RocketStang Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 (edited) It seems like my Google rankings have tanked since I moved from MyBB! What can I do to improve SEO rankings? I have already defined all the meta tag key words and descriptions, and linked Google Analytics, but I need more! Is there any cons to running behind a permanent 301 redirect? my forum moved from root to /forums/ directory so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it? Looking for some good ideas that work quick and clean! Thanks! Edited July 22, 2020 by RocketStang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim M Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Couple things to mention (note: I am not an expert at SEO. If you need exact answers or help reaching out to an SEO agency/specialist may be your best bet) : Changing your software will more than likely itself cause a URL change as most software have some varying URL configurations/naming conventions. In addition, you changed the location of the software on your domain so this will also cause a URL change. During this period, your organic traffic may dip but should recover as the search engine re-indexes these new URLs. 301 means a permanent redirect and instructs the search engine the old URL should not be indexed anymore. A 301 passes all the link value a discarded URL has accumulated over the years over to the new URL, so it causes the new URL to gain or retain value. Thus, it is OK and recommended to leave these in place. More on redirects: https://yoast.com/which-redirect/ Meta keywords are no longer part of Google's and other search engine's algorithm. Google in May did a huge algorithm change: https://medium.com/better-marketing/google-may-2020-algorithm-update-4-key-changes-and-how-to-adjust-9fdd6294b83c RocketStang 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocketStang Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 1 hour ago, Jim M said: Couple things to mention (note: I am not an expert at SEO. If you need exact answers or help reaching out to an SEO agency/specialist may be your best bet) : Changing your software will more than likely itself cause a URL change as most software have some varying URL configurations/naming conventions. In addition, you changed the location of the software on your domain so this will also cause a URL change. During this period, your organic traffic may dip but should recover as the search engine re-indexes these new URLs. 301 means a permanent redirect and instructs the search engine the old URL should not be indexed anymore. A 301 passes all the link value a discarded URL has accumulated over the years over to the new URL, so it causes the new URL to gain or retain value. Thus, it is OK and recommended to leave these in place. More on redirects: https://yoast.com/which-redirect/ Meta keywords are no longer part of Google's and other search engine's algorithm. Google in May did a huge algorithm change: https://medium.com/better-marketing/google-may-2020-algorithm-update-4-key-changes-and-how-to-adjust-9fdd6294b83c Thanks for the detailed reply! So my best course of action (other than hiring a pro) would be to sit back and let the forum do the work! In addition, I am hitting social media and dropping links to try to drive more hits my way...I just wonder what it takes to get a nice Google listing like my other forum...I didn't do anything different but the Google hit is nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opentype Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 12 minutes ago, RocketStang said: I just wonder what it takes to get a nice Google listing like my other forum.. You don’t have to do anything. Google will add that after some time if the site gets relevant enough. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/47334?hl=en RocketStang 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexWebsites Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 9 hours ago, RocketStang said: Thanks for the detailed reply! So my best course of action (other than hiring a pro) would be to sit back and let the forum do the work! In addition, I am hitting social media and dropping links to try to drive more hits my way...I just wonder what it takes to get a nice Google listing like my other forum...I didn't do anything different but the Google hit is nice! How did you get the search bar to come up and use your site search? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocketStang Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 7 hours ago, AlexWebsites said: How did you get the search bar to come up and use your site search? Not sure...it works on my other forum but not for the new Mustang forum. I don't know if it is something I did or if Google just did it? I used to run Google site search but I don't use it anymore on that site?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feneroin Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 10 hours ago, AlexWebsites said: How did you get the search bar to come up and use your site search? When you're popular for Google and have many topics popular visited, Google let your site like that with the time of course. How's your domain age? Now it's important like PageRank before .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocketStang Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 19 minutes ago, Feneroin said: When you're popular for Google and have many topics popular visited, Google let your site like that with the time of course. How's your domain age? Now it's important like PageRank before .. The one show above is 15 years old with almost 24K members. My new forum domain is 10 years old but 10 years was on MyBB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feneroin Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 Waow 10-15 years. It's very good details for Google and its DA PA Moz Ranks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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