Why Am I not Ranking ?
-
Despite having a A in the on-page report card. The keyword I am trying to optimize my site for is not ranking at all in Google.
What could cause this ?
-
@Matt J : http://www.sptechcon.com/SanFrancisco2013/ amd we want to rank for SharePoint training
-
Hi Guys Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to answer this question for me .
@ Mike G : what I don't understand is before we optimized we ranked between 30 - 40 for this keyword and after optimization we have completely dropped of.
@Matt J : http://www.sptechcon.com/SanFrancisco2013/ amd we want to rank for SharePoint training
I have an ideas what it could be
- we have a big issue with duplicate content. So I believe that Google has dropped us out of ranking because of our duplicate pages and duplicate titles. Google could have thought we were keyword doping
-
Do you have a domain we could take a look at please?
Also, if you can give us the keyword you want to rank for we can have a look at various potential stumbling blocks.
-
One of the biggest things is competitiveness of the keyword.
For instance. The company I work for does accounting software. That means that we are up against HUGE names like QuickBooks, SAP, Microsoft, Epicor, SAGE, etc.
When this is the case, you may need to either break things up into niche category pages or subdomains and/or target long-tail keywords.
Also, if this is a new site or a new page, it can take time for Google to index it and rank it up higher in the SERPs.
Be proud you got an A! Now just fine tune things to get where you need to be in the SERPs.
Hope this helps.
Mike
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
-
Unsolved I have lost SEO Ranking while removing www from domain
I have lost search SEO ranking for 4-6 core keywords while removing www from domain switch.
On-Page Optimization | | velomate
Referring domain: https://cashforscrapcarsydney.com.au/ Earlier the domain was in the format: https://www.cashforscrapcarsydney.com.au/ But when I checked the search result, search engines had not yet crawled to the new format. Let me know if the server change or any algorithm hit might cause it. Also please share the feedback on - does removing www from the domain losses keyword ranking. Helpful replies are needed.0 -
Microsite and main website alternate in rankings
Hi all, I just noticed a potential issue with our websites. We have two ecommerce websites, one is a very large one selling all sorts of products, while the microsite focuses on a small segment of products. All products sold on the microsite are also sold on the main website. In the beginning of September, we upgraded the microsite to the same script that the main website uses to make it mobile friendly and update the design. They now look very similar. Before, both websites used to rank on page 1 for a specific keyword. I have noticed that since we upgraded the microsite, the two websites have been taking turns ranking for the keyword. For a few weeks the microsite ranks and the main website doesn't rank for the keyword. Then for a few weeks only the main website ranks and the microsite doesn't. I think the reason this is happening is that Google understands that the content is the same and the websites are both owned by the same company. Fair enough. I remember reading an article about this phenomenon before but can't remember where. Does anyone know which article I'm talking about (it would have been on an SEO blog/website, e.g. Moz, SEJ, SE Roundtable etc)? I'm not even sure what this phenomenon is called. If we can only have one of the pages rank, we would prefer it to be the microsite at all times. Would a canonical tag on the main website referring to the URL on the microsite fix this? I think at the moment the product descriptions are either very similar or identical. Would it help to make them more different to get both to rank again if that is what we wanted to do? In the end it is still the same product being sold by the same company - after Google has already sort of merged the two, would they "un-merge" them if the content was more different? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | ViviCa10 -
An apparent ranking mystery...
