Homepage not ranking for main keyword, all other pages ranking slightly for their own keyword phrases.
-
Dear Mozzers,
We have an ecommerce website (www.pashmina-boutique.com), we want to rank the homepage for the keyword "pashmina". Problem is, we are nowhere to be found, not even in the top 100 search results of Google. It is indexed, we have no crawl errors, except that we had some problems with our hosting (503's), the crawler of Google bumped in a few of those. And we are fixing it.
Our other pages, e.g. (http://www.pashmina-boutique.com/15-white-pashminas) ranks for "white pashminas" 24th and "white cashmere pashminas" 23rd.
We have done no linkbuilding, in Majestic, you can check that. We have been offline for a long time (over 6 months) and about 3 weeks ago, we did a redesign (SEO). We relaunched, everything is looking fine except the homepage isn't ranking for the main keyword.
Could you guys check it out? Is it over-optimization? It can't be Penguin, Panda would be a surprise too. Or do we still have to wait for the monthly Panda data-refresh?
We are currently busy with this issue, once this is solved - that the homepage is ranking - we will start linkbuilding.
Mr.1000
-
Thanks, going to watch it for the second time
About the cannibalization of the main keyword, yes we are going to lower the amount of our main keyword. BUT if Moz their primary keyword would be "SEO", then all other pages on their website - and I bet that atleast 95% of their pages contain the keyword "SEO" - would rank lower or the homepage would rank lower. But this isn't the case, it makes it stronger because your whole site talks about this topic / keyword.
-
@Don's second post:
Yes, I was thinking about keyword cannibalization too. Lowering the amount of the main keyword alone [pashmina] on a different page than the homepage is what we want to achieve, but not always possible. Take Casemate or Otterbox as an example, the keyword [cases] is probably their main keyword, or [smartphone cases]. All over their site you can see that they use it in every category, every page, about everywhere. Neil Patel made a nice post the other day about this. The more common a keyword (phrase) is used over the whole website, the better it ranks. (Without going to far and getting keywords cannibalized.
-
Thanks Don for your answer.
Yes, we are going to build links. Don't worry :).
However I don't agree to the following statement you made "_Y_ou don't wait for a page to rank to start link building, you start link building to get a page to rank." I thought I missed something, that there might have been a technical issue that the homepage wasn't ranking, over-optimization or anything like that. The reason why I believed it was almost impossible to not be included in the top 100 results, was because I noticed websites showing up that were having really low-quality content.
I already checked the Page Grader, we are going to lower the amount of keywords in our text.
Good point about the position of the homepage text. Maybe we will put it above the product carrousel.
-
Yes, hosting is currently a problem that we are working on. Linkbuilding is up next :).
I just thought there was some issue with the homepage, that's why I didn't build links yet.
Thanks Mike for responding!
-
Hi Patrick!
Thank you for answering. We will build a sitemap, thanks for the reminder.
I am going to fix these pages, letting them all getting indexed.
We just changed our homepage title, a bit more SEO driven, to see if that would make a difference. We are currently working on our content. What do you mean with the titles looking spammy? Yes they are 'basic', just describing the page like "white cashmere pashminas" but this isn't spammy. We will mix it up a bit.
Thanks for the help though, you gave some good tips that I will use for sure!
-
Thank you for answering.
"pashmina" isn't that competitive. In top 100 results, you'll find so many, many low quality websites.
I know that the others rank better because it's long tail, yes, but by this time I would think our homepage would be good enough to rank 4-5th page.
What I said about linkbuilding, was to explain that there wasn't any white/grey or black hat linkbuilding done to our website.
-
Hi there
I want to say cannibalization isn't a bad thing if it's done in a well structured and thought out way. Here's a more recent Whiteboard Friday regarding this topic, along with targeting and density.
I would agree with you that "pashmina" is a little overused on this particular site and should be cleaned up.
Just wanted to add that Whiteboard Friday here.
-
One area that is often overlooked, and that is hugely powerful for any site, is internal linking.
An internal link to a page will tell Google that you consider it to be important, based on the phrase you are using. Remember that with internal linking, you should be as descriptive as possible.
