Change in Google Position

one word make a big change?

[ffctas]

I've been reading webmasterworld for a few months now and think I am understanding more about how google works. I changed the meta title and description of my home page and it seems to have worked because my position increased.

In an effort to improve even more, I added a couple of words to the meta description to improve the appeal of my site. This was done just a couple of days after the original changes were made.

To my amazement my rankings slipped dramatically. could a change of a couple of words make such a difference? Should I delete these words and if I do will my rankings revert back to where they were?
Thanks for any help.
Tom

[Grumpus]

One word can make ALL the difference in the world. WHERE that word is on the page can make a difference, too. How to anticipate WHAT that difference will be is nearly impossible, though. Other pages make changes too, so their rankings move along with yours. It's a tricky game.

You're going to get lots of posts in this thread telling you that "Google doesn't look at Meta tags". They're wrong. HOW google uses them is a mystery, but they DO get used as you've shown here.

G.

<added> Welcome! I didn't notice that you were new! Enjoy the boards!</added>

[WebGuerrilla]

There are so many other factors that have a greater impact on positions that I doubt changing a couple of words in your description had much to do with your drop.

Google does occasionaly use the meta description tag. However, I don't think much weight, if any is put on it from a ranking perspective.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Google's Freshbot system also causes regular fluxuation in the SERPS.

[Grumpus]

I disagree that one word (or small changes) don't make a difference. Back in July I changed "database of widgets" to "widget database". In general, back then, my pages were moving up 3-4 slots each update. That change on the order (and tense of widget) made that page leap 46 spots with the next update. Nothing else (but the datestamp and number of users on site) on that page changed at all.

G.

[Monkscuba]

The words and order of words can make huge differences. Think of words like "website" or "web site". Our site is all about a particular sports activity in a particular location. Rankings vary wildly according to searches for :

1) Activity Location
2) Location Activity
3) Activity in Location

The word "in" is part of our title, so we rank very high (no.4) for search 3. Were we to take out the "in", I would expect us to rank better for search 1, and by reversing the words, better in search 2. We are also trying to get incoming link text with these keyword combinations, which helps even if the title doesn't exactly match. We are experimenting with the title. According to Overture stats, search 1/2 gets much more hits than search 3, BUT these are the most competitive phrases to go for, and as we rank well for search 3 we are not sure if we should take out the "in".

BTW, the overture search term suggestions don't seem to include data on word order. I would reckon people looking for a hotel in florida would search either "florida hotel" or "hotel florida", but it just gives you the words in alphabetical order. Word order in a title can make a big difference. It would be nice to know which word order is more common. Does anyone know a tool that can help?

I've gone on far too long. No idea what I'm talking about. Complete amateur. Need a beer.

[jdMorgan]

Another thing to keep in mind is that Google's Freshbot system also causes regular fluxuation in the SERPS.

This is what came to mind after reading the first post. As described, a few words were added to the description on a page, and its SERP position plummeted. For the purpose of discussion, it makes a big difference whether the page in question was freshed both before and after the change was made. If not, then the page should have stayed where it was until the next update.

Not to complicate things, but the timing of the change and the fresh status of the page are important to know before drawing any conclusions here.

If the page was freshed before the change, and freshbot decided not to revisit, Google may have dropped back to its month-old cached version - to a snapshot of the page before any title or description optimization had been made. That would account for a precipitous drop. This is only one possibility, but again, timing and fresh status are critical in finding the answer.

Jim