Page that appears on SERPs is not the page that has been optimized for users

[Don34]

This may seem like a pretty newbie question, but I haven't been able to find any answers to it (I may not be looking correctly). My site used to rank decently for the KW "Gold name necklace" with this page in the search results:http://www.mynamenecklace.co.uk/Products.aspx?p=302This was the page that I was working on optimizing for user experience (load time, image quality, ease of use, etc.) since this page was were users were getting to via search. A couple months ago the Google SERP's started showing this page for the same query (also ranked a little lower, but not important for this specific question):http://www.mynamenecklace.co.uk/Products.aspx?p=314Which is a white gold version of the necklaces. This is not what most users have in mind (when searching for gold name necklace) so it's much less effective and engaging.How do I tell Google to go back to old page/ give preference to older page / tell them that we have a better version of the page / etc. without having to noindex any of the content? Both of these pages have value and are for different queries, so I can't canonical them to a single page. As far as external links go, more links are pointing to the Yellow gold version and not the white gold one.Any ideas on how to remedy this?Thanks.

[Don34]

Hi Everett,

Thanks for the clear and concise information, and for the additional helpful tips! The text to write on the page is interesting, although I might not use it since I am not sure how helpful it is for UX as it pushes the things they were looking for (images of jewelry for sale) further down, and possibly below the fold.

The internal links for the gold category were changed quite a while ago, since we found it more helpful for users to have two separate categories. External links were seen from the mozbar.

The problem is that I had a similar problem with another KW which was in top 10 and then fell out and now the ~ #11 result is a completely different page (product page not category), while the original category page that was showing on SERP is MIA.

I don't think it was over-optimized, since it fell out before many of the optimizations were done, and there were no significant changes done to the original page.

Any other ideas on how to solve, or how to best prevent (as much as a webmaster can) it in the future?

[Everett]

Hello Ilan,

Mozscape doesn't show any external links to either of the pages. The white gold page has far more internal links, according to Mozscape, with the anchor text "Gold Category" - though I don't see those links on the site now. Was something recently changed in regard to that?

I also noticed the navigation on the left links to a non-canonical version of the white gold page, and the canonical version of the yellow gold page. It is true that you have a rel canonical tag on both pages, but it might help to link directly to the canonical version from the sidebar navigation.

If you link from the white gold page to the yellow gold page body area (I always recommend having a short snippet of useful intro copy on category pages instead of just listing products) that would probably do the trick. Try something like this:

These 14-carat white gold necklaces make great gifts for your loved ones. Choose a style below and personalize it to the name of your choice! For a more classic gold look see our line of yellow gold name necklaces too.

This does three things...
#1. First and foremost it is useful. I was confused at first about whether I had to look for the name I wanted or if I would type in the name on checkout. Seeing only a few names to choose from, I may have just left assuming that you didn't have the name I wanted. The copy above makes it clear that I can customize for the name of my choice.

#2. It gives you an opportunity to use the keywords you are trying to rank for in a non-spammy way by describing the page. More is NOT better on category pages. Keep it short, simple and useful.

#3. You are linking to the page you want to rank for a keyword from the page Google "thinks" should rank for that keyword, which should be a big signal to Google that the yellow gold page should be ranking. In this case I would not link back to white gold from yellow gold in this way, as it could negate the strategy. You are already linking to both pages in the sidebar navigation anyway.

Good luck!