I ranked for a kw which took me 4 months but now i have been on the
front page for last few days im not getting any clicks like i should be.
I know this because i used to rank for the kw a couple of years ago. its
even more traffic than it used to be then so cant be that.
Ive put it down to not having a catchy title and also the title having nothing to do with the kw.
My rational for this was that i recently found out that urls dont matter
a shit when you are ranking a page but i forgot to consider that the
title will have a big impact on whether someone wants to click or not
whether its relevant to them!
I am using wordpress and used post title as the permalinks.
The thing is initially i had just the default wp structure of p=5 whatever. I had done 2 months or more seo using this url. So i then changed it to permalinks of post title and it seemed to redirect fine without any upset to my ranks.
Now that was for the non related title. Last night i figured 'oh i can
just change the title again and it will redirrect, no prob!' NO DICE!
Since i changed it ive dropped off the map!
When i manually put int the second url it will redirect to the new one
but when i try the original p=5 urls it will go to page not found
whereas before it would redirect to the second url. So it seems the bulk
of my seo has been trashed doing this.
Any suggestions on how to keep the seo
cos i prefer not to have to wait another 4 months to rank! Its just
about to hit peak season for this kw and im gonna miss it if i dont
solve this soon! ..
Maybe i could keep the old random url and just change the page title so
get rid of permalinks just for that page. As the url doesnt matter to
viewers its only the title why i think think arent clicking. Ideally id
prefer to change url and title without messing up my seo.
Any other solutions to keep the seo while changing the title/url to what i want?
Rule #1 (one that we've all probably learnt the hard way) - Never fiddle with certain aspects a site that's already performing well in the SERPs (the title tag being one of them)
I'm struggling to work out what you've done from your post, but if I'm understanding correctly you need to put the title back to exactly how it was before you changed it. It might take a week or two, but the page will normally go back to where it was before. Maybe point a few links at it too.
If the non seo friendly url (p=5) no longer redirects to the page that you changed the title on, then just set up a 301 redirect manually.
If you want to change url without wasting previous SEO efforts, then you need to build a new page and 301 redirect what ever pages you were building links to before to it.
Personally, I probably wouldn't bother though, much simpler just to put the old page back how it was.
Ahh ok, if the title is so bad that you're not getting any clicks at all, then you might as well change it to something better, expect to possibly take a hit, and work at pushing the page back up the ranks as quickly as you can.
I mean, if you're not getting any clicks with it how it is, then it could just as well be ranked on page 300 lol
If the title is going to be more optimised than previously, the site will drop back a few pages and bounce back higher than before (usually). If you meddle with the page URL, then you have to get a 301 redirect in place asap or you're effectively starting again. 'Apparantly' 301s only pass 75% of link juice too, although I've yet to see that with my own eyes.
It completely sucks when you try and make things better only to ruin them...been there many times...
the son of a bitch sitll hasnt regianed rnakings after moving everyhting back
4 months of work lost from one minute error.
Another day in the life of SEO
i made a new page with the new content/title and have begun blasting that. ill leave th toehr one and see if it regains. if it doenst then the new blast is started anyhow, if it does then ill redirect.
Comments
I know this because i used to rank for the kw a couple of years ago. its even more traffic than it used to be then so cant be that.
Ive put it down to not having a catchy title and also the title having nothing to do with the kw.
My rational for this was that i recently found out that urls dont matter a shit when you are ranking a page but i forgot to consider that the title will have a big impact on whether someone wants to click or not whether its relevant to them!
I am using wordpress and used post title as the permalinks.
The thing is initially i had just the default wp structure of p=5 whatever. I had done 2 months or more seo using this url. So i then changed it to permalinks of post title and it seemed to redirect fine without any upset to my ranks.
Now that was for the non related title. Last night i figured 'oh i can just change the title again and it will redirrect, no prob!' NO DICE! Since i changed it ive dropped off the map!
When i manually put int the second url it will redirect to the new one but when i try the original p=5 urls it will go to page not found whereas before it would redirect to the second url. So it seems the bulk of my seo has been trashed doing this.
Any suggestions on how to keep the seo cos i prefer not to have to wait another 4 months to rank! Its just about to hit peak season for this kw and im gonna miss it if i dont solve this soon! ..
Maybe i could keep the old random url and just change the page title so get rid of permalinks just for that page. As the url doesnt matter to viewers its only the title why i think think arent clicking. Ideally id prefer to change url and title without messing up my seo.
Any other solutions to keep the seo while changing the title/url to what i want?
Well Ill put it back to how it was but i wasnt getting any clicks with the title how it is, cos the title isnt relevant to the kw.
I didnt think at the time to change just the title and not the url as well
Ye its a good idea to do a 301, was only familiar with doing them on domains rather than posts but have been reading about how to do them today.
4 months of work lost from one minute error.
Another day in the life of SEO
i made a new page with the new content/title and have begun blasting that. ill leave th toehr one and see if it regains. if it doenst then the new blast is started anyhow, if it does then ill redirect.
Fingers crossed mate...