i optimized my keywords a bit and i dropped from #10 to #21 on my main keyword after it was cached with the new optimization. Is this normal? will it slowly work its way up top or should i switch it to the way it was?
please define "optimzied".... what did you do? what is the website? and what is the keyword? basically, changing website structure and content can effect ranking.... all depend on what you do.
If you overoptimized the pages, such as stuffing too many keywords into the title tag, meta tags and content, then yes, it probably is normal. That means that you got caught by one of the spam filters. You could also be looking at differences among data centers. It could also be related to recent algorithm changes. Sometimes you do see a temporary drop in rankings when you make changes. If it doesn't pop back in a couple of weeks, you need to re-evaluate your optimization process.
i changed my title from "Largemouth Bass Fishing Tips Online" > "Bass Fishing Tips Online" I changed my header from "Your One Stop Resource For Largemouth Bass Fishing" > "Bass Fishing Tips / Techniques" thats all i did..... Im optimizing for the term "bass fishing tips" I was #10 before, Now after the new cache i went to #21 site is in my sig
mmmmmmmmm............. interesting..... looks like it shouldn't have happened. that's not such a big change. and in fact not a bad one but a logical one. by the way - nice website
Well, it may be a case of over optimizing. The second title especially is a bit forced, for a human. I'd at least change "Bass Fishing Tips / Techniques" to "Bass Fishing Tips and Techniques". Other then that: do wait a few weeks before panicking. The first title seemed better to me before your change. After all - some people might be searching for 'largemouth bass fishing tips' or something, no?
The changes you made should have zero effect on your rankings. The same keywords are more or less there for both versions. I agree with an earlier comment of keeping largemouth in the title, take advantage of the long tail search. But, where I do see a possible problem is in the text layout of the page. Look at the title of the site and the first paragraph of the page. Bass fishing tips is used too often, this could be where your problem is. The phrase bass fishing tips show up 3 times, the word bass shows up 2 additional times. The repetitive use of your keyword phrase is such a small amount of text could possibly be seen a spamming and thus a possible drop in rankings. The recent changes in google's algo may have tripped a filter that wasn't there prior.
imo that shouldn't make a difference they seem good titles maybe make your description a little longer, they seem good titles
One of the main rules to follow when you see a change in Google rankings is to never panic and overreact. These types of things are frequent occurrences. That's why I recommend that you wait a few weeks. The change in rankings may be unrelated to your changes. The only thing consistent about Google is their inconsistency.
One more observation, went to close out of your site and looked at the 2nd paragraph and noticed the word "fish" or "fishing" shows too much, 11% plus.
well my site seems to be doing a bit of a google dance. im appearing 23 most datacenters, but a few are 18, (1 is 26) i guess ill hold up for a bit and see what happens
That's not optimization, my friend. What you did was make your site more general. As such, Google has "rewarded" you.
My experience has been that Google likes sites that are not "optimized". Google makes money by showing really useful information to searchers. If its ability to do this is affected by optimization techniques, it would try to nullify the impact of such optimization. As to my specific experience, my first site, a site on human social behavior, was created when I had absolutely no knowledge of SEO. It got listed free both at Yahoo and DMOZ directories, and the PR jumped to 7. My second site was consciously optimized, probably overoptimized through used of 'stilted' phrases one does not normally use. It was penalized by Google on one update, with the Google traffic going down from 1500 to practically nil. I had to revamp the whole site writing pages naturally before Google began to bring traffic again. My third site used minimal conscious optimization. I wrote naturally, focusing on clarifying the topics under discussion. That site receives maximum traffic from Google.
Did this happen during a update of any kind? Personally i would go back to the original titles/headers and see if the rankings improve? If they dont and your still in the same place it could just be that you dropped in the serps at the sametime your made some changes.
well it dropped the same day i was cached. I had the changes for a week but the day it got cached it dropped substantially. Today it went to #18 on most datacenters so im gonna waite a few weeks and see what happens
IMO, you have to week for weeks to see the effect. Maybe there are few new sites indexed by google by the time you checked the ranking. Normally, Google index rather high when the site first entered, then after a few days, disappear, and ranked again with a proper position.
Its usual to see the rankings drop after changing the Title as Google's previous calculation based on old Title has changed resulting in chang in site rankings. It shouldn't bother you as this is normal and you should see the rankings become normal for which you have optimized your site.
Well, you should know that there is a thing called over optimizing, and it mean that you worked too hard on your site... you have to do your SEO step by step Good luck