A great drop in search impressions is a fact

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Ammon Johns: In regard to URL changes, it is either exactly the same URL or it isn`t. Changing from the www subdomain to the root domain is a completely different URL. It`s even a site migration. So by combining this with a redesign, you are redirecting old URLs to content (pages) that are not quite the same (redesigned), and it`ll probably be a while before Google fully map out all of the new linkages, trust values, etc.
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Thanks for your input. I thought redirects would pass the link juice to the same content. But perhaps I am wrong?
  
  So would switching back to www be alternative now you think? The site had ten times more Google Search visitors in 3 months, before the change, compared to past 12 months with this redirect issue.
  
  
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  Ammon Johns: Christian Ev You need to dig in and get some detailed data. All you know at this point is that you are getting less impressions, and thus less traffic. But so far you haven`t told us how you know whether your site LOST positions, or whether competing sites made changes that GAINED positions.
  
  You haven`t told us whether the whole SERP changed, and lots of sites changed positions at the same time, or whether the rest of the SERPs in question were mostly stable and *just* your site tanked. This is how an SEO knows WHAT to look for.
  
  If a change affects just one or two sites, then you look at those specific sites for details. If a change is more widespread, affecting a high proportion of all sites in the SERP you look at the algorithm changing, possibly for intent, possibly as other signals are pulled in, and you look at what is ranked now, versus what used to be there, to see what Google are now looking for.
  
  But you CANNOT get anywhere by doing this from a ten mile high satelite view of looking just at your site from such a distance you cannot see the specific pages and SERPs involved. It is all in the detail.
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Just to clarify, the old url was https://www, whereas the new one has been just https://
  
  
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  Ammon Johns: Christian Ev no. Over that period of time it isn`t the URLs in any way, but the pages themselves. Either algo changes tanked the site, regardless of changes on the site, or, the redesign de-optimized the site and killed its rankings, or most likely a combination of the 2.
  
  URL changes generally shake out in just a couple of months.
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Okay, the only thing to do here is improving the SEO just like with any other site then?
  
  
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  Richard Hearne: If you can generate/update XML sitemaps with lastmod date today, then do so for all old and new URLs. Submit this/these to encourage Googlebot to recrawl.
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Richard Hearne Yes I submitted sitemaps for recrawling. Thanks!
  
  
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  Richard Hearne: Did you create a sitemap for the old legacy URLs that should now redirect? These are the ones you really want Googlebot to crawl ASAP.
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Richard Hearne I have only done it for the new. To do this for the old, I guess that has to be manually created, right?
  
  
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  Richard Hearne: Yes, unless you have an old file still available which you can update?
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Richard Hearne Thank you for this tip, I submitted an old one that I created of the most important pages (posts)
  
  
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  Scott Hendison: Is your Search Console connected via www? If so, that`s likely the issue. Try setting up a non-www Search Console and you should see the exact opposite, with a corresponding Increase.
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Good thought, but it is already connected with both versions and compared there.
  
  
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  Scott Hendison: Christian Ev Do your analytics show a corresponding drop, or just search console?
  
  
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  Christian Ev: I see corresponding drop in analytics too, that is clearly apparent some time after this.
  
  
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  Christine Hansen: Depending on when the migration happened, I wouldn`t worry too much. A site that experiences ranking fluctuations while Google recrawls and reindexes your site can take weeks or longer.
  
  
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  Christian Ev: Christine Hansen thanks for your input. The new site was launched a year ago.
  
  
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  Christine Hansen: Christian Ev Yep, that is definitely a lill more than just a couple of weeks ago
  
  
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  Buth Main: It is too late. Now you should wait until Google reindexes and reranks your site.