Google is ranking the wrong page for the targeted keyword
-
I have two examples below where we want it to rank for the targeted page but google picked another page to rank instead. This is happening a lot on this site I just recently started to work on.
Example 1
Googles Choice for key word Motorcycle Tires: http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/cl/50/Tires-and-Wheels
What we want Google to choice for Motorcycle Tires: http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/c/49/-/181/Motorcycle-Tires
Other pages about Motorcycle tires: http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/d/12/Motorcycle-Tires
We even used the rel="canonical" for this url to point to our target page. http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/c/50/-/181/Motorcycle-Tires
Example 2
ATV Tires We want this page to rank http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/c/43/81/165/ATV-Tires however google has decided to rank http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/t/43/81/165/723/ATV-Tires-All that is acutally one folder under where we want it.
-
Thanks that was good detailed info. We are starting to do most of those things over the next 1-2 months and hope to see the outcome we want!
-
This is a common problem for site owners. Some guidelines to avoid this problem:
1. Pick a single keyword for each webpage. If you choose a second keyword, have it be a close variation of the main keyword such as Motorcycle Tire and Motorcycle Tires.
2. Offer your website content in as flat of a structure as possible. Think Wikipedia. Ideally all your main content will be a maximum of 3 clicks from the home page.
3. Enforce your keyword choice in every manner possible:
a. the url /motorcycle-tires
b. The page title "Motorcycle Tires"
c. The first words of the first sentence (again, think Wikipedia): Motorcycle tires are a critical piece of your bike's performance. Speed, traction, gas mileage, safety and more are impacted by your tire selection.....
d. Throughout your site use anchor text to direct "motorcycle tire" traffic to your chosen page
e. Earn links to the page. Even if the links do not use anchor text, your URL will serve as natural anchor text for your chosen term. ** Please note I mentioned earn links. That does not mean build directory links, paying for links or using link exchanges.
4. If your site has 100+ pages, you need to have some form of content map. New pages should not be whimsically added but rather carefully planned. Be careful not to cannibalize your chosen key term on other pages.
-
Thanks for your help, we are aware of the text and when I was hired they hired a copy writer as well to start writing quality content for the site that will be useful to humans. If you look at the second example it is the one we want to rank for is actually higher up in the site but the page google chose to rank is one folder lower.
Also what do you think about this. They also built a page targeting motorcycle parts you can see here http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/s/49/61/Motorcycle-Parts; however google still just pulls up their home page.
My best guess so far has been site structure and that they do not really have any good anchor text/ internal links showing google what pages are important. What are your thoughts?
-
The primary cause of this issue is related to a lack of proper optimization along with site structure challenges.
If you look at the Tires and Wheels page, the first block of text at the bottom has a headline "Motorcycle Tires, ATV Tires, Dirt Bike Tires...." Elsewhere on the page you have a headline "Top Selling Motorcycle Tires". Under the Dual Sport Tires image you have a listing for Motorcycle Tires. There are other references as well. It is clear this page is highly relevant to Motorcycle Tires.
I have not examined your site structure but I notice the Tires and Wheels URL has fewer layers then the Motorcycle Tires page. /cl/50 versus /c/49/-/181. If that structure means the Motorcycle Tires page is buried deeper on the site, that is another concern as well.
In summary, you are cannibalizing your own keywords and the site lacks focus. It seems low quality SEO was performed as the text at the bottom of the page is what I refer to as "SEO text". In other words, it was not added for users but rather to throw some content on the page for search engines.
