Vanish from google after choosing preferred domain and fixing 40 duplicate meta descriptions?
-
I recently followed 2 Google webmaster suggestions to clean up the on page SEO for our site. I chose a preferred domain 2 weeks ago(to www.website.com) and fixed the duplicate meta descriptions that our CMS was setting to unique and more natural descriptions for each page. I did that 3 days ago. Webmaster tools still says they are duplicates because it hasn't crawled the whole site yet.
We have been fortunate enough to have some of our blog posts be covered by yahoo.com, cnet.com, huffingtonpost.com, gizmodo.com, etc. That is some major backlink juice and, as recently as 2 weeks ago, our website would be the #1 result when searching Google for "ourwebsite.com exact title of very popular blog post". Now it is on the 3rd page, and the top results are the websites that linked to our blog post.
So....what gives? Is there a specific area I should look at? Our should I wait for Google to fully index our whole site now that changes have been made?
It should be noted that our rankings have stayed the same in yahoo and bing.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
-
This could change in traffic be soooo many things without knowing your site's entire background.
There could be a Panda/Penguin penalty in play (I have no way of knowing) so read up on those and make sure you're not a victim of duplicate/thin content and/or shady link building practices (even if they occurred in the past, use OSE to take a look).
I'm not seeing the redirect from non www to www as an issue in terms of ranking but double check that you implemented that correctly. I haven't heard of losing rankings over this tweak before but I suppose it's possible that it takes Google a some time to figure that out (though I dont see why it would hurt rankings in the interim).
Other sites outranking you for your own article is actually quite common if you're not on a strong domain otherwise. 3rd page sounds rather harsh though. Are you engaging in any questionable link building practices?
Without knowing more it's really tough to say what your site's problem might be. I think I can rule out the 301 redirect from www to non-www if implimented correctly. Sean is correct in checking your robots.txt file as well.
Hope I answered your question if not solving your greater problem for you!
-
We've had sites drop out off the top 50 as google reevaluated such small changes as you listed in your post. I'd say give it some time and after a month start worrying. In the mean time look at webmaster tools and see if the search impressions have changed/dropped.
-
If you're using WordPress, make sure you don't have the site blocked in "General". If not, check your robots.txt file. Does the site come up when you hit the URL? If so, make sure you Google ".htaccess force www" and put a rule in your .htaccess file that 301 redirects non-www pages to their www brethren. All those links were to your non-www URL so depending on your system, the non-www may be throwing a 404 which would certainly get you pushed down the SERPs.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Search Analytics update in Google Webmasters Tools? Where can we find search queries bringing traffic to website?
I just got up and see Search Analytic's being updated today totally. Their is no option to see old reports. As Search Analytics only share 999 keywords.
Search Behavior | | csfarnsworth
Whats next now?
How can a webmaster finds all search queries bringing traffic to his website?
Any paid or free tool?
Google Analytic's > Acquisition > Search engine optimization > search queries will this area helps? Whole question revolves around. Any good tool that will help you find all the queries bringing traffic to my website?0 -
Setting up Google Analytics
Hello, I will try to explain what I want and I am not sure if that is possible. Firstly I want to set up my Google Analytics that I would know where people come from and how many of them click on Google Ads. For example:
Search Behavior | | FCRMediaLietuva
Facebook > 2% of them click on ads.
Google > 3% of them click on ads.
Direct > 6% of them click on ads.Or whatever the results are. Secondly I would like to take people coming from facebook and divide them into age groups. For example: 100 ad clicks from facebook.
25-34: 9 clicks (9% of total facebook clicks, 2% of total ad clicks)
18-24: 7 clicks (.....
35-44: ... and so on Thirdly I would like to know which group use the adblocker the most.
Any other stuff that would be interesting if working with adsense? I believe that this would help me working with my target audience the best on facebook. Should this be set as goals? Sorry I am not an expert of Google Analytics 🙂 Thanks for the help.0 -
Google Analytics Segments - Can't find location
Hi all, I am trying to set up a Google Analytics segment with the location as 'Kurdistan'. I have tried all location groupings (city, region etc) and am unable to locate it. Anyone else not able to locate it? Or does anyone know why I can't? Thanks,
Search Behavior | | Davinia22
Davinia0 -
Google keyword planner shows low search volumes
Hello, There are some terms that you'd expect to see a lot of results. In fact, in the old days of Keyword Tool, I recall seeing thousands of results for a keyword like "anderson cooper". Today, I see a small amount as a monthly average. Am I doing something wrong? All I really want to do is find search volumes on particular keywords either globally or local to a country. And it's proving soo hard! 😞 Screen_Shot_2013_11_26_at_11_13_20_PM.png
Search Behavior | | mhamilton0 -
Google Analytics Search Engine Optimisation Report
Hello, Quick question. How much data should be available within Google Analytics within the Search Engine Optimisation Reports? I was always of the impression it was 6 months, however the data available as of this date only extends back to January 1st 2013. Thanks,
Search Behavior | | HelloAlba0 -
Why are Google ranking changes so drastic?
Hi SEOmoz community I'm sure this question has been asked numerous times before. At the same time there must be plenty of people out there wondering about the same thing: Why are Google ranking changes so drastic? It's like the diva of search engines. When checking the SEOmoz ranking reports, sometimes lots of keywords improve, the next week it's vice versa. Mind though that the ranking changes are not in proportion. While improving keywords climb up by approx. 1 - 10 positions, declining keywords always get a smack with a 15 - 25 position drop, even though these very same keywords are being targeted onsite through new content. It seems to make no difference after all 😉 Is it possible, that keyword fluctuations are stronger for younger sites? The site I am talking about is about a year old. Is it possible that more competitive keywords see more drastic fluctuations? Would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!!
Search Behavior | | Hermski0 -
Product Descriptions for eCommerce - Paragraphs or Bullet Points (or both)?
Hey all, We've seen quite a large recent increase in traffic on our site (we sell travel experiences such as tours, tickets to theme parks etc.) but not much in the way of increased conversions as a result, so we are looking into further ways to optimise conversions. I'd like to know what thoughts people have on making product descriptions either bullet points or paragraphs, or some combination of both. We currently have paragraphs of information not just to explain the product but for on-page SEO purposes as well which seems to work well for drawing people to the site, and we have information further down the page on inclusions/exclusions etc. but it is well "below the fold". Do you think it's worth moving at least the "highlights" of the product up to the top of the page so that customers can instantly see what's on offer "at a glance"? Any answers or research people can direct me to would be greatly appreciated, cheers.
Search Behavior | | ExperienceOz0 -
Google Places rankings go away, but organic rankings stay the same / get better?
Hello, I hope you all can help me out here with the information I could provide. Anyways, the past number of months I have had 1 of our clients rank extremely high organically and on Google places. For example: My client is a law firm so if you search “CLIENTS-TOWN Attorney” they would come up organically on the first page and if you were in that town and search “CLIENTS-TOWN Attorney” or even just “Attorney” they would also come up in the Google Places list. Now for some reason starting a week ago I noticed they have completely disappeared from Google Places. No changes have been done to their site and everything is the same as it was. Their organic searches are the same if not better than before. Do you guys have any clue as to why this happened and how I could possibly turn this around? Thanks for your help in advance!
Search Behavior | | WhiteHat120