Just wanted to share this one. I´m quite sure more than me will experience it sooner or later.

 

Redesigned my site a while ago. Had been working really hard to get a good position on a few keyword phrases. Then, all of a sudden I did not find my page anywhere while searching for the keyword I was aiming for. WTF, was my initial thought. Did I do something wrong? I had been building quite a few links, but did really not get why this should happen, since I was following all of Google´s guidelines.

 

I did not find my site on page 30 or 40 either. So suspected something was really wrong. Did some idiot report my site as spam, just to be evil? Did Google for some reason think my jquery dropdowns was working as doorways? I really couldn´t get it.

 

Then, all of a sudden, my page came back. This happened about one to two weeks after the redesign. I had been filing a re-inclusion request too, because I was sure Google had been devaluing my site for some reason. But, just got an answer they didn´t. So the only conclusion I can make, after googling it some more, is redesigns are temporarily bad for your SEO.

 

But don´t worry, if your site is good enough, it will come back.

Would be interested to know if you stay there.

 

I changed my portfolio about 4/5 months back and its been dancing between page 1 and page 3 for my local search term...

The question is did you change any underlying page information such as headings, content meta information etc? If you changed URL structure did you use 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new URLs? All of these things can have an effect. If for example you changed your URL structure without using 301 redirects you would have had to wait for Google to re-index the pages. If you haven't used 301 redirects you should because you will be losing the benefit of any back-links to the old URLs.

 

I'm only guessing of course but I will be interested to read your reply.

 

Dave

The question is did you change any underlying page information such as headings, content meta information etc? If you changed URL structure did you use 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new URLs? All of these things can have an effect. If for example you changed your URL structure without using 301 redirects you would have had to wait for Google to re-index the pages. If you haven't used 301 redirects you should because you will be losing the benefit of any back-links to the old URLs.

 

I'm only guessing of course but I will be interested to read your reply.

 

Dave

 

Last week I did a massive restructuring of a site (using 301s) and have dropped from 1st page to #240 for regional searches. The only things I changed were the physical structure and link targets. Two days ago I appeared briefly at #8 then bombed back down to the 190s. So yep, restructures hurt even when you use 301s :/ As you said, it's just a matter of waiting for Google to catch up, but it can be pretty scary!

Sorry for beeing late to answer this. But, no. No structural changes regarding the urls, 301 redirects etc. No other changes applied than structural changes regarding content/template.

 

This was obviously enough for Google to send it down lots of positions, until it came back (but then, stronger than ever). But, the keywords I´m aiming for, are quite competative though (hard to get good positions on). Looks llike a Google dance like this happening again, right at this moment, by the way. Some days ago, I added another dropdown menu to my site. Since this is containing all the categories on my site, this is probhably seen as a structural change by Google. This time, I´m feeling more confident it won´t harm my SERP results for too long though.

IMO after the Google panda thing they just want the internet to dance to the same new tune they are playing as long as you know how to dance and play along with the right tune, there is nothing to worry about.

IMO after the Google panda thing they just want the internet to dance to the same new tune they are playing as long as you know how to dance and play along with the right tune, there is nothing to worry about.

 

I didn´t quite get your point, there. But indeed, if you´re making good content, Google will give you traffic. That simple.