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
-
Does you page need to be unique to rank
What I mean by unique is : Let's imagine I want to rank one "seo ranking factors." In order to compete do I need to have (in terms of design) that is totally different than everything out there or can I rank with a page that is presented in a very similar way than everything out there but with different content. Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Title page google serp
Why does Google change the titles automatically? I have <title>Canyoning Açores - São Jorge | Discover Experience Açores</title> but google show Discover Experience Açores: Canyoning Açores - São Jorge
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tiagoarruda0 -
How to rank a page on established site quickly
Hi, I'm looking for information about how I can rank an e-commerce category page quickly from a link building perspective. It usually takes me 6-12 months to rank these pages within the top 3 spots with link building, but I would like to get results faster. My site is established for more than 10 years and performs well in Google organic search. Here is what usually works over a 6-12 month time span: 15-40 links within articles on DA 15-60 sites, built within 6-12 months More than 75% of the links are from blogs Variety of anchor text Combination of follow/nofollow Deep links to product pages within the category we're trying to rank Might be important to note that it was easy for us to get category pages listed in DMOZ categories, when it was still around but it didn't seem to play any role in getting ranked faster. Note: We only build links on real sites with real traffic and decent performance metrics. No PBNs or other crap sites. I'd sincerely appreciate it if anyone can make any suggestions or point me towards helpful info. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Choice0 -
Why is Google Ranking the Umbrella Category Page when Searching for Sub-Categories Within that Umbrella Category?
I have an e-commerce client who sells shoes. There is a main page for "Kids" shoes, and then right under it on the top-navigation bar there is a link to "Boys Shoes" and "Girls Shoes." All 3 of these links are on the same level - 1 click off the home page. (And linked to from every page on the website via the top nav bar). All 3 are perfectly optimized for their targeted term. However, when you search for "boys shoes" or "girls shoes" + the brand, the "Kids" page is the one that shows up in the #1 position. There are sitelinks beneath the listing pointing to "Girls" and "Boys." All the other results in Google are resellers of the "brand + girls" or "brand + boys" shoes. So our listing is the only one that's "brand + kids shoes." Our "boys" shoes page and "girls" shoes page don't even rank on the 1st page for "brand + boys shoes" or "brand + girls shoes." The only real difference is that "kids shoes" contains both girls and boys shoes on the page, and then "boys" obviously contains boys' shoes only, "girls" contains girls' shoes only. So in that sense there is more content on the "kids" page. So my question is - WHY is the kids page outranking the boys/girls page? How can we make the boys/girls pages be the ones that show up when people specifically search for boys/girls shoes?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | FPD_NYC0 -
Google update this wknd or page title issue?
Hi, I've seen a big ranking drop for many major terms, for a particular site, just on Google. This happened Fri 20th or Sat 21st just gone. I don't see any news on an algorithm update over the weekend.I had changed many of the sites major page title protocols 2 weeks ago but a) I would have expected any negative effect before now and not all at once b) the protocols were carefully crafted to avoid traffic drops for major terms and c) i'm seeing traffic drops for keywords that still start at the beginning of the page title d) im seeing drops for some pages which are still using the OLD page titles. I had even tested the protocol on a number of pages in advance to ensure it wouldn't cause problems. As a bit of background - the title protocols were changed to make them more user friendly and less keyword heavy. CTR from search improved so was hoping for better not worse rankings! Ideas, gratefully appreciated.Andy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AndyMacLean0 -
Ranking dynamic landing pages
I have a client and I'm working on a project with their development team. We're creating dynamic landing pages populated with their lead data. Similar to the style of linkedin. For example, someone searches for "demand generation manager" and one of our pages with contact information (some) shows up in the search results. www.leadgenius.com/demandgenerationjobs (or something like that. we have yet to flesh this out). We're also looking into different backlinking strategies to support optimizing the above mentioned pages in addition to their new site launching this month. What is the best way to optimize the dynamic pages as well as the main site in tandem or independently?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Intergen0 -
Web pages fighting over rank for one keyword. Can it be stopped?
Hey, See attachment. Website is Omega Red. The page I want to rank for seems like it is being held back by other closely related pages with similar titles. I am looking to rank for electrical earthing with this page. On the graph it shows how the other pages have interacted over a period of time on the website and how if they drop out of the top 50 this page then moves up in Google. I don't really want to canonicalise the other pages into one but maybe this is what needs to happen? Any suggestions? bWymgVt.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Hughescov0 -
My landing page changed in google's serp. I used to have a product page now I have a pdf?
I have been optimizing this page for a few weeks now and and have seen our page for up from 23rd to 11th on the serp's. I come to work today and not only have I dropped to 15 but I've also had my relevant product page replaced by this page . Not to mention the second page is a pdf! I am not sure what happened here but any advice on how I could fix this would be great. My site is www.mynaturalmarket.com and the keyword I'm working on is Zyflamend.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KenyonManu3-SEOSEM0