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
-
SEO rank down 35%
So I recently switched from an Opencart website to a Magento 2 website and my rank has dropped by 35% two weeks later, this is bad news. My old Magento website was 5 years old and was in desperate need of an upgrade, hence the Magento 2 site. I realised today that the canonical URLs on my stores were set to the individual stores as opposed to one store, thus I expect resulting in duplicate content issues (even though Google Webmaster Tools didn't show it). I'm just wondering if anyone else can see something I may be missing? My sites are: thespacecollective.com (primary) thespacecollective.com/us/ (canonical to primary) Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | moon-boots0 -
Ranking dropped after changing title tag
I recently changed my company's site homepage title tag to make it start with our target keyword. The page was originally at page #7 or #8 and dropped to page #17 directly after I changed the page title. Is this normal? Is it's a temporary drop or should I change it back to the previous title.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ForumOne0 -
Very strange HTML docs - what should I do with them through site migration?
I've just been looking at a website and it includes numerous web pages with addresses like this. I click on the URL and it takes me to a fully functional web page (not an image) and when I run it through Screaming Frog this comes up as an HTML page. The site has around 150 unique pages and over 450 pages like this one - how should I deal with these pages during an SEO migration (only a few are backlinked to)? I look forward to reading your thoughts. http://www.[companyname].co.uk/property/caravan-sleeps-4/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/images/cottageTypes/blank.png
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Why is my website not ranking? Has A grade on-site from Moz.
I have a website that I am trying to get to up the SERPs. However the site isn't appearing in the search - even when I search for the business name. The site is http://www.jl-engineering.com/ The keyword targeted is DPF Cleaning. Could anyone explain to me why the site isn't showing at all - and how to fix this? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SWD.Advertising0 -
Why is my blog out-ranking my main site?
Please see attached ranking history chart. On June 5th the chart shows that my main site is not coming up under our main keyword "door hangers" From then on, our blog took over. Any ideas why? Thanks Andrea lpEBciu.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JimDirectMailCoach0 -
Why some category posts not rank well on Google?
Hello! I have a wired issue. Some categories blog post rank well on the Google, but some of them not in the Google's first 10 page. For an instance if my windows computer related post rank well, but Linux computer related posts not rank well on the Google. After published all the posts, I bookmark them 5-8 bookmarking sites (80% of them do-follow). All of these bookmarking sites have PR 3-6. What could be the reason? And how do I improve their ranking? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Godad0 -
Page Rank
Hi guys I have an ecommerce in prestashop (unfortunatelly I can not change it at this moment). I made all main activities both off and on the page. And actually it is working pretty well since I am up on the SERP for all the target keywords. BUT, the page rank still be 0. The site is about 2 years old. My main competitor has the same domain authority than mine, but he has a page rank > 0 Moreover I have more quality links then it has, but it is older Any suggestions? Many thanks Ciao Diego
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sbrelax0 -
My brand is not ranking on Android Google SERPs
In the new blog post here, she links to mobilemoxie, a site which allows you to do searches on various different smartphones. I tried a search for my brand, "ixl.com" on an iPhone 4 and a Android phone, the Motorola Droid X. On the iPhone, our brand appears in #1 like normal, but on the Android phone, our result doesn't appear on the first page. Any ideas as to why this would be the case? We're currently developing a mobile version of our site but we don't have one yet. Could that be the issue?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | john4math0