Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
I have two pages ranking for the same keyword.
-
The index page and the targeted landing page for that keyword. They have different content, title, meta but I am competing with myself for the main keyword in the industry. What is the best way to fix this? 301 the keyword page to the index page?
-
Just to echo other responses, I wouldn't do anything to take away from one of the pages, but just continue any branding and link building efforts to just one of the pages. Adding a link from the secondary page to the primary page will help.
The notion that hurting one page will help the other doesn't really jive--just focus on building reputation for the page that matters.
-
Using a canonical will merge the link juice into one page, but will not merge the content, since the link juice of any links is still in the same site i would not bother using a canonical and lose th extra content.
do nothing having 2 pages ranking is not a problem
-
I've seen this in cases where multiple pages are significantly better optimized than the competition. Contrary to what other folks are saying, I think 301ing the inner page to the homepage would be shooting yourself in the foot. You're sacrificing page authority and known 'good' content to have only one page appear. Give your user double the opportunity to pick you, versus taking it away from them if you happen to choose in error. Spend time on additional content for the inner page (and any related pages) to try pushing it up. Perhaps some well-thought out links to the inner page would be a good thing, too.
Simply from a human perspective, I'd do something with the large blank footer area. Maybe add contact information, short testimonials, something that will fill that area out a bit.
-
Perhaps a canonical would fix your problem. if the first one is ranking higher but has thinner content but it would still be beneficial to actual users canonicaling that url to the other page would 1. increase the position for that page (combining the two) and 2. increase conversions once it does in fact rank.
-
i would do nothing or i would simply put a link from one page to the othwer if there is not one already. unless you have a reason for not wanting 2 pages ranking.
-
I see. Nice rankings for both.
In my personal opinion I would go for the inner page as a main landing page for that term. The reason why is you have liberty for this page to make it more friendly for google - it has a better call to action in my opinion so it can convert better.
If you are able to improve it as far as content it can rank even better - but that won't be enough.
What I would do additionally is to add a predominant link in the home page to this page like adding a box of content in the body of the home page and link crime sceme clean up to this landing page.
If you can go into more details on the landing page about the service it will help - but don't over crowd it.
Some social signals will help - I just plus one it but that is not enough
Get some signals there .Some new freash links - editorial if posibile will also help a lot.
The other option of course is to ad rel canonical on the inner page and keep the home page as primary
- the easy path. -
crime scene clean up
www.aftermathinc.com/crime+scene+cleanup
The keyword page is thin on content so I don't mind if that doesn't show but it does rank 1 better in the serps. Currently both are on page two, one on page 1 would be better.
-
I am on page two for both, trying to get to page one. The fact that I am competing with myself maybe hurting?
I don't mind if the keyword page does not show it is thin on content anyhow and since it is the main industry keyword for both it's not a bad thing the index page shows.
-
Hi,
Can you post the urls (home page and inner page) and the query to se the serps ?
If the home page makes more sense to rank for that keyword I would place a rel canonical tag on the inner page that will point to the home page.
301 will redirect the inner page to the home page and that means the inner page won't be visibile for the users ever again. if you don't want to keep it then yes, 301 can be a good approach.
Hope it helps.
-
It all depends if you don't want visitors seeing one of those pages. With a 301 redirect if someone attempts to visit page A they will be redirected to page B which means they will never see page A.
This is interesting because if you have your title tags with different keywords and your meta and content are different, it just leaves me to believe that in your content you have the same keywords, even though the substance is different.
Question are you on page 1 for both pages? That wouldn't be a bad thing as it would drive down your competition.
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
-
Google ranking content for phrases that don't exist on-page
I am experiencing an issue with negative keywords, but the “negative” keyword in question isn’t truly negative and is required within the content – the problem is that Google is ranking pages for inaccurate phrases that don’t exist on the page. To explain, this product page (as one of many examples) - https://www.scamblermusic.com/albums/royalty-free-rock-music/ - is optimised for “Royalty free rock music” and it gets a Moz grade of 100. “Royalty free” is the most accurate description of the music (I optimised for “royalty free” instead of “royalty-free” (including a hyphen) because of improved search volume), and there is just one reference to the term “copyrighted” towards the foot of the page – this term is relevant because I need to make the point that the music is licensed, not sold, and the licensee pays for the right to use the music but does not own it (as it remains copyrighted). It turns out however that I appear to need to treat “copyrighted” almost as a negative term because Google isn’t accurately ranking the content. Despite excellent optimisation for “Royalty free rock music” and only one single reference of “copyrighted” within the copy, I am seeing this page (and other album genres) wrongly rank for the following search terms: “free rock music”
On-Page Optimization | | JCN-SBWD
“Copyright free rock music"
“Uncopyrighted rock music”
“Non copyrighted rock music” I understand that pages might rank for “free rock music” because it is part of the “Royalty free rock music” optimisation, what I can’t get my head around is why the page (and similar product pages) are ranking for “Copyright free”, “Uncopyrighted music” and “Non copyrighted music”. “Uncopyrighted” and “Non copyrighted” don’t exist anywhere within the copy or source code – why would Google consider it helpful to rank a page for a search term that doesn’t exist as a complete phrase within the content? By the same logic the page should also wrongly rank for “Skylark rock music” or “Pretzel rock music” as the words “Skylark” and “Pretzel” also feature just once within the content and therefore should generate completely inaccurate results too. To me this demonstrates just how poor Google is when it comes to understanding relevant content and optimization - it's taking part of an optimized term and combining it with just one other single-use word and then inappropriately ranking the page for that completely made up phrase. It’s one thing to misinterpret one reference of the term “copyrighted” and something else entirely to rank a page for completely made up terms such as “Uncopyrighted” and “Non copyrighted”. It almost makes me think that I’ve got a better chance of accurately ranking content if I buy a goat, shove a cigar up its backside, and sacrifice it in the name of the great god Google! Any advice (about wrongly attributed negative keywords, not goat sacrifice ) would be most welcome.0 -
How many keywords should I optimize a page for?
