SEO Faith Shaker... help!!

[SteveOllington]

Something has happened which is, well inexplicable to me... I'm stumped!

We have a client that has two sites which compete for the same keywords. One is a .com, the other is a .co.uk. They have different content so there's no dupe worries.

We have, for the past few months been carrying out SEO for the .com site. It's doing great. We don't do anything with the .co.uk site, which, incidentally dropped from 2nd (under the .com) to 9th after Panda for its main keyword.

The owner of the site has switched the .co.uk to Wordpress and now that site, with the same content, same links, same social signals, etc... (nothing was done to it except the platform being changed) has suddenly shot up above the .com for not only its main keyword but most of the others too.

What gives?? It doesn't even have a link from the .com site!

So, the .com which has undergone SEO is now being beaten by the .co.uk which hasn't. The .com is still directly underneath it. It feels like all of the things we know about SEO, all of the ranking factors and everything are being totally undermined here, just due to a change to Wordpress. Surely that can't be it?? The .com is an older domain, has more content, has always done well, has more links and from better places, and all the social stuff surrounding the business is targeted at it.

This isn't a penalization issue or anything like that, this is simply a matter of the .co.uk suddenly blasting above everything for no apparent reason.

Any ideas?? I know that there "might" be a tiny, tiny, tiny advantage of the country TLD but that's not enough to do this, and the .co.uk always did worse before.

[EGOL]

Steve, I would not hold my breath waiting for someone to explain this.  Sounds like a mystery.

Is it possible that WordPress provides a better on-page optimization or better internal linkage than was on the original site.

The only reason that I am replying here is that we uploaded a redesigned site last week.  It had not been redesigned for many years and still had very heavy on-page formatting with tags and huge tables.  This was streamlined with a css file.  A few days after uploading it moved up and above a competitor that has us severely outgunned.  I know another person who is seeing this.  So maybe redesign gets you a temporary boost these days?

I don't believe it.   I am waiting for these sites to drop.

[SteveOllington]

Thanks EGOL. Yes I must admit I thought a definitive answer would be pretty much impossible... even in here.

I agree about waiting for the sites to drop too, it only just happened but that's the first thing that went through my head when it did.

This may sound odd, as of course it's good for the client that both sites are up high, but, part of me is hoping for the drop. Otherwise it will feel like everything I know to be true has become obsolete. Like all I understand about SEO has been turned on its head.

I reckon you're right that there's got to be a bunch of optimal stuff with Wordpress which could make a difference. But yeah, it could never make this much of a difference of course.

I think I'll have to accept that there simply are anomalies from time to time.

Anyway thank you, knowing there's a similar situation out there somewhere has put my mind at ease a little

[MarieHaynes]

This is very interesting Steve.

I have a site that is primarily html but has 2 blogs attached to it.  When I publish something on my blog it gets indexed super fast and usually performs really well.  Something published on my static site usually doesn't do as well even though it tends to be better content.

I assumed it was because my blog was more timely information (i.e. about a current news event) but it would be interesting to do a test to publish similar stuff on a static html page and a wordpress page and see how it performs!

[SteveOllington]

Ah, you might be on to something there... with wordpress being primarily a blogging platform, maybe there's something there. Maybe blogs, with their higher content churn have a little precedence at the expense of longevity in the serps.

Awesome thinking Dunamis!

[EGOL]

I have a blog that does really well too.... but I doubt that the platform would be a silver bullet instead of the content.

Or.... maybe Google thinks that everyone who has to use wordpress needs a handicap. 

[AlanBleiweiss]

If it's a new phenomena, it's important to understand that Google will often temporarily rank sites higher based on initial evaluation.  Given that it's now in WordPress, that could have triggered this.  Over time, to remain in that ranking position, Google needs to obtain confirming signals.

If no new signals exist to confirm the current ranking, I suspect it will fall once again.

if it's been there for a while, then I'm at a loss for further insights. That great mysterious monster likes to confuse us this way.

[SteveOllington]

Thanks Alan, that makes good sense. I'm going to monitor it constantly and will update you guys the second something happens!

[AlanBleiweiss]

You are free to monitor it as frequently as you see fit.  Personally, If a rank changes oddly, I'll check it a few days later, then not again for another month.  Google, and many competitive landscapes go through lots of short-term ups and downs and I just don't see the value of trying to understand short term issues.

That's why I even chimed in here on this one in the first place.  Short term issues are so draining to deal with.

[MBayes]

Just as a FYI... We have had two clients move to Word press platforms in the last month, and both had a big gain in rankings for a few days ( not sure if it was a week or 10 days, we don't check every day)  but then both dropped back to where they had been (basically).

Like others here, and I discuss this with clients often; don't pay any attention to major changes in rankings unless they last for a few weeks.  Would you let us know what happens to your clients ranking on the word press site?