Site Not Ranking for Key Term
-
Question for my fellow Mozers
I have a ranking question that I cannot put my finger on. I have a site (visitplano.com) where the client wants to rank for the keyword "Plano". I can't say if the site was previously ranking for this keyword, but I looked into the basic SEO practices and found that the keyword is incorporated in:
- Domain
- Title
- Content
- There is a lack of internal linking and anchor text within the content
- External links - 1,558
- DA - 46
- PA - 55
Currently, the website does not rank for the keyword "Plano". Could someone shed some light on why they aren't ranking or what I may be missing? I would greatly appreciate your help.
-
Thank you Patrick
The answer definitely help me understand and look at it differently. Greatly appreciate your response.
-
flcity15,
The answer could be as simple as "plano" may be wrapped up into so many other variations like "visit plano" "plano cvb" "plano city" "plano, texas" and so on. So, to Google or any other search engine, the keyword "plano" may not be properly segmented out as what you are specifically targeting. Looking in Open Site Explorer, your anchor text is hitting on "plano" for a link, but you have so many others also. This is good, but could be more effective with better links built to that site for that anchor text.
Also, your Home page tagging isn't really saying "Hey, rank me for Plano!". Your title could have another LSI mention and your meta description is extremely long. Work on getting that down to proper character length hitting you main keyword and some variations.
You already can determine who is ranking for "plano", so do a little research on where they are linking to. What content they are using, how they are tagging the site or the page ranking for the keywords and reverse engineer what they are doing to help your efforts.
Hope this was a good answer! Cheers, Patrick
-
Looking at the current links you have, there are some good quality sites already linking.
How long has the site existed for? A quick check on the domain in OpenSite Explorer reveals it has zero G+1's. It looks like you currently don't have a Google+ page, so the first thing I'd do is create that, then work on getting some more G+1's to your domain.
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
-
Sudden disappearance from google organic ranking
I have been ranked in top 5 for all relevant search terms for years. I have been in business for 25 years and am modestly speaking the best in our field. The name of my company is "Alaska Yacht Charters" and suddenly I have disappeared from Google search. Google "alaska yacht charters" and I am nowhere to be found. This all occured within days of my suspending my adwords account which I felt I didn't need because of my great organic ranking. What has happened?Geoff Wilson www.alaskanyachtcharters.com
On-Page Optimization | | akstory0 -
Latest news in site-wide footer?
I've asked my web team to add a section to our home page to showcase our latest news and content (articles, blog entries (same domain), white papers, case studies, etc.) I think it will be a good user experience and also provide an opportunity to keep a fairly stagnant home page updated with fresh content. My web team wants to add the section to our footer, which is site-wide. I'm sure this isn't a bad user experience, but will it cause problems or eliminate any SEO value (if any) for this regularly updating content?
On-Page Optimization | | mbrusyo0 -
Rankings drop since switch to https
Switched hosting companies, and then switched to https for the entire marketing site as a result of needing the security for the signups. Rankings in several (most areas) have tanked since then. Site hasn't changed otherwise, is responsive, fast, and spidered well. See: http://pisoftware.com I FEEL like the redirection is being handled properly, but I can't be sure. Moz reporting duplicate content on the homepage between http and https - but I honestly don't know why. Any help - ANY - is appreciated. Hair being pulled out, and I don't think I'll look good completely bald. 🙂 Kelly
On-Page Optimization | | Kellster0 -
To change or not to change site URL structure?
I am learning my way around SEO, having always used professionals for it in the past on previous businesses i have decided to do it myself and learn more about it. Now the dilemma i am up against is i recently changed some of my permalinks on quite a few main pages throughout the site. The site launched in April this year so we're quite new. The problem is since my last change i have not seen any increase...a decrease which in fact hasn't recovered at all. Having now analysed them in more depth and read up more on the whole subject of SEO, (which is endless) i have put together a complete new strategy; with this increased understanding of what i am doing (but by no means conclusive) i want to complete a full overhaul on all SEO (via Wordpress which i use along with YOAST SEO tools), ensuring i have all my keywords, permalinks and descriptions spot on throughout every page, post and picture. I spent a lot of time mapping these out, ensuring there is no Focus keyword duplication, and that the site is relatively flat in terms of its layout. What i am unsure about now is whether changing my permalinks again is a bad thing to do?
On-Page Optimization | | MrCostello
Could it permanently damage my rep going forward?
Should i just focus on my content and keywords/descriptions? I am at a loss as i don't want to do irreparable damage to our reputation. The site is still reasonable easy to manage so changing now is the best time to do it, but if changing the URLs is a waste of time then i may just forget that and just work on the keywords, descriptions and content. Advice is 'oh so welcome' 🙂0 -
What are your top tactics for boosting your site's Author Rank?
Mike Arneson has an excellent Mozinar where he shares some helpful Author Rank tactics. What specific tactics are you doing to boost the Author Rank of your site?
On-Page Optimization | | ProjectLabs1 -
Mentioning own site and keywords on here?
I have noticed that sometimes posters will talk about a site without mentioning what it is. I assume this is because it one of their clients so there is confidentiality, is there any other reason I should be aware of? its just that as I am new I am usually cautious and am considering posting my own site and mentioning all my keywords to ask for people’s verdict for my on-page SEO. Still working on it, will be ready soon, thought I would ask in advance. Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | Zoolander0 -
No Content on home page + rankings
If a home page has no content will it hurt the sites ability to rank? The interior pages will have content but not the home page. (See attached image) My client does not want content on the home page as he feels it will take away from the look and feel he wants to achieve. This website is actually 10 sites or locations in one as we intend to market each location (a total of 10) separately. In reality the home page is a doorway page to each separate location. I'd like feedback if possible as to the necessity or not, of content on the Home Page of this or any website. Will the lack of content hurt on the Homer Page hurt with SEO? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | fun52dig
Gary Downey bobby-vans.jpg0 -
Content for ecommerce site
How important on site/page contents are for ecommerce site. Keeping in mind the page layout. Its not that important to have page copy/content at all for ecommerce sites If yes, does position of content is an important factor? if putting page copy/content in upper fold of a page then the most important thing which is product itself will have less exposure if putting near the footer of the page, does that seem like doing just for the sake of SEs and ranking. How important internal linking form that content would be compare to left panel links or links at the header of a website Thanks Rick
On-Page Optimization | | RickGa0