New Hubspot Website Poor Search Performance

BWorsley · ‎Dec 30, 2022

We launched our new Hubspot CMS website in October and have been running a fairly aggressive content marketing campaign since then. And it's just not garnering results. I realize these kinds of efforts take time but after 3 months we're not even seeing incremental increases.

Our old website followed about zero SEO best practices, to the point that we didn't have unique page titles, H1 tags, and alt images. The new site has a few SEO issues (LCP for example) but for the most part scores pretty highly.

Here is our Google Search Console performance report before and after relaunch:

The one major shift that happened is that our old site used a "more is more" content strategy, with thousands of pages of (frankly) garbage content. We got rid of all that and set up redirects.

My Question: Am I just being impatient, or is there something wrong somewhere? We're considering hiring an SEO consultant, but before we make that kind of investment, perhaps I should just wait and continue developing our content strategy (pillar pages, etc.).

Domain: https://masterplans.com/

Thanks in advance, and happy new year!

Jnix284 · ‎Jan 1, 2023

Hi @BWorsley

I would definitely give it more time, 3 months is very small in the grand scheme of things - especially if you removed a lot of content.

Setting up redirects for the deleted content is the right way to go, but removing those pages also removes your traffic to those pages.

You won't start to see results until you start building content that is relevant and drives the traffic you're looking for, and then it will still take many months to see an impact.

I would be curious if you dig into the data, looking at the "garbage" content stats to see how many page views/sessions they generated and compared that with the drop to see if it is a direct relationship.

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

Jennifer Nixon - Delivery Lead at Aptitude 8

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Jnix284 · ‎Jan 2, 2023

Hi @BWorsley no problem, happy to help!

The removals is only going to temporarily hide those URLs from search, it's not going to help with the failed redirects issue in the long run.

If search engines have indexed those pages, then you have to tell them where to look instead when you remove the page.

It's best if your redirects are setup to go to the closest content match vs having them all go to the home page, what I would look at is how you have the redirects configured in HubSpot - start by exporting your URL redirects and scrubbing through to verify the 121 that failed to see if you can determine whether there is a syntax issue with the redirected URL or something else that might cause them to fail.

Ultimately, the failed redirects shouldn't hurt your performance, but it will be worth getting them sorted to resolve the issues.

When it comes to redirects, the big things you want to look for are:

1 - that you're using them properly, 301 for permanent, 302 for temporary.

2 - that you've cleaned up internal links to go to the correct URL and not rely on redirects for your own content/links to work properly

3 - that you haven't created a chain of redirects, where page A redirects to page B, but page B redirects to page C. This should be cleaned up so that page A redirects to page C and page B remains redirected to page C.

How long you retain the redirects really depends on how much traffic those pages are driving to your website via backlinks.

If you created a blog article and it only had 1 view, unpublishing it without a redirect is not going to break anything as long as any internal links are updated. You can also update these to have the lowest priority before taking the step to remove them completely.

If you created a blog article with thousands of views and hundreds of backlinks, and then you unpublish it, you're going to have to keep the redirect as long as possible - in this case, reach out to the high value backlinks and have them link to some other more relevant content you've kept, rather than the old content that you've removed.

Depending on your content publishing (and unpublishing) schedule, I would recommend auditing your redirects at least annually, if not semi-annually or even quarterly.

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

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Jnix284 · ‎Jan 2, 2023

@BWorsley I would try fixing it by adding the full URL on the redirect:

http://masterplans.com/business-plans/sample-plans vs. just using the /business-plans/sample-plans because if it is an http vs https issue, that would be resolved by the main redirect for that.

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

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Sjardo · ‎Jan 20, 2023

Hi!
@Jnix284 asked the community champions to have a look at your question.

