Ranking Page #1 for Keyword without Hypen, Not at all for Keyword with Hyphen
-
Hi There!
So I work in an industry where there are different conventions for referring to, searching on and spelling the industry name. For example, let's pretend there were a variety of different conventions for referring to the SEO industry. So someone could search for S-EO, SEO, sEO, etc. and those would all be accepted and understood means of referring to the industry.
If we use the SEO example as a comparison for our industry, the two most common conventions would be S-EO and SEO. Using this example, we rank on the first page for the term "SEO" but do not rank AT ALL for the term "S-EO". We have a high-value piece of content that is targeted in the following way: "S-EO (SEO): The Basics Guide" so it is more targeted at the hyphenated word but does not rank at all for the hyphenated version, whereas it is page one for the non-hyphenated term.
As additional pieces of context:
-In general, our site is more targeted at the hyphenated term and there are places where we rank in the top spot for both the hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions. For example, we rank in a top 2 position for both S-EO & SEO software but do not rank at all for the broader "S-EO" term.
-There are times when we do appear on page one for the term "S-EO" but it's typically only for a matter or hours or days and then we disappear entirely from the SERPs for that term. We consistently appear for "SEO."
-I currently do not believe we are dealing with a penalty of any sort - our link profile is clean and our spam score per Moz is 2 / 17.
Any thoughts or ideas as to what is going on here and how we can potentially rank for the term "S-EO?"
-
It probably shows up when you make a change b/c of the "freshness" factor.
-
Another update on this - I added a rel canonical to the page, making it clear what the true URL that should be appearing in the SERPs is. That URL is the same one that shows up on the SERPs for the version of the keyword without a hyphen.
After doing this, the page appeared briefly on the keyword results with a hyphen and then disappeared entirely again within the same day. It still shows for the keyword with no hyphen.
Often, when I make a change to that page, it will appear in the SERPs for the keyword with a hyphen and then disappear entirely again within hours or days. It consistently appears in the results for no hyphen though, regardless of changes to the page.
-
Thanks, Donna. Yeah, I'm with you, it doesn't make sense to me and doesn't seem logical. Hopefully, someone else has a theory on something we're missing.
Thanks for your time in looking into it!
-
I don't see a logical explanation for the results we're seeing Dan.
Your link profile could be stronger, but if that was the root cause I'd expect to see you on page 2 or 3 of search results for e-discovery and yet (as you've mentioned), you're nowhere to be found.
The only thing I can think of, and I don't think it's the explanation either, is that Google is ranking pages that intend to answer the question "WHAT IS e-discovery" and while your content addresses that, it is more focused on HOW TO.
Maybe someone else will see something we're both missing.
-
Hi Donna,
Yes, in instances where we do appear for "S-EO" it is the same result as for SEO.
And the specific term(s) of concern are "ediscovery" (we are the "E-Discovery (eDiscovery): The Basics Guide" result on page one) vs. e-discovery. Thanks!
-
In those instances where you do appear on page one for S-EO, is the page displayed the same as the one when searching for SEO or is it a different result?
And my question is about your link profile compared to the top 10 competitors, not the competitiveness of the search term. Not sure if I was clear about that.
Why don't you share the term you're talking about your domain. If you 're not comfortable doing that, feel free to private message me.
-
Thanks for the reply, Donna.
I believe we do - going back to the example - the terms S-EO and SEO have almost the exact same competition score in Moz, 47% & 48%, respectively (and they really are the same keyword, anyway), and we rank page #1 for SEO but not at all for S-EO...like, not even on the top 200 pages.
Furthermore, I have seen instances where we do appear on page one for S-EO for hours or even days but eventually go away entirely. This makes me think some sort of penalty but, again, I don't see anything in the link profile to indicate that, there have been no black hat tactics that I'm aware of in the three years I've been there, and there's no manual penalty in GSC.
-
Hi Daniel,
I know you said you believe your link profile is clean, but it is strong enough? That's what I'd research first. Do you have enough high-quality incoming links with keyword relevant anchor text to outrank the competition?
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
-
Related Keywords: How many separate pages?
