Multi Store SEO Drop

[moon-boots]

Thank you so much Kate. Just to double check, are you saying that there should be no canonical tag at all on the US site? Or just one (leading to the UK or US site)?

[katemorris]

No canonical at all for either side, rather they should have hreflang tags that act as canonicals but not as strong (they are specific for language differences).

[moon-boots]

That is news to me! Thank you so much for this. I will remove all of the canonical tags and leave only the hreflang, and see how this effects the site rank.

[moon-boots]

Is it a coincidence that my rank for both sites just dropped by nearly 40% each after making this change?

[katemorris]

It is possible that fluctuations will happen once the canonical is removed. That tag was equating the two pages and google was in the middle of trying to figure out that they were similar but not the same. So removing that canonical is going to reset the pages for a bit. If you are seeing a drop, I expect it to come back up shortly as long as the hreflang is there.

I looked at: view-source:https://www.thespacecollective.com/us/meteorite-jewellery

And am seeing:

<link  rel="<a class="attribute-value">canonical</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.thespacecollective.com/us/meteorite-jewellery</a>" /> <link  rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-US</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.thespacecollective.com/us/meteorite-jewellery</a>" /> <link  rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">x-default</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.thespacecollective.com/us/meteorite-jewellery</a>" />

So with the above, you are confusing Google. That is says that it is it's own canonical (good) and is a language variation but you provide no others (including the strong page that is the UK). Rather than the above, it should be this: 

<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">canonical</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.thespacecollective.com/us/meteorite-jewellery</a>" /> <link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-US</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.thespacecollective.com/us/meteorite-jewellery</a>" /> <link rel="<a class="attribute-value">alternate</a>" hreflang="<a class="attribute-value">en-GB</a>" href="<a class="attribute-value">https://www.thespacecollective.com/meteorite-jewellery</a>" />

The X-default is meant for pages that allow the user to select a country and/or language for a big company like IKEA or fedex. 
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[moon-boots]

I believe it has now been done correctly as of a week ago, and yet, my rank continues to plummet - literally plummet.

[projectsng]

This post is deleted!

[katemorris]

Can you tell me specifically what is plummeting? Just this page? All US, All UK pages? If you can share specifics, I can try to ID what is up. My theory is that the canonical is messing with things, but since you had the issue with parameters in some indexed URLs, it seemed relevant to keep in.

In face, I am digging a little, and when I google your name from my location in the US, this is the first page:

view-source:https://www.thespacecollective.com/us/archive?utm_source=georedirect

The hreflang there has that utm source in it. There is something that might be messing things up. Any idea where that thing is coming from yet? It seems very prevalent.

Also, how is the traffic to your site? With your rankings down, I'd assume a major drop in traffic. But if the URLs with that parameter are taking over, you might still be getting traffic, just to the wrong URL.

[moon-boots]

All UK and USA website traffic has both dropped by 70% since I made the initial change you suggested.

The georedirect section of the URL is from an external redirect service called geotargetly.com

[katemorris]

The redirect service is the gray area here for me. I don't know them or their services. With that parameter in play, you need the self-referring canonical. The hreflang is set up right now, but I don't know how all of this is interacting together.

I'd suggest starting by addressing the hreflang with the parameters in them. Make sure those parameters are not in the hreflang tags.  Also, do you have sitemaps for both languages submitted to Google?

For what it is worth, I don't see things wrong in the SERPs. You are still on the first page for 'NASA gifts' and 'meterorite gifts' in the US. What other drops are you seeing? Some adjustment is expected when making changes like this.