Ranking Dropping since new design 1

[danima]

We do the development and maintenance of a local Hilton web site (

http://www.niagarafallshilton.com),

as well as their SEO. We are by no means specialists like many of you. SEO has fallen into our lap. Last year the site was being indexed on the first page for the search phrase "niagara falls hotels". Since we re-designed the site it has dropped to the third page....a huge deal in a very competitive industry. I was at a loss in my meeting with the Director yesterday because his other site that we maintain (

http://www.niagarafallshoteldiscounts.com)

is ranked much higher and we do the same optimizing for that site?

My question after a long pre-amble is this...could someone, just by looking at the design, tell me if it has something to do with the business of the front page....all of the Flash, and graphics.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Stumped in Niagara

 

[Foamcow]

Not necessarily, but looking at the code there is an awful lot of stuff going on before you get to the actual content.

This shouldn't make a difference, but there is an *awful* lot of it.

Can all that javascript etc be optimised or put somewhere else?


The other thing you could try is putting the string "Niagra Falls Hotels" into your title tag. A minor change that may have an impact.

How does the site perform for other search terms?
Are there others it once ranked well for but no longer does?

Are you checking Google.com or Google.ca?
On Google.ca you still appear on page 1 for that term.

The link for the US visitors is dead by the way.

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Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[danima]

Actually it was "niagara falls hotels" not "niagra"...my bad! Other keyword phrases have been okay. But they seem to be fixated on this.

I guess I should have picked up on the title tag...I will talk to the programmers about optimizing the javascript.

Thanks a million for being so quick on this!! You guys are always helpful. Wish I could be too

 

[Foamcow]

I checked Niagara too since Google corrected the spelling for me


The Javascript may be a red herring. Personally I do believe that Google *may* get fed up going through stuff it isn't interested in to get to the 'meat'.

I tend to keep non-content to a minimum in any files and I use external files for javascript.

In my mind this means that Google will just not bother pulling the javascript content into the page and parsing it. If the javascript code is on the page then Google must parse it to realise it isn't needed.

But, and this is a big but, I've no evidence to prove this and also feel that it won't make much, if any difference. But it's worth a try and the worst that will happen is that you will have easier to maintain code.

There doesn't appear to be anything untoward in the redesign and I don't know what the page was like prior to the design. Was there more text?

Give the title tag a shot as this generally provides a quick hit.

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<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

 

[danima]

Thanks...we'll give 'er a try. Much appreciated!

 

[ChrisHirst]

Did any URLs change during the redesign?


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
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So long, and thanks for all the fish.