Hi, There is a lot of debate going on on whether to use a single keyword per page or multiple keywords per page. What I know for sure is that it is not advisable to repeat the same exact keyword in different pages. I need to optimize product pages, categories and pages for an online store and still do not know if it is better to: 1-work with one main keyword per page plus latent semantic keywords, 2-to optimize a page for multiple different keywords (2 to 4 keywords) which are strongly related to the main topic or to the product sold in a particular product page 3- use single keyword for each page (and no more than one keyword per page). Some seo gurus argue this is the best way to get higher ranking for that particular page in the serps. My personal opinion would be 1 or 2, but I would like to hear what you suggest and think about it. Any suggestion or opinion is welcome and appreciated. Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | cinzia090 -
Home page keyword in url
I have been looking into SEO for a few weeks now trying to perfect a homepage. Going through various sources on MOZ, and other examples out there on the internet, I keep seeing that you should have your keyword in the URL of the page. The homepage is the page most people want to rank the highest in google searches, however, you cannot put the keyword in the URL as most home page URLs are simply /. Should I actually make the home like this: www.example.com/key-word-example? I would imagine this would not be the normal for many users and would seem like it's not the home page.
On-Page Optimization | | Matthew_smart0 -
Should I optimize my home-page or a sub-page for my most important keyword
Quick question: When choosing the most important keyword set that I would like to rank for, would I be better off optimizing my homepage, or a sub page for this keyword. My thinking goes as follows: The homepage (IE www.mysite.com) naturally has more backlinks and thus a better Google Page Rank. However, there are certain things I could do to a subpage (IE www.mysite.com/green-widgets-los-angeles ) that I wouldn't want to do to the homepage, which might be more "optimal" overall. Option C, I suppose, would be to optimize both the homepage, and a single sub-page, which is seeming like a pretty good solution, but I have been told that having multiple pages optimized for the same keywords might "confuse" search engines. Would love any insight on this!
On-Page Optimization | | Jacob_A2 -
Listing all services on one page vs separate pages per service
My company offers several generalized categories with more specific services underneath each category. Currently the way it's structured is if you click "Voice" you get a full description of each voice service we offer. I have a feeling this is shooting us in the foot. Would it be better to have a general overview of the services we offer on the "Voice" page that then links to the specified service? The blurb about the service on the overview page would be unique, not taken from the actual specific service's page.
On-Page Optimization | | AMATechTel0 -
Should you have two separate pages for synonym keywords?
Suppose that you want to rank for two keyword phrases that mean the same thing but are slightly different in spelling. When should you put both keyword phrases on one page versus two pages? What are the pros and cons?
On-Page Optimization | | ProjectLabs0 -
Target keywords on homepage or sub page?
Is it better to target main keywords on a site's homepage, or in a sub page. I would usually assume the homepage, but if the domain for the homepage doesn't include the keyword is it better to have a sub page with an exact match URL? For example we target the keyword "abc123" Is it better to optimise the homepage: brandname.com Or create a page to target it: brandname.com/abc123/ And leave the homepage to target brand keywords, but link to the "abc123" page. Whats the best option?
On-Page Optimization | | timscullin0 -
How many keywords max can I optimize each page for?
I don't want to over optimize by doing 1 keyword per 1 page, but then if I do more, seomoz on-page tool report doesn't give an A grade for each keyword I optimize. I usually optimize for max 3 keywords that are very closely related, meaning they use the same words. Ex. dentist los angeles, los angeles dentist, dentist in los angeles Am I on the right track or what's your recommendation? Should I create different landing pages for each keyword?
On-Page Optimization | | sub90900