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did google punish us for a site redesign?

Solvedmigrationredirectsseo16 replies · 309 views · started
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Accepted solution by Camila G. — export ur top old URLs from Search Consoles performance report (or the old sitemap) and check each with curl I or a crawler 🔥 every old…
  1. Camila
    @nightgremlin

    ok weird one we launched a site redeisgn last week and ogranic traffic fell by half.

    the agency says rankings always wobble after big changes and we should wait. but this doesn't look like a wobble 🤷 i've got access to Search Console, analytics and teh server 😤 i'd like to check things myself before trusting 'just wait'. what would you look at first? lol A clear order of things to check would really help me stay calm. pls help 🙏

    thinking

    4
  2. Zane Olsen
    @zaneo460

    hmmm what do your top 20 old URLs return now: 301, 404, or smth else?

    6 0 helpful
  3. Zane Olsen
    @zaneo460

    @nightgremlin works on paper, not in real life

    2 0 helpful
  4. Diego
    @earlygarage

    @uplink_fox did u ever fix it? ??

    33 0 helpful
  5. Camila
    @nightgremlin
    in reply to @earlygarage

    sorry forgot to say out of our top 20 old URLs, seven return 404, they were missing from the redirect map. hope thats enough info 😅

    1 13 helpful
  7. Rhea
    @rhea_early
    in reply to @uplink_fox

    ahh classic update internal links and sitemaps to point at the new URLs directly. relying on redirects for internal navigation slows down crawling and keeps the old URLs alive in Googles eyes.

    0 2 helpful
  8. Vik Ueda
    @vueda

    same issue here on my work pc. following this thread

    11 0 helpful
  9. Dima Garcia
    @dima.garcia

    been there man pro tip: write down what u change... i didnt and had to redo redirects from scratch... any update on this?

    23 0 helpful
  10. Yusuf Vos
    @yusuf.vos
    in reply to @dima.garcia

    oh ive been there lol first confirm its a real traffic drop and not a tracking drop. Compare Search Console clicks with analytics. If Search Console clicks are stable but analytics fell, the tracking tag is missing or broken on the new templates.

    1 0 helpful
  11. Rhea
    @rhea_early

    Check for staging leftovers: a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> in the template, Disallow: / in robots.txt, or canonical tags pointing to the staging domain, these get copied over during launches surprsiingly often and explain sudden drops.

    0 6 helpful
  12. Rafa
    @uplink_fox

    how is this thread still going lmao

    6 1 helpful
  13. Zane Olsen
    @zaneo460

    oh ive been there lol compare page templates before and after: did titles, headings, or main content get shorter or disappear behind tabs and scripts?? A redesign that remoevs text from important pages can lower rankings even with perfect redirects.

    0 14 helpful
  14. Diego
    @earlygarage

    been there man for domain moves, use Search Consoles Change of Address tool on the old property after the 301s are in place, and keep teh redirects running long-term, not just a few weeks.

    2 0 helpful
  15. Haruto
    @harutos523

    ok this thread just saved my weekend

    13 0 helpful
  16. Camila G.
    @polar_owl
    Accepted solution

    export ur top old URLs from Search Consoles performance report (or the old sitemap) and check each with curl -I or a crawler 🔥 every old URL should return a single 301 to the most relevant new URL. 404s, 302s, redirect chains and redirects to the homepage all lose value.

    8 5 helpful
  17. Camila
    @nightgremlin
    in reply to @polar_owl

    @polar_owl it was a leftover noindex from staging on teh article template. removed it, and pages came back into the index 🔥 never skipping teh launch checklist again. cant believe it was that simple lol

    0 2 helpful

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