Google ranks our competitor above us on 1000's of branded queires!!!
-
Hi all,
I have noticed a very bizarre phenomenon in Google SERPs. When I search for a branded keyworks [Product + our brand].
Amazon.fr appear above us on thousands of results. Google even ranks Amazon above us for queries like [ PriceMinister google plus].I have tried to ask Google about it but I can’t seem to get an answer. Here is the topic I posted on Google’s forum:
This seems like a mistake on Google’s side, some kind of semantic association with our two brands! Basically they are sending our customers to our main competitor even though they specifically searched for our brand (PriceMinister).
I find the phenomenon quite interesting for the SEO community and frustrating for our company.
Does anyone have ideas on this one?
Do you think it's a bug from Google?
Cheers
Oliver
-
Hi Oliver,
Looks like this issue is now fixed? I searched for "24 hour people Priceminister" and "priceminister google plus" on google.fr and your site is showing up as the first result. Interestingly, we are also seeing the same issue for our brand queries on Google since last few months. For us Google is infact even showing the other brand for autocomplete search suggestions as well! See details here: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!mydiscussions/webmasters/ESDluD9Q0-A
Can you please let me know if there was something you did that rectified the issue or did it get fixed automatically? Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks!
-
Thanks a lot for your time and ideas Lynn!
-
Hi Oliver,
So if I understand right it is happening mainly in cases where the search string has quite a few words + priceminister brand and also when the brand is tagged onto the end of the search query rather than the beginning. Still no great ideas on how to approach but at least the scale and dynamics of the problem is more defined.
You say that it is a minority of the searches and that is obviously a good thing! I am wondering with the analytics data you have how much volume you are seeing in regards the brand at the front or at the end of the search query? Granted if it is at the end and users are clicking through to amazon you will not have a complete picture, but if they are actively searching for your brand then you should still see a pretty good chunk of the traffic. I guess what I am saying is, although obviously frustrating, maybe this is an issue you are noticing a lot more in comparison with 'normal' users and while annoying is not having a huge impact on the bottom line?
Not being much help! Be interesting to hear how this case plays out over time though. Perhaps google is messing with results and your branded terms will start surfacing more in the (hopefully near) future.
-
It seems to be the case with Books, CDs, Video Games & DVDs. Thank heavens these SERP results are still a minority.
This case is interesting:
[La vie est belle Priceminister]
Amazon is N°1
[PriceMinister La vie est belle]
http://goo.gl/RySHQ
We occupy the first 6 results and Amazon is nowhere to be seen.Thanks for your help. : )
-
Hi Oliver,
I'm sure it must be driving you mad!
I don't have any great ideas on what to do about it, but my gut says that it is algorithmic (for whatever that is worth) so I am not sure google would look at it as an error. A quick thought before (hopefully) one of the algorithm aces chimes in...
Is this trend more pronounced in books (for example) or specific product categories? I did a search for priceminister and then clicked on a couple of suggested searches (priceminister iphone4 and that kind of thing) and you were all over the place and amazon was not to be seen. I am just wondering if the specifics of a book title or something else like that is triggering this kind of serp result.
Wish I could be more help, it is an interesting case.
-
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for taking the time to look into our problem, it’s much appreciated.
You are right when you say that we are very similar site to Amazon.fr and that we are often linked to jointly in the same articles. But we are an established e-commerce pure player in France and it seems insane that Google would rank an Amazon page higher than ours on a branded query. : /To answer your question regarding branded queries, they’re in the millions monthly.
Frustration aside, As an SEO I find that these results really bad for the end users who want to buy a product on our site.
I wonder what Google think of this issue...
-
Hi Oliver,
Interesting and frustrating indeed.
I don't think it is a bug, but my thoughts would be that it is some sort of association as you suspect between the two sites in Google's eyes. I didn't look a lot but your site does seem quite similar to amazon in terms of product offerings and I am wondering if in all the data available on click throughs etc that google has maybe a significant percentage of searchers end up at both sites quite often and therefore the link has been made. I would think perhaps the two brands are also mentioned quite a lot together and even linked to together quite often? Its not I guess that unreasonable if that is the case that google would choose to show these results, and amazon is amazon with the associated domain authority etc that goes along with it so might often get pushed to the top.
