Rankings drop
-
Hi! Since the new Penguin rollout, we've seen rankings drop for http://www.leanonturkey.co.uk/ for the terms 'turkey recipes' (UK) and 'low fat recipes' (UK) from #4 and #15 respectively. This may be down to very strong competition, but I'm also concerned over the on-page content, which may not be detailed enough. Any tips would be much appreciated!
-
First of all, don't make any rash assumptions. Ranking can fluctuate for a while especially following such updates. You don't mention how far you've fallen but I'm currently seeing you ranking at #9 for Turkey Recipes, which given the competition is pretty good! I wouldn't panic just yet.
That's not to say that there aren't things you can do to improve you position.
For a start, you're up against lots of very authoritative domains and big brands such as Jamie Oliver, BBC Good Food, Betty Crocker (US) and Channel 4. So not only are you having to battle for rankings (especially for the more generic keywords) but getting the click-through from the SERPs is going to be a challenge as people tend to be drawn to the names/brands they trust.
As a result, you'll want to make sure that the individual recipe pages are pulling their weight. Lots of recipes getting a few visits is going to be better than a generic keywords sending you very little. Look at which recipes are attracting traffic and which aren't and adjust your content appropriately.
These are lots of different factors such as freshness, seasonality etc. Recipes with pumpkin go nuts around halloween! So while I get that Turkey is the focus - don't forget your other ingredients!
You could definitely improve the on-page optimisation and increase the amount of descriptive text about the recipes. Just the method and the list of ingredients isn't going to help you capture long-tail keywords.
One recipe page I looked at consisted of just 165 words. (The html was ~150k!)
Schema markup for recipes can work well. Google has specific search options for recipes enabling you to filter by ingredients, cooking time and calories.
Look at how you can encourage ratings and comments. Lots of your competitions recipes have these!
From a user experience point of view it may also be worth looking at implementing a faceted search to enable people to search your recipes on your site by ingredients etc rather than just pretty bland top level categories.
I'd also consider a responsive design (are people are more likely to have a smartphone/tablet in the kitchen than a laptop or desktop). It would be worth looking at your traffic to see how much of it is coming from mobile.
Hope this helps.
-
May I suggest revisiting keyword research and ensure that nothing has change.
Often times kw1+kw2+kw3 could be good for traffic and search in 2009.... if you did you research then for example,
and by 2013 kw2+variant kw1+kw3 maybe the more popular choice for searches...
Check and ensure you have utilized all image SEO capacity and if you have external image / videos make sure they are also optimized to maximum possible extent (backlinks proper, CC in videos, link in descriptions, etc)
after all, one of the main factors in search ranking is traffic, and if you have lost steady traffic for long enough you can get moved around.
I just checked one of your random recipe pages and the main image was named recipes_44.jpg with no alt tag and absolutely no worthy or accurately relevant keywords on the title of the image.
definitely max out on on-site SEO, make sure your titles are relevant, lean and mean
I can't stress A THOROUGH revisit to keyword research enough! Use a myriad of tools to achieve a nice comprehensive list of target keywords for each and every page as well as for the home page and more generic, more primary keywords of interest. See which is more popular now and check the google adwords trends column as well as google trends for past few months and next few months forecast, use google adwords kw tool for current and accurate popularity estimation.
and in the end, double make sure your content gets an easy reading score and is genuine and worthy, these keywords must be used and planted super organically, not for machines, but for humans.
so find out what are people searching more for, "lean turkey" or "low fat turkey" or "healthy turkey" + recipe or +recipes... this all makes quite a bit of differences especially in high end of competition for the very top ranks. and sometimes, you just can't have it both ways and best is to pick one with more popularity over the other or for other business reasons known to you (older generation of clients preferred for example? they may use a more old fashioned term to look for this stuff, although less popular, but acceptable for whatever fictional reason we assumed exists here for that market)
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
-
Which is the best way to rank a site?
Hi, I have been working on SEO for a long time, recently I started a new site where I was aiming to rank different niches but I am stuck. First I covered some keywords related to sports then I shifted the niche to hunting. My idea was to cover a niche fully then move on to the 2nd so the authority of the site can also help rank the 2nd niche but the problem is I am unable to rank my site. Should I be considering only a very specific niche site or should I continue doing all the stuff on the same site. Please checkout my site ReviewsCase.com and let me know. And if has also done the same please let me know.
Algorithm Updates | | seoasikhan20 -
Ranking For Synonyms Without Creating Duplicate Content.
