Google dropping pages from SERPs even though indexed and cached. (Shift over to https suspected.)

[nathonraine]

Anybody know why pages that have previously been indexed - and that are still present in Google's cache - are now not appearing in Google SERPs?

All the usual suspects - noindex, robots, duplication filter, 301s - have been ruled out. We shifted our site over from http to https last week and it appears to have started then, although we have also been playing around with our navigation structure a bit too.

Here are a few examples...

Example 1:

• Live URL: https://www.normanrecords.com/records/149002-memory-drawings-there-is-no-perfect-place
• Cached copy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.normanrecords.com/records/149002-memory-drawings-there-is-no-perfect-place
• SERP (1): https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=memory+drawings+there+is+no+perfect+place
• SERP (2): https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=memory+drawings+there+is+no+perfect+place+site%3Awww.normanrecords.com

Example 2:

• SERP: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=deaf+center+recount+site%3Awww.normanrecords.com
• Live URL: https://www.normanrecords.com/records/149001-deaf-center-recount-
• Cached copy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.normanrecords.com/records/149001-deaf-center-recount-

These are pages that have been linked to from our homepage (Moz PA of 68) prominently for days, are present and correct in our sitemap (https://www.normanrecords.com/catalogue_sitemap.xml), have unique content, have decent on-page optimisation, etc. etc.

We moved over to https on 11 Aug. There were some initial wobbles (e.g. 301s from normanrecords.com to www.normanrecords.com got caught up in a nasty loop due to the conflicting 301 from http to https) but these were quickly sorted (i.e. spotted and resolved within minutes). There have been some other changes made to the structure of the site (e.g. a reduction in the navigation options) but nothing I know of that would cause pages to drop like this.

For the first example (Memory Drawings) we were ranking on the first page right up until this morning and have been receiving Google traffic for it ever since it was added to the site on 4 Aug.

Any help very much appreciated! At the very end of my tether / understanding here...

Cheers,

Nathon

[David-Kley]

Even though the 301's are all in place, have you notified Google of the changes? Might be why you are seeing them disappear

1. Sitemap recreation and resubmission
2. Resubmit via Webmaster tools using "fetch as Google"
3. Ping website for new pages

[nathonraine]

Hi David,

Thanks for your response!

Yup, our sitemaps are recreated and resubmitted every day, and those pages have both been fetched (and rendered) in GWT. Not sure exactly what you mean by point 3 though??

[Christy-Correll]

Hi David, did you see Nathon's most recent response? Just checking.

[David-Kley]

Sorry denverish, I have been really busy lol

Point number 3 refers to "pinging" your website, to let the search engines know your site has been updated. There are a few spammy ones out there, but I would try using:

http://pingomatic.com/
or
https://pingler.com/

Pinging is a process by which you can inform major Search Engines and RSS direcotries(Google,Bing,Yahoo,Technorati etc) that you have updated content/URL's in your blog/Website. Pinging can also help in getting website changes indexed quickly.