Site Title When Your Domain name is the keyword
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Hello,
I've been struggling with an issue for years. I own UsedCubicles.com. I'm ranked very well, the site generates leads and income on a regular basis. However, I never know what to name the site on the home page. The main keyword I go after is obviously "Used Cubicles". I also have product category named "Used Cubicles". I know google doesn't recognize my Used Cubicles product category as conical and reverts to the home page. I would rather Google use my categories more effectively to rank content or pages.
My current site title on the home page is NOT GOOD. Used Cubicles | Usedcubicles.com. Im nervous to change it, however because Im not sure if its helping me rank for the keyword, which I do. For years I was #1 across the country but lately its been dropping.
Any advice is appreciated.
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Hi everyone,
Thanks for the input. I have made significant adjustments to the design of the home page, adding text content etc. I have noticed my competitors rank for my keywords from their category pages and the category pages I have that rank, rank really well. My issue is coming from certain categories not ranking, instead, google uses my home page. Specifically these categories.
https://usedcubicles.com/product-category/used-office-furniture/
https://usedcubicles.com/product-category/used-cubicles/
I want google to use my category instead of the home page to rank. I have no clue how to fix this. I have added links, content to the categories, changed the home page so its not so similar to the category itself. Google has marked those categories as conical but they just dont rank for the obvious keyword (H1).
Also, please take a look at the new design of the product pages. The intention was to provide more information about each product not only to increase conversions but to decrease bounce rate. So far, we have seen a 15% increase in conversions.
https://usedcubicles.com/product/knoll-reff-cubicles-fully-loaded-rare-find/
The only thing I can think thats holding my categories back is backlinks to the category URL'S
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Hello, In my opinion, adding some relevant contents ( I mean text contents ) to your category is the best way to rank your specific category page. however, you can link to your specific category from the top of your home page, with "Used Cubicles" anchor text for a limited time, for example, 2 months.
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Hi Ross,
thats very helpful, thank you. In the past, I've always thought adding products to the home page helps with SEO and increases conversions. I've actually seen this work many times via hotjar over the years. However, more and more companies are switching to show product categories on the home page instead of products. I think this would help make some of my other categories rank better and be shown as conical. Long story short, I think having that many products on the home page is affecting my category rankings. It's always risky business making massive changes to the home page, especially when its the page that ranks the best.
Another thing I recently did to help ranks is up date my products. Some of the products were posted years ago, I changed some of the content and moved the post date forward in time. Hopefully that has an affect as well.
Also, back to our first conversation, Im beginning to go after the keyword "Used Office Furniture". :).
I had briefly changed my site title on the home page to reflect this, that keyword is much more powerful than Used Cubicles. For now, I think Ill let my category of used office furniture bake for a bit.
Thanks,
Grant
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Hi there,
I would only keep "Used Cubicles" as your Title since you have an exact match domain. Upon checking your competitors, I see that your competitor has more text on his inner page, you must expand your content on your home to outrank. The rule of thumb is to have 20-30% more text than your competitor. In addition to that, you might need to build more exact match anchor texts to the home page.
Ross
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