A good experiment to test keyword/vertical difficulty?
-
I'm trying to rank a brand new client site but getting nowhere for our main keyword/s - this after 6 months. We have built lots of good links and literally tried everything to fix this. What's a good way for me to test the keywords on a different page / domain to be certain the problem isn't with the vertical/keyword?
I'd love to have some advice on this vs. how to fix the problem, which I've asked about here before. I'm assuming buying and trying to rank a new domain is a bad idea since sandboxing etc. could make it very difficult. Perhaps sending some links to a Tumblr page that's optimized for the main keyword or something similar?
Would love to hear some suggestions - thanks a lot.
-
Thanks. As mentioned, however, I'm really just looking for advice about a quick experiment i could perform (solid authority domain one may be possible, but would hope to try something else first).
-
A few things to consider:
- Are you sure you haven't built too many "good" links and penalized yourself for those terms?
- Is the site ranking for other terms, or other related terms?
- When you say you are getting nowhere, do you mean that you aren't front page, that your rankings have stayed exactly where they were, or that you continue not to appear in search results for that term?
If you have a solid authority domain laying around, you might try building some content on it related to your term and see if you get any coverage. If you do, and the coverage is better than with the site you are trying, then odds are you have a tainted domain (either through your actions, or some previous actions), or you simply do not have enough authority to rank.
-Jake Bohall
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
-
Difficulty with Indexing Pages - Desperate for Help!
I have a website with product pages that use the same URL, but load different data based on what's passed to them with GET. I am using a Wordpress website, but all of the page information is retrieved from a database using PHP and displayed with PHP. Somehow these pages are not being indexed by Google. I have done the following: 1. Created a site map pointing to each page. 2. Defined URL parameters in Search Console for these type of pages. 3. Created a product schema using schema.org, and tested it without errors. I have requested re-indexing repeatedly and these pages and images on the pages are still not being indexed! Does anybody have any suggestions?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jacleaves0 -
Best approach to rank for this keyword?
Hi i want to rank for the keyword "white sandals" on Google Australia. Currently, the top 5 ranking pages are not optimised and specific to white sandals. See screenshot: https://image.prntscr.com/image/WenSRHqTTFSqYNg2MHvH1A.png To rank for this keyword, would you create a page dedicated to white sandals even though it looks like it doesn't matter and you could rank the broader sandals page (not colour specific). Any recommendations? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | crazy4seo780 -
SITEMAP - Does <changefreq>and <image:title>have any apreciable effect?</image:title></changefreq>
Hi everyone. It was hard to find some actual evidence that some of the atributes to be declared in a sitemap have some real impact.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gaston Riera
Particularly, im interested in these two: <changefreq></changefreq> and**image:title</image:title>** I've used them in a few cases just to check their effect and couldnt see any.
Do you have any experience with these? Or any other atribute that might be helpful, in order to create a more accurate and effective sitemap? Also, this could be a great topic to create a new Moz Blog post, the one about sitemap is 8years old.0 -
Keywords in URL: sub-directory or single layer keywords?
Hi guys, im putting together a proposal for a new site and trying to figure out if it'd be better to (A) have a keyword split across multiple directories or duplicate keywords to have the keyword hyphenated? For example, for the topic of "Christmas decor" would you use; (A) - www.domain.com/Christmas/Decor (B) - www.domain.com/Christmas/Christmas-Decor in example B the phrase 'Christmas' is duplicated which looks a little spammy, but the key term "Christmas decor" is in the URL without being broken up by directories. which is stronger? Any advice welcome! Thanks guys!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JAR8971 -
My website is ranking well on most of keywords. How do I find more keywords in order to drive more traffic to my website?
I have a website which is ranking well on some good keywords ie generic and long tail. It is also ranking for some really competitive keywords. and now getting constant traffic. I want to increase organic traffic to my website. What are the best possible ways to do this? How to research more keywords and how to identify that they will really work? Please help, I am confused.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rishi.ast0 -
SEO before Replatforming - Good Idea?
Hello, We are in the midst of a major replatforming of our current website, the process will take roughly six to nine more months to complete. We are completing revamping our site - the new site will be on the same domain, but almost everything is changing - from the category structure, hierarchy, architecture, different regions on separate URLs will not be on the same with a currency converter, URLs - you name it, we're changing it. There has been internal discussions for some time on whether we should hire an outside firm to help us with our SEO. I have a lot of experience in SEO but my role has changed recently and we have had trouble filling my previous role. We are not looking for help with the replatforming project, we have a great plan in place to preserve link equity, tags, etc. We are looking for general SEO help as if replatforming wasn't on the table. My question is, is this smart to do before replatforming? In my opinion, it's not. Our new site will have completely different URLs and will be so dramatically different. We could have someone do some keyword research, but we have already done the bulk of it. We have thought about and researched keywords for every new page we are creating. But from a technical SEO perspective, I don't see the point in getting someone. In addition, we just had a major SEO audit done last year and we completed the tasks from that audit on the current site; however, most of the changes were technical, not content based. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Colbys0 -
Double Forward Slash in URL //
My client is using double forward slahes in URL like this "//" is this affecting SEO?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | yanaiguana1110 -
Best Keywords for my local niche
Hello, I'm a health coach helping people with multiple sclerosis. Here's my website: bobweikel(dot)com What do you think the top 4 local keywords would be for my niche? I'm in Boise ID. I'm thinking MS Boise MS Boise Idaho Multiple Sclerosis Boise Multiple Sclerosis Boise Idaho With your intuition, do you think these are valuable keywords for a coaching site? Also, can you think of any other keywords? I want this 100% white hat (no cloaking, for instance)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0