Jennifer gave some solid feedback that most often do the trick. Rember that GSC will not instantly notice your changes and Google needs to crawl every change once again to figure out what you did. If you have a low crawl budget, it can take a while before everything is checked and flagged as fixed

Some extra info to think about:

Multiple URL's for same content

When running Screaming Frog i noticed that there are 174 URL's found over 2 (sub)domains: blog.masterplans.com and masterplans.com.

On top of that, you have language selection (url's with hslang=) within them AND you have an AMP version. This could mean that you have 3 different url's for the same blog. Example:

https://blog.masterplans.com/side-hustle-entrepreneur?hsLang=en
https://blog.masterplans.com/side-hustle-entrepreneur
https://blog.masterplans.com/side-hustle-entrepreneur?hs_amp=true

Even tho canonicals are set and the first 2 are actually the same, the Lang selection will make your data in GSC and other tools a bit harder. I would recoomand turning the langauage in the URL off, as you only provide English anyway. This will save up some URL's in your overview.

I noticed a bunch of 302 redirects (29 in my scan). So temporary redirects, all with the hslang paramater.

Things to think about:

You are running AMP for your blog. As the branding is sh*t for the blog and you mainly get visitors from the USA, i advice to remove AMP to clear even more URL's. USA has a pretty decent connection + devices so AMP is just a little extra CWV wise, but i don't think it's really benifital for your site. It will save 33 url's that Google has to crawl.

Advice:

Remove the hsLang. This will save a bunch in figuring out what you are doing. And as you only have 1 langauge, it's just a waste of url and crawl budget.
Move the blog to your main domain as it's both HS
Remove AMP, as i do honestly think it wont do much for your visitors, it will improve your ranking, Google has less URL's to craw and it's way easier to debug your websites in cases like this 😉

Other questions/mentions:

I noticed there was, at some point a masterplan.com and www.masterplans.com website. (so with and withouth www. Did you run them together?
Next to that, how many URL's did you remove?
From mid oktober to mid januari google updated it's results with the spam and helpfull content update. I think you got hit pretty hard on that one.
I Also noiced that the website does not meet the CWV requirements. It's not far off tho. This will not directly impact your SEO, but it will help a bit if you can bring it down to the threshholds.

And as @Jnix284 said, what was the traffic on those URL's you removed? I really think you delete something valuble, as this type of drop is pretty rare.

How many URl's did you delete and what was the traffic and impressions on those URL's?
is there an increase/decrease in average position within google (tells alot about your content)
What is your branded VS non branded data in GSC look like?

Let me know if i can help out.

Attached:

Issue report of Screaming frog
CWV status of last 28 days
Location of users for your CRUX data.

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BWorsley · ‎Jan 26, 2023

@JNix @Sjardo

I talked to HS support, and they were quick and helpful as usual. I wanted to update this thread with what I learned in case it helps anyone else in the future.

How to move your blog from the subdomain to a subdirectory:

Go to Settings --> Website --> Domains & URLS: Under the "Domains" tab go the section on "Primary Domains," click on the edit menu, and select "Make Secondary For Other Content Types", and select "Blog." (this is worded weird!)
Go to Settings --> Website --> Blog and change your Domain to the promary domain address and add your slug (in my case it'll be http://masterplans.com/blog)
They told me that redirects will be automaically generated once this is done as well

I'm going to wait to do this until after business hours today, just on the off chance I mess something up, so I will update this post after I successfully make the switch with my findings.

Thank you again for all of your help on this!

View solution in original post

Sjardo · ‎Jan 20, 2023

Hi!
@Jnix284 asked the community champions to have a look at your question.

Jennifer gave some solid feedback that most often do the trick. Rember that GSC will not instantly notice your changes and Google needs to crawl every change once again to figure out what you did. If you have a low crawl budget, it can take a while before everything is checked and flagged as fixed

Some extra info to think about:

Multiple URL's for same content

When running Screaming Frog i noticed that there are 174 URL's found over 2 (sub)domains: blog.masterplans.com and masterplans.com.

