Can't figure this ranking out..
-
Hi,
This is puzzling me. I've been in the second/third position for a week or so for my best keyword. That is for Google US unpersonalized, which is the one that brings more traffic, as far as I understand.
It can't get MUCH better. Well, I can be first, but second and third position is really awesome in my case (highly competitive keyword according to SEOMOZ PRO).
Then, why on earth my traffic for that keyword was 8 times better a year ago??
I mean, a year ago I received an average of 800 visits per day and now I can barely reach 90 visits per day being in the second / third place. Visits can't increase from 90 to 800 just for increasing one spot.
I've never seen in my stats such drop in my rankings. I thought that due to google updates my site was sent below the 20th position or something. But my I was shocked today when I saw that I still have the second/third position
Am I crazy or this looks wrong? The page title and description that shows in google hasn't changed, so people looking for that keyword are seeing the same as one year ago. It is not a seasonal or time sensitive keyword.
My best guess is that people are now always logged in and results are personalized. Don't know much about personalized results but I don't think you can optimize much for those. If that's the case, then how on earth can we optimize a page if everybody is using personalized results?
Is there a way to improve your rankings in those cases?
Thanks,
Enrique
-
I agree with Ryan. Without being more specific it's impossible to tell what is going on. It could be any number of things. One thing you could do is look at GA for your top pages, then look at what keywords are bringing people to those pages. If a large majority is "not given" you may be able to guess what some of those words are if that makes sense.
-
If you can share the actual keyword and your site name, we could offer better details. Without that information, we are left to generalities. A few things to consider:
-
Google now considers searches by those logged in as private. A chunk of searches for your site no longer show for the keyword involved.
-
While I love the SEOmoz toolset, a rating of "highly competitive" has little meaning. There is not a meaningful way to rate competitiveness without an experienced SEO examining the rankings and factors involved.
-
Any change in rankings (from 2 to 3 for example) would certainly impact traffic
-
The ads can change and impact traffic
-
Your competitors might be using more compelling titles or meta descriptions (i.e. Free Shipping or 25% off)
-
keyword volumes can fluctuate wildly throughout the year. For example "gift basket" searches are much higher before mother's day, then the term drops
-
Many keywords fall out of favor as they are replaced by other keywords over time. A singer/actor's popular can fluctuate wildly from year to year. Interest in various topics can change wildly
-
Google has made hundreds of changes over the past year which impacts search results. One example is the increased importance of local search. You may rank #2 in organic search, but the way the search results are displayed you might not even show as above the fold. There could be 3 ads, then the first organic result, then 7 local results, then your second place organic position.
There are other factors as well. You can continue to apply SEO best practices to improve your ranking over time.
-
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
-
MOZ rankings HUGE drop to 1
Hello, My website's MOZ rankings dropped dramatically to DA 1 PA 1 MOZ rank 0 Backlinks 0. A problem seems that my backlinks are no longer recognised, as there are of course many backlinks active and not the 0 mentioned. Also, I recently experienced a big drop in Google SERP, only for my homepage (main keyword), not for subpages (longtail). I don't know what might be the cause for the SERP and MOZ drop. The only thing I can think of is that the past months I first changed from http://www.mydomain to http://my domain and later to https://mydomain However this was done properly and added in Google search console. Also Google SC does recognise my backlinks still (eventhough most are to the old redirected http://www.mydomain version). Can this be the cause, or do you have any suggestions what might be the cause, or what I can do to find out? Obviously I am interested in finding out the reason for the big SERP drop as this might have to do with the same cause for the big MOZ drop. Thanks! 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Torilion0 -
How do sites without access to a site's analytical data, determine a site's organic traffic?
I've recently used a organic traffic checker that showed you your traffic compared to each google algo update. I was interested in how they derived the organic traffic totals for each month, without having access to our site's google analytics? I've since compared the data to historical google analytics data and it's not wrong, isn't 100% match either but isn't far from fact. So if they're predicting or making a guess, it's rather spot on, site crawlers and SERPs snapshots only provide so much info, I'm just wondering where they get the rest from and how?
Reporting & Analytics | | Deacyde0 -
Can I view lost links?
Hello! One of the blogs I'm tracking has literally lost like half of the number of external followed links. So, I have two questions really 1) is that common at all? it seems odd that that many would be removed 2) is there a way to see the specific links that were lost? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | yandl
Kevin0 -
Schema Rich Snippet Markup tool is validating the markup but it says it isn't in Webmaster Tools.
All my Schema Rich Snippets are being validated in the webmaster tools Rich Snippet tester tool here http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets But when I go take a peek at the new tab in Webmaster tools when I'm signed into my analytics account it shows there are no active Markups on my site. Has anyone else been having this issue? If it says it's working in the Google tool from the link above should I even be worried if its not showing up when I'm signed into my analytics account? Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | DCochrane0 -
Changed URL's, traffic dropped from 2k week to 1K week. Need advice!
Hi Mozers, I recently changed my URLs for my ecommerce site and my traffic went from 2,000 visitors a week to 1,000 visitors a week, over a 3 week period. Traffic is down, so are unique Kwds. I need advice on why this happened and what I should do moving forward. To brief, I have a ecommerce website, www.ecustomfinishes.com. I noticed pattern that a lot of my URLs with a unique URL structure (URL.Com/ProductDescription/ProductName) were getting a lot of entrances ~30-50 a month, and others that followed the path of my subcategory (URL.com/SubCat/Product) were getting 0-3 entrances a month. The seo pattern was that those with unique product URLs were hitting long tail Kwds, and those URLs with /subcategory/product were getting far less traffic. I changed 150 or so urls to be unique. Good idea, I thought. Since then: CON: Since then my traffic dropped from 2200 visitors a week to 1100 visitors a week. -25% week to week, over 3 weeks CON: # of non-paid keywords sending visits: -25% week to week, over 3 weeks PRO: my Urls receiving entrances +10% week to week, over 3 weeks REF: http://imgur.com/GwZT8 Question: What are your best suggestions moving forward? Any advice is much appreciated, Thank you!!! abBN3
Reporting & Analytics | | longdenc_gmail.com0 -
Increase in 'Googlebot-Image' visits in analytics
Hi, I noticed a substantial increase in 'Googlebot-Image' visits data under Technology>Browser & OS in Google analytics for a few clients. Is this a bug? Are there any known fixes apart from just adding a filter to exclude the data? Regards Niladri
Reporting & Analytics | | neildomain0 -
Why Does This Page Rank Badly?
Hi, The page in question is: http://www.toymart.com/details.php?id=1764 The problem is that this and most of the other 10,000 pages used to rank well but now are really struggling.
Reporting & Analytics | | ToyMart3
I am begining to suspect that I have some sort of Google penalty but I cannot know for sure.
I believe I comply with all Google guidelines and I think the SEO is good.
Possibly the eBay affiliate links are the problem but they form a large part of the content and user experience.
The page gives a price guide for items in different conditions and has various other tools for the user. Any thought would be appreciated. Thanks for your time in advance. Alan0 -
Tracing Google Analytics 'goal' back to original search phrase
I added Goals to my Google Analytics tracking. It's working; I get visitors who have completed Goals showing up in the reporting. My question is: Is it possible to trace backwards from a completed Goal to the original search phrase a user entered in Google to come to my site (for those who entered from Google.com via organic search result)? I'm trying to answer the question of which search phrases are resulting in completed Goals (as opposed to bouncing off the site or just any behaviour other than completing a Goal). It seems like this should be one of Analytics' default reports -- help identify which search phrases are converting well. It's probably there and I'm just not seeing it... Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | scanlin0