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Ranking dropped, is this the cause?

by tedobee
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Need some advice, opinions on what to do with this.
My ranking dropped 3 spots on page 1. My site is a few years old and always sitting at 2 spot(sometimes 1) for keywords. Not paying attention and going against my own stuff a lot was done in the weeks that led to all this. I will try and explain all what was done and perhaps you guys can shed some light on this. Maybe I have to just wait to see if it comes back. All start a month ago.

-Changed my permalink structure for a reason, I have no clue why I did this. This was all I did, nothing else as to redirect or anything else. I ended up with lots of crawl errors in Google webmaster tools. After realizing the 404's were probably due to the structure change, I switched it(permalink structure in wordpress) back in panic. Yes there was still content and in bound links being created to the new content during the time structure was changed.
Can a page be made to maybe handle the 404s errors that still exist? Most were fixed. permalink structure was put back to what it was.

I also had both the www and non www of the site set up in webmaster tools. generally only use and or look at the non one as this is how the site is displayed in WP settings. So I decided I would set the name to preferred as the non as i never did it. Next day, I get goggle bot can not connect to site. This time crawl errors so far only single digits versus hundreds. Do i really need both the non and www set up in webmaster tools? It seems when I re added the www version, although it set to the preferred non, it reports crawl errors in the non version.
as far as link building to this site, there was always a variation of the www and non, if it matters.
I haven't called host yet, to see if there an issue as I have other site on the same plan with no issues and this all happened when I decided to change structure.
Will a lot of 404s according to this google tool effect my ranking?

Also, I went and changed bit of the site content to make it read better and not sound spammy. Mainly added more in the amount of words to make more complete sentences as the site lacked good reading.
Also added a recp. link with a competitor who was under me, but now above.(they are only a competitor in my eye for my keyword, not so much directly, but this had to be done for other reason outside the internet).

So before I pull my hair out anymore and making mass changes to my site so fast hoping it will help, can someone give me a starting point here. I kind of leaning to a big error with the whole webmaster tools says cant connect because of 404 errors as this is about when it all started.
#dropped #ranking
  • Profile picture of the author TheFBGuy
    Originally Posted by tedobee View Post

    Need some advice, opinions on what to do with this.
    My ranking dropped 3 spots on page 1. My site is a few years old and always sitting at 2 spot(sometimes 1) for keywords. Not paying attention and going against my own stuff a lot was done in the weeks that led to all this. I will try and explain all what was done and perhaps you guys can shed some light on this. Maybe I have to just wait to see if it comes back. All start a month ago.

    -Changed my permalink structure for a reason, I have no clue why I did this. This was all I did, nothing else as to redirect or anything else. I ended up with lots of crawl errors in Google webmaster tools. After realizing the 404's were probably due to the structure change, I switched it(permalink structure in wordpress) back in panic. Yes there was still content and in bound links being created to the new content during the time structure was changed.
    Can a page be made to maybe handle the 404s errors that still exist? Most were fixed. permalink structure was put back to what it was.

    I also had both the www and non www of the site set up in webmaster tools. generally only use and or look at the non one as this is how the site is displayed in WP settings. So I decided I would set the name to preferred as the non as i never did it. Next day, I get goggle bot can not connect to site. This time crawl errors so far only single digits versus hundreds. Do i really need both the non and www set up in webmaster tools? It seems when I re added the www version, although it set to the preferred non, it reports crawl errors in the non version.
    as far as link building to this site, there was always a variation of the www and non, if it matters.
    I haven't called host yet, to see if there an issue as I have other site on the same plan with no issues and this all happened when I decided to change structure.
    Will a lot of 404s according to this google tool effect my ranking?

    Also, I went and changed bit of the site content to make it read better and not sound spammy. Mainly added more in the amount of words to make more complete sentences as the site lacked good reading.
    Also added a recp. link with a competitor who was under me, but now above.(they are only a competitor in my eye for my keyword, not so much directly, but this had to be done for other reason outside the internet).