We have 2 keywords that are synonyms we really need to rank for as they are pretty much interchangeable terms. We will refer to the terms as Synonym A and Synonym B. Our site ranks very well for Synonym A but not for Synonym B. Both of these terms carry the same meaning, but the search results are very different. We actively optimize for Synonym A because it has the higher search volume of the 2 terms. We had hoped that Synonym B would get similar rankings due to the fact that the terms are so similar, but that did not pan out for us. We have lots of content that uses Synonym A predominantly and some that uses Synonym B. We know that good content around Synonym B would help, but we fear that it may be seen as duplicate if we create a piece that’s “Top 10 Synonym B” because we already have that piece for Synonym A. We also don’t want to make too many changes to our existing content in fear we may lose our great ranking for Synonym A. Has anyone run into this issue before, or does anyone have any ideas of things we can do to increase our position for Synonym B?
Algorithm Updates | | Fuel0 -
Dropped out of Google top 50 - Jan 28 2013
On Jan 28 - 2013 google dropped many of our keywords from its index.Here is the history of Rank June 24 2012 - RANK 2 Nov 18 2012 - RANK 8 NOV 25 2012 - RANK 15 JAN 6 2013 - RANK 10 JAN 13 2013 - RANK 21 JAN 20 2013 - RANK 9 Jan 27 2013 - RANK 6 JAN 28 2013 - DROPS OUT OF GOOGLE Graph http://i.imgur.com/ABYJ3MS.jpg The ON PAGE is an A for the homepage, errors and warnings are all DOWN over time. Would the last Google Update have caused this? Bing and Yahoo went UP and google dropped right out http://i.imgur.com/vP8Uvu8.jpg The red box is the keyword in question, but many others dropped out of top 50 Anyone have any ideas on what I should look for or which update could be responsible? ABYJ3MS.jpg vP8Uvu8.jpg
Algorithm Updates | | syndicate1 -
Why a terrible website ranks number 1??
Hi, I'm an SEO newbie. A couple of months ago I launched a new E-Commerce website for my client : http://www.corporategiftsshop.co.za The site has over 1000 pages indexed in Google. I've done some link building and on-page SEO for the keyword terms : corporate gifts
Algorithm Updates | | MarnusW
promotional items
promotional gifts Currently the website ranks number 31 for "Corporate Gifts" in Google.co.za What I cannot comprehend, is that the site which ranks number 1 is simply shocking! http://www.corporategifts.co.za/ It is a single, static webpage with all links pointing to another website : http://www.promogifts.co.za It has 1 back link and a page rank of zero, yet it still ranks number 1? Can anyone give me a reason or some insight into this as it has me stumped.. Some of the other sites in the top 5 are also poor, yet they still rank high. Our site has a Page rank of 5 and 67 unique domains which links to it ( according to our webmaster tools ) yet it still only manages a 31 ranking?? Any advise would be greatly appreciated as I need to make sense of this, otherwise hang up my SEO gloves.. Regards, Marnus.1 -
Correlation of Rankings with Personal Pronouns?
Has there been any tests or studies that associate writing in the first person or using "emotional" feeling phrases to higher rankings. More specifically to a blog structure. I'm trying a blog option with a local telecommunications company, however I'm having flashbacks of writing those 5 paragraph essays when taking the SATs. The owner decided he should take on the responsibility and it's like he just can't bring himself to write from a personal perspective. He's a bit stuck in the "professional" mindset and worried about appearing unprofessional. I empathize with his perspective, but I know it's not going to work..or maybe it will? it's just not going to be interesting to readers, but perhaps google will appreciate the fresh content. I don't think letting an employee takeover will be an option as he's very protective of the company's image. So would you ditch the blog? or continue with the dull posts?
Algorithm Updates | | squareplug0 -
How did my Page Authority and Page Rank disappear?
I've hit a problem. A couple days ago my site's page authority was 51 and the PR was 3 and now they're 1 and 0 respectively. The developer did adjust some of the code in the site in the past couple days but that shouldn't have affected this. It was last cached by Google on the 5th. Can anyone offer some good advice? If it helps the page is www.duracard.com
Algorithm Updates | | Andrea.G0 -
Ranking factors for national and local
What SEO impact factors am I missing if I am ranked 1st on Google for a keyword, but not ranked local search? The keyword being setup like {"company industry" "location" }. Its ranked 4th when searched on google and the location is specific to the location in the keyword. I've tried to varify that all of my citations are correct and identical. When I compare my sites Domain Authority and links to its competitors, I should be dominating that search. If you guys have any incite it would be greatly appreciated. MADD DOGG
Algorithm Updates | | MaddDogg0 -
Ranking #1 for Local, Not for National
A client with both a web and brick and mortar store is ranking well for normal web searches locally for many terms but less so nationally. I'm aware that results change due to location and other factors. Specifically, client is wondering if his retail location and corresponding places page are hurting his web results in non-local areas.
Algorithm Updates | | AliveWired0