PR4 to 0 in a week - Concerned but not panicked yet

[OracleBand]

I'm getting a little concerned here after my Home page www.OracleBand.net went from a PR4 to 0 practically overnight. I still maintain fairly good rankings (Ranking of 5 for [google]wedding band maryland[/google]), but it does bother me, in that I'm afraid an overall ranking crash may be coming next.

My internal pages continue to be between PR3 and PR4 for the most part.

I had not updated the home page for almost 2 months, although I did make some minor adjustments a couple of days ago to see if that made any difference.

According to GoogleRankings.com I have 66 backlinks which have always been sufficient to obtain a top 5 ranking.

Any ideas why things would change so suddenly and drastically?

I've been reading these forums for some time, but am a newbie for posting. Your input is greatly appreciated.

[incrediblehelp]

Stop worrying about the PR number and keep working developing good content that will lead to high quality and relevant backlinks.

Especially when you are ranking number one for your top targeted phrases like: Maryland Wedding Band!

[scanmonkey]

OracleBand,
You have a canonical issue with the www and non-www version of OracleBand.net

Implement a 301 Permanent Redirect to resolve the issue.

[OracleBand]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Stop worrying about the PR number and keep working developing good content that will lead to high quality and relevant backlinks.

Thanks for the input. I really am not overly preoccupied with PR since it's been well established that it's not that big of a factor in obtaining high rankings with Google. My SERPs are typically higher for my targeted phrases than many of my competitors with much higher PRs.

The only reason I brought it up was the magnitude of the drop and a concern that something else might be amiss.

I work hard with my content to balance accepted marketing rules with SEO rules...they don't always work hand in hand ;-)

Thanks again...

[OracleBand]

Originally Posted by scanmonkey

OracleBand,
You have a canonical issue with the www and non-www version of OracleBand.net

Implement a 301 Permanent Redirect to resolve the issue.

Correct me if I'm wrong here...I've never had to do a 301 redirect before.

My site is not hosted on an Apache server, so it appears I would have to have an ASAPI_Rewrite done. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to do this myself.

Is there any other way if implementing this kind of redirect on a Microsoft server without involving the "support" people at the hosting company? I haven't been overly thrilled with the quality of support I receive, and one wrong move on their part with an issue this sensitive could REALLY screw me up for a while.

TIA

[scanmonkey]

IIS 301 Redirect

* In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
* Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL".
* Enter the redirection page
* Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
* Click on 'Apply'

[incrediblehelp]

Scan do these directions work for the non-www to www redirection on IIS? I don't think it does, but I am not a IIS expert, just id minor redirection changes.

I did write some articles about 301 redirects on IIS in the past. You might want to check them out:

http://www.jaankanellis.com/index.php?s=iis&x=0&y=0

[scanmonkey]

Nice article Incredible.

I've never tried it because I'm on apache. Hoping someone will try it and provide some feedback.