Target Search Terms Changed - does this affect traffic?
-
We spent the last 12 months targeting a particular search term (mortgage broker) and have been ranking well for it consistently for about 6 months now. We have decided to change the target search term to something else (insurance broker) but noticed that our traffic has started to decline since we started doing this.
We are still ranking well for the initial search term, and our ranking is slowly improving for the new targeted search term in SERPs but traffic is down about 60% from January. Is it normal/expected for this to happen?
-
Ok, it is difficult without a full set of data.
But if traffic has dropped and not rankings, then it is seasonal. Mortgage Broker is a big term, so if that is still ranking 1 then sounds ok.
What does sound concerning, is it now sounds like you have a number of sites and they could be interlinked ie a PBN.. so have to factor same in.
It is tough to advise, but my view is if rankings have remained the same and online visibility if you are tracking - then all is good. If rankings for mortgage broker and visibility have declined then it is a problem and site audit should be undertaken asap.
Not sure that helps, as data sets not great, but hopefully a starting point.
Regards
-
The first decline was from Jan to Feb, where traffic dropped by 33%. Feb - March, there wasn't much of a change, March to April it dropped by 56%. This was potentially seasonal due to Easter, as all our other sites also experienced a drop in April but they all recovered in May, except for this site which is still down approx 50% from March.
We are targetting the new search terms on different pages to the original search term.
-
Hi
On traffic decline there have been some major updates, August last year, March 12 and June 4 this year. Do any declines or changes in rankings co-inside with those dates? Or does the decline date within days of site changes?
Secondly, are you targetting these terms on the same page or on different pages?
Regards
-
In my experience, I would expect it to recover assuming that the page is optimised for that the new keyword, that the said keywords are on a new page & that some link building activities are undertaken.
Do you have the URL for me to browse?
-
The business does mortgage broking and insurance broking. We focused on getting "mortgage broker" to rank first, as that is what we were predominantly known for, but now we want to get our name out there for our insurance services too.
Our ranking for "insurance broker" hasn't gone up enough to make up for the drop in traffic. In your experience, do you expect the drop in traffic to last, or will it slowly recover?
-
Sounds like normal behaviour to me, why did you change the focus & how much has Insurance Broker has gone up - has it made up for the drop?
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
-
Should we target Outsource and Offshore on same page?
While doing keyword research I found out that there are 2 keywords with same search count and difficulty level.
Keyword Research | | harshal.khatavkar
Outsource Engineering Design India
Offshore Engineering Design India My question is, should I create 2 separate pages for these keywords with the addition of their extended related keywords or just keep one long page with both these keywords targeted? Technically, Outsource and Offshore have separate meanings but on SERP it seems like both are searched for the same purpose. Can you please share your views on this? Thanks0 -
Should ALL of my blogposts be focussed on my main target keywords for my site?
Hi everyone. I am an interior designer and I'm looking to boost my rankings locally for my target keywords (eg: Interior designer in Cheltenham) and I'm wondering about whether my blog posts should all be planned out with this (and other similar, location based) keywords in mind. For example, should I always make my target keyword for each blog post something related to 'interior design in xxx' or should I look for other keywords just related to my field? Eg: interior design tips, furniture guides, paint colour advice etc, just because it is related? As an example, I am planning a blog post to go on my website which will be about a trip I'm taking to Copenhagen. Could my keyword therefore just be something like 'interior design', and this would be okay? Thanks for reading! Lauren
Keyword Research | | laurenelizabeth19860 -
Site has multiple services, how to target multiple keywords and what to to about citations
Hi i managing a site that has 3 main services its a hotel, a restaurant and a brewery. It has the word brewery in the name and URL and has for years primarily pushed the brewery side and that is doing well its has a good DA and lots of links point back to its home page. Now the problem is it doesn't rank very well for the term hotel or restaurant, theres only 2 referring domains links pointing to its hotel page. All its hotel citations point to the homepage (which is mainly optimised for the keyword brewery) should i update the citations to point to the hotel page which has been optimised for the search term hotel? or should I leave those and just create new citation pointing to the hotel page. Should i right a few blog posts about the businesses hotel and link them to the hotels page? and then I also then do the same for restaurant? I hope i've explained myself well and would appreciate the advice
Keyword Research | | juun0 -
How should i see exact search volume of keywords
One of the seo company provide me the 2 keywords which have a 5400 exact searches per month but when i see this on google adword tool i didn't find 5400. it is only showing around 500-1000 exact searches, so how they are calculating these exact searches.. Here i am posting my screenshot please check - http://i46.tinypic.com/ezs7b.jpg
Keyword Research | | xplodeguru0 -
Global Search Count
If I ranked top on google for a keyword for Exact Local Search Count say 2000.How much of the Exact Global Search Count of 4000 contribute to Exact Local Search Count
Keyword Research | | Frost0 -
Do the search engines kind of test you out at a higher ranking for a short period of time?
I ranked very well for my keywords. They are not competitive. Nonetheless, I got convertible traffic to my blog. Suddenly, I run a search for the keywords and there is this other website ranking higher than me. it seems to be a new website. No data on opensiteexplorer. So, the only thing that I can conclude and which I've been thinking that google does is to test new webpages out for a bit higher up on the rankings. If the bounces are lower than average, then I suspect that they will give you better rankings in the future. Is this somewhat how it works?
Keyword Research | | jamesjd70 -
How to target very broad, umbrella keywords on the homepage
Hey there SEO Mozzers, I'm new to the SEO Moz community and would genuinely appreicate any advice/input on this topic. I'm part of the online marketing team for a UK-based site called Tendea.co.uk. We operate an introductory platform for enabling the connection between parents and families seeking care services (childcare, pet care, senior care, home & garden care, etc.) and individuals providing care services (babysitters, nannies, pet sitters, housekeepers, etc.). To take a US site for comparison, the services are very similar to those offered by Care.com I'm currently having a bit of difficulty as to what very broad, umbrella keywords we should be targeting for the homepage, primarily in the meta title/description. We've started with keywords such as "care, family services, care services, and family care", but I think these terms are almost too generic and aren't necessarily terms we really want to be ranking for. I suggested to our in-house SEO team that we just target some of our strongest keywords from each of the individual care categories for the homepage (babysitter, pet sitter, housekeeper, caregiver, etc.). They were against this idea, though, as we have separate subfolders that target the individual care categories and their specific keywords (tendea.co.uk/childcare, /pet-care, /elderly-care, etc.) Essentially the argeument is that we don't want to be targeting these terms on the homepage and on a separate subfolder page, as then the two pages would be competing for each other's keywords. Instead we're being encouraged to find some sort of umbrella terms to target for the home page that can encompass all of the care categories. For comparison's sake, I took a look at Care.com's meta data and it targets all their specific keywords for the various care categories "Babysitters, nannies, Child Care & Senior Home care - Care.com". Is this the right kind of strategy to take, or do you guys have any suggestions for much broader, umbrella keywords to target on our homepage? Thanks in advance for your input! -Mike
Keyword Research | | Tendea0 -
Does Google gropup similar phrases together as teh same search phrase ?
We have recently been doing a bit of Keyword research using Googles Adwords Keyword tool. This highlighted many variations of a similar search phrase and indicated all had the same number of searches per month. Sush as; "web design in glasgow"
Keyword Research | | kiswebsltd
"website designers glasgow"
"website designer glasgow"
"glasgow web designers" If someone searches on Google for "web design in glasgow" will google rank pages optimised for "website designer glasgow" ? Thank you. Alan0