I've hit a wall. What's next?
-
I've been working on creating content and optimizing my website for the past 18 months, and have seen decent gains in organic traffic. Recently my keyword ranking increases have slowed dramatically, despite adding additional content. I'm hoping a fresh set of eyes can spot something that may be holding me back. I appreciate any feedback the MOZ community is able to provide.
One area of concern/confusion is the number of pages indexed according to GSC. The number tends to go up and down, and I can't figure out why. Of the roughly 8,000 pages that are submitted through the sitemap, it says only around 1,100 are indexed (sitemap page). The index status page says I've got 7,500 pages indexed. Kind of confused on that one.
Anyway, my website is MetroAtlantaHome dot com. Thanks everyone!
-
Matt,
Thank you for taking a look at my site. I really appreciate the feedback.
I had noticed the search results with parameter tags being indexed as well. I tried limiting Google's crawler to non-parameter pages about 8 months ago, but didn't seem to do much. I was afraid one of my settings was messing things up so I deleted it and selected let GoogleBot decide for all of them. Not sure why the paginated pages are being indexed too. I thought I'd read where the paginate tag was similar to the canonical tag and Google would treat it as a signal not to index. I would think if GoogleBot can crawl and index the paginated search pages, it could also crawl the listing results on all those pages. I do have a large portion of listing pages on my site no-indexed since they don't fall within my service area and I used to get a ton of calls about them. Maybe that is causing issues for all the listing results pages to not be indexed.
In regards to Screaming Frog, which settings did you use? I use the preset user agent GoogleBot Regular and have thousands of pages that it crawls. Wish I could replicate your scan to see what might be holding things up.
Regarding the Wistia sitemap, I put it in the robots.txt file to try and get the videos embedded on my site indexed. I didn't realize this was hurting more than helping.
Thanks again for your feedback and taking the time to review my site.
-
As far as the discrepancy in numbers, Google is indexing a lot of ?search= parameter results (as well as /listing/ results) but the search ones are not in your sitemap. Your site doesn't crawl all the way very well - I put it in ScreamingFrog twice and only came up with about 400 pages - some listings pages but not the thousands Google has in the index.
You have a number of paginated pages:
- http://www.metroatlantahome.com/contemporary-style-homes/300000-400000/?p=5
- http://www.metroatlantahome.com/contemporary-style-homes/300000-400000/?p=3
Your canonicals take care of this issue for the search index but your search page results seem to be "indexed" even though they aren't in your sitemap. See the attachment.
So I think you're gaining indexed pages from the search parameter but losing them from /listings/ that aren't indexed and harder to crawl. I would suggest submitting sitemap_0.xml directly to Search Console as a start. Then trying to figure out why those pages don't crawl very well.
The Wistia sitemap in your robots.txt is also NOT something I'd want Google to ever see but having it in robots.txt ensures they do. I'd try to remove that from robots.txt
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
-
I'm a beginner with Google Analytics, what is a good place to start?
I'm a beginner with Google Analytics, what is a good place to start? Would love to know some simple ways to set up Google Analytics to keep SEO in check. What are some of your suggestions? How would you go about using GA to do this? and what are the alternatives? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Eric_S
Eric0 -
Why doesn't Google seem to care about referral spam?
In researching the issue of referral spam, there is no shortage if info, both on MOZ and beyond. But, neither the Google Analytics Blog or Help Forums seem to mention the issue at all. I'd think it is something that they would want to get rid of, yet it seems like they don't even acknowledge that it exists. Anyone have insights into this? Am I missing something, or is Google strangely silent on an issue that is becoming more and more annoying for anyone trying to use GA data?
Reporting & Analytics | | irapasternack1 -
What penalty might have hit here (screenshot attached)
I've had a spiky organic traffic profile for some time and wondered if anyone could suggest what penalty might have hit me. Something did in July but then when it recovered (not sure how) I ended up with double the traffic. Then it dipped, recovered a but and has slowly declined since. I've had no manual penalties so it must be algorithmic which means I can fix it. The problem is I don't know what the issues is! Any help appreciated! Ae00Lzl.png
Reporting & Analytics | | SamCUK0 -
What's the problem with this code for Google Analytics
Hello, I'm using this code in my thank you page to track ecommerce sales in GA. The problem that I'm having is that in the google event the _trackPageview doesn't register the proper page but puts the url of the ecommerce website. The transaction is properly tracked. Any ideas of what could be the issue looking at this code? Maybe there could be other code could be causing the problem? Thanks a lot.
Reporting & Analytics | | nagar0 -
It appears there's a problem with our connection to your Google Analytics account. Please go to your Settings page to update your connection.
I keep getting this error though I have confirmed I have the correct information. Any recommendations?
Reporting & Analytics | | x3oadmin0 -
Google analytics for mobile apps - do we need different id's?
Dear all, if I want to implement Google Analytics for my mobile apps: Do I need different accounts or id's to ensure separate tracking of my website and mobile apps? How did you do it? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | HMK-NL0 -
Google API Tools - Next Analytics
Have you used any API tools like Next Analytics and/or can you recommend another tool that is particularly useful for a SEO?
Reporting & Analytics | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
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