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Main URL not ranking now, but 302 IS!!??!!

by fenixpro
4 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello,

So I have a client that I have been working with for around 4 months with great results. His overall traffic has doubled and he is very happy. However, I just noticed yesterday that for his top 10 KW - which we had 4 page 1 rankings and 6 page 2 rankings, his homepage now has 1 page 1 ranking, 3 page 18 rankings!!!...and the other 6 KWs don't show up in the top 500 results at all.

Yeah, I know, check the indexing, check the content in google, check webmaster tools messages, etc., etc. I did. All is normal and present.

What is not present is our site and I suppose this could be some sort of google dance or who knows what - even a penalty, but here is the weird thing that I have a question about:

So the canonical primary domain just disappeared for the most part as described above, but a 302 redirect domain all of the sudden popped up and is ranking for all top 10 keywords. Not on page 1, but generally on pages 2, 3, or 4. Wasn't there before. Now it's there and the main page with all the SEO done to it is gone/dropped/hiding!

Background: Client originally used their company name as their domain name for a couple of years and then was advised to buy an available KW rich domain name that was available. They did and then transferred their site contents to that domain and turned the original company domain name into a redirect to this 'new' site. So now, as described above, the KW-rich domain that IS their main site and domain disappeared, but the old domain which is redirected, popped up in the results!

Any ideas?

My only thoughts were some sort of algorithm change that affected redirects and even possibly, 'chose' the domain that has the actual company name in it over the KW rich name because it is more relevant to the actual company, but I'm just reaching... I'm just going to sit on it and not change anything for now...
#302 #main #ranking #seo #url
  • Profile picture of the author kodshi
    Did you notify google in the webmaster tools about the change, if you are moving to a new domain you need to go to the old domain webmaster tool to Site Configuration>Change of Address> and enter the new domain address

    Here are the instructions from google
    https://support.google.com/webmaster...n&answer=83106

    you need to make 301 redirect from the old domain to the new domain

    I think it was a mistake in the first place to change the domain address

    All the best
    Roy
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  • Profile picture of the author fenixpro
    Hi Roy. Thanks for your reply. No I didn't notify Google because there wasn't any domain name change. That's not what I was talking about. I agree with you that changing domains isn't always best, but my client did this years ago. What I'm talking about now is the SERPS and how the 302 is now showing up in the results out of nowhere and the main url is gone for most of the top 10 KW.
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  • Profile picture of the author kodshi
    What http status code for your old domain and for the new domain you get?,
    You can check it at View HTTP Request and Response Header
    Maybe somebody cancelled the 301 redirection, The ideal situation is Http status code 301 for the old domain, it's mean that the old domain permanently redirect to the new domain,
    I suggest you to go to the old domain webmaster tool, and check if they change the address to the new domain like I wrote in my first reply,
    Please also check that the old inner page url redirect to the new inner page url in the new domain and not to the home page

    For the new domain you need to get Http status code 200

    All the best
    Roy
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  • Profile picture of the author fenixpro
    Hey Roy,

    Thanks again for the response. Yeah, some sort of misdirection would make sense, except this is only happening on some keyword searches. For other keyword searches, the main domain still shows up. It's not that it's not working or that it's been deindexed, it's that it disappeared for a number of keywords and the other domain appeared in it's place - but with worse rankings.

    As for your http questions, there is a 302 in place (yes, i know should be a 301) and the other domain is solid. Again, I don't think it's on the back end, I think it's related to the SERP and G.
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