Drop of 11 places - server issues?

[gavinr]

Hi all,

I have experienced a drop of 11 places for our main keyword since our last Moz rankings report which means page 2 to page 3.

I have also received an error 904 in my weekly crawl report two weeks in a row and think this may be the reason for the drop. Could this result in a drop of 11 places?

Last week I also tweeked the H1 tags on my main landing pages, nothing major just a reordering of the words. Could this result in such a major drop?

Final question is does anyone know of any major algorithm update last week that could have affected rankings so drastically?

Thanks all
Gavin

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Hi Gavin,

Most of the updates from the last time that were noteworthy weren't launched last week. Server issues could be an issue that have let your page drop like this, Google could see that your site wasn't stable and have 'decided' that they will put you down for a while to make sure that visitors won't have any issues with your site.

[gavinr]

Thanks Martijn

The drop in rankings is quite significant and comes at the same time as the crawl errors in my reports.

I have 2 websites on the same server and both weekly reports show '904 Response from Server Timed out Without Completing Page Request' and both sites have shown a drop in rankings.

Thanks for your response.

Gavin

[mathamatix]

Would it be possible for you to change hosts?

[gavinr]

If only! We host the website internally and the IT dept who look after the server say there are no issues with the server or network configuration.

The 904 error is on both our sites which are both located on the same server.

The best solution would be to outsource the hosting.

Cheers
Gavin

[bjs2010]

We got that 904 error also in last weeks crawl. Never ever had it before and we have great hosting. I´m not sure if this could be a Moz issue as opposed to a server issue. Any others experience a 904?

[gavinr]

Hi bjs2010

If it was just the 904 error alone I wouldn't be too interested. However it came at the same time as a rankings drop. This also was the second week in a row that I had received the Crawl error 904.

Would be good to know if others got the crawl error notification though? Is there any way to know when SEO.Moz do their crawl as it could be when our server is running some back ups.

Thanks
Gavin

[jeff-rackaid.com]

A 904 error is a timeout.  As such this could be on either end of the crawl or in the middle.  If you have You should have remote monitoring to measure server uptime and performance.  Check the time of the 904 errors with your monitoring.  Also review server logs for that period for other errors.

In some cases we have seen security systems block crawlers - especially at larger companies where web app firewalls are in use.  The result can be that the system thinks there's an attack and could tarpit the crawler.

This is just speculation but something to easily rule out by looking at your server's logs and monitoring for the period in question.

[stevefidelity]

I experienced a similar issue recently with a client. A few 904 errors seemed to coincide with a notice in the client's 3d cart CMS that they were short on bandwidth. We also saw a VERY significant drop in rankings across the board. We upgraded the hosting plan and the 904 errors went away temporarily, and a very modest improvement in rankings followed, but not a return to normal. It's now about 2-3 months after we first saw the 904 errors and I've just noticed another one that has come up.