Why aren't our articles ranking in Google?
-
We have a website promoting Pakistani lawyers online. The website also has an articles section where we post articles reviewing different legal cases and laws. All of our articles are written by actual lawyers are high quality and unique.
Website itself doesn't have large page/site authority but its not a baby website either. I can't figure out why our articles don't rank on Google.
Here are few of the articles:
http://www.pakistanilawyers.com/articles/pakistan-child-custody-laws-explained-479/
http://www.pakistanilawyers.com/articles/pakistan-divorce-law-476/
http://www.pakistanilawyers.com/articles/pakistani-law-insolvency-guide-460/I don't know whether its simply because there are not enough links pointing to our website or if there is a problem in the website itself that i can't find.
Thanks for the help
-
No. You just need to wait for Panda to refresh. However Google recently said that they are now rolling Panda out with the regular algorithm so you won't know when the refresh will happen.
-
Thanks. After I noindex the pages with no content, do I need to submit a panda review ticket to Google?
-
Marie is right.
I only looked at the article pages.
I am willing to bet big money that you have a Panda problem.
The thin content pages should be noindexed or removed until you have content for them.
-
There's a good chance that your site has been affected by Panda.
As EGOL mentioned, if you search for text from these pages enclosed in quotes, your site is displayed. BUT...take the quotes away and you're almost nowhere to be seen.
I don't think the Panda filter was brought on by the articles though. It's probably the fact that a large portion of your site consists of thin content. You have page after page that consists of, "We currently have no Urdu speaking lawyers listed in (State/Country). Fill out the form below and we will do our best to connect you with one. This service will be free of charge to you."
So, your site consists of a few articles plus a pile of thin content. If Google sees that the majority of the site is not worthwhile showing to searchers then they'll flag it with Panda and the whole site can be affected.
There's a good chance that if you noindex the directory pages with no content that your article pages will eventually start to rank.
-
If I search Google for unique sentences from these articles between quotation marks, I see that the pages are in the Google index. Also, the sentences are unique to your website.
So you are getting indexed and not being filtered because of duplicate content.
I only see seven linking root domains to your website, some are directories. So, I don't think that your site has much power.
===============
On my sites, I notice google is quick to index new pages but those pages take a lot longer to develop good rankings. They often start out very deep in the SERPs and climb slowly to where I would expect them to rank. These are pages of substantive content (2000 words and six images) with PR6 and PR7 links into them from homepage and category pages. I published an article in November, 2012 and it originally ranked at about position 150, then slowly moved up a few positions per week and finally entered the top 10 this week. This is for a keyword with a difficulty of only 45%.
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
-
How do I hide comment reply's from google? Do I need to?
Reason for asking is Moz reports them as URL too long. Should these even be indexed by google if not, how do I hide them? Example URL : https://www.tansleyphotography.co.uk/farnham-castle-wedding-claire-chris/?reply-to=1876 This really doesn't need indexing, as it's just a comment on a blog post. Does it matter?
On-Page Optimization | | paultansley1 -
Ranked page is not desired page
I have a question on a problem I am currently faced with. There is a certain keyword that my employer wants to rank for. The good news is that sometimes it does rank in the top 5 pages of Google. (It drops in and out) The bad news is that it is going to a page that we need to keep, but not the ideal place we want people who are looking for that keyword to go to. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this type of situation and what tactic they used to get people to the better page.
On-Page Optimization | | trumpfinc1 -
Will Google Custom Search results on my home page kill it's ranking?
This is probably a dumb question, but here goes anyway. 🙂 On a site I have it would be very useful to the reader to offer a search box that uses a Google Custom Search that I have optimized to search websites that are closely on-topic with my site. I know it sounds bad that I would send people to other sites, but just assume that the reasons are valid for this discussion. My question is, if the search results are set to display on the same page (the home page) as the search box, will the links in the search results to external sites just bleed my page rank to death? I assume it would, but thought I'd check just in case I'm missing something. I have to option to place the results on separate page of my site, and noindex it, but it won't be as powerful as it would be on the home page.
On-Page Optimization | | bizzer0 -
Articles URL
Hello, Currently, I am parsing article base on article ID on URL request. For example:
On-Page Optimization | | JohnHuynh
To go to the content of article **What is the visa on arrival? How to get it? **I am using URL like that http://www.vietnamvisacorp.com/news/what-is-the-visa-on-arrival--how-to-get-it--245.html and base on ID 245 to get this page content.
But, now I want to optimize this URL to http://www.vietnamvisacorp.com/news/what-is-the-visa-on-arrival--how-to-get-it.html. Then I got a problem: How to get an article without ID? Thanks,0 -
List of Google recognised abbreviations?
Does anyone know of a list/resource of abbreviations recognised by Google? For example does Google recognise w/ as with? Andy
On-Page Optimization | | AndyMacLean0 -
Replacing website, same URL, lose ranking
We had to do a rush job for a client and get a website up very quickly. We had to just replace the existing files on the server, but URL stayed the same. Now "teeth whitening glasgow" which they were number #1 for isn't coming up. Know there is still some on page work to be done - but the link profile should still remain the same? Just looking for some advice to get back to where they were - should we do a website change of address or just verify the site in Webmaster and get all the on page done? Thanks, Laura
On-Page Optimization | | lauratagdigital0 -
Competitor Out Ranks My Site
Hi This is my first question on SEOMoz and I am confused how a competitor can out rank me for a local search term SEO Tamworth. I have a higher Page Authority, Domain Authority, Number of links etc.. Would this be down to the quality of the links to my site or could it be down to the structure. I score an A for SEO on the on page analysis. Regards James
On-Page Optimization | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Google Penalty?
What are the characteristics of a Google penalty - i.e. how do you know by looking at the rankings for your keywords? Do all keywords that you had previously ranked for fall from say top 5 to nowhere? Do you disappear from SERP for a branded keyword? Or something else?? Basically how do you know if you have been penalized? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | inhouseninja0