In regards the search queries you mention, do you think people do a lot of searches for the name of a book + the brand priceminister? It does not seem that intuitive that they would, although I might be wrong! If the searches are not happening that often, and since amazon is ranking highly anyway for the titles of many books, then maybe the book title phrases are simply out weighing the added brand keyword if you see what I mean. The google plus example is indeed a bit odd, but that being said if you search for 'priceminister google+' which I seem to recall is the 'official' way to search for g+ pages then you are front and center.
Not that much help in terms of what to do about it, maybe someone else will have a good idea!
-
Hi Kyle,
Sure our domain is priceminister.com
-
In order to help track down some options are you comfortable with sharing your website's domain?
Thanks - Kyle
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
-
Google Acquisition & Audience Segmentation
Hi. I'm trying to figure out a solution to two questions one of my current clients has asked me in regards to Google Analytics tagging, and I'm unsure how to respond. Can anyone help? See below the questions, 1. In Google Acquisition > Overview, their paid media is reporting as "Other". They do not run any Google paid ads. They only run Facebook paid ads. Is there a way to update the source so that it says "Paid" versus "Other" within the default channel? The current solution was advised to create a channel group that the client has to then tick on overtime they want to see this data with the correct labeling. They would prefer to see it in the default. Is it just a matter of going into the *default channel, choosing the "Paid" option, and then specifying the source/medium that contains Facebook, CPC, or referral to be categorized under this channel? Or is it something else? *Aware that changes to the Default Channel are permanent changes and will change how new traffic is classified. 2. Audience segmentation > The client wants to be able to define it's audience by shopping intent and informational intent. Is there a clear way to do this, for example, by keywords used, e.g. buy, product name, entry (shopping intent), versus e.g. non-purchase intent, entry to the blog, length of time on site (info intent). Would be happy to have a conversation about the last question, since I'm conscious that there are probably multiple ways to define this - thanks. To the group, thank you for readying my questions and helping me with these solutions - your time is appreciated and valued. Sincerely, Amanda
Search Behavior | | AmandaValle.Digital0 -
Google Analytics Tagging
Hi. I'm trying to figure out a solution to three questions one of my current clients has asked me in regards to Google Analytics tagging, and I'm unsure how to respond. Can anyone help? See below the questions, 1. In Google Acquisition > Overview, their paid media is reporting as "Other". They do not run any Google paid ads. They only run Facebook paid ads. Is there a way to update the source so that it says "Paid" versus "Other" within the default channel? The current solution was advised to create a channel group that the client has to then tick on overtime they want to see this data with the correct labeling. They would prefer to see it in the default. Is it just a matter of going into the *default channel, choosing the "Paid" option, and then specifying the source/medium that contains Facebook, CPC, or referral to be categorized under this channel? Or is it something else? *Aware that changes to the Default Channel are permanent changes and will change how new traffic is classified. 2. In Google Acquisition > Overview > Referral, the clients website is showing up as a referring domain, both the TLD and the subdomain. My understanding is that it should actually be reporting under the "Direct" channel. How do I correct this? Is it just a matter of updating the Direct channel to include those domains? Or do I need to update the settings? The domain's www. http: all 301 redirect to their https://domain.com and https://subdomain.domain.com. Within settings it has been specified as www.domain.com and URL is http:// - also noticed that Bot Filtering has not been checked, assuming this could mess up the analytic data if not define? Do you know? 3. Audience segmentation > The client wants to be able to define it's audience by shopping intent and informational intent. Is there a clear way to do this, for example, by keywords used, e.g. buy, product name, entry (shopping intent), versus e.g. non-purchase intent, entry to the blog, length of time on site (info intent). Would be happy to have a conversation about the last question, since I'm conscious that there are probably multiple ways to define this - thanks. To the group, thank you for readying my questions and helping me with these solutions - your time is appreciated and valued. Sincerely, Amanda
Search Behavior | | AmandaValle.Digital0 -
Using Google Analytics to See What Time of Day Visitors View My Site
Hi folks, My company has Google Analytics setup for all of our websites, but I am a bit stumped on something. Now, this may not be possible, but am I able to see what time of day visitors most frequently view my blog? I would like to optimize blog post publishing for when I know we have in influx of visitors, yet I cannot find this information on GA. Any input would be much appreciated. Regards,
Search Behavior | | Instabill
Meghan0 -
Why are Google ranking changes so drastic?