I built the site https://www.sylvaniachurch.com about 5 years ago, but the site has been live for more than a decade. Tyler has hundreds of churches and Sylvania Church currently site ranks second for most variations of "churches in tyler tx." Sylvania has a well-optimized homepage, several well-optimized subpages, a consistent sermon audio feed, and an increasingly used blog. In addition to what's on the site, there are a few other relevant sites that link to the Sylvania site and I have completed profiles on virtually every business listing site known to man. Here's the oddity. The website that ranks third and even displaces Sylvania for the second place spot from time to time (http://www.crosspointecc.com/) has only been a live URL for a few years, has no readable text on the homepage other than the nav menu, has very little content on the subpages, no blog that I can find, and fewer links from less authoritative sites. What's even odder to me is that Sylvania Church has the following numbers according to the MozBar: PA: 26 mR: 3.64 mT: 3.28 DA: 14 DmR: 3.27 DmT: 2.74 The numbers for CrossPointe: PA: 24 (2 less than Sylvania) mR: 4.68 (1.04 higher than Sylvania) mT: 5.30 (2.02 higher than Sylvania) DA: 13 (1 less than Sylvania) DmR: 2.98 (.28 less than Sylvania) DmT: 3.49 (.75 higher than Sylvania) The obvious question is, "Why does Moz like this site better than mine? What am I missing?" Thanks for any help you guys can give!
On-Page Optimization | | cbizzle0 -
Multi Keyword URL Ranking at Number 1
Here is part of a URL that takes the local number 1 spot for "implant dentist glasgow" [website] /implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland/implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland.html The first /implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland/ directory or page is protected and presumably just exists for ranking reasons. I am tempted to copy that URL on a client's implant page to compete for the keyword (I believe I have better content). Given that it works well for the other site, can you think of any reason that would that be a bad idea? Thanks very much.
On-Page Optimization | | neilmac0 -
Word count and ranking/traffic
Hello All, Recently, a client of ours enlisted another firm to redesign their website, www.thepodhotel.com. The new site went live on February 20th. Since that date, we have seen a 30% drop in Google Organic traffic, year-over-year. Even a cursory glance at the site will tell you that there was quite a bit left on the table, from an SEO point of view. However, my question pertains to word count. The word count on the new site is quite a bit lower than the old site. How much value do you feel this has on rankings? Do you feel that, among the many other items that need to be addressed, we should be focusing on creating more copy? I appreciate all of your input. Frank
On-Page Optimization | | FrankSweeney0 -
Google ranking is HORRIBLE. Following SEOMoz suggestions and just can't climb.
First of all, the URL is stores.dhsequipment.com. In January, this online store switched from Homestead to Big Commerce. Since the store updated, we decided now is the time to update our product descriptions, URL's, title tags and meta descriptions. (For the first time, we had the ability to customize our URL's.) Product Description: I went through 2,500 products and updated the product description. I added an H1 & H2 to each description, and included pertinent information such as part numbers. Each product also received a new page title, meta description (which is usually the first line of the product description, don't know if this is bad or not) and a new URL, (which did redirect). Once I would complete a section, I would submit a new sitemap to Webmaster Tools. After a month and nothing happening, I started using SEOMoz which helped me rebuild some of my more important pages, such as the home page and main category pages such as: http://stores.dhsequipmentparts.com/stihl-ts420-parts/
On-Page Optimization | | pearldesign
http://stores.dhsequipmentparts.com/stihl-ts700-parts-stihl-ts800-parts/ I fetched these pages in Webmaster Tools after completion. However, it's been several weeks since and I'm still on page 4 or 5 in the SERPs. Just a little history on the store; this store has been in operation for more than 6 years. Previously, we ranked on page one for 75%+ of our products. My belief is because our URL's had history, probably more so than our competitors. I'm not sure what I should do. Business is super slow and we can't afford to wait much longer.0 -
Is it difficult to rank for a keyword phrase with an H2 halfway down the page?
If your competitor has a page that is optimized for a keyword (title tag, URL, content) and you target the keyword halfway down a page with an H2 and a short paragraph about the keyword, are you at a strong disadvantage?
On-Page Optimization | | ProjectLabs0 -
Losing Page Rank after 301 redirect from http to www
Hi Guys I have site-wide redirected all http// to www and all the category pages lost their page ranks (except home page). I would like to know if this is normal and is it one of the possible causes in losing keyword ranking?
On-Page Optimization | | ilovebodykits0