New theme drops site rank again

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   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   A month ago I started using a new theme for a site of mine I have had for years. It seems to have dropped my ranking for many pages and post.
   
   About 2 weeks ago I switched another site of mine to the same theme, as I really like it. Well,,,, today once again I can't find my pages where they use to be!
   
   However I started a new site using this theme and it's doing well, for a new site. It's only older sites I switch to this theme that I get a drop.
   
   My newest post also don't seem to be ranking well at all on these sites I switched. Only the new site I started with this theme.
   
   Anyone have any ideas what is going on? I hate to change back as it's a very nice theme and it gives it a normal website look rather than a blog look.
   
   Any ideas?

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      Ralph Thorndykeposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Hello Bill,
      The theme has nothing, el zippo, to do with your search engine problem. The theme is just a fake front. It's like taking a doodlebug and replacing the body with one from a 1957 Chevy. It's still gonna run like a Volkswagen.  The search engines work strictly in the innards of your site.
      
      On Google, especially these days, everybody's site listings are up and down. Assuming you have done everything right all you can do is wait out the storm. It will pass. If there is not an overwhelming reason for it, usually the site comes back better than it was before. It's very nerve wracking. The technical term is called, "The Google Dance."
      
      If there is any way I can help, click on my link and visit.
      
      Norm

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         Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Hi there Norm. Actually my rank finally came back about a week ago. All my pages show up right where they were before. Also my new post rank very well.
         
         Funny though, I put a photo gallery on the home page and none of my Google ads would show up on the home page. There was blank space where the ads should be.
         
         Yet every other page they showed up fine, so it was the gallery. I took it off and the next day everything was fine. So themes and what you put in them does make a difference.

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            Ralph Thorndykeposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Right Bill. It's what you put on the theme, not the theme. The theme is just a coating of paint. I confess freely that after making pages since 2002, until a couple of years ago Wordpress was a total mystery to me. After creating a dozen or more Wordpress sites since then it's not so much a mystery any more. Nowadays, I mostly just don't understand it. Ha.
            But anyway, as I love to say, "No man knows the mind of Google."  Actually, I'll bet if you google that phrase, it wasn't even me that thought it up. But I do like to say it. Also, "Google giveth and Google taketh away, blessed be the name of Google."

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   I'd give it some time. My posts on the Cape Cod site are indexed within 10 minutes these days. But I showed an example of the the wackadoodle search engine results I'm seeing in yesterday's forum.
   
   I think any time you make a massive change to a site like a new theme, it shakes things up for a while. (And this theme is really a massive upgrade for me.)
   
   And we know that Google is up to things lately, so I'm not sure we can isolate the impact of our actions.
   
   Sorry for the ramblings.

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   1. 74

      Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah I am hoping it just needs more time. My ranking on bing and yahoo is the same as always. It's just depressing to see your main site drop so far so fast.
      
      But I know you have been through that yourself with the Florida thing. I will stick with the new theme for another month and see what happens.

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   Florida was a whole different thing. No No this isn't that. Bing and Yahoo are treating the Cape Cod site better as well - and many of my other sites.
   
   Don't forget the Farmer update is still rolling out - and we really don't know what that means. It could mean that it's just more of the same across the world - or that the US is still going to get shook up in different ways.
   
   I don't think we'll know until the end of Summer what we're looking at.

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   skyfireposted 14 years ago

   I don't think that theme is the reason behind this, atleast farmer update is considering many other signals. Lifestyle theme is not that bad comparing to broken thesis themes that are on few blogs. 
   
   I'm on 1280x768 resolution and your site looks fine to me. On the other hand some of the top ranked sites on google right now are using poor themes/css designs. Autoblogs that i'm keeping eye on are using worst themes that you can ever find in WP repository(obviously for monetization reasons).

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   1. 74

      Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your input Skyfire. Like I said, new sites I started with this theme are doing fine. So I guess it's just the new linking structure or whatever in this new theme that makes Google re-index my old post or something.
      
      Hopefully in time it will pick back up again. Strange that my images rank so well so fast however. My new post are definitely getting indexed fast.

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5. 74

   Bill Manningposted 14 years ago

   Just wanted to add an update on my continuing quest to get my site back up in rank if anyone has advice.
   
   Now, my recent post are normally #1 in Google IF you click on the "blog" link in the left menu of Google search.
   
   I also normally have the #1 image for that post in image search. My post normally show up this way within 4 hours after publishing.
   
   YET,,,, I still can't find my post anywhere at all in normal Google web search, which is what really counts.
   
   My traffic is going down even more on that site, I have lost a good 60% of traffic. This just does not make any sense.

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   Richieb799posted 14 years ago

   Hi Bill I have a skyscrape down the middle of my blog and I disguised it slightly by making the text links a Black font, do you think this would work well?

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      Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      HI Richie. I went to your site and checked it out, nice site. However I've never had any luck with the skyscraper ads. Here's what I would do:
      
      In the same spot, put a 300x250 or 250x 250 adsense block in there at the top. Make sure it shows both images and text. Electronics and gadget sites show a lot of very cool image ads in adsense.
      
      Then below that fill it up with other sponsor ads. You could even put 2 or so sponsor ads below the top adsense ad, then use another adsense ad. Chances are it will show two different image ads and look sharp.

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   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   A theme is not just a theme!
   
   many of the premium themes must be carefully configured or every page will have dozens of pointless interlinks and leaks that are rarely the best configuration for properly showing google which pages should be considered the highest priority.
   
   tag pages, archives, categories and other auto functions on WP can cause duplicate issues and confusion.
   
   No index/nofollow should be used appropriately on a site especially if its commercial and you are using any standard manufacturer copy (as a general point not specific to Bill as I believe he is 100% unique)

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   1. 74

      Bill Manningposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Actually my site is using the Genesis framework, Lifestyle child. So I could very well be configuring it wrong as I'm not use to it.
      
      I don't use any no index/nofollow at all but I'm sure I should. I just don't know where to use that so it's better to do nothing at all.
      
      I did take some very long sub-category links off the top menu. I made pages with the links in those so there were not so many links in the menu.
      
      I'm still learning the whole Genesis set-up but I'm getting there.

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