We have just redesigned a website on the same domain as before.
With Google Webmaster Tools it is possible to see how many pages are being index. There is a huge drop from like 100 to around 5. What does this mean ? One thing i do not understand with this tool is that if i google the company name all pages actually shows up in the search. So what does this actually mean ?
How can i fix this ?
What we have done :
removed www. to just http://
sitemap
some 301 redirects from the old page
also the new redesign site is around 3 month old now.
Ps. Could not find a SEO group, so hope I posted this the right place.
With Google’s Webmaster Tools, they are only an indication, not an absolute. If you have changed the URL structure, did you put re-directs in place to tell google where to find the new content?
Have you checked wmt for errors relating to the sitemap?
I can match exactly what you say with one of my own sites, in that I’ve changed the design / layout and given a new Sitemap, it lists 6 out of 200 in the new sitemap, rather annoying… but what can you do, Google knows best?!