Strange Keywords Google Webmaster Tools
-
Hey, I have a website about "coffee machines". Since a few months I added a vBulletin forum with vbSEO installed. The keywords Google found before I added the forum where highly related to the topic of my website (e.g. "coffee", "machine" etc), which I checked through the webmaster tools.
However, I recently checked again and noticed that Google finds mostly keywords like "post", "forum", "thread", "share" etc. with high significance. Those "keywords" only appear on the forum.
Now I'm a bit worried since Google states "These should reflect the subject matter of your site."
Any advice how to solve that issue?
Thanks!
-
But still it's kinda confusing if Google sees keywords like "digg", "share" etc. as more significant as the actual topic ("coffee"). Also vBulletin is a well known forum software. I checked the vBSEO settings again and here is everything fine as well.
-
With the addition of the forum Google is telling you that you're still a site about "coffee machines" but you're also a "forum" about "coffee machines". Still to reinforce the strength of your core content try linking back to pages on your original site from your forum. Also check for categorization issues in the sitemap and structure of the forum. You can also do goofy stuff like changing a thumbs up system to a "roasted beans" "raw beans" system. Things along those lines.
The main thing is that you're not seeing a reduction in rank like Dejan asked. If you're worried about advertisers missing out on your site being about coffee machines you can address this via the DoubleClick AdPlanner Publisher Center.
-
Most of the posts are already in the index. I also added a sitemap and all posts are accessible by all users. You only have to be a logged in when viewing a user profile or submitting a post. There are only a few 404 errors because of threads which have been deleted. Besided that there are no crawl errors stated.
-
At 1200 posts it should have equalized already. I would check to see that Google can crawl forum content properly - what if it cannot due to technical issue or perhaps need to login to see posts and replies?
-
Hey, I think as the forum fills up with content, these words will be less and less important and as Dejan SEO mentions, these are likely to be noise words and ignored to some extent.
Concentrate on stimulating active, on topic discussion in the forum and you should be okay.
Cheers
Marcus -
The rankings remained the same since then... I just checked Webmaster Tools again and the keyword with the highest significance is "post"... Rreally really strange.
-
Are you seeing any considerable changes in your rankings since forum went live?
-
Hey Dejan, thanks for your reply. I'm thinking the same, but somehow Google doesn't. The forum is quite new but we have around 1200 posts which are all about the same "coffee machine" topic.
I really don't get why Google takes those "keywords" under consideration. The forum is installed under a subfolder "/forum". -
I see what you're saying I would be concerned too. Google is pretty good at figuring out what's a forum and what's main site content and will separate those two for different types of searches (though occasionally blending them). What I am saying is that your normal pages will rank for usual terms and your forum content for different type of search query. One thing strikes me though... is your forum empty? If not, then its topic should reflect the topic of the website - right? So that should not be a problem.
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
-
Are Meta Keywords Still A Thing?
Hey all! First post on here, forgive me for being an SEO newb. Are meta keywords still a thing? Here's why I ask, I read this article from back in 2009 that said they are absolutely not a ranking factor anymore: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html However, in doing some research on our competition, I found that the top result for "Financial Advisor in Colorado Springs" was this company: http://www.strasbaughfinancial.com/ Honestly, the site seems to be doing everything opposite of what I read to do. It isn't even mobile responsive! With the Moz Bar, I found that no links pointing toward it. Not one video on the site (there is a link to a welcome video but the link is broken!!), no blog or regular content updates, no keywords in the H1 or H2 tags, page titles, etc. The website looks old and, frankly, terrible. Really I’m stumped how this can be ranking so high for so many competitive keywords. Then I realized that they stuffed tons of keywords in the meta description and meta keywords. From what I can tell, this is the ONLY intentional SEO strategy they used. Am I missing something? Are meta keywords still a ranking factor and THAT important?
On-Page Optimization | | otherside130 -
The Keyword density in a landing page is very low . by adding meta keyword tag can improve keyword density?
The Keyword density in a landing page is very low . by adding meta keyword tag can improve keyword density?
On-Page Optimization | | socialhi50 -
Page title in Google search is defferent
Hello, Google changes the title of the main page only for my sites in this way: What I configured: My page title | my site name How it shows in Google: My site name: My page title If I checked some meta tags analyzer it will show my configured page title and also in Bing.com So what do you thing about it. Best Regards, Housam
On-Page Optimization | | anubis20 -
Spammy link for each keyword
Some people believe that having a link for each keyword and a page of content for each keyword (300+ words) can help ranking for those keywords. However, the old approach of having "restaurant New York", "restaurant Buffalo", "restaurant Newark" approach has become seen as a terrible SEO practice. I don't know whether this was because it's spammy or because people usually combined it with thin content that was 95% duplicate. Which brings us to; http://hungryhouse.co.uk/ Why does such a major company have the following on the site (see the footer); Aberdeen Takeaway Birmingham Takeaway Brighton Takeaway Bristol Takeaway Cambridge Takeaway Canterbury Takeaway Cardiff Takeaway Coventry Takeaway Edinburgh Takeaway Glasgow Takeaway Leeds Takeaway Leicester Takeaway Liverpool Takeaway London Takeaway Manchester Takeaway Newcastle Takeaway Nottingham Takeaway Sheffield Takeaway Southampton Takeaway York Takeaway Indian Takeaway Chinese Takeaway Thai Takeaway Italian Takeaway Cantonese Takeaway Pizza Delivery Sushi Takeaway Kebab Takeaway Fish and Chips Sandwiches Do they know something I don't? [unnecessary links removed by staff]
On-Page Optimization | | JamesFx0 -
Blocking Google seeing outbound links?
Apart from rewriting the outbound url to look like a folder 'abc.co.uk/out/link1' and blocking the folder 'out' in the robots.txt file, along with also nofollowing the links as well, is there anything else you can do?
On-Page Optimization | | activitysuper0 -
Does the keyword meta tag not matter anymore?
In the SeoMoz report generated, it recommended removing the meta keywords tag as it was no long relevant? why is google no longer considering this?
On-Page Optimization | | mancmusicman0 -
SERP Rankings for Certain Keywords
For some of our keywords, we rank on page one in google, but the page is an individual product and not the catelgory page? Any idea why this is happening? Thanks for your Help!
On-Page Optimization | | MRabidoux0