Keyword based link problem on site
-
So I think I might have identified an issue with a site that I'm trying to get ranked for a specific keyword but, wanted to get some opinions before I started making some big changes on the site.
On my homepage I have the keyword that I would like to be ranked for in the title lets say "Blue Widgets - Company Name', also on the home page I have some descriptions of our services including the keywords. I also have a couple of the keyword based links within in the content, navigation and footer. But these keyword based links all point to another page on the site: blue-widgets.htm. If I really want my home page to rank for the keyword "Blue Widgets' should all of these links point to the home page instead of the sub page?
I know there are a great number of other factors that contribute to rankings but looking at my competition, this is something that they seem to be doing. The keyword based links within the content, navigation or footer all point to the homepage. I also have a higher Domain Authority than some of the sites that rank higher than me so I'm not sure if building more links is the answer. Of course I always want to build natural links but these sites don't seem to be doing that either.
Any comments, suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated.
-
Thanks for the help!
-
You are on the right track
You want to use your home page wisely. It is almost always the best ranking page in your site, it is also the best page to get a internal link from.
-
Ugh, that's what I thought.
So basically I need to make a major decision regarding which pages I want to rank and for and for what keyword. I could focus our home page just on the company brand and try to get the sub page ranked for the targeted keyword. Of course it's always easier to build links to the home page rather than to the sub pages.
-
Yes you want links with the link text blue widgets pointing to the page you want to rank for blue widgets.
It is even worse if you have link text in links on the page you want to rank pointing away from it, this is called self cannibalization.
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
-
Alternatives To Link Detective
Hi, A while back I used link detective to scan through our OSE reports. However, it seems that the site is no longer maintained and the system no longer seems to work, ie I upload the CSV file and then when i check back it leads to a blank screen. I wonder if anyone knows of a similar software as its functionality was very useful. Thanks
Competitive Research | | bobanna1 -
Decent domain authority score with no links other than their own linking back to them. How is that possible?
Hello everyone I just spotted the following 'abnormality' while doing a little link analysis with Open Search Explorer. I checked out a site that has a domain authority score of 35, when the only domain linking back to them is ''the site itself'. They happen to have a domain authority of 35 themselves, but no other links pointing back to them apart from their own and yet they have the same authority as other sites with twice the amount of content and an actual backlink profile. How is that possible? 🙂 Links and authority scores, stills baffles me...
Competitive Research | | Hermski0 -
How on earth is this site ranking so highly?
I'm trying (& struggling) to rank for the keyword property in italy. Yet in the past 5 weeks I've seen this site -- betterpropertyitaly (dot) com -- rocket from about #30 to #2 for the keyword and am trying to figure out why. The obvious is that it's in the domain name, but that can't be the be-all-and-end-all, surely? It's a 2 yr 9 mth old site, so why the sudden spurt? I look in Open Site Explorer and the metrics look pretty weak: Domain Authority: 17 Page Authority: 29 Linking Root Domains: 9 Absolutely zero social shares. Good luck to him and all -- but I'm trying to figure out what he's doing right and I'm not. My site apart, he's beating some pretty big-hitters.
Competitive Research | | Jeepster0 -
Competitor research: No data / results displaying on Keyword tools, Aexa
Hi there! I'm trying to research a few competitors using various Keyword tools (SEM Rush, Compete, Keyword Spy -- even Alexa for high level insight). While the bulk of the competitors generate expected results through these tools (a smattering of their top organic and paid search keywords, some traffic estimations through Alexa), ONE of these competitors lists "No results" across all categories and all tools: http://www.bgstar.ca Despite this, we know that they invest heavily in search -- and my SEM Rush toolbar indicates that they have a Google PR of 5 (though I recognize that that should be taken with a grain of salt). So I'm stumped! Has anyone encountered this before? Is there something structural that they might be doing, that's blocking not only Google-based platforms, but Alexa too? Thanks for your help!
Competitive Research | | MACJ0 -
Problem Adding a competitor
I am having a problem adding a competitor at one of my campaigns... I am not sure if I should add the link of my competitor so I wont 🙂 the link is with a /path competitorlink.gr/magazine Anyone knows what should I do?
Competitive Research | | Angelos_Savvaidis0 -
How Do You Currently Analyze Outbound Link Profiles?
So I'm looking at some potential guest blogging &/or article writing opportunities and I'm looking for a tool which will analyze the OUTBOUND links from the site....it would be handy if inbound were displayed too but not essential as there are many tools available for this. When I ask for sample sites it is clear that a number of them (all?!) have been created purely for us content purposes, however it would be good to analyze the site further. A tool that could analyze its outbound links would give me a rough idea if the site is suitable or simply a glorified link-farm. Also, if you have any useful links regarding industry averages on outbound links for blogs & article sites (eg Ezine) for benchmarking it would be good! Thanks
Competitive Research | | cmooki
C:)0 -
SEO's done, 301s in place, old site STILL outranks new site. What to do?
Since Sep 2010 I have had a site up with minimal SEO optimization (www.chrisbrushmusic.com). Oct 29, 2012, I launched a new site on a new domain (www.chrisbrushdrums.com) with more content and tons of SEO work behind it. The content of the new site is significantly different from the old site, and I wish to keep the old site around. I have 301's in place for specific URLs on the old site that point to the new site. I have submitted xml sitemaps for the new site. As of now, the old site still outranks the new site (i.e. Google search for "nashville session drummer" and my old site is #9 - my new site is nowhere). What should I do? Thanks.
Competitive Research | | cbrush0 -
Isn't unfair that Keyword domain Exactly Match just overpowers every domain and page authority?
Im currently doing a research for a low-medium competitive keyword (SEO Moz Keyword difficult Tool it showed 36% competition, its a one word keyword) in my country. That keyword had a Google AdWords Broad Match of 368.000 searchs and a Google AdWords Exact Match of 33.100 searchs in April. The currently number one site for that keyword have an exactly match for that keyword, www.KEYWORD.com and nothing else. Then I ran and advanced report to that keyword and heres the initial result: This number one site has a domain authority of only 11 and a page authority of 25. The second site have the following domain name -> www.companynameKEYWORD.com.br (its in Brasil, so theorically and .br should worth more than a .com domain right?) Anyway the second site have a domain authority of 37 and a page rank authority of 45. So after this link all the others are like that, www.companynameKEYWORD.com and the domain and page authority is according to how it suposed to be (higher domain and page are ranked better). The exactly same thing happen when I search for a more long tail of this keyword (wich are 2 words) happen. The exactly match are ranked 1st with a very low page and domian authority while the others come first. Some more info about that number 1 ranked site- The layout is terrible and not user friendly. The site took more than 10 seconds to load Have not a single inpage SEO optimization. According to alexa the bounce rate is around 50% Now follows the data from Linkscape data between the 1st and 2nd ranked pages Overal Score - 19% x 38% Page mozRank - 2.04 x 3.95 Page mozTrust - 4.92 x 5.45 External mozRank - 2.04 x 3.95 Subdomain mozRank - 1.81 x 3.45 Domains Linkin - 4 x 163 External Links - 8 x 265 So, looks like that only two things should be 90% of the focus from a SEO perspective. Have an old exactly keyword match domain and youre good to go 😄 Edited 1: About the linkbacks to each page The 1st page in rank biggest page authority linking back (dofollow) have an authority of 36 from a domain authority of 49 The 2nd in the rank the highest dofollow linkback have a page authority of 40 and domain of 85 Edit 2: 1st in rank were created in 2000 2nd in rank were created in 2007
Competitive Research | | bemcapaz1