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SEO traffic down after switching blog to OP2

by Thumoney
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
2 weeks ago I switched my site running on the Standard Theme (formerly 8Bit, now Woothemes) to OptimizePress 2. Since then I noticed a decline in search traffic of around 20%.

Is there any explanation for this?
#blog #op2 #seo #switching #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author StanHyeck
    Significant structural changes almost always cause a drop off in SERPS. Depending on the change your position may bounce back ... or it may not. I don't know enough about how your site was versus how it is now to really give a better answer. Personally I'm not a fan of OP but for reasons having nothing to do with rankings.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    Stan Hyeck wrecked it. Maybe the structural integrity of your content was modified; also consider the individual modifications of code to each page.

    To be honest... Here's a funny story.

    I remember one time I changed a link on one of my massive blogs... (20k+ listings)... to the homepage URL.

    I swear...

    The pagerank jumped instantly like 5 spots. I was like "Wtf"?.

    I figured this was impossible since Pagerank changes based upon Google's own set interval... So how did my pagerank instantly skyrocket in seconds after updating 20k indexes?

    (I'm talking about Google Pagerank. It must have been a temporary, or probably LOCAL glitch, because it went back moments later).

    It must have screwed up my software.



    Sorry for the rant.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Thumoney View Post

    2 weeks ago I switched my site running on the Standard Theme (formerly 8Bit, now Woothemes) to OptimizePress 2. Since then I noticed a decline in search traffic of around 20%.

    Is there any explanation for this?
    You changed your entire site structure, changed internal links that helped rank pages, dropped in the SERPs.
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    This stuff happens. One of the reasons why you should be careful with site changes. I know a couple of cases where site was completely redesigned, and the search engine traffic collapsed permanently to a lower level. Of course these are the worst horror stories - it's usual for the site to bounce back.
    Signature
    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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  • Profile picture of the author Thumoney
    Good answers, thanks. I may bring back some things like:

    - breadcrumbs got removed on posts/pages
    - I removed the categories from navigation
    - the archive page has only posts, no categories or tags anymore
    - I also removed the images from the posts, which are still indexed

    Other metrics and facts are constant, like bounce-rates or avg. time on site. Both theme are also (mobile) responsive.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Thumoney View Post

      Good answers, thanks. I may bring back some things like:

      - breadcrumbs got removed on posts/pages
      - I removed the categories from navigation
      - the archive page has only posts, no categories or tags anymore
      - I also removed the images from the posts, which are still indexed

      Other metrics and facts are constant, like bounce-rates or avg. time on site. Both theme are also (mobile) responsive.
      Makes absolutely no sense to do the things you've listed.

      Looks like your trying to destroy your own site.
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      • Profile picture of the author Thumoney
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        Makes absolutely no sense to do the things you've listed.

        Looks like your trying to destroy your own site.
        I did't mean I did that intentionally. This is the list of things that happened due to the theme-change, which I identified as potentially harmful.

        So I'm bringing them back right now.
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  • Profile picture of the author techtrendsit
    Most of the time, it happens when you make some changes to the website. But as a hard and fast rule, we can only guess what went wrong. Most of the time, ranking come back after certain time.

    The only thing I would suggest you to index your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author blueraykhazana
    I think Google has changed it's algorithm. I am also getting reduced my search results. Try for seoclerks their service starts from $1.
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    http://onlybluray.com
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  • Profile picture of the author promo87
    Banned
    I don't thing changing theme has anything to do with the upcoming traffic ! Yes, themes may attract user to stay a bit longer in the site but seriously I don't see any connection between the theme and traffic .
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    • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
      Originally Posted by promo87 View Post

      I don't thing changing theme has anything to do with the upcoming traffic ! Yes, themes may attract user to stay a bit longer in the site but seriously I don't see any connection between the theme and traffic .
      Did you even read the thread? It was already established that switching themes removed internal linking and images, and changed archive links.

      It's also obvious that the HTML structure doesn't stay the same unless you're switching between variants/skins of the same theme. I think it's makes sense that Google would start re-evaluating the SERP placements if the site gets changed a lot.
      Signature
      Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
      Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

      What's your excuse?
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      • Profile picture of the author Thumoney
        Just wanted to let you know that the traffic is up to normal (around 14 days later).

        I brought back all I mentioned above (breadcrumbs, images, categories).
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