Ranking in SERPs but not using terms on website.
-
As far as I know, it's not normally possible for a website to rank for a keyword that is not mentioned on the website. I have seen a website that ranks very well for key terms and yet they are not mentioned anywhere on the website, I have run advanced search & checked using tools including cloak checker on my findings.
How can this be?
-
If I link to your website with the link text "SEO Moz" you can then rank for the term "SEO Moz" without having it on your site.
-
Hi Lee,
without being able to double check keywords on that particular domain I suggest two possible factors working on google that you may be overlooking:
-
hummingbird engine and semantic search. Google is trying to get the searchers intent not just plain keywords. Is possible that the site you're seeing is being highly related with the market they are thus getting a boost in all terms related to that topic.
-
google bombing. this is something it used to work and even if some say no, it still work sometimes. Bombing was a practice to use exact anchors to give authority on a site about something without even mention that. Some people are worried about this being a possible negative seo practie and some other uses that as an optimization factor. What I can say is that google bombing could work but not as it was. As this is not related to keywords but to topic, as the linking site topic will be passed to the linked one and if that site accrues more links it vcould be possible to see it ranking for such topics.
-
-
Valid information from all contributors thanks.
The site is related to the key terms however these are specific competitor multiple brands key terms which seems to rank very well for considering the brands aren't mentioned on the website.
I've checked backlinks, anchor texts, internal site search etc and nothing coming up for the brand terms and yet rank well. Trying to figure out how this is possible...
-
Intriguing love these problems.
The above two answers likely have it covered - on the off chance have you checked their referring domains - could they have bought a domain that ranked for those keywords and then done a 301 re-direct. Somehow the devaluation for relevance has been missed by google.
-
Hi there
I would agree Direct here - Google looks at topics and variations of keywords, so you may be ranking for variation terms, or what Google thinks are variation terms.
A few questions:
Are the terms you are ranking for related to your site, industry, or content in any way? Even loosely?
Are the terms you are ranking for high level or very broad? Or are they granular?
Have you looked at your backlinks and anchor text?
Are you ranking at all for the keywords/queries you want to be ranking for?
Have you been regularly checking your Search Console queries?I would look into your on-site SEO and content to see what may be causing your issue. You may be producing content in a way that's confusing search engines or users.
Take a look at the resources above and let me know if they help at all - good luck!
-
assuming you are referring to Google ranking.
Google's algorithm and technology is more advanced than just "actual " keywords, but also understands related keywords. you could be ranking due to this.
If you are not ranking for the keywords you are aiming for, check for over optimisation on your website.. or even under optimisation..
R
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
-
Fetch and render partial result could this affect SERP rankings [NSFW URL]
Moderator's Note: URL NSFW We have been desperately trying to understand over the last 10 days why our homepage disappears for a few days in the SERPS for our most important keywords, before reappearing again for a few more days and then gone again! We have tried everything. Checked Google webmaster - no manual actions, no crawl errors, no messages. The site is being indexed even when it disappears but when it's gone it will not even appear in the search results for our business name. Other internal pages come up instead. We have searched for bad back links. Duplicate content. We put a 301 redirect on the non www. version of the site. We added a H1 tag that was missing. Still after fetching as Google and requesting reindexing we were going through this cycle of disappearing in the rankings (an internal page would actually come in at 6th position as opposed to our home page which had previously spent years in the number 2 spot) and then coming back for a few days. Today I tried fetch and render as Google and was only getting a partial result. It was saying the video that we have embedded on our home page was temporarily unavailable. Could this have been causing the issue? We have removed the video for now and fetched and rendered and returned a complete status. I've now requested reindexing and am crossing everything that this fixes the problem. Do you think this could have been at the root of the problem? If anyone has any other suggestions the address is NSFW https://goo.gl/dwA8YB
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GemmaApril2 -
Why have my rankings dropped?
I have a client who has just seen his average page rank creep up from around 39 to 34 over about two months, then it appears to have dropped back to position 40+ in the space of a week. I believe he's made a lot of changes to targeted keywords, so I'd like to think it's simply because his old targeted keywords are dropping and new keywords still have to build their rankings. But I'm also worried in case he has over-optimised and might get getting penalised. Any advice on where to start digging?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
If a website Uses <select>to dropdown some choices, will Google see every option as Content Or Hyperlink?</select>
If a website Uses <select> to dropdown some choices, will Google see every option as Content Or Hyperlink?</select>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Zanox0 -
100% links within the website - could it rank?
Hi, If I create blog posts inside my website and link it back to my website, Would it still rank? I understand that its better to get links from the established domain. But I just wonder what kind of impact would my site have if the blog posts within my site link back to itself for ranking. Please let me know. thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | zsyed0 -
Moz Rank and how to do better?
Could anyone offer me some help regarding Moz Rank? Of all the metrics this seems to be one where we want to improve but just have not been able to. Does anyone have any advice or tips that we could look at implementing to get this thing to move at all?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | halloranc0 -
Hosting two websites
Hi guys, I work with a company that has a business to consumer (B2C) website and a business to business (B2B) website selling the same product. The content will differ but the structure / templates will be similar across both sites. Any recommendations or suggested reading to ensure both sites appear in Search? Many thanks in advance! Richard
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Richard5550 -
Can I use the same source for two different websites?
I have developed a successful portal based website but would like to grow my portfolio of sites by expanding into new niches and sectors. I would like to use the same source code to fast track new sites but I'm not sure of the dangers involved. Content, meta details etc. will all be unique and the only similarity will be the html code. Another example of how I want to use this is that my current site targets the UK but I want to target a global market with a .com domain and this would involve using the same source. Is this possible without a penalty or am I overlooking something?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mulith0 -
Does Google Use Security Seals As A Trust/Ranking Signal
There are quite a few secuirty seals/site safety tools by some big antivirus/trust companies Mcaffe site secuirty, verisign etc. Does Google, or any other big search engines use these as a trust/ranking signal?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rhysmaster0