    So before I pull my hair out anymore and making mass changes to my site so fast hoping it will help, can someone give me a starting point here. I kind of leaning to a big error with the whole webmaster tools says cant connect because of 404 errors as this is about when it all started.
    Hahaha, you dropped only a few spots on page 1 and you panicked... but to answer your question, that is not the cause, but good that you made improvements.

    Its simple: your competitors simply outranked your site, via on page or off page, lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author tedobee
      Originally Posted by TheFBGuy View Post

      Hahaha, you dropped only a few spots on page 1 and you panicked... but to answer your question, that is not the cause, but good that you made improvements.

      Its simple: your competitors simply outranked your site, via on page or off page, lol.
      Maybe correct the comp. moved, of course i dropped.
      But when I changed the permalink structure and had it that way for a bit is when all the 404 errors were detected(in the high hundreds), This is when the site dropped. And again, now webmaster tools is starting reporting errors for 404's(a few). In the years the site ranked high, there was no errors, as soon as I got the errors it drops. Could it just be because now I have 100s of pages that are not being found? Shouldnt this be corrected or does it have zero impact on my results. Im kinda thinking it does and at this point trying to figure out how to handle it.
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  • Profile picture of the author tedobee
    Whats the thoughts on just directing all these 404s I have now right to the main page? Will this make matters worse?
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    • Profile picture of the author TheFBGuy
      Originally Posted by tedobee View Post

      Whats the thoughts on just directing all these 404s I have now right to the main page? Will this make matters worse?
      We all get that error from time to time, correcting them is easy if you are using Wordpress, PM me your site and I can correct them for you.

      Correct them quick... because yes they are/will affecting your SERPs.

      Edit: Correct them, don't redirect them.
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      • Profile picture of the author tedobee
        Originally Posted by TheFBGuy View Post

        We all get that error from time to time, correcting them is easy if you are using Wordpress, PM me your site and I can correct them for you.

        Correct them quick... because yes they are/will affecting your SERPs.

        Edit: Correct them, don't redirect them.
        FBGUY, I have had only a minor amount in the past, but like I said when I changed the permalink structure is when all went crazy and into the high hundred numbers. So I not knowing, yes would think that close to 1000 404 errors on a site may lead to issues. I suicide'd my website,lol.
        From what im reading google suggest doing something like using what I mentioned above. Any ideas on that? Right now I cant afford to go backwards.

        Also, if doing what they suggest and having this many errors, do you think I may see a result? As in how long will it take. Probably not as fast as the negative result from them took please, yes?
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  • Profile picture of the author tedobee
    Im going to make a 404 page that use the google search api widget or whatever it is called I suppose to handle the issue with the 404 that are appearing in hope this will correct the message in WMT that says cannt connect to server(one reason listed is high 404's).
    I read that directing to home is a big no no for search engines.
    Please any opinions are helpful.

    (on a side note, forgot to add when i re-added the www version in WMT it started all over).
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  • Profile picture of the author MaryPabelate
    Banned
    If you don't like the permalink which was before and you changed that, the no problem, you should keep building links and adding content and in few days it would be ok...
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  • Profile picture of the author tedobee
    Thanks all for the responses. I installed the suggesd 404page with site search from google to make it better for users to handle what they find, dont find. Ill have to see what happens I suppose.

    The main thing I think right now is why do I get all these 404 erros(high amount) because the structure was changed and content stayed being added as well as links?Makes sense i suppose. And figuring the correct way to handle them so google isnt telling me it wont access the site.

    Re-building isnt an option with the site. Learning experience, for sure,lol.

    btw, I didnt do this because I panic'd. I think i miss typed what I meant. The ranking dropped after I choose to change the sites permalink structure thus causing half the mess in wmt and all these not found pages. So far I learned, dont for no reason, because you just feel like it, change and break something that was fine.

    does anyone know if using the google search widget to handle this(google suggestion) will work enough to not give me the error google cant connect to the site, as according to them may be a reason?

    Thanks again.
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