Drop in SERPS and little movement after redesign

[mrodriguez1440]

I took over a project in mid-March 2015. Rankings went from 5th page to roughly #11 - #13 (but never into first page).

Launched a redesign on August 15, 2015. Rankings dropped from #11 - #13 down to #20.

Weird part: On 3 different Mondays since Mid-August, I have noticed that the rankings shoot back up to about #11 in the morning, then drop back down to #20 by the evening.

Three questions:

1.  Has anyone seen a drop like this after redesign? (Assuming you kept the same content, just different layout).

2. Did it seem like the redesign resulted in some sort sandbox effect, where the rankings wouldn't move for a period of time?

3.  Any advice on how to get it moving again? Or is this just a function of time?

Ps. The interior pages are moving well.

domain: getinjuryanswers.com

KW: San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer, Personal Injury Lawyer San Diego

I understand these are hyper-competitive terms. What puzzles me is how calcified the rankings appear to be.

[EGOL]

Visitor engagement has become a very important ranking signal.   If the design of the pages has changed, is it possible that visitors don't engage the site as strongly as they did in the past?

[mrodriguez1440]

Hi, thanks for the response. That could be it. This new design is a lot nicer than the old one, but maybe something about it doesn't sit right with people.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Chris661]

I looked at the current site and the previous one in the wayback machine.

Just my opinion but the image of the two attorneys would put me off. I liked the one of the happy couple on the old site. I'm sure they are wonderful guys but they look pissed.

Site is very nice and fastest WP I've seen in Pagespeed.

Nice job. I'd change that pic... Respectfully!

[mrodriguez1440]

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback. Yes, we debated a lot about whether that pic would be a good choice. I think I'll try something else.

I appreciate your feedback on the Pagespeed. I used Autoptimize. PM me and I can send you some great info about how to get the PageSpeed in the 90's for both mobile and desktop.

Thanks again.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi There

A redesign can definitely impact rankings. I also notice some slight architectural changes? The removal of "Cases" from the main navigation, among other things.

The trick is, there's tons of moving parts in any ranking situation like this.

Also, what rank tracker are you using? There's going to be a lot of localization/personalization/fluctuation in effect. Google is likely greatly varying rankings by location, user metrics, search history etc. Are you using a de-personalized rank checker? I like Authority Labs or Advanced Web Ranking for daily rank checking.

FYI, I just ran it through the Firefox Rank plugin and got #19 and #18 for your two keywords (I'm in Massachusetts).

Also, for all sites I track I tend to see way more ranking fluctuation for page 2 and beyond in general.

I would really focus on best practices - like great UX, local SEO efforts, CTR optimization - all the "known" things you can really control.

Something you can do - go to Search Console - and make sure all the queries you are ranking well for have the best title/descriptions and snippets for those SERPs to improve your user metrics for the site overall.

[Solomonlawsc]

This post is deleted!

[mrodriguez1440]

Hi,

Thank you for your response. I did make some slight changes, and that may have been enough to trigger a drop.

For tracking I use Moz, AHREFs, SEMRush, and also Google Incognito using a VPN (I'm overly thorough).

I like your idea about maximizing the areas I'm ranking well for. In fact, that's what I started doing this past weekend. Really focused on getting every interior page on the first page.

Thank you again for your detailed response. I really appreciate it.