Huge Drop in Visitors

BenJMann · #1 (**permalink**) 12-22-2003, 10:00 AM

I am new to web design and am not a programer so forgive me if I've just missed the point or have done something really stupid with my site at www.gardenhere.com.

My site visits dropped from over 30,000 weekly to almost nothing. I thought it was the season (this is my first year). Then I discovered that every page on my site had been damaged by somehow missing the word "keywords" in the META TAG when published to the server --even though I could clearly see the tag in FP XP. The only way I could fix this was to change the order of the tags. So far I have only been able to repair a few pages.

Now I discover that when I use the free SEO Doctor tool at http://www.instantposition.com/free_tools.cfm, apparently spiders and search engines see the exact same text for all my pages --even when everone else and FP XP display distinct <BODY> text.

Have I done something incredibly stupid or is it possible someone else tinkered with my site? Really lost in my web world. Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

P.S. I now see what is happening with the <BODY> . . . search engines apparently see all of my daily quotes instead of just the current quote. Is there a way to help spiders and search engines see only the page text?

nickc · #2 (**permalink**) 12-22-2003, 10:23 AM

Seems to be a problem with your site - I get a 403 error and this:-

You are not authorized to view this page

Hope it's nothing serious. I'll try again later.

Nick

minstrel · #3 (**permalink**) 12-22-2003, 11:55 AM

I also get that error, which would explain why your visitors have dropped off - you need to contact your host and/or see if your index page is still there (if the index/home/default page is missing or corrupted, you might get this error).

Quote:

You are not authorized to view this page
You might not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied.

---------------------------

If you believe you should be able to view this directory or page, please try to contact the Web site by using any e-mail address or phone number that may be listed on the www.gardenhere.com. home page.

You can click Search to look for information on the Internet.

HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden
Internet Explorer

cyanide · #4 (**permalink**) 12-22-2003, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickc

Seems to be a problem with your site - I get a 403 error and this:-

You are not authorized to view this page

Hope it's nothing serious. I'll try again later.

Nick

That's because he put a '.' right after the domain
Just remove it from your address bar and hit enter

30,000 site visits a week?
Is that hits, page views, or unique visitors.
If it's 30,000 hits, then that could translate to only 5,000 page views and 800 unique visitors

A few things:
1. This tag <META NAME="REVISIT-AFTER" CONTENT="15 days"> tells the robots to only come twice a month. It's not uncommon for bots to come every day, every second day, etc.
2. You should avoid having spaces between words in your page names
3. You should consider putting a sitemap that links to all pages
4. It's not a bad idea to make sure the keywords meta tag is there, however more and more search engines are ignoring it.
5. Have you seen your site in netscape? It's a bit distorted.

minstrel · #5 (**permalink**) 12-22-2003, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyanide

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickc

Seems to be a problem with your site - I get a 403 error

That's because he put a '.' right after the domain

Doh! I can't believe I didn't see that!

I plead the 'flu... ;-)

ronniethedodger · #6 (**permalink**) 12-22-2003, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by minstrel

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyanide

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickc

Seems to be a problem with your site - I get a 403 error

That's because he put a '.' right after the domain

Doh! I can't believe I didn't see that!

I plead the 'flu... ;-)

Plead the fifth if you would like...but that is a big doh!!! ;-)

I noticed this right off the bat when I looked at your source code. You have an extra left bracket following your Style statement in the <HEAD> area.

Code:

<Style>
>a:link { color: ...

Plus you have a mis-spelling in your Title for the home page...I did not look anywhere else. But it should read "America's".

I cannot answer your question as to why you would suddenly go from 30,000 (whatever..hits?) to almost nothing (how much is almost nothing?) but I do not think it has to do with the keyword tag...or anything at all with page content.

I reviewed a few pages and they are "cached" at Google, so your pages are being indexed. With that in consideration, what ever has caused your drop (of which is unclear what that drop is) is undeterminable to me anyway without knowing more information.

I do however like the layout of your site. Fonts, content, structure etc. The Green and Yellow coloring are a little contrasting though -- looks loud. Perhaps toning the color down a little would not be a bad idea.

BenJMann · #7 (**permalink**) 12-22-2003, 08:45 PM

You have all been a great help. My heart sank when I began to read the "error" message everyone was getting, but believe it self-resolved.

I will take your tips and make changes immediately. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears.

Thanks again! (Al)

marknc · #8 (**permalink**) 12-23-2003, 09:06 PM

cyanide wrote: It's not a bad idea to make sure the keywords meta tag is there, however more and more search engines are ignoring it.

Is this true? Do you think Google and/or Yahoo ignore this meta tag? Should I keep using it?

minstrel · #9 (**permalink**) 12-23-2003, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marknc

cyanide wrote: It's not a bad idea to make sure the keywords meta tag is there, however more and more search engines are ignoring it.

Is this true? Do you think Google and/or Yahoo ignore this meta tag? Should I keep using it?

Whether it is 100% true isn't clear to me at least, but even if it is there's no harm in including one in your pages, as long as it's properly constructed and relevant to the page. After all, there are many other search engines and directories besides Google and Yahoo. I have one on every page of my website - my feeling is if it can't hurt and it might help somewhere along the line, why not include it? How can you lose?

cyanide · #10 (**permalink**) 12-27-2003, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marknc

cyanide wrote: It's not a bad idea to make sure the keywords meta tag is there, however more and more search engines are ignoring it.

Is this true? Do you think Google and/or Yahoo ignore this meta tag? Should I keep using it?

Yes, they do ignore it.
As minstrel mentions, there's no harm in having the keywords meta tag in there.
But as an indication...
My company launched 3 new websites in the summer.
All 3 are local small business sites.
All 3 are fully crawled by Google
All 3 have all pages with a pr of 5.

janeth · #11 (**permalink**) 12-27-2003, 10:52 PM

What I'm seeing is more then one key word tag and that will hurt you.

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