Ranking strangeness
-
Just wondering if anyone had come across this kind of scenario which I had/have with a client.
Rebuilt/revamped site that has got problems with thin content we are looking to resolve. Rankings for the main keywords were ok on page 2 or 3 and being worked on. Two weeks ago ALL main keywords disappeared from ranking (category pages). The homepage took over and ranked ALL those keywords at #1! Bang -straight to top spot. However happy I was I find this disconcerting as there is a reasonable level of competition.
Today homepage rankings in the main go and directories come back into the rankings at some good positions on page one. We still need to fix thin and duplicated content!
I can justify the problems and swing with the category pages but the massive cross the board top position for the homepage has been pretty bizarre.
Has anyone else had the experience where the homepage suddenly 'out-performs' in a big way?
-
I take on all your points and would typically agree. However, for some keywords only a menu link to poor content exists but there is the relationship with the overall content/theme. What I would say is that the site was live some time before I began work so the pages were 'settled'. I've just not seen the scenario where all those directories nose dive completely off the radar and for a period the homepage (against some stiff competition) instantly dominate so strongly, previously struggling page 2-3. I've seen fluctuations but this was a bit whacky.
-
This reminds me of one of Rand's WBFs from early last year: http://moz.com/blog/what-should-i-put-on-the-homepage-whiteboard-friday... Although it's a bit of the opposite of what you're seeing now. It'd be harder to break down without looking at some of the keywords and specific site design elements at play, but it sounds lie the homepage has a lot more breadth than it did previously. There could be some branding at play depending on the keywords as well.
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
-
Essential to Have a Blog to Rank Well?
I have noticed that several competitors that rank very well rarely update their blogs, www.42floors.com for instance. We are redesigning our commercial real estate Wordpress website in the hopes of improving traffic, ranking and conversions. How critical is it to invest resources on creating and categorizing blog posts? Is frequently updating a blog post less necessary in late 2018? Curious to hear how much effort we should take to create new blog content and whether or not it will assist us in a competitive niche. Thanks, Alan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan12 -
Can I know which keywords lost their top rankings on google a year ago if the client didn't checked the keyword rankings in his website?
Hi, Can I know which keywords lost their top rankings on google a year ago if the client didn't checked the keyword rankings in his website? Thanks Roy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kadut1 -
Preserving rankings after migration
I have acquired new a client who wants to migrate to a new platform. He also wants a 100% guarantee we maintain he Google search rankings. How realistic is this? Anyone got a checklist they can recommend?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
Why have my rankings dropped?
I have a client who has just seen his average page rank creep up from around 39 to 34 over about two months, then it appears to have dropped back to position 40+ in the space of a week. I believe he's made a lot of changes to targeted keywords, so I'd like to think it's simply because his old targeted keywords are dropping and new keywords still have to build their rankings. But I'm also worried in case he has over-optimised and might get getting penalised. Any advice on where to start digging?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
301 redirect impact on ranking
If Website A is ranking 19th position in Google for a specific keyword, and Website B is ranking 30th position for the same keyword, What would be impact after 301 redirect? Will Website A drop to 30th position because of 301 or existing position would improve because of link juice?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | riyaaaz0 -
Dislodged own ranking with poorer quality page?
Hi, So last week we where ranking within the top two pages for google for a results page at something like rank 21 - https://www.whichledlight.com/t/g9-led-bulbs We have been tracking this page and earned a few decent domain authority links here. Today when the new rankings came in it looks like a blog page we wrote a while back has jumped several pages to number 13 in the rankings - ok so not the end of the world BUT our results page seems to have disappeared from the rankings. You can see from the screen shot in the attached link at some point Moz / Google has noted that both the pages are relevent in some capaicty. Has Google decided that because both pages are from the site and both are showing ranking signals for the same traffic that one should go? It also seems weird that this blog one would come from nowhere to rank so highly in the course of a week. Perhaps they have changed their algorithm? This is a bit of a concern for us as it is unclear whats happened - especially after we where so close to getting to page one for a valued search term. SBZRaIq
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TrueluxGroup0 -
Does having shorter URLs help with rankings?
Hello here.I own an e-commerce website (virtualsheetmusic.com), and some of our most important category pages have pretty long URLs. Here is an example: http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/downloads/Indici/Violin.html I am evaluating the possibility to shorten URLs like the above to something like: http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/violin/ But since it is going to pretty hard and time consuming (considering the custom system we have in place on that site), I am trying to find out if it really matters and worth doing it from a SEO stand point. I am aware that from a user prospective shorter URLs are preferable, and we plan to pursue a better URL architecture on our website in the near future just for that, but this question, at the moment, should be strictly related to SEO. Any thoughts on this topic are very welcome!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fablau0 -
Rank went up, But?
ok, I have been optimizing a sit for a while and decided to drop the flash site build an HTML site instead for obvious reasons. But, as I was building the new site, BANG! a big jump in Google rank? How can this be, I thought out loud. Must be all my anchor text kicking in...So, I am left with this question...Or did google pick up on my new site as I was building it. I build it on a new DNS, then revert back to the main DNS... Drop the HTML site and continue my link getting with the main site? Or chalk it up under something else and roll with new site. I hope that was not to confusing
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEObleu.com0
