Site Ranking dropped after adding Google Analytics?

[cdog863]

I'm not sure what is going on, but I'm not too happy.

On Feb 9th early in the morning sometime my site dropped from page 1 to page 5 for no apparent reason. We were ranked #7 and now #47 for a top 10 searched keyword.

The weird part was this, we recently had an offer on our website. The party wanting to buy asked if we could run Google Analytics, so we did.

After 4-5 days of running analytics the drop in rankings happened. Has anyone had a similar experience? Could Analytics have thrown a flag on my site for any reason? Is google just being crazy right now?

Our site does not use any illegal/suspicious way to increase rankings.

I am completely confused and aggravated!

[Decius]

There have been various proven reports that webmaster tools such as the sitemap upload etc. has resulted in quite sudden and severe drop in rankings. I have not heard of GA resulting in this, and it is unlikely this has resulted in a change within the span of 5 days.

On the other hand, if you have not noticed any fluctuations in your spot for a long time and it has suddenly ocurred and nothing huge has been changed, it is far more likely that GA does in fact have something to do with it.

I personally removed GA and all webmaster tools a few months ago after experiencing a catastrophically bad drop on more than one site.

[znakedwrx]

I did experiance same thing with Google Analytics.

Site dropped down for 6-12 spots. After i removed the Google Analytics, after ~10 days site got back to normal spot.

Then for test - i added back Google Analytics and site dropped down again.

Now i am testing to see if my site will go up again within few days after removing Google Analytics.

[RandomOne]

QUOTE "After 4-5 days of running analytics the drop in rankings happened. Has anyone had a similar experience? "

I definately dropped right off the scale after adding Google Analytics - I wondered what was the problem I removed it about 5 days ago but things are still extremely bad, I hope it gets better.

[Idaho]

Me too. Site dropped about 6 places and off of page 1 for a very big term about a week ago, which was about 5 - 10 days after add GA. I haven't uploaded a sitemap.

[pageoneresults]

I personally removed GA and all webmaster tools a few months ago after experiencing a catastrophically bad drop on more than one site.

Did that have any impact?

[joelgreen]

Organic traffic to my site lower and lower starting Feb 9th, and I had Google Analytics installed long before. So I assume Google Analytics has nothing to do with it (but Google could rank your sire depending on you site's traffic sources, IMO). Maybe it was some rank rearrangement or some test in process. But I changed provider 5 days before the organic traffic drop, so that may be the issue in my case.

[Decius]

I have no way of knowing if removing it has fixed anything as I changed a whole lot of other things that have a larger impact.

But I do know that adding those features did cause a drop in more than one site, without any other real causes.

[cdog863]

Yea I instantly removed Analytics the second I noticed the drop. I had an issue like this with site maps before too and never recovered.

I will update my results

[cdog863]

Well my ranking has gone down 20 more positions.

Any one else getting more changes?

[frances]

i added analytics to one site that had been top for its keywords for a couple of years about a year ago and it dropped half way down the page.

i removed it after a week or so and it went back up and has stayed there ever since.

have sitemaps for a number of sites and never had a similar effect from that.

[cdog863]

how long did it take to get your ranking back up?

[frances]

Very quick - cant remember exactly - a week? - fast enough for me to not want to test it again on any site i cared about.

My speculation at the time was that it may have been because we only get about 500 visitors a day - actually not bad for the sector but google may view it as low and therefore downgradable. But Ive no idea.

What I know for sure is that was the only time we moved off the top in about 3 years.

[cdog863]

Well 10 days after dropping analytics we're back in the top 5.

whew

[SEOPTI]

Added Analytics to 4 huge trusted sites. All of them dropped. What a pain.

[edited by: SEOPTI at 12:02 pm (utc) on Mar. 7, 2007]

[zeus]

Here a hint, why do you think google is trying to get webmasters to sign up for everything, its JUST to monitor everything you do, that way they know:
-how many sites you have
-category
-affiliates/advertising
-is there any future in you site, which they maybe have overseen, then they could start simlar site.
-of cause check if you have any spamming
-better rank you site, be cause of all the info, which could be negativ, be cause they dont have that info of your competition.

Thats also why I dont have anything to do with google, not that Im spamming, but with all that info they get you never know what happens to your site and thats just to big a risk, when google rules the net.

now think about that befor signing up for anything with a SE.

[glengara]

My hunch is that sites that make use of the G services have their linkage revalued along post BD guidelines, so a lot of recips lose their "juice"...

[rj87uk]

I started using Google Analytics on a new website with no rankings, done several reciprocal links some one ways and so on, loads of content and today I find I rank page one in Google for my target term.

I also signed up for Google Webmaster Tools, submitted a site map and all is going well.

_{Still no deep content pages are indexed in Google for anyone that read my other thread.}

[Simsi]

Here a hint, why do you think google is trying to get webmasters to sign up for everything, its JUST to monitor everything you do...but with all that info they get you never know what happens to your site and thats just to big a risk, when google rules the net.

That occurred to me some time back but I decided it was just paranoia. You could actually name benefits from them knowing this, most notably that the website is cared for and nurtured, updated regularly and current if nothing else.

[zeus]

Simsi "most notably that the website is cared for and nurtured, updated regularly and current if nothing else."

well all that can be done by googlebot, thats also why I think this sitemap thing is a little overrated.

[netmeg]

My site is also ranking at or near the top for all conceivable search phrases, after submitting a sitemap, and then some months later after adding GA. I have 62 sites in Webmaster Central, and maybe 15 in GA, and none of them have experience any kind of drop I can attribute to the sitemap or Google Analytics. And I keep copiously obsessive records.

[hakanhaknuz]

I am wondering though, how well optimized are your websites?
Is it possible that G came to some sort of conclusion,
(of course, after having gained more information about your sites, by you signing up for their services) that your websites , were maybe over optimized or in any way not following their guidelines?
If that's the case i can assume that it can work both ways, when your absolutely following their guidelines you can be #1 when content matches.

But i your case i am wondering if that party requesting you to sign up for analytics, maybe misused that information?
Did you check the ones that we're now on top of G?
Wasn't it just a trick to lower sales price?
Especially the quick and sudden change does support that theory.
Maybe there were new sites added to the index that we're better optimized than yours..

For the record i use most of their services and have not experienced huge fluctuations in rankings, in any case not in the long run.

[zaneta]

I have also the same problem from the moment I have added Google Analytics my site lost position. This never happened the pasted 5 yeras.
Do you also believe that that submiting google sitemap affects sites position?