Static to dynamic and lost rankings?

How long until we can correct it?

[thepcstore]

Before anything this is my first post, so please excuse any naivete.

We completed a redesign of a website of ours in end August and the index page was set up as a redirect to a perl script that ran the dynamic content manager. A stupid mistake left all meta tags off the index page and although static copies of pages exist we seemed to lose (within 7 days) 85% of our traffic from google. We have corrected this and moved back to statics. We're still listed in the google directory and have over 10 pages of links showing. Our index.htm page shows a PR of 6/10 up from 5/10 two days ago.

Our problem is that we do not appear on any google searches for our meta tags! Having lost 85% of our traffic our sales are very looooow!

Can anyone advise on how thorough the Sept. update will be and whether there is any likelihood our traffic will get back to what it was? Any tips?

Thanks in advance, Paul

[crobb305]

Google does not use keyword meta tags for indexing. Only title and body text. That is why content (containing important keywords/phrases) is so important.

[thepcstore]

Thanks, crobb305,

I realise that, and our content in the static pages is laid out in such a way that it can be picked up easily that way. What I can't understand is how long it takes for the new statics to get reindexed and whether it will require a major update for them to get back on.

Cheers, Paul

[Powdork]

How is it possible for page rank to change without an update?

[crobb305]

You said in your first post that "we do not appear on any google searches for our meta tags." Again, Google ignores the keyword metatag but places emphasis on the meta title. After looking at your site, I noticed that you aren't utilizing the title tag to it's fullest potential; your title is simply the name of your business. Google weighs keywords in the title very heavily, so I would put more keywords in there (up to about 65 characters). The update will be thorough to the extent that your site will be ranked among all of your competetors for the keywords found in your body text and title. Page rank is only one of many factors. :)

Also, I am not sure how PR changes in between updates. PR is a function of # of incoming links which change only during an update (to my knowledge) unless dynamic PR is going to be part of the "Minty Freshness" we have heard about.

[lgn]

We have a dynamic web site also, from day one. Our site has over 300 pages, however only the main page is ranked.

Does internal pages have any effect on page rank. If not, Im happy with the link to the main page, as it gets a large amount of traffic. Converting the site to static would be a real pain, espcially if there are little or no benefits.

[pageoneresults]

> We have a dynamic web site also, from day one. Our site has over 300 pages, however only the main page is ranked.

Apparently Googlebot is not getting to those interior pages. I'd say you've got some URL's that need to be parsed for the spiders. Even though Google can index dynamic content, there are certain URL strings that it absolutely will not follow.

Try Brett's Search Engine Spider Simulator [searchengineworld.com] and see what the spider sees.

I'm going to assume that you do not have a site map that can be followed from the home page that allows the spider to crawl deeper into the structure of the site.

[thepcstore]

[webmasterworld.com ]

:)