Home page rankings disappeared - Google Penalty?
-
Hi,
I have a clients website that I have been working on for a few months now.
On-page SEO for home page is A for all target keywords.
All Domain / subdomain / external link data etc. much stronger than all competition.
But approx 3 months ago (before Panda update) all home page rankings (except 1 keyword) dropped out sight in Google rankings. 3 months later, still can't work out why. Sometimes rankings come back onto page 9 or so then drop out again.
Deeper pages are not effected, just the Home page.
Looks like a Google penalty to me but can't work out why.
Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
Website is - www.marrikashairextensions.com
Many thanks
-
Hi Daniel,
Many thanks for your response.
there are a couple of things I don't quite understand and would appreciate your guidance.
You suggest that I target a different page for the keyword 'brazilian hair extensions' but what I don't understand is why the Home Page is failing to rank for this keyword when according to seoMoz's on page keyword optimization tool it scores a Grade A and I have built hundreds of anchor text links to the page (not spam)?
My real issue here is to understand why, why, why. When all the seoMoz metrics and on-page analysis suggest that my clients website should be competing at least in the top 10 for this keyword why is it at position 198 at best. It just doesn't make sense.
www.marrikashairextensions.com vs www.princessnaturalhair.com/
Overall Score 35% 31%
Page mozRank 4.15% 4.11%
Page mozTrust 5.04% 4.90%
External mozRank 3.84% 4.20%
Subdomain mozRank 3.55% 3.62%
Domains Linking 6328% 910%
External Links 6514% 267%
The search engine that this page is targeting is google.co.uk not .com, where the competition is much weaker, so if you check there, the top 10 have Domain and Page authority of below 20, so makes all this even more difficult to comprehend.
I will certainly take you advice about targeting a different page, but still would really like to understand better why the home page has failed to compete so drastically.
Thanks for you help.
Mark
-
I had a quick look at the site and a few subpages and what I'd suggest is changing the onpage optimization on the home page since this page -> http://www.marrikashairextensions.com/brazilian-hair-extensions you can focus for the keyword 'brazilian hair extensions' . I'd also add some good content about the product on that page since at the moment it's pretty blank.
The results that come up when I search on google.com for that keyword are pages that are stronger in terms of domain strength, backlinks and on page optimization so I'd say it's not a penalty but rather a ranking adjustment. If it were a penalty I don't think it would only affect your home page and leave other sub pages rankings intact.
If you've not done anything black hat(such as buying links) then it's certainly just the algorith changes and you need to work on the site.
Hope that's of some help
-
Hi Daniel,
Keywords =
'brazilian hair extensions' & 'brazilian hair'
Still ranking ok for 'natural brazilian hair' though.
-
HI Mark
Which keywords were you ranking on the first page that you're now not being found?
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
-
UTM Links Showing Up as Separate Pages in Google Analytics
Hey everyone, I was just looking at landing pages in Google Analytics, and in addition to just the URL of the landing page, the UTM links are being listed as separate pages. Is this normal? I anticipated seeing the landing page URL and then using the secondary dimension to see source/medium. If this isn't normal, what would I check next?
Reporting & Analytics | | rachelmeyer0 -
Why don't i have a page rank for charlesvapor.com
www.charlesvapor.com has been up for 5 months and the seo work is completed; i do not have page ranking foir this site and i want to know a little about why; is their any help figuring it out?
Reporting & Analytics | | prostene13590 -
Google webmaster tools hiccup?
Our flagship website, up until March 16 was getting 1600 impressions and 300 branded clicks per day as per GWT. After 3/16, branded search fell to 300 impressions and 25 clicks per day. Our rankings haven't changed, and neither has our traffic. We would definitely notice the decline in GA and Core Metrics, and it is running about the same. according to GWT, 75% fewer people started searching for our brand on 3/16, but all of our other metrics are indicating otherwise. Has anyone seen this before? Is it a tracking issue on our side?
Reporting & Analytics | | AMHC0 -
Google Analytics Organic Accuracy?
Hi, On a cool summers day, I was quenching my thirst for SEO Knowledge in the depths of Google analytics, When I stumbled upon a most troublesome sight. I was Browsing the data inside Acquisition->Keywords->Organic and comparing them to Acquisition->Search Engine Optimization->Landing Pages, to find the results quite questionable.. Since Keywords->Organic measure the visits from the organic results, and Search Engine Optimization->Landing Pages measures the clicks onto one of my landing pages from Google, I assumed they should be the same or very close, (besides Keywords->Organic having visits from other search engines) but they were not the same, as a matter of fact it was telling me that Keywords->Organic visits = 1,474, 27.19% of total(5,422) and Search Engine Optimization->Landing Pages, clicks = 1,548 154.80% of total (1000). Even worst the Search Engine Optimization -> Queries clicks = 1,123, 160.43% of total(700). I have been searching, and come up empty handed in the answer so does anyone know why Google is showing me different results and strange numbers that don't make sense? Any information is greatly appreciated?
Reporting & Analytics | | KBB_Digital0 -
Why does Google dislike us so?
Hi all, Over the past 18 months one of the sites I look after, www.english-inns.co.uk, has taken a massive dip in Google rankings (as per the graph attached). To give you an idea of what the site is about, we're effectively the largest directory of inns in England and have a mixture of exclusive offers direct from member inns but also have some affiliate links thrown into the mix. In terms of steps taken to remedy our falling out of grace with Google, these have included: A complete website redesign Removal of any duplicate content 'Adding value' by including interactive maps, better search functionality, promoting exclusive offers, etc. Unfortunately none of this seems to have helped our situation and we are now sitting at some pretty horrible places in Google's SERP's. For example, even for the keyphrase "english inns" we only rank #5 and this is a term associate with our brand! Perhaps I'm missing something obvious here... can anyone see any glaring issues with the site? Any help would be most appreciated Mozzers. Cheers google-analytics.png
Reporting & Analytics | | dooberry0 -
Why should I use Google Tag Manager and will it help rankings?
hi all I have been reading the documentation here; http://www.google.co.uk/tagmanager/ But cannot find a real GREAT reason for using this and how it will help my fairly small (500/600 visitors/month) hobby website. Any suggestions help most welcome! Thanks Andy
Reporting & Analytics | | andystorey0 -
Google Maps not passing referral data
Google Maps is not passing referral data (URLs, not KWs). Google+ Local is referring, but nothing from maps. Maps referrals appear to be coming across as direct. Any ideas? We haven't found anything online, one of the guys at the office documented what we did find, using Chrome's debugger - http://manofactionmetrics.com/2012/11/02/google-maps-not-passing-any-referral-data/
Reporting & Analytics | | Danieljacobree0 -
Google Analytics All Kinds of Messed Up
Anyone have their google analytics go straight crazy on Thursday, 8/11/2011? 30% increase in visits No increase in visitors Huge drop in pageviews and time site Higher bounce rate More return users
Reporting & Analytics | | ChrisKolmar0