New meta description - rankings drop. Pure coincidence?

[johnnie]

Hi,

For my main site, I recently made a minor tweak to the meta description. It is now more relevant and slightly more eye-catching. However, since I implemented this change, my site has tanked three full positions. Quite a major loss considering I previously ranked #2.

Am I the only one encountering these dropoffs after a change to title and/or description? I am theorizing this may have to do with Google resetting the CTR-counter on my listing.

[tedster]

Yes - if all you changed is the meta description, then I'd say it is probably just a coincidence.

However, don't lump the title element in with the meta description. A change there is a change to one of the most critical on-page elements. In fact, some members here report what seems to be a penalty after too many repeated changes to title tags.