I often point people towards this document, as it contains so much valuable information:
-Andy
-
Need to follow up on myself here.
I also noticed that you use the keyword "Pashmina" in almost every single one of your page titles. Along with "cashmere" they are very likely making your site a victim of keyword cannibalization.
Small list of titles:
- 100% Cashmere Pashmina - Blue Shadow
- 100% Cashmere Pashminas (2) - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- 100% Cashmere Pashmina - Violet Tulip
- 100% Cashmere Pashmina - Wild Dove Grey
- 55% Cashmere/ 45% Silk Pashmina - Blue Shadow
- 80% Cashmere/ 20% Silk Pashmina - Blue Shadow
- About Chyangra - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- Black Cashmere Pashminas - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- Blue Cashmere Pashminas - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- Cashmere & Silk Pashminas (2) - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- Cashmere & Silk Pashminas - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- Orange Cashmere Pashminas - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- Pashmina Shawls & Cashmere Scarves - Pashmina-Boutique.com
- Yellow Cashmere Pashminas - Pashmina-Boutique.com
Hope it helps just had to add this info..
-
Laura's answer is great spot on about the age and link building advice.
I will also emphasis a point she made about your statement that you said you're not doing any link building until you page is ranking.
You don't wait for a page to rank to start link building, you start link building to get a page to rank.
Other questions about is it over optimized: Moz's Page grader shows a couple issues.
- Avoid Keyword Stuffing in Document (Ref Rand's Post Here)
- Optimal Use of Keywords in H1 Tags
One other suggestion I have that is not in the page grader, and I have seen this a lot lately, is the way this template is putting the main text way below the header and image elements. You want your unique text to be above these elements showing it is important not tucked away under a ton of images and links. It would be much better to get your internal category images and links section off the main page all together (you already have them in the navigation).
Hope this helps,
Don
-
Hello,
Make sure you have no errors in webmaster tools. Then, Link building is a MUST! Open Site Explorer will help you with that A LOT.
thanks,
- Mike Bean
-
Hi there
I would take a look at this KISSmetrics post on eCommerce SEO; it provides a ton of valuable tips and opportunities for you to take advantage of.
I would also look into building a sitemap as it appears you don't have one at the moment. I would then make sure it is uploaded to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools.
By the way, your Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimer, Payment Methods, and Shipping & Returns pages are noindexed. I would index these pages and build them out a bit more - Google and users take notice of this trust signals for rankings and action, respectively. I suggest you take advantage of it.
I would also work on your on-site SEO to spice your title and content. Some of these titles are a bit too close for comfort to me and almost look spammy.
These are just my opinions! Hope they help! Good luck!
-
First of all, It's unrealistic to rank well for a highly competitive single keyword like "pashmina" within 3 weeks of launch with no backlinks - even within the first 100 results. Your other pages are doing better because "white pashminas" and "white cashmere pashminas" are not as competitive. Sites rarely jump to the top of the rankings right after launch. There may be a bump at first as Google indexes the site, but then it drops back down.
Secondly, you state that you haven't done any link building, and I assume you mean that you haven't done any spammy link building. However, you still need good backlinks to your site to be competitive. Below are a few resources on link building.
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
-
Page rank and menus
Hi, My client has a large website and has a navigation with main categories. However, they also have a hamburger type navigation in the top right. If you click it it opens to a massive menu with every category and page visible. Do you know if having a navigation like this bleeds page rank? So if all deep pages are visible from the hamburger navigation this means that page rank is not being conserved to the main categories. If you click a main category in the main navigation (not the hamburger) you can see the sub pages. I think this is the right structure but the client has installed this huge menu to make it easier for people to see what there is. From a technical SEO is this not bad?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AL123al0 -
My website is ranking well on most of keywords. How do I find more keywords in order to drive more traffic to my website?
I have a website which is ranking well on some good keywords ie generic and long tail. It is also ranking for some really competitive keywords. and now getting constant traffic. I want to increase organic traffic to my website. What are the best possible ways to do this? How to research more keywords and how to identify that they will really work? Please help, I am confused.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rishi.ast0 -
Best solutions when homepage won't rank in Google?
