Chasing a particular keyword (and failing)
-
Hello,
Its probably the most common and annoying questions, but I'm pulling my hair out a bit (not helped by not really knowing what I'm doing). I'm trying to optimise this http://www.architecturaldecor.co.uk/collections/antique-door-handles collection page for the main keyword 'antique door handles' secondary keyword 'antique door knobs'. Mid February I changed the URL, title and description and it started to move up the rankings, I then tidied up the descriptions, titles, ALT tags for all the products in that collection and it moved up to #13 quite quickly. However over the last 10 days it dropped down page 2 and today it's down to page 3. Whats more frustrating is 90% of those ranked in front of me don't actually sell antique door handles.
When I tidied up the products in that collection I was increasing using the term 'antique door handles'.
Any suggestions would be really, really welcome, have I overdone 'antique door handles' in the product descriptions.
Thanks in advance, Paul.
-
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your reply, yes that's exactly what I was thinking I've ended up with regimental descriptions and keywords across all collection pages in the hope of just increasing search based on the keywords. The website was up and running for some time before I started to try and tidy it up and optimise the pages. My worry was affecting the keywords I was already ranking for (that particular page ranks quite high for some more specific keywords associated with 'antique door handles') which is sort of why I ended up with lists of keywords. I'm going to have to do some research, writing content is not my strong point, would you have any suggestions on where to start with some research?
I've been working on some quality links but not easy, the 2 relevant ones I had dropped off.
All those images of the handles are associated to other listings I have.
I had briefly looked at the product schema but looked a bit complicated for me but I'm going to have a relook.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond, its appreciated.
Paul. N
-
Paul,
The content above the images is not very good at all and could be seen as spammy. I also noticed as I read it that these are actually antique or vintage door handles and knobs. I would want that to be clear on the site. So my paragraph would make that clear from the beginning: If you want REAL Antique or Vintage door handles and not replicas, you have come to the right place! Each of our door knobs or handles have been slightly reconditioned... Then for the types I would use bullets and not keep repeating the terms.
I looked at the site and this page has no external links to it which would be helpful. You would also be well served to implement product markup using schema.
I also noticed that when I did an image search on the 20's rose brass ball handles there was your image and then the same one for tons of ebay listings. One thing that can be helpful with products is to have your own images that you have taken. If these are your images I would put a copyright symbol on them, and I would make sure that weekly to monthly someone does an image search and files complaints on anyone using them without your permission. (You could also email the person using them and tell them if they use that image they MUST link back to you with a followed link to your page!) You are fairly niche, so this should not be too difficult and it could be very helpful to you.
I personally do not focus a ton on the competitor pages until I have things "near right" on the page.This should at least give you something actionable to start with that should help with rankings over time.
Best
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
-
Is Bing also ignoring meta Keywords tags?
Hi, I originally asked about pros (or lack of them) when it comes to using meta keywords tags here https://moz.com/community/q/importance-or-lack-of-meta-keywords-tags-and-tags-in-drupal. It was most likely related to Google, I guess. Is that the same if it comes to Bing as few sources are not sure how this SERP consider using meta keywords tags and people only speculating. Anyone has any kind of "confirmed" responses or experience? Thank you in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Optimal_Strategies0 -
Keyword Saturation
Hi guys, A run a niche price comparison website and the keywords I'm targeting are the product names themselves. I recall Moz recommended that using the keyword too many times on site was not a good thing. Typically, I would have a unique description for the products and the list of merchants, prices, links to thier site and thier product names. This resulted in my keyword appearing many times on site, in slightly different forms (the product names were taken from the merchants feed) I no longer see this warning in the recomended and I believe it is more transparent for my visitors if they see the merchants website name on my site. Is it safe to put them back on my site? Mark
On-Page Optimization | | MrPenguin0 -
Ecommerce- Keyword use in Product links on Category page
I'm wondering how Keyword use in Product links on Category pages can affect a pages rank? I have 1 site where this seems to be an issue but not on all categories. For this site, a site: keyword search ranks the category page as no.1 in the SERPS but a non-site: search shows 1 of the many products within the category as the highest ranking page (currently 20 in google) on this site. This product is probably the least likely to generate a conversion due to it's cost so this is less than ideal. The plural search of the keyword shows the category page and it ranks higher than the keyword itself (currently 9 in google) Category name and URL = keyword. The category is paginated with 12 products per page. Product URL and anchor text is brand-model-type (where type = keyword) I'd like to keep the product URLs and anchors as they are if I can as they are well searched terms themselves but I want to optimize a category page to rank for the keyword itself. Have any of you overcome a similar issue? Would adding more text to the category page dilute the issue?
