Changed Website platform HTML to WordPress then Website Ranking Drop

[Jasmine11]

Dear Experts,

Recently I have converted my HTML website into WordPress. After the website updated Googlebot came to my website on Nov-22 and Indexed all the Pages of my Website. I checked my website ranking on Nov 23 Morning then I saw my website was dropped, Only 2 keywords were in Rank. My Website was in good position 350+ Keywords were in Rank. Now website speed is faster than before.

Bit, I don't know what is the reason for Ranking Drop, Now in my website too many 404 pages with Noindex tag. The developer builds my website using Tatsu Builder.

When updated WordPress website indexed in Google SERP than the Website ranking drop.
I want to recover my website ranking please help.

[Jasmine11]

Hi Mr. tangor,

I have set "ErrorDocument 404 /index.html" and Redirect 301 for some pages.

[skaterpunk]

I have yet to see a mention of the old url structure compared to the new url structure?

1) WP adds /category/… for every url by default. There are plugins to strip the category from the url.
2) How did you set up the permalink in the admin area (settings > permalinks > permalink settings)?

This may be the cause of your 404 problem?

[skaterpunk]

Also, make sure to apply this rewrite to the .htaccess file.

[wordpress.org...]

[not2easy]

When people come in here for help and advice and ignore questions that might clarify the situation it is easy to lose interest in trying. We are here to help each other do better, but it is a two way street that needs the OP's participation to get any useful responses and it isn't happening.

That "error document = index.html" is a soft 404 that would slam ranking efforts. Does "index.html" exist or is it defaulting to "index.php" added by WordPress? That would explain this earlier comment:

WP showing "404 PAGE NOT FOUND
It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching can help."

If "Redirect 301" is not using mod_rewrite (a RewriteRule format) you may have more errors due to combining mod_alias with WP's use of mod_rewrite. Have you verified that your Redirect 301 efforts take requests for those old pages to the new WP pages? Check your error logs.

Have you replaced WP with your old html pages or are we still trying to fix the WP situation?

PS - by any chance if you see a question that you do not understand, say something so it can be explained better ;)

[lucy24]

But, but, but ... can you go back? I honestly can’t imagine Google’s algorithm saying “Oh, look, all these URLs are now exactly what they were two months ago, so we’ll just wipe all ensuing events from our memory and set things back the way they were before we started seeing new stuff”. Seems to me they’d instead be saying “Look at this messy site, going through two complete changes within a very short time, so let’s not bother with them until they’ve settled down.”

Does "index.html" exist or is it defaulting to "index.php" added by WordPress?

I thought the point was that WP has been removed, so there is no index.php any longer. Other than that, I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, I don’t know which of the two would be worse:

ErrorDocument 404 /index.html
OR
ErrorDocument 404 https://example.com/index.html

Both result in showing the same page content, but the latter also creates a 302 redirect. Either way, the human visitor is left with no useful information, only a general sense that the site is unable to meet their needs.

[Jasmine11]

Hello Mr. not2easy, I have deleted the WP site and Its database from the server and uploaded my website's old pages, Let's see what will be effect in the ranking. I am very serious for the last 20 days about this situation.

[tangor]

Do keep us posted! This is an extreme attempt to recover. Let us know how it turned out!

[Jasmine11]

Hello Mr. tangor, Today I am so happy.
My website ranking is back in the same position.
Let me tell you about the update. Before going to upload the old website, I have added some faqs with fresh content on all pages. Yesterday, google indexed my old website, then 80% keywords back again in the same position. Currently, some keywords are not in rank and I hope all the lost keywords will be back again.

Thank you so much Mr. tangor and Thanks to all experts in this thread.

[tangor]

i love happy endings ... however, you might not get ALL you once had back. Eighty percent is the best reported so far. Hope this continues to increase.