Okay, I knew I would get penalized for changing my index page title tags, but I did it anyhow. This title tag hadn't been changed in almost 2 years. Once the search engines noticed the change, my site stayed relatively the same for a few more days. When the bots came back again to see this title tag was still changed, my site dropped significantly in all three major search engines. The question is this: How long before I get forgiven for this transgression? I'm guessing that my site will slowly work its way back in the ranks over the next few weeks. However, I was wondering if anybody has any actual experience with this. I really hope this doesn't take months.
I don't think it appropriate to call this change a penalty. If you change a title tag of a given page, you are telling the search engine that you would like to be indexed for a new set of key phrases. If you don't have enough relevant content and link juice to support ranking for the new set, you will be ranked lower in a given set of competitors for those phrases.
I don't think there is a penalty for changing title tags... I've been changing my site and blog's title tag but it didn't get penalize.
cheburashka said it well above. It's not a "penalty". In fact, if the title tags are changed to reflect better keyword research and usage by you, it's likely that before long you'll be scoring better rankings for those new keywords than for the old ones.
agree with cheburashka,i think he is right.you should better add new backlink for it,with the new keyword.also the relevant content. good luck,guys.
I chickened out! My site had been ranked #3 for a significant keyword. When I changed the title tag to include another keyword, my rank for previous keyword dropped from #3 to #30. Wow! I waited 5 days and my site was still around 30. I chickened out and changed it back. I really don't know if this is the reason my site dropped, but I really didn't do anything else. I can see a site drop through the ranks slowly if link building slows down, but not an instant drop like that after being #3 for such a long time. Who knows.
When I changed from small town A (where my site had been number 1 for keywords) to larger town B I changed both content and title tag to match new town; my site stayed at number 9 for 4-5 months no matter what I did. It was below other sites with less optimisation and fewer links - then suddenly, it rose up and within 2 weeks was no 1 for town B.
So you have done keyword research and added new set of keywords to target for your site. Its ok....it will take some time for another set of keywords. Do some link building to your site, make up that link juice necessary required for your site to move up..And most important is Search engines like updates. So changing title tags should never have penalty, i guess. Good Luck, Green Group.