New Script Install Drop Rankings?

[leaseman]

Hello,

On September 26th we install some custom scripting we had created to track our Bing PPC traffic into Salesforce. Part of this project was adding tags to the destination urls inside the Bing Campaigns (the actual urls stayed the same). Saturday morning we drop out of the top 100 for most of our keywords.

Could this added coding have contributed to the issue?

The tracking code was added to all pages of the site. The code is lengthy and is just before the </body> tag.

Any ideas?

[edited by: tedster at 7:19 pm (utc) on Oct 3, 2012]

[cabbie]

Quickest way to find out is to remove the script quickly and see if the site returns.
Do it quickly though.

[Bewenched]

Part of this project was adding tags to the destination urls

leaseman, by adding code do you mean javascript on the page or did you actually modify the URL.

[tlainevool]

There were several updates to Google's algorithms Thursday-Friday, Panda 20, The "low quality" EMD update and something to do with images. I'd look into those as possibilities.

[leaseman]

Bewenched,

We added javascript to the page. We didn't modify the url's. Exception being the destination urls in our Bing PPC campaign but not the urls themselves

[Bewenched]

Google possibly not liking Bing ppc, interesting indeed. Surely Google wouldn't slam pages for that.... or would they.

My guess is that because it's at the beginning of your page code that it's technically pushed down your content. Can't you move the script to the bottom of the page so that Google bot gets your content first? Or maybe move the script to an exterior file and link to it instead.

<script src="/js/myscript.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

[viral]

Leaseman I did some updates to one of my big sites on the same day as you, I then got a drop in serps, I thought it was something I did but I have similar sites that I didn't update they got hit also. You have more than likely been hit with either Panda or EMD update! Check you analytics or WMT account if the drop happened the 27th then you have been hit by the latest Google update

[phranque]

have you checked GWT or done a fetch as googlebot to make sure there aren't technical problems?
it's unlikely adding javascript to a page would have a rapid effect like that.

i would look at the updates that occurred immediately before your rankings drop.
panda 20 rolled out on thursday and was going to take 3-4 days; EMD (if that is relevant) rolled out the day before your drop.

Panda 20 - a Full Update - 2012-09-27:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4503674.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Algo Change Targets Low Quality Exact Match Domains 9-28-2012:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4501349.htm [webmasterworld.com]