I recently did a major overhaul to my site. there was no down time, url didn't change, links didn't change, etc. All that changed was site design (the way it looks). Site is a little over a year old, I was in the "sandbox" for about six months but had recently come out. I was receiving, on average, 120 to 200 visits per day (and growing from google). Home page has (and still does have PR of 3). However, about 4 or 5 days ago (about 2 weeks since redesign completed) my Google traffic has all but disappeared again. Anyone have any thought? Thanks, John Ps. I checked a bunch of keywords that I used to have good SERP for and they seem to have gone away. I'm not banned, plenty of pages indexed, I don't do anything "blackhat", etc.
Check the coding Try using less number of tables,instead use DIVs and format them using CSS to increase the Content/Code ratio. Also recheck the title tags/Alt tags and meta tags.
A site re-design shouldn't have an effect on your Google visitors. The only thing that can happen when changing a style, is that some of your regular visitors may not have felt the same way about the style that you did, and decided to go elsewhere for the time being. The odds are that someone else is beating you in the rankings on Google. Do you have Google Analytics setup for your forum? This should be able to show you clearly as to where you have fallen off on your Google visitors.
Not using tables. Title tags, Alt tags, and meta tags are all fine. Yes, I have analytics set up. The only loss of traffic is from search and specifically from Google. I was in the top 5 for a number of my keywords last week and then this week, just disappeared. Google was pulling in between 120 to 200 visitors per day and growing. Today I've had 5. The new design is working in that it has increased pageview and time on site by more than 2x
So your keyword listings have completely disappeared altogether? Or have you just been pushed back to page 2 or 3?
Yes a redesign can effect your SEO. You could have increased the content to code ratio, removed good on page SEO objects such as heading tags, or messed up the navigation of the site. You may want to consult with some professionals outside of the DP forums to get better advice. As the amount of misinformation that will surely flood this post shortly, making anyone with common sense, head explode.
Still researching. Don't think it's the sandbox as I've already been there and I'm not doing anything blackhat. Sure, it's in my signature. http://993C4S.com Soon to be http://porschepurist.com (haven't made the switch yet as I'm still doing some back-end work and need to set up the 301s.
I've been through a redesign myself (only that it was few months ago and with an authority site) and I experienced a downgrade in SERPS for a few days, but it got back.
If it's your Porsche site everything seems to be alright. But, lemme ask this; you say you lost traffic, but how far have your rankings dropped for the keywords that usually take visitors to your site?
I consider myself pretty good at filtering the good from the BS. While I agree that DPF can be a source of frustration, there are also a number of people here who are knowledgeable and willing to help. I appreciate your response as this is the first time I've ever heard that site redesign (and in my chase it was simply optimizing my WP theme so very minor) might have a bearing. I'll wait to have others weigh in.
Still evaluating. For example. I used to be #1 and #3 for one of my key words (#1 was an image) # 3 was a link to my post. I still have # 1 for the image, but I can't find the link to my post. Gave up after 15 pages. I find other sites backlinking to my site and still haven't found mine.
And I take it that #3 brought in a fair share of the 160 avg visits per day? Well, I'd wait a couple days 'cause there was definitely some re-shifting done by Google a week ago. So that page may return to its former spot soon enough
If its a better design it will help it. If it makes it less user friendly, or the site over-complex, it may hurt it.
Content = Key... If you change your content your current ranking will change either up or down according to your new content... Ensure it is the same and a similar layout but eventually you will rise back up...
redesign will not be problem for google and google like the changing. But thois willl some time effect the vistor and if its bad and irritating will not spend much time this will couse of increase bounce rate. And this sure effect in ranking. But this all will take long time not even within one weeks at least take one month. So therewill be another problem. check the URL care fully and all BL may be any broken links