On top of that, you have language selection (url's with hslang=) within them AND you have an AMP version. This could mean that you have 3 different url's for the same blog. Example:

https://blog.masterplans.com/side-hustle-entrepreneur?hsLang=en
https://blog.masterplans.com/side-hustle-entrepreneur
https://blog.masterplans.com/side-hustle-entrepreneur?hs_amp=true

Even tho canonicals are set and the first 2 are actually the same, the Lang selection will make your data in GSC and other tools a bit harder. I would recoomand turning the langauage in the URL off, as you only provide English anyway. This will save up some URL's in your overview.

I noticed a bunch of 302 redirects (29 in my scan). So temporary redirects, all with the hslang paramater.

Things to think about:

You are running AMP for your blog. As the branding is sh*t for the blog and you mainly get visitors from the USA, i advice to remove AMP to clear even more URL's. USA has a pretty decent connection + devices so AMP is just a little extra CWV wise, but i don't think it's really benifital for your site. It will save 33 url's that Google has to crawl.

Advice:

Remove the hsLang. This will save a bunch in figuring out what you are doing. And as you only have 1 langauge, it's just a waste of url and crawl budget.
Move the blog to your main domain as it's both HS
Remove AMP, as i do honestly think it wont do much for your visitors, it will improve your ranking, Google has less URL's to craw and it's way easier to debug your websites in cases like this 😉

Other questions/mentions:

I noticed there was, at some point a masterplan.com and www.masterplans.com website. (so with and withouth www. Did you run them together?
Next to that, how many URL's did you remove?
From mid oktober to mid januari google updated it's results with the spam and helpfull content update. I think you got hit pretty hard on that one.
I Also noiced that the website does not meet the CWV requirements. It's not far off tho. This will not directly impact your SEO, but it will help a bit if you can bring it down to the threshholds.

And as @Jnix284 said, what was the traffic on those URL's you removed? I really think you delete something valuble, as this type of drop is pretty rare.

How many URl's did you delete and what was the traffic and impressions on those URL's?
is there an increase/decrease in average position within google (tells alot about your content)
What is your branded VS non branded data in GSC look like?

Let me know if i can help out.

Attached:

Issue report of Screaming frog
CWV status of last 28 days
Location of users for your CRUX data.

BWorsley · ‎Jan 20, 2023

Ok @Sjardo (& @Jnix284), here is my reply to your post. Thank you again!

Non-Canonical URLs:

I went ahead and turned off AMP and languages (AMP was easy; for languages, I just went to Domains & URLs → Language Settings, and turned off “enable language specific redirects”. Is that all I need to do?)

Various versions of domain

As far as I know we never owned masterplan.com. As far as the www prefix goes, I’m pretty sure it used www on the old site. I honestly just thought it looked cleaner to not have the “www” (since our business name is Masterplans.com). I’m not even sure how I’d return to using the www at this point, but if you think that’d be beneficial, any links to HS resources on how to do that would be very appreciated

Removed URIs

We removed a LOT. It looks like there were nearly 1,000 unique URIs on the main site, and that doesn’t count versions for “mobile.masterplans.com.” The majority of it consisted of obsolete content that generated primarily overseas traffic, and didn't serve to attract customers. Individually, the pages did not generate a great deal of traffic, but collectively, it added up. I've included a link to the most visited pages.

I'm thinking about re-doing the one section we eliminated from the guide that did reasonably well for us: the section on cannabis business plans. We didn't get a lot of business from it, and since it was state-by-state, it was challenging to keep up with the constantly evolving laws, which is why I opted to remove it.

Before & After Transition

I included screen shots of our performance the 3 months before we moved to HS and the last 3 months. As you can see our average position dropped from 32.5 to 40.1, but we are creeping back up. Over the last week we’ve moved up to 37. I do think this data was skewed from the very specific search queries like “underwear business plans”. You can also see on the before data a preciptious decline starting in mid-September, which may be the Google helpful content update you referenced.

