Difference in which pages Google is ranking?
-
Over the past two weeks I've noticed that Google has decided to change which pages on our site rank for specific keywords. The thing is, this is for keywords that the homepage was already ranking for. Due to our workload, we've made no changes to the site, and I'm not tracking any additional backlinks. Certainly there are no new deep links to these pages.
In SEOmoz dashboard (and via tools/manual checking with a proxy) of the 24 terms we have first page ranking for, 9 of them are marked "new to top 50". These are terms we were already ranking for. Google just appears to have switched out the homepage for other pages.
I've noticed this across a couple of client sites, too, though none to the extent that I'm seeing on our own.
Certainly this isn't a bad thing, as the deeper pages ranking means that they're landing on the content they want first, and I can work to up the conversion rates. It's just caught me by surprise.
Anyone else noticing similar changes?
-
I've noticed a decrease in brand-focused searches for our site, but for our actual terms, no, no changes. Entry pages have definitely switched up, however.
Did your ranks end up getting negatively effected by the recent switch-ups, or are different pages literally being switched out at the same ranks?
-
Hi there I have also noted some radical changes in my rankings but it also came with a 30% + drop in organic traffic.
have you experienced similar "side affects"?
-
That's pretty much what I'm seeing. Definitely a mixed bag.
In my case, links to the deeper pages did exist, though certainly not in the same numbers as to the homepage.
I'm doing a bit of research now to see if there's anything else that might have influenced Google's decision. Looking at some of the backlinks on majestic, I'm beginning to suspect it's a partly because they're pages that are better targeted to the keywords, and have more closely matching anchor text.
-
In some instances it's simply swapped but in others it seems to depend on on-site. I am puzzled though that a page with no links ranked the same way the page with links.
-
Thanks for the responses Dejan and davegr,
Are you finding that the rank of the newly indexed page is similar to the old page, exactly the same, or different?
-
I've seen something very similar over the past couple of months. It seems like Google generally picks right and I'm pleased with the changes. However, it has occasionally ranked less relevant pages for the keyword and I've seen traffic drop as a result.
-
I have been noticing this behaviour creep in slowly over the period of some months on many of the websites I monitor -- particularly eCommerce. The idea is that the user is sent to the very product page as Google determines that most users end up there eventually. Where they fail is by forcing users to end pages when they are not ready for it (still browsing and researching and would much rather see a category then a product page).
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
-
If Google Trends Doubles?
If google shows a search trend doubling in a time frame, does that mean the amount of searches doubled? As in: 2006 was ranked at a 50 on trends and the 100 is 2013 and in 2013 10,000 searches were made, does that mean around 5,000 searches were made in 2006?
Algorithm Updates | | JoshBowers20120 -
Google Site Links question
Are Google site links only ever shown on the top website? Or is it possible for certain queries for the site in position #2 or #3 or something to have site links but the #1 position not have them? If there are any guides, tips or write ups regarding site links and their behavior and optimization please share! Thanks.
Algorithm Updates | | IrvCo_Interactive0 -
Why is site dropping in rank after we update it?
One of our sites - supereyes.com - appears to drop in rank after we update it. The client notified us of this today and I've verified that it did indeed drop in Google -- four spots since last week. He says this happens every time we make changes to the site, but then a week later it will go back up and is usually higher than where it was before. I have not verified this, but I'm very worried it may not rise again In the past week, we've posted a new blog entry to their site and we've changed some of the content -- specifically, added their locations to the header, added a contact page and put two testimonials in their sidebar. We've also had someone submitting their site to directories and local business sites like Angie's List and so forth. There are about 16 new backlinks established in the past 2-3 weeks. Also, I should note, traffic is higher than it's ever been, but the client doesn't look at traffic. They only look at their Google results. Can anyone offer any insight into what's going on here and if I need to be worried the site won't rise again in the rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | aloley0 -
Google Love and Bing Hate
I have a site that is currently ranking 6th for a certain key phrase. But when i search on Bing it is on page 4. The result on google is for the homepage and the bing result is a search result. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am not logged into to google when searching but we do use adwords.
Algorithm Updates | | SoundinTheory0 -
Our Rankings are being very inconsistent! Some days we are on the front page, some days we are not in the top 50\. This happens on a weekly and sometimes daily basis... Any thoughts on why this is happening? This newbie appreciates any feedback.
We seem to be having major issues with our rankings. When I came into the company, the company was in the middle of cleaning up some of their past SEO efforts that had caused some issues with some of the latest Google updates. We were able to get the site back up to par, and some of our rankings were improved back to the first page, but then they disappeared. They will head back to the first page and then disappear again on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. Does anyone have any idea on why it will be doing this so inconsistently and so often? This newbie appreciates any feedback!!!!!
Algorithm Updates | | PCMV0 -
Google and Wikipedia
Ok, I love Wikipedia as much as the next guy but the amount of weight that google puts on this site is getting crazy. My search terms that I am going after are "speakers" and "loudspeakers" Can somebody tell me why wikipedia needs the top 8 -10 spots for those terms? is that really a good search result for users of google? More of a rant then a question I know. I just needed to get that off my chest!.
Algorithm Updates | | kevin48030 -
What do you think of Google SERP encryption?
Really interesting post by Search Engine Land about this "issue" for tracking conversion, especially for long tail keyword research. I suppose this change will be also applied on all google search pages (.ca, .fr etc.). I Really don't think Webmaster tools is a serious compensation in Analytics for this.
Algorithm Updates | | Olivier_Lambert0 -
Can AJAX implementation affect the rankings in Google Panda?
Hi there, I have the following situation with one of our job sites. We migrate the site to a new application, which is better from design point of view and also usability. For this we use a lot AJAX especially in searches. So every time a user is filtering down their search new results will be shown on the page, at the same url and with no page load. But, having this implementation. affected Bounce rate - which increased from 38% to nearly 60%, PI/visits - which are now half, at 3 and also Avg Time on Site is half that is used to be coming to 2,5 min from nearly 6 min. From Rand post, it is clearly that the content is very important in Google Panda, and all of these parameters we should consider, as it is telling the quality of the content. So, my question will be, can this site be hit by Panda updates (maybe later on) because Bounce Rate, PI/Visits and Avg Time on site, decreased in such way? At the moment we don't measure the Ajax impresion, but as I understood that we can do that though virtual pages in GA, does anyone of you have the experience how to handle this? Won't be this an artificial increase? Thanks, Irina
Algorithm Updates | | InformMedia0