Index Page - Gone from 1st to Last in Site: Report

[StaceyJ]

My Index page has always been at the top of the list whenever using the site: operator (which I always assumed was normal), but yesterday I was checking the serps for keywords and noticed my index page that used to rank #1 and #5 for two different keywords was now #78 and gone altogether.

I checked the site using site: and now the index page is next to last on that report, and dead last using /* .

I made some changes to the index page about 5 or so days ago, added a new image and rearranged some things, but all in all the on page content and page markup weight stayed the same. Also G is still showing the "before" page cached.

What does this mean? Looks like a -950 penalty, but is it? And if so, why?

The site is about 4 years old and is a pretty simple Ecom site, nothing at all shady in terms of seo.

[g1smd]

This has happened before. I would wait a couple of days before declaring it anything other than an indexing bug.

In the meantime, do make sure that the on-page HTML code is no less valid than it was before. Do make sure that it isn't blocked by a robots tag or robots.txt file. Do make sure that Google isn't indexing the content under an alternative URL (such as "www" vs. "non-www" or perhaps "/" vs. "index.html" and so on).

There was a problem like this with the site: operator sometime back in 2004 or 2005 and the threads about that are in the WebmasterWorld archives. It might be worth revisiting those for any clues. It might be an old GoogleBug that has reappeared.

[StaceyJ]

In the meantime, do make sure that the on-page HTML code is no less valid than it was before. Do make sure that it isn't blocked by a robots tag or robots.txt file. Do make sure that Google isn't indexing the content under an alternative URL (such as "www" vs. "non-www" or perhaps "/" vs. "index.html" and so on).

Thanks. All of that is still good. HTML is still good, no robots meta tag, robots.txt hasn't changed and isn't blocking it, the non-www vs. www is set in WMT and also htaccess, and nothing onsite links to index.html, everything links to www.example.com/ where appropriate - I've never seen it listed as index.html in the serps.

There was a problem like this with the site: operator sometime back in 2004 or 2005 and the threads about that are in the WebmasterWorld archives. It might be worth revisiting those for any clues. It might be an old GoogleBug that has reappeared.

Thanks, I'll see if I can find them.