Added some meta titles and keywords but my rankin went down why? Should I undo so I can rank high again.

[teachcsg]

I recently did some SEO optimization to my site and added keywords and meta titles etc..I was ranked #7 and thought I would go up a little but instead I went down to #20. Should I undo what I did to rank high again?

[bronxpad]

When did you add the meta titles and keywords? I ask this because if you are ranking at position 7 on Monday morning and you then add these components and on Monday night or Tuesday your rankings drop, it's most likely not because of these additions. It could just be an algorithm change that impacted you.

[teachcsg]

The changes were done on May 23rd and the dropped occurred this week. So about a week and a half later.

[cbielich]

Google (Matt Cutts) has specified that meta titles and descriptions do not impact your ranking, it could have just been a change to google's algorithmic code.

[bronxpad]

Have you audited your site using the page analysis tool on this site? Also check out your back links. See if anything has changed. What I also like to do is monitor the activity of my competitors on the SERPS. That way I can gauge what they are doing and when. Use the tools on this site and you will have an edge. Your situation can be because others are implementing seo tactics or just a change in the algorithm.

[BedeFahey]

Hi Cesar,

It might be too late, but you should check to see if Google has even crawled that page yet (check out the cache, and whether or not your changes are showing up in the SERPS).

Can you be specific about what you mean by "Meta titles"? Do you mean title tags?

Title tags will certainly have an effect on your ranking. Meta descriptions and keywords will not (though the former will certainly affect click-through rates).

If you are talking about title tags, can you tell us what you changed them to? and what they were before?

Are there any other issues or changes that might affect rankings? For which phrases did the rank drop happen?

[teachcsg]

Thanks for all the answers and advice.For some reason today I am back to #7 on Google! Whew...I'll keep checking to make sure it stays there...I did see some new sites below me so Google is obviously making changes.

To Bede, you are correct I meant "title tags". I went from not having any title tags to having my web guy add some after reading an SEO book. I kept them short..followed the advice of SEOmoz after I got flagged for one long title.

Mostly something like: Respiratory CEU course for respiratory therapist.

Key word I'm targeting is "Respiratory CEU"

The only other changes were adding meta keywords, meta description and other things that may or may not help but still good to have.

[bronxpad]

There is also something called the Google Dance. It is when google is making changes to its algorithm, indexing new sites, de-indexing sites and just trying to figure out where a site should rank. You can also use your google analytics to check your site.