Has Google lost its mind? I am the only link in every SERP for a query?
-
I run a small online debutante dress store and have been doing some onsite seo recently. Anyways, when I search for the search query "deb dress style guide" my site is the only search result for the first three pages of Google Australia (my target market). Just endless links to my site. I have competitors in my niche who all have websites worthy of listing in the SERP as shown when you google "deb dresses".
Can anyone explain whats going on?
-
FYI, Deb is an American clothing retailer, and they sell dresses. So even if it's not a brand in Australia, it is still a brand that sells the thing that you're trying to rank for. I can see where Google might find it semantically confusing.
-
Again i strongly feel that this is a case of branded search and should not be dismissed.
Please take a look at the keyword he is ranking for. No stats exist in googles database which only tells me two things
1. It is a VERY LOW producing keyword where getting ranked is virtually inevitable. Because google recognizes that word just as that . i.e.: ( his page title and eve domain url is fairly close to the keyword he is ranking for ) and if no one else is competing for that keyword then the serps will show what is relevant.
2. Branded search . Its his name . Its the business name. The business url , etc and with low competition for that phrase it only makes sense.
Hope i was clear.
Best Wishes
Hampig M
CEO
BizDetox
-
Useful is relevant.
Useful (in Google's eye) means that the page answers the intent of the query. If someone is looking for a deb dress style guide then your pages ARE useful. Since there isn't anyone else competing for that keyword, then all the results are, in fact, useful for the given query.
-
I am not complaining obviously considering im ranking so many times for the search query, but im intrigued by why google considers this useful. "deb dress' is a style of dress and not a brand, so shouldnt be a branded search query for me.
-
Just realized I did search for "debutante dresses" not "deb dress style guide". It would help if I did the correct search, huh?
-
Did you get the same results when you did the search?
-
Nope. It's not personalization.
I've seen this happen for a number of SERP checks. It happens for us for our real estate searches. Not sure why, but I'm not complaining.
-
Brendan,
It looks like you have some sort of personalization on your search. Try this search string and see if you get the same result:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=debutante+dress&pws=0
I"m not sure how familiar you are with search strings but I just want to take a moment and go over how you can know in the future if you have personalization in a search or not.
If you look at the string above you will notice "&aq=f&oq=debutante+..." everything after this (and including) are parameters in your search. To avoid this take all of it out after your query so it looks like this
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=debutante+dress
then add the following to make sure that all personalization is off
"&pws=0"
Your search string should look like this now
-
Not what my sepr shows in the us. but is AU yes you are right. You have 80% of the share space on the first three pages. I guess there is not enough competition for that specific keyword query.
On my search you dont show up anywhere on the first page.
Only one conclusion.
google is recognizing your query as a Branded search since your website name and url is deb dress. Accompanied by low competition if might do that . ie: its like doing a search for Bizdetox my companies name. All you will find is info about my company and my pages.
Btw what has your keyword research show you in AU in regards to "deb dress style guide"
Also just check your keyword in Google Keyword Tools. It doesnt even show any traffic so of course your going to show up.
More and more i look it looks like a very unique branded search
Best wishes
Hampig M
Bizdetox
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Latest from ... feature SERPs
Hello Mozers, this is probably (as per) a naive question, but, is the 'Latest from ***.com' element in SERPs an extract of Google News? I've added an example of what appears for 'Moz' in SERPs. MYn7Kh2
Algorithm Updates | | SEO_Selectaglaze1 -
7 Pack Google Serps?
What is the best way to get into the 7 pack of google serps? I have a site that ranked well before this changed but not was pushed back to page 2. I have Unique content and I currently have provided my info to all the standard local sites, like Yelp, Manta, Local.com and others. I already have a Google Local page and I also have links from local sites. What else can be done?
Algorithm Updates | | bronxpad0 -
Do you think Google is destroying search?
