Google Search Console shows Cornerstone is damaging my site's SEO

[spelljunkie]

Hello,

I have a very frustrating situation and would appreciate any help.

My site’s Google Search Console internal link count is dropping bc of using Cornerstone.

Prior to using XTheme I was using a free theme and a purchased version of Visual Composer. However, after purchasing XTheme I found Cornerstone to be MUCH easier/faster for controlling page layout, so I painstakingly rebuilt ALL of my pages - and now starting on posts - using Cornerstone. BUT it seems I have run into a SERIOUS SEO problem bc of using Cornerstone…

I am not a web design professional so all my experience has come from books and trial-error. From a recent book I found I was mistaken to use images alone (with alt descriptions) for navigation. Therefore, when I rebuilt all my pages with CS, I also redesigned all those image links by adding text descriptions to all linked images and used the keyword(s) in the descriptions to also create anchor text links (rationale was having the pic file name, alt description and text w/anchor text - all similar but slightly different - to give a slight assist in SEO by giving more accurate descriptions and internal links to relevant content).

Therefore, by adding the text and anchor text links, my internal link count should be going UP (because of adding the extra anchor text link); HOWEVER, my internal link count is going DOWN - and I think it is because I am using Cornerstone.

I first noticed in YOAST that all changed pages showed the Outgoing Link Count as dropping to ZERO (and the Incoming Links to linked-to pages going proportionally down) immediately upon updating the page to Cornerstone. But I wasn’t too worried as thought maybe was just a compatibility issue with YOAST - bc I saw some posts about something similar in Visual Composer forums before they did an update to fix it.

HOWEVER, the REAL problem is that the internal link count in Google Search Console is also steadily declining! For example, when I first noticed something may be wrong, my home page had 101 internal links to it. Today it is down to 84 (other links have gone down, too - NOTHING has gone up) - and I have done NOTHING other than change the page builds from VC to Cornerstone. Not only is this a loss of 17 links to my home page, it is actually a loss of 34 internal links bc I doubled the links by adding anchor text links to all previously existing image links, so should have added the same number of links…

YOAST count isn’t that important (though since they are a leading SEO plugin, would think you guys would ensure your theme parts are compatible with it), BUT the GOOGLE count drop is alarming!

I REALLY like using CS and will be REALLY bummed if I have to change the entire site back to VC… I have already rebuilt this site several times during the learning process…

Am I missing something…? I don’t proclaim to be a web design or SEO professional, but I think I have at least moved up from novice… This is my site MN Estate Planning.

Not trying to spam, but I need help here - bc it appears that not only is CS not helpful for SEO purposes, it is in fact DAMAGING to SEO in that Google isn’t able to see important content created within CS.

All landing pages have been updated using CS, and am still working on the posts (but everything is on hold until this link-count issue is addressed).

Can someone look it over and maybe identify if there reason for my internal link drop - OTHER than using CS…? Thank You!

[christopher]

Hi there,

Thank you for the detailed information. As we are also not SEO experts you will need to give us more information regarding the external and internal linking. I suggest that you add a page with the images and internal linkings that you talk about and add the same sample one with Cornerstone, then we can check the generated HTML code to see what is the difference. At the end of the day, the important part is the generated actual HTML code which is on the page.

At the moment I do know that the Yoast Content Crawler does not detect the text added to the V2 elements because that information is saved in the Meta Options Database Table and the Yoast does not look into that. To get around that issue you need to use the Classic Elements.

I am not sure if you use the Classic Elements it will fix the issue or not, I suggest that you double check that case.

It is very important to have a robust HTML generated which will help guys like you to have a better score regarding SEO. So if we know what to do in the generated HTML code we will suggest that as a Feature Request for the consideration if it is something that is not implemented.

Thank you.

[spelljunkie]

Thank you for your reply.

I did as you asked. I took an original post and then rebuilt the exact same page using Cornerstone.

Here is the original page built with Visual Composer (Yoast shows 13 internal links and added to the inbound link count of linked pages):
Minnesota Medicaid Asset Protection Trust

Here is the page rebuilt using Cornerstone (Yoast now shows this page has 0 internal links and doesn’t contribute to the linked pages inbound link count):
Minnesota Medicaid Asset Protection Trust CORNERSTONE COPY

I understand there is an issue with Yoast not reading the links - I’m not worried about that. I only cite them to illustrate that this behavior signals that the links will ALSO be lost in Google Search Console - which I AM worried about.

I also understand that you are not SEO experts. However, on the XTheme Overview page within WP, it states “We recommend using Cornerstone for page building in X as it is built and managed by Themeco;…” If you (Themeco) are recommending a homegrown addon to benefit yourself knowing that doing so will negatively affect that users Google ranking, then there may be a problem… especially if the one you are discouraging (Visual Composer) does not have the same problem… I mean the MAIN purpose of building a website is to get it found on Google… so to recommend your product at your customers expense isn’t good…

Maybe you weren’t aware of this issue, which is plausible, I guess. Hopefully, the information I am providing will help to find a quick solution. I really do like CS and want to continue using it, however, I cannot continue to use this product if it is going to damage my Google ranking - and I think others might feel the same if they knew.

I look forward to seeing what you find. Thanks again.

[paul.r]

Hi,

Please note that SEO Yoast and Search Engines reads your site differently.

SEO Yoast checks raw html code while Search Engines reads the complete generated html code.

I check the pages created using this site - http://www.seoreviewtools.com/internal-link-analyzer/

These are the results

Input URL: http://www.makilawfirm.com/trusts/minnesota-medicaid-asset-protection-trust/
Total links: 69
External links: 4 - (6%) of Total links
Duplicate links: 37 - (54%) of Total links
Empty anchor: 3
No alt tag: 0
Nofollow count (Line-through): 2

Input URL: http://www.makilawfirm.com/trustee-services/
Total links: 61
External links: 3 - (5%) of Total links
Duplicate links: 32 - (52%) of Total links
Empty anchor: 3
No alt tag: 0
Nofollow count (Line-through): 0

There is a small difference because the first one is a post and the other one is a page.

Try to re-create it as a post.

Thanks