Hi SEOmoz community I'm sure this question has been asked numerous times before. At the same time there must be plenty of people out there wondering about the same thing: Why are Google ranking changes so drastic? It's like the diva of search engines. When checking the SEOmoz ranking reports, sometimes lots of keywords improve, the next week it's vice versa. Mind though that the ranking changes are not in proportion. While improving keywords climb up by approx. 1 - 10 positions, declining keywords always get a smack with a 15 - 25 position drop, even though these very same keywords are being targeted onsite through new content. It seems to make no difference after all 😉 Is it possible, that keyword fluctuations are stronger for younger sites? The site I am talking about is about a year old. Is it possible that more competitive keywords see more drastic fluctuations? Would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!!
Search Behavior | | Hermski0 -
How do I get my report to show ranking for a location such as pittsburgh or columbus?
I am not interested in US ranking only Pittsburgh and Columbus as that's where my client's offices are located. Are there settings to help me view our rank on our areas? Thank you!!
Search Behavior | | IEInteractiveServices0 -
Is there a site intelligence product that offers data on subdirectories of a competitor site?
Services like Compete and Quantcast provide information on competitive sites, but as far as I can tell only at the aggregated domain level. Is there a similar service (paid or free) that provides this type of data - especially demographics - for a subdirectory? For example, if my competitor has widely different product categories and I suspect that the audience for Product B is very different from his site as a whole (which is mostly focused around his major product, Product A) is there any way to get info on that without actually owning the site and having access to Analytics/Facebook OpenGraph etc.?
Search Behavior | | jliu.blitz0 -
Google button +1 ( SEO point-of-view )
Hello Folks, First of all, I want to start by: this is a "discussion" topic, which theres no right or wrong answer. I would love to hear from everyone your toughts about the GOOGLE +1 BUTTON , for the SEO point-of-view indeed. I assume that I did not add it to my websites yet, theres some reasons why. You guys added it? How is your audience behaviors against the button, they often click on it? It changed anything in your ranks, after they clicked on it? Thanks in advance.
Search Behavior | | augustos0 -
Drastic Fluctuation in Site Rankings
All, Hope you are having a good day! Recently I had a strange issue with one of my site and I am not sure what might have caused it. I am sure this would be a good place to discuss about it and get some feedback from the elite people in the industry. Here is the problem. Last weekend (On sunday noon) my site which was ranking on Page 1 suddenly dropped its ranking for its main keywords to nowhere, I was panicked to see what was happening and by the end of the day it was slowly coming back and by next morning everything was back. Again on Wednesday noon, the same thing happened. However, this time it din't come up by the next morning. Making it worse, all of my keyword rankings went down from good spots to no where and there was a point when I could no longer see my site. I was worried something might have happened this time and was not sure what could the reason be. On Friday afternoon all the ranking came up better than the previous (which is a very good news for me). At the moment, my site is doing very well and I am really happy about it. I did realize that Google was updating their Algorithm, but this behavior is the strangest I have seen over years. Can someone enlighten me on this peculiar behavior. Is there something wrong with my site or is it a common thing that I have never noticed? I have never done anything blackhat for the site. To be honest, all I have done is some low level link building on the site and the site had some advantage of a re-direct from one my previous site which was doing very well in search engines (I changed it to take advantage of the new domain I had). Your opinions/suggestions are a appreciated.
Search Behavior | | frostmill0