Need help with fluctuating ranking for a specific keyword
-
my website www.totalmanagement.com fluctuates for the search term: web based property management software
I have been using SEO Moz for a few months now and have managed to get to the top 5 and jump around between 3 and 5.
Does anyone have any suggestions to assist me?
Long term goal is also to really target: Property Management Software
But I am still very new at this.
Thanks in advance for the help!
-
Jonathan-
I can appreciate you frustration - what point2propertymanager.com has is better (much better) overall domain authority and trust than your site - this outweighs your better on page SEO. Although your competitor's page links are internal, those links are passing strong link juice from the root domain. Examining their IBLs in Open Site Explorer shows domains with DA of 100 (e.g. adobe.com - and while those 100 DA links are nofollows, they still send a strong domain trust signal) - your site doesn't have a data available in OSE, but it would undoubtedly show your IBLs to both fewer and weaker.
In short, if you want better SERPs, you'll need to get quality IBLs through serious, systematic link building.
Chas
-
Can someone maybe help explain to me how this page:
http://www.point2propertymanager.com/property_management_software.html
is out ranking me for the term "web based property management software"
I ran a check on it with SEOMoz tools and the page grade is an F for the term and my homepage has a higher page rank and more linking root domains.
I am so confused I could scream!!!
-
Jonathan-
Your follow up reaffirms my suggestions where you need to take this to move up on your competitors. Link building is a difficult and multifaceted task, requiring dedications, perseverance (lots), research and some charm (and persuasion). There have been numerous blog posts on SEOmoz (and elsewhere) regarding link building techniques; read them all - if your budget can handle it, there are some very savvy (and white hat) link builders out there that can help you but their services are not inexpensive.
Other methods include getting your users raving about how great your software is - offer free trials, killer customer service, urge your users to blog about you, get reviews, post those reviews on your site in a Google acceptable micro format.
best of luck along with your hard work
-
Yes the competitors have been in business for years and we have not been. Server speed has been poor lately and I have complained to Hostgator.
I have been trying to get other sites to link to us but I am just at a loss as to how to get the volume I would need to even come close what the competitors have.
-
Hi Jonathan,
Welcome to the gray SEO world, full of "ifs" and google actualization. Is very hard to tell what happened, there is a lot of factors.
Google is change the algoritms again, and some points as load speed and text in the beginning of the website are becoming important.
And there is also the action from the concorrent websites. They got more links? they changed the website?
One tip I can give to you is stay connected at SEOMOZ blog to see the last changes at google and get a change to be ahead of the other websites.
-
Jonathan -
Always a difficult task chasing (and obsessing over) a high a SERP. My search for your KW in Google found you at position 8. Perhaps your results are skewed by your search history and/or being logged into a Google account, which can personalize search results that give a higher weight to frequented searches and results (your own site).
Looking at you your competitors link profiles show much stronger domain authority and vastly greater number of links. You have only 1 externally followed link.Your on page SEO is better than some of them, but the strength of their link profiles trumps that.
Also check you loads times - I noticed your site was slow to come up, and I checked it in Google Page Speed where it time out, although a refresh did bring up an acceptable 83., so perhaps there is a third party item loading that is hanging up.
All things being equal, Google will put the most (or best) linked to site ahead. Quality links from trusted domains are the best way to insure a stronger, more consistent ranking.
Chas
-
Have you done a press release for that term and the site? Typically, those will get some high quality authority links pointed to your site and should solidify your rankings.
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
-
I'm struggling with ranking for a really important keyword!
I'm helping with SEO for a client who has a very old website, but is updated regularly and has lots of relevant content for the keywords i'm looking to rank for. For other keywords we are able to get to position #3 on Google, yet for this one - the name of the town the website is about - we rank on page 15 of Google. I haven't done anything differently between the two and I really can't see why we can't get there. I've just done the monthly report for the client, and it's showing as being at position #1 for all of July - I checked during that month, and it wasn't. And then on 1st August it dropped to page 20 of Google. I understand slight fluctuations but this is pretty major. Can anyone help?
On-Page Optimization | | Cubiqdesign0 -
Need Professional Help with Site Structure, Page Authority, and Internal Linking
We are a 10 year + small (1000 pages) niche ecommerce site (Magento) that has recently lost rankings to a competitor. We out perform them in every metric so I do not understand them leap frogging us to the top spot. This has forced me to look at my site structure, page authority (rank), and internal linking. After reviewing a moz crawl issues report, here are some of my observations: Root domain has a PA of 40 Top 3 $ Category pages have a PA of 22, 18, 18 Multiple meaningless blog posts and other category/product pages have PA’s of 30+ Here is a screenshot of the crawl report with internal links, links, etc showing. I need some help - thoughts, suggestions, next steps in analysis?
On-Page Optimization | | SammyT0 -
Domain authority decreased but rankings increased
Hello! I'm a bit confused. It seems the industry as a whole that my company operates in has taken a bash from the update a few days ago as all of the competitiors have taken a hit to their domain authority. What is confusing is that my websites rankings have increased as well. There has been a change to the robots.txt file in an effort to stop being crawled by SEMRush which is messing with my site stats but that is the only change. Thanks in advance, Ben
On-Page Optimization | | Ben-Cleaver1 -
Keyword stuffing when brand includes keyword
Hi If you have managed to combine brand name with primary target keyword do you still need pay attention to on page keyword stuffing ? since one would expect plenty of brand references in the body copy ? Or is it still best to reduce instances of the keyword aspect ? For example if site is called 'Franks Service Centres' and you have lots/too many instances of 'service centres' in the body copy a/c to MA on-page grader, should you reduce some instances of the kw ? All Best
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan0 -
URL Keyword Variations?
I'm aware that keywords in the url aren't as effective as they used to be, but I'm still convinced that they do have a significant impact (based on results in one of the niches I'm in). My question is, will variations of keywords and "hidden" keywords have as much value as an exact keyword? For example, let's say that I'm trying to target the keyword "day." Will including variations like "daily" in the url work just as well? What about a brand name that includes the keyword hidden in its name, like "Dayest"? And, as a followup question, does including "stop" words have any effect? For example, if I'm trying to target the keyword "Day of the Month", would including "day" and "month" in the url be just as effective as including "day of the month"?
On-Page Optimization | | JABacchetta0 -
How long before I give up on a keyword
Making the assumption that all "controllable" factors are done correctly, and your DA and PA are competitive, is there a good rule of thumb on how long I should give a keyword before I try for a different keyword if I'm unable to break the first page on the Google's SERP?
On-Page Optimization | | ChadEdwardJ0 -
Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization
<dl> <dt>Cannibalizing link</dt> <dd>Several links...
On-Page Optimization | | 678648631264
</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>It's a best practice in SEO to target each keyword with a single page on your site (sometimes two if you've already achieved high rankings and are seeking a second, indented listing). To prevent engines from potentially seeing a signal that this page is not the intended ranking target and creating additional competition for your page, we suggest staying away from linking internally to another page with the target keyword(s) as the exact anchor text. Note that using modified versions is sometimes fine (for example, if this page targeted the word 'elephants', using 'baby elephants' in anchor text would be just fine).</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Unless there is intent to rank multiple pages for the target keyword, it may be wise to modify the anchor text of this link so it is not an exact match.</dd> <dd>How do I fix this?
</dd> </dl>0 -
Changing the page a term ranks for
Hi all, I hope you can help advise me of the best way to change the page that is ranking for a particular keyword/term. Is it just a case of on-page optimizing the term/keyword on the new-page and getting good links/traffic to that page and leaving the old one as it is, or is some sort of "de-optimization" of the old page a something that could help? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | bunac10