CWV

The CWV issue is annoying. It's that time-honored trade-off between aesthetic appeal and SEO performance. I intend to rebuild the pages this quarter and try to get rid of any unused JS, which I believe to be the main problem.

My questions for you:

I was incorrectly under the impression that it was best practice to have the blog on a subdomain. I am scared to change the domain because of all the issues I’m already having with redirects! I have attached a screenshot with the settings and assume I would change the domain to https://masterplans.com and add a blog slug of “blog/”. If I did that, would I need to go set up new redirects for all the current blog pages, or would it resolve automatically? I do have inbound links to the blog from places like Medium and LinkedIn)
What do you mean by branded vs non-branded data in GSC?

Screenshots attached:

Screen Shot 2023-01-20 at 8.50.58 AM: Example of top performing pages before transition to HS
Screen Shot 2023-01-20 at 8.56.07 AM: Search performance for the 3 months prior to the transition to HS
Screen Shot 2023-01-20 at 8.56.56 AM: Search performance for the last 3 months (after to the transition to HS)
Screen Shot 2023-01-20 at 9.07.43 AM: Our blog settings, for advice on moving it from “https://blog.” to “https://masterplans/blog)

Sjardo · ‎Jan 20, 2023

Hi!

HS-lang -> You did it perfectly 🙂 Can't crawl any link with those parameters again.
Removed URL's -> My best guess on that one is that you moved that much, it's basicly a new website 😅 But it looks like the pages that you kept are better as for impressions and CTR. Yet, you simply have less pages in the rankings. The average position is increased because the "**bleep**" pages might get impressions but did not generate new visitors. So looking at that, it seems that you indeed removed the worst pages, but maybe some good onces. Anyhow, you can't get it back so lets keep moving forward!
AMP is still on if i run Screaming Frog, but could be caching. Keep in mind that you can individually put them off and on aswell, so that could also be the case. Anyhow, keep an eye on it.
If you move blog to masterplans.com you generate all the traffic on that domain, it will increase authority and cummulatives the data. As you can see in the last screenshots, it's all data from masterplans.com, not the blog. The issue with redirects... well you have to rework them all. It **bleep** to do the work again, and have a little drop (again), but better now than when you do it later on.
- My advice would always be: if you have a domain and 1 system (in this case HubSpot CMS for everything), always go for subdirectories over subdomains.
Branded is every query that has "masterplans" or "master plans" in them. The name of your sites. If people look for your name, they know you and will likely click on your link (often to the homepage) or go directly to your site. Non branded can be any query from anyone that does not know you, and you are the best result. Always go for non-branded. If you do that correctly, branded will follow!
- You can do a query compare in GSC and look what it does for your site
CWV - First take care of the conten, crawlbudget and such, CWV is the last bit. As long as your site does not take 10 seconds to load, your fine.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, ill be back on monday 😎

BWorsley · ‎Jan 20, 2023

thank you @Sjardo & @Jnix284 .

I just read your post and had it dawn on me and wanted to ask right away: something like 70% of our overall traffic is paid google ads going to a subdomain (go.masterplans.com). Would your "one system one domain" rule apply to these as well? I'm realizing I'd have to figure out the google ads side of it, but am leaving a bunch of domain authority on the table by having our paid traffic as a subdomain????

(It should be noted that our landing page subdomain is all no-index so it may not even help us for SEO)

Sjardo · ‎Jan 22, 2023

Hi! same answers as Jennifer! Going with 1 domain is most often the best option!

but also, step back and wait a bit and see what gsc does.

Jnix284 · ‎Jan 22, 2023

@BWorsley Google handles subdomains as separate sites, so you aren't gaining any traffic from the ads to your main site - which could be a huge opportunity to improve.

I would take this change slowly and carefully, making sure that you have the corresponding ads updated - specifically moving one LP at a time and verifying data as you go, especially your ad performance to make sure all ads were updated correctly.