I've seen garbage in google results for some time now, but it seems to be getting worse. I was just searching for a line of text that was in one of our stories from 2009. I just wanted to check that story and I didn't have a direct link. So I did the search and I found one copy of the story, but it wasn't on our site. I knew that it was on the other site as well as ours, because the writer writes for both publications. What I expected to see was the two results, one above the other, depending on which one had more links or better on-page for the query. What I got didn't really surprise me, but I was annoyed. In #1 position was the other site, That was OK by me, but ours wasn't there at all. I'm almost used to that now (not happy about it and trying to change it, but not doing well at all, even after 18 months of trying) What really made me angry was the garbage results that followed. One site, a wordpress blog, has tag pages and category pages being indexed. I didn't count them all but my guess is about 200 results from this blog, one after the other, most of them tag pages, with the same content on every one of them. Then the tag pages stopped and it started with dated archive pages, dozens of them. There were other sites, some with just one entry, some with dozens of tag pages. After that, porn sites, hundreds of them. I got right to the very end - 100 pages of 10 results per page. That blog seems to have done everything wrong, yet it has interesting stats. It is a PR6, yet Alexa ranks it 25,680,321. It has the same text in every headline. Most of the headlines are very short. It has all of the category and tag and archive pages indexed. There is a link to the designer's website on every page. There is a blogroll on every page, with links out to 50 sites. None of the pages appear to have a description. there are dozens of empty H2 tags and the H1 tag is 80% through the document. Yet google lists all of this stuff in the results. I don't remember the last time I saw 100 pages of results, it hasn't happened in a very long time. Is this something new that google is doing? What about the multiple tag and category pages in results - Is this just a special thing google is doing to upset me or are you seeing it too? I did eventually find my page, but not in that list. I found it by using site:mysite.com in the search box.
Algorithm Updates | | loopyal0 -
Is it normal to receive 2 mails from Google?
I filed a reconsideration request that was answered in less than a week. Subsequently I was told that no manual penalty was in place but various algorithm factors might be causing my heavy drops in ranking. Then I got a second email which was even more specific. This was great, really heartening stuff and a total surprise as it was very helpful. Is it normal to receive 2 emails from Google with such clear information? I have been very pleased by the comments they have made as it has shown me that they're more customer focused than I had been led to believe by all the research I had done pre reconsideration request. Has anyone else had a clear outline of what they needed to fix and has their site subsequently rebounded post fixing?
Algorithm Updates | | swimwithfishes0 -
What Is The Deal Between Indeed and Google?
Anyone notice the love affair of Indeed and Google lately? Indeed is cannibalizing the top 30 SERPs for job related keywords. Seeing keywords where Indeed has 10-15 of the organic listings in the top 30. Compete.com is showing a +8% increase in search volume between in April and May. But it seems as if they really started to cannibalize the SERPS since the Penguin update at end of May. Any one else noticing this?
Algorithm Updates | | joncrowe0 -
Google results on an Ipad 2
Has anyone else seen different google organic results for a site when viewing on an Ipad compared to computer browser ? I've just checked a site and were no1 on google when searched on the Ipad 2 but when searched on my Macbook we are page 2 ? Could this just be different data centers or do google serve up different results to the 2 devices ? Would be really interested to know if anyone else has seen this. JP
Algorithm Updates | | Prongo0 -
Google place page Images
Is there any real difference in uploading an images directly to your google places page or linking an image from another site? I have heard that you get better results if you upload a photo to photo bucket then to insider pages then post that link to your google places page. To me it just seems a bit odd to do things this way. I get that it's suppose to give you more back links however I don't think it would necessarily be relevant or useful for the user. Any thoughts??
Algorithm Updates | | christinarule0 -
Link analysis task
Hi mozzers, I am currently working on a phd, and one of the professors asked me for help. He would like to know how many Danish school websites (n=1500) links to a certain section of a government website (the relevant section has around 1600 pages). The problem is, that the government website is coded very poorly from an seo perspective with lots of strange URL variables, entailing OSE can't give valid data. So, what would be the best way to check how many of the school websites link? Throw all 1500 website through Xenu, or is there a smarter solution? Maybe the link out feature on Bing? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciate. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | ThomasHgenhaven0