On-Page Optimization | | MarcOZ0 -
Keyword usage in eCommerce Sites - Danger of keyword stuffing?
Hi all, I'm having a little difficulty deciding the best approach for selecting my product titles as I've encountered a few issues. I understand how important it is to try and use the keyword in your product titles, but about the category page that lists all of these products? One of category pages, for example, has 16 products on it. Each has the product title followed by the keyword. I have also used the keyword in the category title, URL, breadcrumbs and two or 3 times (because it was natural) in a paragraph that describes the category etc. Due to the little amount of text on the page, and the sheer amount of times that the keyword is being used, it looks like I am keyword stuffing (By Moz On Page Report Card). I think it came to 23 uses of the same keyword altogether. This is the pretty much teh same throughout every category page on my site, and think I was penalised by Google for this reason. I'm a relatively new site and have done everything by the book as far as I know, so everything is pointing at this to be the cause of the drop/disappearance in ranking. How do I rectify this problem? It's important for the products to have the keyword in, right? As this is one of the SEO practices that is given more weight when considering rankings. I have thought a potential way around this, which is to split the keyword between an exact match, and a variant of the keyword in the titles - only very slightly though. So my product titles would look like 'Product A Exact Match Keyword', 'Product B Variant on Keyword' etc. Could this work? Can anybody advise on the best thing I could try? I have attached an image to give you an idea of the layout of my category pages - Apologies in advance about my embarrassingly rubbish photoshop skills! I wasn't able to upload directly, so I have attached a link. Thanks for reading, John 4iIkmSx
On-Page Optimization | | John_Francis0 -
Positioning the keyword in two pages
Hi there! I've decided to use four criteria (keywords) for my website. The "problem" is that I have to use the same keyword (criteria) in two different pages. Is there a problem If I do this? On the other side, there are two sections of the web that (I assume) must have title and description tag as well as a keyword/criteria (Contact and Registration)....any advice?¿should they have a ttile and a description?¿Should they have a keyword associated? Thanks in advance for the answer.
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Lead With Branded Keywords or Descriptive Keywords in Page Title for (Niche) Site?
Our site is hingeheads.com, and our products and product catalog are unique in two ways. For one our product is not something that people are generally aware of, and secondly our entire product catalog consists of different variations of the same product. **Catalog Overview: **http://hingeheads.com/collections/all Product Example: http://hingeheads.com/products/dolphin I keep wondering if it is better to lead the title with "branded keywords" [1] or with "descriptive keywords" [2]? Dolphin HingeHead | Unique Home Decor & Gift Idea | HingeHeads Dolphin Decor Accessories & Unique Gift Ideas | HingeHeads I am currently going with the second solution, but I am always wondering if that's the right/better solution. I am curious to hear feedback from people who have more experience with this than I do. How would you structure the title for our product pages? Thanks! Kai
On-Page Optimization | | hingeheads0 -
Meta Keywords, Should I just remove them?
howdy guys, I am helping my father out with his SEO for his company. I am taking over the SEO helm so to speak and have to do a complete on site make over( offsite as well eventually soon) He has on every page meta keywords that are just stuffed with "money keywords" and they are the same on every page, Should i just delete them entirely and leave that attribute blank? Hope to hear back soon, thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | david3050 -
Exact keyword or partial match?
Hello, SEOmoz What would you chose for your keywords for on page optimization: sterling silver necklaces sterling silver necklaces, silver necklaces I am thinking that choice #1 would full fill it's duty, because all key words are there already, am I right?
On-Page Optimization | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0