Massive drop in organic rankings - but strange issues
-
Hi guys,
We experienced a massive drop in organic rankings on Saturday 29 October, a drop of around 80%.
I have received no notifications in webmaster tools
The site still ranks for its name so we are not banned
The site has been around since 2007
My mozrank and trustrank are very high (higher than sites that now still rank while we don't)
The strange this is the homepage doesn't rank for the main keyword (which it always did), but now a deeper page ranks for the main keyword, albeit on page 4.
Quite a few of our sites were affected, even though they target different industries, different countries, with different hosts, different unique content, different links (for one we havent even started link building and it was getting 250 UV per day, and now 8).I am completely confused by this.
Any advice or direction would be extremely helpful.Thanks so much
-
Do you guys think it may have more to do with onsite than offsite?
offsite: I have a similar number of root linking domains as my comeptitors who are still ranking in their previous positions
onsite I thought it might be that I have a section for accommodation that has hundreds of pages. These pages all have unique content, but the content is quite thin, and the pages never actually get any traffic from google.Should I just robots.txt these pages?
-
Hi Tony,
Thanks so much. The url is www.travelsupermarket.co.za
-
Hi Cashchampion,
I'd be happy to have a look, however I would require the URL.
Tony
-
-
HI,
What is your domain name ? Is it by chance an EMD ? (exact match domain - a "keyword domain").
This happened late friday so it could be related with your issue.
(http://www.seroundtable.com/google-emd-update-15776.html)
If so that could be one of the reasons for the sudden drop - but there can be others too If you will post the url we can have a look and post ideas and opinions.
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
-
My homepage ranks but not my target page.
Hello, I have an issue with one my pages. I have a page about "Bike tours in France+ exclusively that has been existing for almost 8 years. Since day 1 I changed the web address a few times but I have the necessary redirect (actually only 1). I can't find this page (pretty much since day 1) on the keyword "Bike tours France" and I am wondering why ? However, I can find my homepage rank on "Bike tours France" even though it doesn't only talk about "Bike tours in France" instead of my page which is only about "Bike tours in France". I am wondering why only my homepage shows and not the other one. For information, I have about 30 % of my external links that say Bike tours France and that go to my homepage because when I started my website I was only doing "Bike tours in France" Could google say we don't care about your page about "Bike tours in France" because you got so many links to your page with the keywords "Bike tours France" and could it be why I don't see it rank. However, it is index but doesn't show up in search results ? Or could it be the fact that made many content changes over the years on this page and that google is saying I will rank you but it will take years because of so many changes. What can I do to make my page about "Bike tours in France" appear in search results for the keyword "Bike tours in France". Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Website Not Ranking Organically - Not Links, Not Domain Authority...
This is regarding the domain: http://lesliekays.com We got a new client about 5 months back who had a website that was hacked. It took several months, but we've cleaned up most of the spammy links and completely rebuilt their website. We have been successful with every other client that we have ever done getting our customers to rank well organically, but we just can't figure this one out. I'm willing to offer a REWARD to the single person who can figure this out for us. (Let's not get carried away, a small reward). This customer has great quality links to their site too. We are looking for answers other than: 1. Backlinks 2. Content 3. Malware 4. Domain or Page authority 5. 404 errors 6. We have utilized Googles Webmaster tools endlessly It is something else and we can not identify it! Let me know what you think! I will give a public shout out to the person who helps us identify this issue!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tosten0 -
Why I am loosing my ranking?
My website is lonestarperio.com, I am loosing my website ranking, Is SEO agency doing any black hat SEO or doing anything wrong to my website?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bondhoward1 -
Change in sitemap from XML to PHP caused to lose all organic rankings
Hi MOZers, I need some advice for my website: http://www.scorepromotions.ca/ I recently changed the sitemap submitted to GWT from http://www.scorepromotions.ca/sitemap.xml to http://www.scorepromotions.ca/google-sitemap.php I deleted the previously submitted XML sitemap from GWT on Friday & submitted the PHP sitemap on the advice of our developer. On Saturday, I noticed that all our organic rankings disappeared. So, I changed the PHP sitemap back to XML sitemap on Sunday. I am hoping to see my organic rankings recover to previous levels. Does anyone have any advice or experience to share about this issue ? Ankush
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ScorePromotions0 -
Significant drop in web rankings
We have two websites and last week we had a significant drop in search engine rankings. Some of these search rankings we have been top 3 for the past 5 years and now we are not in the top 20. Last weekend we changed our hosting provider and IP addresses for the first time in over 7 years. Now is there a way we could work out if we have been hit by the latest Penguin update or if the change in hosting / IP has caused these drop in rankings? I would appreciate any thought or ideas at all.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jacksons_Fencing0 -
Webmaster Tools - Structured Data 100% drop. Many people with same issue, nobody seems to understand what might have caused it.
WMT shows a significant drop in structured data markup on June 7th, steep incline by June 21st. Now the same thing happened on August 9th, with no signs of recovery. Lost 45% of our search traffic. There are many people with the same problem, and nobody seems to know what caused it. Here are a few links to some forums: #1 Google Groups, #2 Google Groups, #3 Google Groups, #4 70% drop on GWT on June 7 Google SEO News and Discussion forum at WebmasterWorld. On our end we see a 100% drop in breadcrumbs and a 100% drop in hcards leading to a 45% search traffic drop. Any ideas why might have happened and how to fix this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PhilippGreitsch0 -
Changing your URL? Impact on rankings?
I have been thinking about changing our webadres for quite a while but I'm too afraid of the impact on my SERP. I understand I would need to use the Google Change of Address tool & 301 redirects. Am I missing something? What is your experience with changing the URL of a website? How has this impacted your SERP? In the past I heard someone say it will damage the linkjuice by 20%. Is that accurate? If you change the URL, is there a blank period of where your old site nor your new site are indexed? Or does Google handle this transition well?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wellnesswooz0 -
Traffic has dropped off a cliff
I just spent thousands of $$ redesigning my site. Have a Wordpress site now with Yoast SEO. However, my organic traffic has dropped of a cliff. Can any of you help me figure out why? www.UltimateBasicTraining.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | StreetwiseReports1