Why is our login page ranked higher than our homepage?
-
Hello everyone,
When you search "ProtonMail", our Login page always ranks #1 while our homepage ranks #2. We're unsure why this is happening. The PA for our homepage is higher than the login page, and the login page itself basically has zero content except for a login form. We don't want to put the login page on robots.txt, we want to do our best to preserve it so that people can login. However it still does not make sense to us how the login page ranks higher, even though it has a lesser PA.
I'd appreciate any help or advice you might have.
Thank you.
-
I have no evidence of this but maybe Google is taking into account your clickthrough rate. If people search "ProtonMail", and almost always go to the login page they might have bumped it up.
-
I actually think the result makes sense. If you do a Google search for Protonmail (or Hotmail or Gmail) are you most likely:
a) a current user who wants to login
b) a new user searching only for the brand keyphrase?
Your login page is most likely to be the page someone is searching for. Nearly every big service I could find worked this way with the exception of ebay. On a search for Hotmail, the first result is "Sign in"
Nearly everyone in my family types in the website they want to visit and searches Google for it. It drives me NUTS but it's how they browse. I've watched my brother type "facebook" into Google more than I care to admit. But from a user point of view, that's an "address bar" so I typed in Facebook. I want to go to "the Facebook" to see my friends.
I think that's why login would be a preferred page by Google. They expect most people searching to try you would be searching protonmail reviews, protonmail vs gmail, things like that. They wouldn't just search the brand unless they already know you. And of those who know you and are Googling you, most want to login. Make sense?
-
Hi there
I honestly wouldn't consider this an issue. You're login and homepage rank at the top. I would let the nature of the SERPs run it's course.
That being said, I would include a link (other than the logo in the upper left hand corner) to the homepage of sort on the login page. That way you cater to two users - the ones who want to login and the ones that want to learn more about your services.
Also, between you login and homepage, I occasionally get a 408 error when clicking through. I attached a screenshot below. You can learn more about those here.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
-
Thank you for the response Patrick!
We do have several sitemaps and a sitemap index set up at https://protonmail.ch/sitemap_index.xml, and our homepage is given the highest priority.
We'll have to look into disavowing spammy backlinks and see if that helps.
If we put the login page on robots.txt to prevent google from indexing, and then reversed the process to allow google to index it again, do you think it would reconcile the problem possibly? I have a feeling the reason why the login page is kept at that rank is due to the history of that link, because the homepage used to link directly to the login page, however it no longer does (sign in is integrated on homepage), except for the footer.
-
Hi there
I wouldn't be too alarmed, you will find this with some searches for email providers:
Yahoo
Hotmail
AOLI noticed you don't have a sitemap, I recommend creating one and give the most priority to the homepage. From there, I would upload those to both Google and Bing. This will help crawlers understand the website in importance.
I would also take a look at your backlinks - your site (especially your homepage) seems to be getting quite a few spammy backlinks - example. Look which ones can be removed or disavowed.
Try this method and let me know if you see any changes. Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!
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
-
How to replace a custom platform's homepage with another homepage from another platform domain?
I have a question regarding 301 permanent redirection. I currently have three websites, each hosted by different platform/CMS: one by Wix, another by WordPress, and a custom built CMS. I want to have all my three websites to be under the the custom build CMS's URL. What I am most concerned about is that I would like to have the home page of my Wix website to become my custom build CMS's new home page and the original content currently under my custom build CMS would be updated under new sub directories (in which I have access to the custom build CMS's source code). I have never done a 301 redirect before and I would like to know if there is any additional thing I need to do to my current custom build CMS besides assigning all my current content under my custom build CMS to new directories before executing 301 redirects?
Technical SEO | | sihanedutech0 -
An informational product page AND a shop page (for same brand)
Hi all, This is my first foray into e-commerce SEO. I'm working with a new client who sells upscale eBikes online. Since his products are expensive, he wants to have informational pages about the brands he sells eg. www.example.com/brand. However these brands are also category pages for his online shop eg. www.example.com/shop/brand I'm worried about keyword cannibalization and adding an extra step/click to get to the shop (right now the navigational menu takes you to the information page and from there you have to click to get to the shop) I'm pretty sure it would make more sense to have ONE killer shopping page that includes all the brand information but I want to be 100% sure before I advise him to take this big step. Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | MouthyPR1 -
Can redirect URL website also shown on the google ranking? and higher than the original website?
can redirect URL website also shown on the google ranking? and higher than the original website? For example, I create URL B which redirect to website A, and do good SEO on URL B, can URL B rank higher than my original website A?
Technical SEO | | HealthmateForever0 -
Redesigned and Migrated Website - Lost Almost All Organic Traffic - Mobile Pages Indexing over Normal Pages
We recently redesigned and migrated our site from www.jmacsupply.com to https://www.jmac.com It has been over 2 weeks since implementing 301 redirects, and we have lost over 90% of our organic traffic. Google seems to be indexing the mobile versions of our pages over our website pages. We hired a designer to redesign the site, and we are confident the code is doing something that is harmful for ranking our website. F or Example: If you google "KEEDEX-K-DS-FLX38" You should see our mobile page ranking: http://www.jmac.com/mobile/Product.aspx?ProductCode=KEEDEX-K-DS-FLX38 but the page that we want ranked (and we think should be, is https://www.jmac.com/Keedex_K_DS_FLX38_p/keedex-k-ds-flx38.htm) That second page isn't even indexed. (When you search for: "site:jmac.com Keedex K-DS-FLX38") We have implemented rel canonical, and rel alternate both ways. What are we doing wrong??? Thank you in advance for any help - it is much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | jmaccom0 -
Pages not being indexed
Hi Moz community! We have a client for whom some of their pages are not ranking at all, although they do seem to be indexed by Google. They are in the real estate sector and this is an example of one: http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/102-iveagh-gardens-crumlin-dublin-12/2289087 In the example above if you search for "102 iveagh gardens crumlin" on Google then they do not rank for that exact URL above - it's a similar one. And this page has been live for quite some time. Anyone got any thoughts on what might be at play here? Kind regards. Gavin
Technical SEO | | IrishTimes0 -
Descriptions missing from rankings associated with Google Place pages.
Can anyone help me figure out why my rankings that are associated with Google Place pages are missing descriptions? I have a number one result for the top searched keyword in my category but it just doesn't look the same without a description and I'm sure it's affecting CTR too.
Technical SEO | | glideagency0