If I had an issue with a friendly URL module and I lost all my rankings. Will they return now that issue is resolved next time I'm crawled by google?

[Pete79]

I have 'magic seo urls' installed on my zencart site. Except for some reason no one can explain why or how the files were disabled. So my static links went back to dynamic (index.php?**********) etc. The issue was resolved with the module except in that time google must have crawled my site and I lost all my rankings. I'm nowher to be found in the top 50.

Did this really cause such an extravagant SEO issue as my web developers told me? Can I expect my rankings to return next time my site is crawled by google?

[Marcus_Miller]

Hmmm, who knows, certainly, it is feasible that you may have had a problem on the back of none of your pages existing any longer (well, they did, but on a different URL which may have made matters worse as they could have been seen as duplicates).

Without a URL and access to analytics it is impossible to say for sure but it is certainly feasible. I would also double check against known algorithm updates to see if there are any other traffic drops on significant dates.

http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

Will the ranking return?

They should do, if nothing else has changed then when those pages come back up they should. You will want to be double sure that the dynamic addresses are not accessible and that there is no potential for duplication but in theory, once everything returns and settles down, your rankings should return if this is indeed the (only) issue.

It may not happen overnight though!

Marcus

[Pete79]

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for your reply. Your answer sounds logical and well informed. I have heard about some google changes recently but that was regarding Exact Match Domains but if that was all I should be fine.

As a little update. I have asked the developers who fixed the problem exactly what they did; details. Their reply is as follows:

"Regarding Magic SEO Issue

Whenever Magic SEO is installed in .htacess file it is activated from admin; it makes a new cache folder for its functionality.Some one have rename cache file on live server. Magic SEO needs cache folder which is in root directory not in magic SEO folder.So we have reinstalled magic SEO as we want to create a new cache file for its proper working."

You mentioned accessibility of dynamic files. That's interesting. I will take that up with technical support with my hosting provider and also if they know about why the cache file was renamed.

Many thanks again Marcus for your feedback

Pete