New keyword simply not Ranking

[hooneyrobert]

Evening all, first post.

I'm currently ranking OK for a broad range of keywords - nothing at number 1 but some are on the first page. However, there is one particular keyword which simply refuses to get indexed. I've witnessed this behaviour before with another site where it appears at SERP 300 or so, then vanishes, comes back at 200 odd and then vanishes. Right now, it's not even ranking in any position. I'm using SERPFox for SERP position on Google.

I've had Moz analyse the content on page and it's getting an A. The article is about 2000 words, with good Title and page description and the keyword is appearing under 1%.

My question is, have you witnessed odd behaviour like this before where other keywords are ranking OK but an odd few don't even get indexed? I have a few links built to the URL and asked Google Webmaster tools to index the URL but still nothing. I have no penalties or anything to worry about.

The only other info I have is that this URL is on a brand-new domain but the previous domain has a 301 redirect with a page authority of 42 and a domain authority of 38 (not too high). And, everything else appears to be running along OK.

The point is, I have no expectations about the keyword ranking in a certain position but find it odd how the keyword keeps popping in and out of Google SERP.

The keyword has a difficulty of: 58%

Any thoughts appreciated. Robert.

uH7vtbh

[hooneyrobert]

Hi, I had another thought - the old posts are ranking fine on the new site after the 301 redirect. Some are slightly down but in the main, they are approx the same SERP position.

It's new posts which are having the difficulty. Are new posts on a new domain difficult to rank anywhere even with a 301 redirect passing authority through? The 301 is passing everything through to the new domain.

Getting really frustrated! As I say, I don't have an expectation of search position but this is good content which is being indexed but not being given any SERP position.

[hooneyrobert]

Thanks for the reply - not really!

The keyword is 2 words and 58% competitiveness according to Moz. Still not ranking at all.

Question I have is regarding the 301 redirect. This is a brand-new post and not a post which is being redirected via the 301. However, I would have assumed that the 301 would be passing domain authority through anyway.

As I said, I have no expectations in terms of SERP position - although I would have expected a top 50. But, the post is simply nowhere within Google at all. Not even appearing in any SERP position. It appeared and then disappeared and not appeared again for the last few days.

The post went live on November 22nd, it's now 12th Dec. I posted the SERPFox pic for anyone to look at. Interestingly, there's another new post which was posted on the 27th November which is doing exactly the same thing.

Everything else is ranking on the new site as it used to on the old site prior to the 301 redirect.

Arrggghhh, Rob.

[crackingmedia]

Don't you just love SEO sometimes Robert?!

It is very frustrating when you think you have done everything right, but don't see the results you are expecting. Obviously, I don't know the full details of the keyword and the page you are trying to rank it on, but I don't think I have ever had what you have described having done what you have described.

Recently I have seen some odd bouncing around in SERP rankings, nothing very dramatic but bigger bounces then I would expect and negative ones at that when I would have expected positives. My only thought is I wonder, with the shake up in search by Google and the growing move to semantic search and away from a boolean keyword-based algorithm, whether this is the cause of such volatility of which we can expect to see more.

You mention 'keyword'. I know 'keyword' tends to be synonymous with what is more accurately a keyword phrase, but is the keyword you are trying to rank for just one word or a multi-word phrase? If one word, then I would expect to see a big swing in ranking results because in many/most cases how can you draw a semantic understanding of the searcher's intent through one word. I don't think it's linear, and although this is a generalisation, I think the longer your keyword phrase the less volatility.

I don't think the above is really an answer for you, but I hope it helps maybe in some way.

Peter