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Google rankings down after changing the template

by Mohit Anand
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi everyone,

I created an informational site on Linux, 8 months back. All the content was written in my own words. Google liked it and pages were constantly appearing on the first and second pages for few selected keywords.

Now, I've changed the template which I still think is more SEO friendly. Since then the traffic from Google has dropped drastically. No results come on the first 2 pages of Google as they used to with the same keywords.

Should I wait for some more time? Is this temporary? Or should I revert to the older template?

Please suggest.
#changing #google #rankings #template
  • Profile picture of the author PhilipSEO
    Did the site go offline for any length of time while you were changing things around? Typically, if a site goes offline for a while, backlinks can become broken and their "age" reset to 0, causing a drop in rankings. That's just one of the many things that can go wrong. Impossible to diagnose without the complete information.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohit Anand
    The site was offline maybe for one day. It had the custom message of the CMS that the site is under construction for whole site.
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  • Profile picture of the author pandorasbox
    Did you check the alt tags, img tags, header tags, structure on source and meta tags. If any were changed it will destroy website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohit Anand
    All the URLs are same. I've added a forum to my site as well. It has been exactly one month since the site was redesigned.
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    • Profile picture of the author PhilipSEO
      Do you have a robots.txt file? What does it say?

      Do any of your pages have this metatag:
      <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
      or similar?

      Are all the pages of your site indexed / cached by Google?

      Do you have an XML sitemap?

      Do you see any errors at all in Google Webmaster Tools? (If you don't use it, it's a must.)

      Who coded the new template? Why do you think it's SEO friendly?

      Does the new design use frames?

      You say you are not ranking on pp. 1-2 of Google for any of the keywords. Are you on any other pages?

      Are you ranking in / getting traffic from Bing and/or Yahoo?

      Are the title tags in place and unchanged?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohit Anand
    Originally Posted by PhilipSEO View Post

    Do you have a robots.txt file? What does it say?

    Do any of your pages have this metatag:
    <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
    or similar?

    Are all the pages of your site indexed / cached by Google?

    Do you have an XML sitemap?

    Do you see any errors at all in Google Webmaster Tools? (If you don't use it, it's a must.)
    Yes, I've the XML sitemap submitted to the Google Webmaster Tools. No errors in Google Webmaster Tools, including the robots. I've added a nofollow to the user registration page in the robots.txt. Google has indexed just over 20% of the website. Part of the reason is because I submitted it late (after redesigning) because of the fear that whenever I change the template, Google may penalize the indexed pages. Kind of ironic to see that the site went down after submitting to Google Webmaster Tools.

    Originally Posted by PhilipSEO View Post

    Who coded the new template? Why do you think it's SEO friendly?

    Does the new design use frames?

    You say you are not ranking on pp. 1-2 of Google for any of the keywords. Are you on any other pages?

    Are you ranking in / getting traffic from Bing and/or Yahoo?

    Are the title tags in place and unchanged?
    The template is provided for free from a CMS community. No frames. Title tags are unchanged. I use the information on the Site Profile tab of the domaintoolds, for example: Warriorforum.com - Warrior Forum - WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums to check the SEO score of the websites.

    My website's SEO score has shot to 99% from 80% after I changed the template. Actually, it's the highest SEO score I've seen on domaintools for any websites ever. That's why I thought that the template is good.

    Google is still sending more traffic than any other search engines. However, I noticed that in Google analytics the Keywords which used to send traffic have changed to the new content I've posted. Good news is that a set of new Keywords are letting my site appear on the first and second pages again. Maybe I need to be more patient and focus on creating unique content. Thanks for all your questions. It made me think and investigate the matter more closely. I really appreciate it. Any more suggestions are welcome.
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    • Profile picture of the author PhilipSEO
      It's not any obvious thing that leaps to mind. Is this causing you monetary loss? In that case you'd be best off hiring a pro to investigate. You would need a technical SEO, not just the generic content-and-links-oriented kind -- someone who can look into the potential code-level technical causes. I am happy to chat if you want, but if this is not hurting your business perhaps just making new content and being patient is the way to go.
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