We have an attorney website. There is a practice area that our research shows many different 2-4 word length keyword queries for. The keywords are all very different, but they end up in the same kind of legal action. We're wondering whether we should write many different pages, perhaps 10, to cover all the basic different keyword categories, or whether we should just write a few pages. In the latter situation, many of the target key words would be mentioned in the text, but wouldn't get placement in a url or title tags. One basic problem is that since the keyword queries are made up of different words, but result in the same kind of legal action and applicable law, the content of the pages might be similar with the only difference being a paragraph that speaks to that specific key word. The rest of the content would be quite similar among the pages, i.e. "here is the law that applies, contact us." Also, some of the keywords, like the name of the law, would have to be repeated on all the pages.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RFfed90 -
Ranking For Misspelling of Primary Keyword
I have been baffled for the past few months for ranking for the misspelling of our primary keyword BELIZE in the Google U.S. Serps. We are nowhere to be found, but are ranking for the misspelling BELIZ (without the final "e"). We have been online since 1995 on page one everywhere. 11 months ago we did a site redesign changing over to WP as a CMS. We changed all pages from widget-example.html to widget-example and properly 301ed all pages after deleting the old pages. Then we accidentally de-indexed the site for a month due to a robots.txt error. This has been corrected 4 months now. We shared this on the Google Webmaster forums and some kind folks helped with advice - nothing major in our opinion but we implemented most of the tips given. We are doing fine everywhere with all search engines and Google itself in other areas Google.ca Google.bz Google.mx for example. But in our primary market is the U.S. where the majority of our readers are - tourists and retirees looking for our information - we do not exist. The joke is that searching for BELIZ in the U.S. Google Serps has us on Page One. It is a joke that is NOT funny - or maybe some human evaluator made a mistake or is playing a sick joke? We have done a reconsideration request in case there was a manual penalty and we received the no manual penalty form letter. I notice increasingly in Google Live Analytics people typing in our full domain name - I guess out of frustration not getting the site when inputting the primary keyword. I find that I can write a new article and in a couple of weeks it ranks in the top couple pages. Many other pages are found via long-tail only. I find it intriguing that yesterday I wrote a very small article, a press release actually, and today searching for the misspelling BELIZ in the U.S. Google Serp the root domain is ranked #2 and the snippet and image displayed is from this little article which is nothing really great. I am new here. Thanks to anyone who can help. The site: Belize http://www.belize.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Belize0 -
Transfer a page that is already ranked from a second to a third domain level
Hi everybody, i have a page well optimized for my keyword it is on a domain with 28 domain authority it is well linked but it isn't enough to rank first Do you think that buy a third level domain with the keyword inside, put the page on-it and re-index it is a good solution? ( by putting a 301 redirect on the previous page of course ) now i'm waiting to be indexed for the new page but nothing appear searching the keyword instead the previous ranked page... thanks Guido
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | guidoboem0 -
Should I redirect secondary keyword page
I have a reasonably high authority home page and have decided to optimise the home page to target a competitive keyword that previously had a specific page that was optimised on an internal page of my site that I have spent time building links to. The internal page has over 200 links to it so should I 301 redirect this internal page to the home page. Will that increase the auhority of the home page further? Or should I keep the internal page as a 'secondary' page for that keyword?. If I do have two pages don't I risk confusing google?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SamCUK0 -
How to Optimize Product Page for Better Ranking in Google?
Today, I was searching for product page SEO on Google for better optimization of product pages and category level pages. I want to introduce about my website structure. Root category: http://www.vistastores.com/outdoor Sub category: http://www.vistastores.com/outdoor-umbrellas End level category: http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas Product page: http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas-california-umbrella-slpt758-f13-red.html I'm doing link building for sub category & end level category page. But, I'm not able to do inbound marketing for product level URLs due to resource problem. But, I have checked that... There are many competitors who are rank well with long trail keyword... I'm selling same product but not ranking well... What is reason behind it? I don't know... Just look at Olefin Red Patio Umbrella search result. I want to rank in top 3 with this kind of long trail keywords... I have made study of following video and article. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/ecommerce-seo-making-product-pages-into-great-content-whiteboard-friday http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/in-search-of-the-perfect-seo-product-page/ I have done all things which were described by them... But, I'm still waiting for good ranking...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Convert keyword rich PDFs to web pages (text & images)
SteriPEN is a portable water purifier that kills viruses, protozoa, e-coli, etc. Because of the technical and safety requirements nature of the product, our website has much documentation of testing, organisms affected, and more. These are in pdf form and can often be found through google search (and through links on specific pages). Because of the keyword-richness of these documents pertaining to microbes SteriPEN kills, etc. does it make sense to convert these pdf's into html text and images? Then I was thinking perhaps writing a blog post AND generating key links on important landing pages to these documents (as html). Removing pdfs may be harmful? Not a clue as to the cost/benefit.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Timmmmy0 -
Landing page indexed and ranking in less then 24 hours
Hi, I got a landing page which went up last night about 11pm. Its been indexed and ranked since then. Its a EMD and has about 600 words of unqiue content. It currently sits on page 9 for what I would say is a non competitive term (the top result is not an EMD and has 10 backlinks from the same site, which has no PR). Now my question is this: Would you say that page 9 is the given position Google thinks this website should sit at? Or because its so new could I very much expect some more movement? Basically up the rankings? Cheers
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | activitysuper0 -
Google swapped our website's long standing ranking home page for a less authoritative product page?
Our website has ranked for two variations of a keyword, one singular & the other plural in Google at #1 & #2 (for over a year). Keep in mind both links in serps were pointed to our home page. This year we targeted both variations of the keyword in PPC to a products landing page(still relevant to the keywords) within our website. After about 6 weeks, Google swapped out the long standing ranked home page links (p.a. 55) rank #1,2 with the ppc directed product page links (p.a. 01) and dropped us to #2 & #8 respectively in search results for the singular and plural version of the keyword. Would you consider this swapping of pages temporary, if the volume of traffic slowed on our product page?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JingShack0
