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Drop in Google, undo 301 redirection

by pvdk
10 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi
A few weeks ago we've experienced a sudden drop in our Google rankings. On Feb 14th we did a redirect from example.de to example.com/de and on Feb 18th we did a redirect from .com to .com/it. Organic search didn’t drop and everything seemed stable after the 301 redirection. On the 19th of April we moved the site from http to https. Soon after this we experienced an increase in page visitors, which remained stable for a few months until the 26th of June.
On the 26th of June we had a drop on all the domains:
example.com
example.fr
example.es
example.nl
example.com/de
example.com/it
So, not only the redirected domains dropped but all of the domains. This drop remained stable for the last few weeks. Until now we are not sure which caused this drop but we are thinking about undoing/removing the redirected domains and change example.com/de back into example.de and example.com/it into example.net but are afraid that this might hurt our ranking again.
Hopefully someone can tell us what caused the drop? And if undoing/removing the 301 redirected domains can recover the drop, only makes it worse or will have no effect on our rankings?
Thank you in advance for helping us out
#301 #drop #google #redirection #undo
  • Profile picture of the author gundzfund9
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author pvdk
      Could be but we'll never know right?
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  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    You did a redirect from a .de to a.com? And you have no idea why you would drop?

    Of course it would affect them, both ways.

    People play around with 301 because they heard a guy who knew a guy, and by the time it got to you...you thought it was some miracle drug.

    301 has it's well intended, designed uses.

    Anything else is nonsense-SEO.

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author pvdk
      Thanks Paul

      We've expected a minor drop but we wouldn't think this would be this big and across all the domains.
      But what do you think about removing the 301? Would this cause another drop or could the drop be undone by removing the 301?
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  • Profile picture of the author KylieSweet
    In the first place you didn't even know what's the real use of 301 redirect.
    Why we use 301 redirect? First thing in mind before we implement.
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    • Profile picture of the author pvdk
      Hi Kylie,
      Of course we know why we've done the 301, we had to because of some issues with the example.de and example.it domains. Due to these issues, our overall traffic dropped with 16% in March in comparison to February, traffic in example.de even dropped with 70%. We've chosen to change those two domains into example.com/de and example.com/it. We wanted to minimize the damage of this change and that's why we used a 301. At first it seemed to work because we had an increase of 24% of overall traffic in the first two months, even an increase of 200% in the example.de (almost back to the old level of visitors). After this (June 26th) we dropped with 20% across all the domains. This means we're back where we were before we did the redirect but at this moment we have visitors across all the domains. So, the German domain didn't fall to original level of March but we've lost visitors on all domains. Since the German domain is very important to us the current situation is better than it was before but we don't understand why the other domains are dropping.
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  • Profile picture of the author George Schwab
    Re: "So, not only the redirected domains dropped but all of the domains"

    thats a bad indicator, i think they got you...

    if this stays that way you can try a double 301 = a dropped site goes to authority site
    and buffers the drop (like for example the public wordpress site or others like that)

    then from that site you redirect to NEW domain after a few days. Chance of success:
    about 60-70%, sometimes 80%

    but that also changes frequently, you have to do your own tests
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    • Profile picture of the author pvdk
      Oke thank but we haven't had any penalties and the webmasters tool is showing no issues
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        Originally Posted by pvdk View Post

        Oke thank but we haven't had any penalties and the webmasters tool is showing no issues

        PVDK one of the problems with trying to find the answer on a forum is that everyone steps up to give an answer out of their imagination. NO one knows whats happened to your site because no one has enough information to give you an intelligent answer. the site was good for a couple months so did it absolutely have to be the https move - Its not 100%.

        Strong possibility but even then it could be how the redirects were implemented or the server. Get somebody or group of people you trust who can see the actual site and test some things out. Switching back just on someones say so in a forum is not going to be a good thing

        and yes if you switch back then that is going to cause some issues for awhile as well. Make moves now based on real data about your site not some guesses on a forum from people who do not even know the domain name much less your setup.
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        • Profile picture of the author pvdk
          Thank you Mike for this usefull answer.

          I was just wondering if other people had experienced a same kind of situation (increase and decrease of traffic) in Google after doing a 301 redirect or a change to https and if someone had any idea about removing the 301. I think it's probably hard to tell because every case is a different one. No one can tell what will happen when taking steps. For now, we'll leave the domains like this and we are digging into the data to find answers.

          Thanks again
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          • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
            Originally Posted by pvdk View Post

            Thank you Mike for this usefull answer.

            I was just wondering if other people had experienced a same kind of situation (increase and decrease of traffic) in Google after doing a 301 redirect or a change to https and if someone had any idea about removing the 301.
            Yes as a matter of fact we are working with a customer right now that had that issue. its a common one especially for ecommerce sites. In their case they decided not to switch back and their site is making a steady recovery. Nothing is overnight with SEO but switching back and forth can have its own dangers and issues that might not resolve immediately either.
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