My homepage (www.LeatherHideStore.com) will not rank for my keywords in Google - with Google mostly pulling product pages and some categories for serp results. In contrast, my homepage consistently shows for Yahoo and Bing with exceptions where a category is a better match for the keyword. In other words, it is working exactly as it should in Yahoo and Bing. After a year of this frustration I just upgraded to a new site on Magento Community and surprise, the same problem! The SEO moz analyzer has flagged significant duplicate content issues which I think is at the heart of my problem. I have asked my developer to address these but let's just say that customer service is not his forte. I am even starting to doubt he knows what to do although the site appears is well done. Given that it is a brand new site and duplicate content in Magento is to be expected (from what I have now read), I am deeply discouraged that my developer did not or could not plan for this so here I am again! Can anyone give me guidance on what to do? I have read a lot about canonicalization and it seems complicated especially if you have 1000 duplicate page titles. I have seen that there are some extensions (i.e. Ultimate SEO Suite by aheadWorks) for Magento that claim to be able to solve duplicate content problems but I am really just grasping at straws and do not have the confidence or skills to implement this on my own. Can anyone please help? Thanks! Hunter
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | leatherhidestore0 -
Why my own page is not indexed for that keyword?
hi, I recently recreated the page www.zenucchi.it /ITA/poltrona-frau-brescia.html on the third level domain poltronafraubrescia.zenucchi.it by putting it on the home page. The first page is still indexed for the keyword poltrona frau brescia . But the new page is no indexed for that keyword and i don't know why ( even if the page is indexed in google ) .. I state that the new domain has the same autorithy and that i put a 301 redirect to pass his authority to the new one that has many more incoming links that did not have previous .. i hope you'll help me thanks a lot
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | guidoboem0 -
redirect 404 pages to homepage
Hello, I'm puting a new website on a existing domain. In order to not loose the links that point to the varios old url I would like to redirect them to homepage. The old website was a mess as there was no seo and the pages didn't target any keywords. Thats why I would like to redirect all links to home. What do you think is the best way to do this ? I tried to ad this in the .htaccess but it's not working; ErrorDocument 404 /index.php Con you tell me how it exacly look? Now the hole file is like this: @package Joomla @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 - 2012 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved. @license GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE! The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems with some server configurations. It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in your .htaccess file. If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's. If they work, it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here. Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above. Options +FollowSymLinks Mod_rewrite in use. RewriteEngine On Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits. If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below This attempts to block the most common type of exploit attempts to Joomla! Block out any script trying to base64_encode data within the URL. RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode[^(]([^)]) [OR] Block out any script that includes a
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | igrizo0 -
Adding another keyword phrase to home page.
I finally reached the #1 ranking for my websites main keyword phrase. There are two more equally good keyword phrases that have my main two keywords plus one additional page. Can I shoot for both of those or should I limit it to just adding one more keyword phrase for a max of two? For Example. I rank #1 for Horse Buggies (our domain is the main two keywords) (Example) The other two equally good phrases with a little more traffic are Horse Large Buggies (I rank #29)and Horse Giant Buggies. (#46) What is the best way to start ranking for those terms....without saturating or cannabolizing my current terms? We are about to change the URL's on some of our pages...so maybe I could add Large and Giant to the URL. Any suggestions? I sure would like to capture the other two keyword phrases. #1 URL additions? ( I think this would just rank me higher for the new pages) #2 Would getting new links with those two new keyword phrases in the alt text help or is that black hat? #3 Adding more of those keyword phrases to my home page? Thank you, Boo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Boodreaux0 -
Best ways to build up Page Rank (PR)
What are your sure fire ways to build up page rank, quickly and effectively for long term gains. Do you have a check list?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | therealmarkhall0 -
How do Google Site Search pages rank
We have started using Google Site Search (via an XML feed from Google) to power our search engines. So we have a whole load of pages we could link to of the format /search?q=keyword, and we are considering doing away with our more traditional category listing pages (e.g. /biology - not powered by GSS) which account for much of our current natural search landing pages. My question is would the GoogleBot treat these search pages any differently? My fear is it would somehow see them as duplicate search results and downgrade their links. However, since we are coding the XML from GSS into our own HTML format, it may not even be able to tell.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EdwardUpton610