Google place 7 -> 40, why??

[krissy-cca]

Hey,

Did you identify all of your most authoritative pages and 301 them to the new URLs? or have you simply 'switched one off and turned the other on'?

[CPU]

Assuming everything else being equal it is often the case that when a site is moved to a new URL and 301 redirected (which I see you have done) that there is a short term dip in rankings and traffic.

If you have access to the Campaign tools here I would set up a campaign for that site and the crawl diagnostics may point you in the right direction of any problems you may have introduced during the switch.

[ie4mac]

Hi Damien,

yes I did. In fact, I kept the URL structre and 301 redirected all pages. Checked that redirections work, too.

[ie4mac]

Hi Lewis,

I have the site crawled by seomoz and checked out the results. There a a few minor things to sort out (i.e. too long urls in old blog postings etc.), but non of them are new.

I would have expected a dip during the transition, as you wrote. But first the opposite happened (good placement, place 7, first page), followed by a huge dro (place 40, i.e. last spot on 4th page).

Is such a big drop normal? Should I just wait? Or am I still missing some big mistake here??

Thank you!

Timon

[krissy-cca]

Timon,

I would give it a bit more time - rankings usually drop with a site change like this. I even have it with pages that are ranking and then I change them when they're not moving domain.

DD

[ie4mac]

Hi Damien,

thank you! I hope what you wrote applies in this case, too. I do not yet have the experience to find this normal. If there is, in fact, no big screw up to be found and it just takes time to recover, I'll give it time.Knowing it's normal definetly makes me feel better.

Thank you!

Timon

[KeriMorgret]

Timon, how is your site doing now? Has it recovered, or are there still issues?

[ie4mac]

Hey Keri,

thank you for asking!

Yes, it did recover. For a couple of days it was on place 8, i.e. almost as good as before.

Then, after some minor changes on site, it dropped slightly (place 13 now). I'm sure it will recover from that, too. What I learned form this whole experiences is that google reacts quickly, either way. Therefore I'll be much more patient during future drops following onsite changes

Cheers,

Timon

[KeriMorgret]

Or quickly in some aspects at least. I'm glad for your site it's working well. A thought -- have you done a change of address in Google Webmaster Tools (if the old domain was verified)? Wouldn't hurt. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=83106

[ie4mac]

Hi Keri,

now that was a helpful answer! No, the old site wasn't verified. The new one will be. During this move I learned a lot ... Next time I have to move a site I will follow the procedure outlined on the page you posted.

Thank you!

Timon

[KeriMorgret]

If you have some lessons learned that would make for an interesting blog post, feel free to write it up and submit it to YOUmoz!

Glad to be able to help, and sorry I didn't get in here sooner with the GWT link [my avatar doesn't readily show it, but I am an associate for SEOmoz and I try to help provide timely help].

[ie4mac]

Hi Keri,

that's an interesting idea. I thought about it: Right now, I don't feel ready to write a post like that. I'll keep it in mind though: If I have to move a site again I will prepare it better, do more detailed monitoring and if that works, I'll have material to write a post that's worth reading

Thank you!

Timon