You've made A LOT of changes, so as @Sjardo mentioned, it will take time for Google to acknowledge all of these changes.

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

BWorsley · ‎Jan 25, 2023

Hi @Jnix284 & @Sjardo ,

I'm back again 🙂 and this time with a silly question. I am trying to change our blog to a subdirectory, and the settings won't allow me to do so:

I have read several threads and it seems to imply that I should just be able to toggle it to the main domain with a slug, but it's not giving me the option.

Do I need to disconnect the subdomain first? (That scares me!)

Sjardo · ‎Jan 25, 2023

Hi @BWorsley

There are no silly questions 😉

In your settings, go to "websites" -> "Domains and URL's" and select right domain for the blog. Attached a screenshot what it could look like.

BWorsley · ‎Jan 25, 2023

Weird, it's only giving me these options:

Scared to hit "Disconnect" but maybe that's what I need to do and then reconnect it to masterplans.com.

Then I assume I'd go into the blog settings where i was before and add the slug I want?

Thanks @Sjardo for the hand holding!

Jnix284 · ‎Jan 26, 2023

@BWorsley I don't think @Sjardo is recommending to click "Disconnect" you'll want to use the "Replace primary domain" instead - here are step by step instructions to tell you how this is handled, including whether redirects will automatically be created for you.

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

Jnix284 · ‎Jan 26, 2023

@BWorsley I think it's just the wording, when I read over the instructions, I understand it as you are going to replace the domain for the blog that you're currently using and configure a new one.

I haven't actually had to update a domain in at least 2 years and it's not the easiest thing to test since I would need a live account to do it.

Maybe @Sjardo can confirm if you're still unsure.

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

BWorsley · ‎Jan 26, 2023

@Jnix284 i was wondering if it was worded weird. @Sjardo if you have any insights that's great, but I think I'll try the good ol hubspot support ticket (since this is more of a platform issue than it is SEO) 🙂

BWorsley · ‎Jan 26, 2023

@JNix @Sjardo

I talked to HS support, and they were quick and helpful as usual. I wanted to update this thread with what I learned in case it helps anyone else in the future.

How to move your blog from the subdomain to a subdirectory:

Go to Settings --> Website --> Domains & URLS: Under the "Domains" tab go the section on "Primary Domains," click on the edit menu, and select "Make Secondary For Other Content Types", and select "Blog." (this is worded weird!)
Go to Settings --> Website --> Blog and change your Domain to the promary domain address and add your slug (in my case it'll be http://masterplans.com/blog)
They told me that redirects will be automaically generated once this is done as well

I'm going to wait to do this until after business hours today, just on the off chance I mess something up, so I will update this post after I successfully make the switch with my findings.

Thank you again for all of your help on this!

Jnix284 · ‎Jan 26, 2023

HubSpot Support to the rescue, thanks for sharing this @BWorsley , it makes sense reading it now, since you are using the same domain for your website, but I wouldn't have thought to look there first...

Definitely let us know how it turns out, best of luck with the switch!

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

BWorsley · ‎Jan 26, 2023

Thank you for the reply @Jnix284

I guess I'm confused. I feel like if I select "Replace Primary Domain,"it will make "blog.masterplans.com" the primary domain, when what I want is to move the blog to the primary domain.

Thank you again for the help! I really appreciate it.

BWorsley · ‎Jan 20, 2023

Wow @Sjardo thank you so much. And than you @Jnix284 for giving me a shout out in the community. It means a lot to this SEO newbie!

I am going to take some time to go through your advice and comments one at a time and will post a reply soon.

Jnix284 · ‎Jan 20, 2023

Amazing @Sjardo , thank you for jumping in to help and provide such valuable insights for @BWorsley

If my reply answered your question please mark it as a solution to make it easier for others to find.

Jnix284 · ‎Jan 2, 2023