On my forum, I had altered it so much over the years, I wanted to do a fresh, clean install so I exported all of my data and saved it.
I reinstalled the software, and then imported back all the users and posts.
Well, instead of going to the same forum ID as before, it somehow got mixed up. I don't know if it's because of forums that had been deleted in the past or what but the ID's have all changed.
My traffic has gone from 3000 uniques to about 600.
Here's the problem.
You search for college widget reviews and this is what a listing might look like in google:
Title: blue travel random widget
Description: (accurate) the college widget reviews ... comments about colleges widget, the college widget keyword to keyword, good reviews college widget, the college widget review, ...
www.widgetsite.com/forum/f57/blue-travel-random-widget/
So basically, when you click the link, it takes you to a post about blue travel random widgets, when it should be taking you to the page that matches the description listed.
I am still the first result.
The old url for the result was the correct one (the one that matches the description google gives). The new URL has absolutely NOTHING to do with the phrase being searched for, nor does the title of the listing.
Under that result, I have 4 sublistings. The first one is accurate. The next two are completely inaccurate. But the URL is right, and the TITLE is wrong, which is the exact opposite of the actual problem with the listing. And then the last one is accurate.
I've submitted new sitemaps in hopes that would rectify the problem but it has not.
So my rankings have tanked, but just as importantly, my click through for my listings has tanked because they search for something, and the listing that is shown in google is completely inaccurate.
You don't search for red widget prices in Google and then click a listing that says blue hippopotamus pictures even if it IS the first result that shows.
Any help with fixing this would be greatly appreciated!
