One SERP Result, Two Different Link Destinations?
-
Because my vocabulary isn't up to par, it may be easier for you to skip ahead to the image I've attached.
One of my web pages shows up in the Google SERP like this. It has the blue "title" link that goes to one page (URL A), and under that, there is a green "breadcrumb" link that goes to a different page (URL B).
Any idea why this is happening and how it can be fixed?
Thanks in advance,
Benjamin
-
I was only using the same example! I don't even know what green Nalgene is! (Sounds like a cleaning product to me!)
The only thing you can do is be aware of google's actions and do what you can to make the best of it!
Good luck!
-
Thanks, Doug, but I only meant that as an example (there's a green Nalgene bottle on my desk).
I guess what I was asking is whether or not breadcrumbs should show the category at hand and not just the category that precedes it. Looks to me like Google is voting yes.
Anyway, I think I'll call this question "answered." Thanks again for your help!
-
I'd go with making your categories/subcategories as meaningful as possible to real people.
When the breadcrumbs are displayed it can potentially provide searchers with more context (hey, these guys do all kinds of bottles!) so may be more appealing and may give the searcher more confidence...
(If the result isn't exactly what I was looking for, but your breadcrumb suggests you might have more on offer...)
In the real world I'm not sure how much impact this actually has on your average searcher...
So best practice - try and keep your categories short and meaningful and don't create more categories than you need.
I wouldn't worry about going as granular as "green!"
-
That makes sense. The breadcrumbs on the website do not show the current page. They only provide a link to the previous page.
For example, if the page was for "Green Nalgene Bottles" and it was a subcategory of home --> water bottles --> Nalgene, the breadcrumb would read "home > water bottles > Nalgene." It sounds like it should read "home > water bottles > Nalgene > green."
Obviously, that's confusing Google. Is it against best practices in general?
-
Aha! These are your breadcrumb links. Normally the URL isn't clickable, but in some cases Google will extract the breadcrumb from your page and present it under the title. (Check the breadcrumb of the ranking page and see if it matches)
They've been doing this for a while. See this article from 2009:
http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/new-site-hierarchies-display-in-search.html
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
-
Is it a good idea to 301 redirect one same niche site towards another site for seo benefit
Hello friends, I have 2 android niche sites, one site is running on a technology dropped domain i catch 1 year ago it has, almost 400+ domains linking to different parts of the site, the other one i established from scratch and both are running from jan 2015. Now i want to redirect first site which already has 400 links pointing towards it to the home page of my 2nd android site. Is it a good idea to do so and does it give any boost in terms of seo?
Algorithm Updates | | RizwanAkbar0 -
Are links from inside duplicate content on a 3rd party site pointing back to you worthwhile.
In our niche there are lots of specialist 'profile / portfolio' sites were we can upload content (usually project case studies. These are often quite big and active networks and can drive decent traffic and provide links from high ranking pages. The issue im a bit stuck on is - because they are profile / portfolio based usually its the same content uploaded to each site. But im beginning to get the feeling that these links from within duplicate content although from high ranking sites are not having an effect. Im about to embark on a campaign to re rewrite each of our portfolio items (each one c. 400 words c. 10 times) for each different site, but before i do i wandered if any one has had any experience / a point of view on with wether Google is not valuing links from within duplicate content (bare in mind these arnt spam sites, and are very reputable, mainly because once you submit the content it gets reviewed prior to going live). And wether a unique rewrite of the content solves this issue.
Algorithm Updates | | Sam-P0 -
I can't understand why I am not rank one on SERPS
Hi Guys, I really cannot understand why I am no longer rank 1 on SERPs? My link data shows great weight in comparison to competitors, my on page SEO is good, nice and diverse on the alt text. I know there are a lot of factors that effect SERPs but I believe I have done well but am still not ranking? Have I missed something?
Algorithm Updates | | TomLondon
I really appreciate any thoughts and ideas. Thanks,
Tom0 -
AS we using the keyword related to our link but we are not listed in first page of Google search
AS we using the keyword related to our link but we are not listed in first page of Google search, but our competitors using the same keyword , they are listing in first page. how we can short this problem and get into first page on search
Algorithm Updates | | krisanantha0 -
Are links irrelevant now?
After having one of my sites trashed by penguin, I rebuilt it on a new domain. Pretty much everything was the same except for the look of the site plus I decreased the keyword density and did a few other things to avoid future Penguin penalties. I created a small number of directory links. My site is now maybe 6 months old, doesn't get much traffic, however I wa suprised to see that my main keyword " uncontested divorce lawyer" is now ranking number 1 in google in US ! This despite the EMD update. The domain name is www.uncontesteddivorce-lawyer.com . Like I said I still don't get a lot of traffic on this site. I have another site which until recently was driving over 500 visitors a month, since November it has declined to 350 a month. This site is over 4 years old and was unaffected by all the updates, until recently. It too is an EMD but has more links. Not co complain but can anyone explain the #1 rating? Also it would appear that links are practically irrelevant. I have read and heard that practically no one is linking to content, instead they are sharing, liking, etc. Any comments
Algorithm Updates | | diogenes0 -
Can you be both penalised and uplifted in SERPS?
hello everyone, We've literally had dozens of high ranking pages which are location specific, wiped out of the Google.co.uk SERPs. Can't imagine that it is anything other than a manual penalty but no message has been sent by Google. For example "campervan hire surrey" would produce our surrey page at the top of the SERP, now this page has completely disappeared. On the other hand, we have been promoted on national keywords like "vw campervan hire" and "campervan hire" where we are second and third. Does anyone agree that this is a penalty?
Algorithm Updates | | swimwithfishes0 -
Sub-Links of Organic SERP
I would like to know if you can modify (or suggest) the sub-links under an organic listing. For Example: Main Link/Title = COMPANY NAME - What We Do.... Sub-Links (popular pages within site) currently include links like: Locations / Catalog Request / Bestsellers Is it possible to suggest other pages as sub-links or do the search engines determine these? Please advise, and thanks in advance....
Algorithm Updates | | WhiteCap0 -
Today all of our internal pages all but completely disappeared from google search results. Many of them, which had been optimized for specific keywords, had high rankings. Did google change something?
We had optimized internal pages, targeting specific geographic markets. The pages used the keywords in the url title, the h1 tag, and within the content. They scored well using the SEOmoz tool and were increasing in rank every week. Then all of a sudden today, they disappeared. We had added a few links from textlink.com to test them out, but that's about the only change we made. The pages had a dynamic url, "?page=" that we were about to redirect to a static url but hadn't done it yet. The static url was redirecting to the dynamic url. Does anyone have any idea what happened? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | h3counsel0
