currently leaning towards using a sub-domain, i.e. au.aluminumeyewear.com or should I go for aluminumeyewear.com.au? Will there be dupe content issues if I do that? Confused and hoping for help!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | smckenzie750 -
Merging two websites to one...
Hi all. Could do with a second opinion on this please... At present a client of ours owns two shops (both doing the same but in towns about 20 miles apart - they sell flooring, but using different names) and has a website for each. The plan is to rebrand both of these stores the same and merge both websites into one. The problem comes that both of the individual websites rank very well in their respective Google Local search results and I fear that killing one of the sites will mean that one store will vanish from the local listings. One domain is a DA 45 and the other a DA 11 so the plan is to use the stronger of the two domains. The question I would like to ponder with people wiser than myself is how can we ensure that the new single domain ranks for both locations in the local? Would the easiest solution be to have pages such as domain.com/store1 and domain.com/store2 with full listings for that store inc name, address, phone number, customer reviews etc? At present the DA 45 domain ranks very well in it's Google local so we need to find a way to change the homepage of that to have both the stores phone numbers but without affecting the local listing. I was considering adding the second phone number as a text based image so that it's visible for people but not for bots Finally, would 301 redirecting the now unused store to domain.com/store2 help with ensuring that we do not lose any local listing for that keyword? If not, are there any suggestions people could offer up Many thanks for any help and sorry for the very long question Carl
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GrumpyCarl0 -
Some things I have noticed SEO which showed a positive
Hi, Just a few small things I have noticed which has made a difference in ranking, thought I would share, small things but every little helps. Looks like more content on a page the better the ranking, in a test I have done this is what I found: page with 0 content - Google page 11 page with 250 content - Google page 5 page with 500 content - Google page 2 page with 1000 content - Google page 1, position 3 Looks like Google might count the words on a page (like you can do in Microsoft word) and then apply a score against it. Tweets and likes (78) showed a jump from page 1, position 8, to page 1, position 1 (this was the only form of link building and no changes made apart from adding the share plugin). Kind of makes me think if your starting a new site or page then add 750 - 1000 words of good content (tutorial or whatever) with a social sharing tool and let this run will give you a better chance of ranking when you start to introduce products and services.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | activitysuper0 -
Any Good Ideas on Promoting a Contest?
Does anyone have any good advice on how to promote a contest? Has anyone hosted a contest and had a lot of good luck that could offer some pointers on how to get the word out? The contest consists of people uploading a 60 second or less WildBlue commercial video that they have created. The video with the most votes will win the competition, and we are giving the winner a $50 cash prize. So far I have been Tweeting about it, and I have sent out a press release. Any other advice will be appreciated. The link to the contest page is http://www.mybluedish.com/lp/contest/ if you want to take a look at it. Thank you in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MyNet0