Lost key word rankings

[freakfish]

Hi There,

I have a website example.com which is a blog / affiliate store. It was first created in 2004 as a ecommerce store on the OSCOMMERCE CMS. I have stopped holding stock and have decided to work with merchants to promote their products as an affiliate.

Additional content are my reviews of various widgets and other related equipment. The website was a full eCommerce store which has been changed to the wordpress platform.

This website has ranked well for "widgets" in position 1-3 for many years. After the port from OScommerce to wordress i did a 301 from the old widgets page to the new. My widget page still ranks in both page Google.

I have no idea why? Can anybody help?

[edited by: tedster at 11:15 am (utc) on May 10, 2013]
[edit reason] switch to example.com and widgets [/edit]

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums.

Whew - that's a big job for anyone to take on based on limited information. Google changes their ranking algorithm almost continually these days and rankings getting lost are a common complaint on the forum.

How long ago did you change from OSCommerce?

[freakfish]

Hi Tedster,

I'm up to date with Panda and Penguine and how Google is constantly changing their algorithm. :)

I'm wondering if this is the problem

The 301's

First page A 301 to new B

Updated website

301 from B to new C

However, i have done this with other pages and that ranks in 1st still. However, the one page that i have still in position one is plural, the singular which did rank well has now vanished totally.

Can i PM you the details?

I'm really lost

[Sand]

I don't think you answered the most important question: How long ago did you make this change?

[Robert Charlton]

The 301's

First page A 301 to new B

Updated website

301 from B to new C

Not a good way to have done this. What you really want are redirects from A to C.

See this thread, which provides a good overview. It links to a Matt Cutts video on the topic, and also to a more detailed discussion on WebmasterWorld....

Can there be too many 301s and can they affect rankings?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4519856.htm [webmasterworld.com]

I hope you've kept good records about what your old redirects had been. You need to sort out the various sets into one spreadsheet.

The above said, that may or may not be your problem in this case. There are a great many variables. In addition to the redirects, eg, have you changed the code on your pages?

And again...

How long ago did you make this change?