Google Indexed URLs for Terms Have Changed Causing Huge SERP Drop
-
We haven't made any significant changes to our website, however the pages that google has indexed for our critical keywords have changed to pages that have caused our SERP to drop dramatically for those pages.
In some cases, the changes make no sense at all. For example, one of our terms that used to be indexed to our homepage is now indexed to a dead category page that has nothing on it.
One of our biggest terms, where we were 9th, changed and is now indexed to our FAQ. As a result, we now rank 44th.
This is having a MAJOR impact on our business so any help on why this sudden change happened and what we can do to combat it is greatly appreciated.
-
Google makes about 500 changes to their algorithms each year. It is likely that either one of those changes, or a change made with your site or backlinks, caused the change in results.
If you can share the URLs and keywords involved then more direct feedback can be offered.
-
Thanks for the link, we are on that already. I was just wondering why all of a sudden the pages that have been indexed for years changed.
-
Your answer will likely be found here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Help: domain name change and Google News
Hi. I work for a regional news source, and our (separate) Spanish-language news publication recently changed its domain name. The publication lost its Google News inclusion. Most of their traffic came from Google News, so traffic tanked. They're trying to get back in. They reapplied but didn't get approved. They're now in the 30-day waiting period to reapply again. The website is run by a third-party company, which handled the domain name change in April (2015). That company has been running their site for a couple of years. Our in-house devs' hands are tied on helping, because we (at the mother company) don't manage their site. This third party has not been responsive. The Spanish pub folks have reached out to me to help them prepare for Round 2 of reapplication. I'm the mothership in-house SEO, but I've never experienced this situation before. Because everything seems to be in order besides the ham-handed changes, my best advice to them so far is: You'll have to wait until Google gets to know you again, unfortunately. Does that sound right? Any pointers out there for bringing their best possible A-game to the next round?
Technical SEO | | christyrobinson1 -
Web Page Dropped Out of Google?
One of our web pages seems to have completely dropped out of Google after featuring on page 1 for a number of years. It can't be a site wide issue as all other web pages are performing as normal. The page is http://www.contractormoney.com/income-protection/ and the key phrase it was performing well for was 'contractor income protection'. Any ideas??
Technical SEO | | Pete40 -
Anything new if determining how many of a sites pages are in Google's supplemental index vs the main index?
Since site:mysite.com *** -sljktf stopped working to find pages in the supplemental index several years ago has anyone found another way to identify content that has been regulated to the supplemental index?
Technical SEO | | SEMPassion0 -
Suddenly disappear from google SERP : Pls Help
I am facing too much problems with my all sites and i am afraid with google SERP result. I was penalize by google in previous yea and again Today too. i have a website name is removalinmelbourne.com.au i was happy with my seo because it was coming on the first page and 2nd page with most of the keywords like removalists melbourne, removals melbourne, movers in melbourne, removalists in melbourne and today i was shocked with my result this not showing anywhere on google . Please someone help me . How can i get back .
Technical SEO | | Tufail0 -
Huge drop for main branded keyword
The past week the main branded keyword for a site i am working on has dropped from the top three on Google US to page 7! It is still ranking in the top three on Google in other areas. I recently redirected /index.php to / using .htaccess. Could this have caused a problem? If not, what else could have caused such a huge drop?
Technical SEO | | Tedred0 -
Panda and unnatural links caused ranking drop
Hi I have been approached to do some SEO work for a site that has been hit badly by the latest panda update 3.3, they have also had a warning in their Google webmaster tools account saying they had unnatural looking links to their site, they received this in 26 Feb and that prompted them to stop working with their excising seo company and look for a new one. Apparently their rankings for the keywords they were targeting have dropped dramatically, but it looks like just those they were actively building back links for, other phrases do not look affected. Before I take them on I want to be clear that it is possible to help them reclaim their rankings? I have checked the site and the on-page seo is good, the site build is good, just a few errors to fix but the links that have been built by the seo company are low quality with a lot of spun articles and the same anchor text so I see what the Google webmaster tools message is refuring to. I do not think these links can be removed as there is no contact details on the sites I checked I have not checked all of them but a random sample does not show promise, they are from low authority domains. So if I am to take them on as a client and help them to regain their previous rankings what is the best strategy? Obviously they want results yesterday and from our phone call they would rather someone else did the work than them, so my initial response of add some better quality content that others in your industry would link to as a reference did not go down well, to be fair I think it is a time issue there are only 3 people in the company and they are not technical at all. Thanks for your help Sean
Technical SEO | | ske110 -
Directory Indexed in Google, that I dont want, How to remove?
Hi One of my own websites, having a slight issue, Google have indexed over 500+ pages and files from a template directory from my eCommerce website. In google webmaster tools, getting over 580 crawl errors mostly these ones below I went into my robots text file and added Disallow: /skins*
Technical SEO | | rfksolutionsltd
Disallow: /skin1* Will this block Google from searching them again? and how do I go about getting the 500 pages that are already indexed taken out? Any help would be great | http://www.rfkprintsolutions.co.uk/skin1/modules/Subscriptions/subscription_priceincart.tpl | 403 error | Jan 15, 2012 |
|http://www.rfkprintsolutions.co.uk/skin1/modules/Subscriptions/subscription_info_inlist.tpl | 403 error | Jan 15, 2012 |
|http://www.rfkprintsolutions.co.uk/skin1/modules/Subscriptions/subscriptions_admin.tpl | 403 error | Jan 15, 2012 |
0 -
Some site pages are removed from Google Index
Hello, Some pages of my clients website are removed from Google Index. We were in top 10 position for some keywords but now I cannot find those pages neither in top 1000. Any idea what to do in order to get these pages back? thank you
Technical SEO | | besartbajrami0