Home page sudden drop in rank, but not others.

[Joes_Ideas]

Over the weekend, I noticed "www.thematstore.com" drop out of the search results for "chair mats", where previously it was between 10-12 ranked. The other pages on the domain have remained the same in regards to rankings for their intended keywords.

The only thing I changed (on Nov 29th) is the title tag from "Chair Mats - Commercial Quality Chair Mats, Custom Made", to "Chair Mats - Best Custom Chair Mats, Commercial Quality".

I know there is a lot that needs to be done on the site, and the site architecture is a bit of a mess (I recommended building a new site)... but I was hoping to gradually fix these issues without gambling with a rank drop.

Not sure why the home page all of the sudden dropped out, any suggestions?

[JarnoNijzing]

Joe,

I think you should change the title back to what it was. This could go 2 ways. With the changed title it now drops but afterwards goes up higher then before, or you change it back and start off by testing with something else to help improve your rankings. The first version of your title: Chair Mats - Commercial Quality Chair Mats, Custom Made does contain the keywords twice (i would go for 1 but 2 might work for you) but has a nice coverage. The second version of your title has the second keyword more prominent in the title. This could result in drop because it is considered keyword stuffing by Google (not saying it is but it could be).

That is what i would do, change it back.

Your description: " Chair Mats of commercial quality. Build your Chair Mats on-line using our exclusive chair mat ordering system... any shape, any size.  A+ BBB rating! <a class="attribute-value">"</a>

It contains your keyword 3 times in frequent order. I would remove at least 1.

You could also try changing your H1 tag:

Now you have this: Lifetime warranty on our most popular chair mats!

I would change this to: Chair Mats with a lifetime warranty on our most popular models.

I wouldn't change everything at once but change 1 or 2 things and wait on Google. See what happens and then change the next thing and the next.

Hope this helps you out a little.

Kind Regards
Jarno

[MarieHaynes]

If I were you I would do absolutely nothing for a couple of weeks.

When I search for chair mats I see you at #14.  I also see you at #1 for best custom chair mats.  Sometimes Google bounces you around a bit before promoting a site up higher.

There were no major algo updates that I'm aware of last week.  (There was a Panda update Nov 21 but not since then).

I would say, Don't panic...sit back and see what happens.

[Joes_Ideas]

Thanks for the ideas guys. Good advice Jamo, and that's a great point Marie... I've seen this happen before, just puzzled me that the home page dropped out of site in my SERPs. It's always nice to discuss because of the uncertainties with SEO, thanks for your help.