Ranking problem.

[T0BY]

Hello,

Using Moz I can see that my ranks for my site ZenPlugs.com for keywords such as 'ear plugs' and 'molded ear plugs' and several other keywords aren't as high as other sites with similar DAs. I can't see why, am I missing something?

Many thanks,

Toby

[ClaytonJ]

Toby

There are two parts to optimizing titles and meta descriptions. Deal with the later first - Meta descriptions should firstly be optimized for clickability as they hold no significant SEO value.  So use your 156 characters to create a great CTA.

Titles however are a different beast as they hold significant SEO value. In creation of the perfect Title you need to weigh two competing factors - SEO -v- Clickability.

In the title SEO has the priority or should come first - hence identify the keywords chasing.  Then you work out the most clickable way to present those words. Here is a link to another post that answers your question. http://moz.com/community/q/how-should-be-a-perfect-seo-title-description-h1-and-h2

Moz has a snippet tool you can use. https://moz.com/blog/new-title-tag-guidelines-preview-tool Before getting to that use Semrush or another keyword tool your prefer to identify the keywords you are chasing and than start playing with the snippet tool.

Let me know if you have any questions. If you create a title and a description - happy to review it for you.

[T0BY]

I have been working my way through the Technical Site Audit Checklist by Geoff Kenyon which tells me to make sure 'Important pages have click‐through rate optimized titles and meta descriptions'.  How would you do this?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hey Toby,

So many possibilities as to why this could be.

However, I would not use SEMrush right at this second because they recently changed their algorithm and with that, they show a lot of site pages that have low content ratios, when they actually aren't too bad.

An example... I am doing some work on a client site this week and next. 2 weeks ago, they ran a crawl and it showed just over 300 pages with low content ratio. Last week it showed over 1,400. After they spoke to them, it does indeed seem to be down to their update.

I would instead suggest trying Deepcrawl. Why? Because you are able to adjust thresholds (as shown in the attachment) that give you control over a healthy threshold rather than something that is just too sensitive. You also get a lot more useful data (IMO) so at a glance, you can see what is going on.

Outside of this, it is always difficult to try and put your finger on why someone ranks above you and if you put two identical sites side-by-side who have identical DA, then you can start by looking at the trust the site has within Google. The article at Backlinko is a very interesting read and I suggest grabbing a coffee and going through it.

If you haven't already, download ScreamingFrog because this is seen as a de-facto standard for any SEO. Something every SEO has in their toolbox.

I would also suggest reading this article by Bill Slawski on how Google may classify sites as low quality. Some great insights in there.

Let me know if there is anything else.

-Andy

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[T0BY]

Thank you!  I'll get cracking.

[MattAntonino]

Thanks for linking to my post even 2 years on. I should really do an updated version.

But you're essentially right - there are many reasons beyond PA & DA why a site ranks or doesn't rank, outranks you or simply doesn't show up. PA & DA have a place in ranking sites and pages against each other but not for how they rank based on a particular keyphrase.

Think about it like this. Moz.com is a very authoritative domain, right? Not so much about pizza and learning French, though.

So we can start with PA & DA but we need a lot more information to determine how a site will rank for a given keyphrase in a specific version of Google searched by a particular user.

[ClaytonJ]

Toby

A conundrum we face daily. Working through the long lists detailed above is arduous work and I will suggest a start.

If you have access do a site audit with moz or semrush. If access to moz review the moz trust score. After a site Audit you should have a better understanding of some technical issues but there are two factors that I address asap page speed. Just checked your on tools.pingdom and it was below 2 seconds which is excellent.

The second aspect which I suspect has high relevance is bounce rate.  I would imagine bounce rate could be a factor for your site from a quick look at the home page. I am not sure whether the site is a shop, info brochure on ear plugs etc. I did not see a CTA. So if your bounce rate is above say 50% I would be studying GA for behavior on the site. Work out what page customers are dropping off, and then dedicate your self to getting the customer to move to the next page.  Follow them all the way through to a conversion. If not enough traffic ask family or friends - though they can be brutal.

There are plenty of other items on your list - but understanding your customer and how they are interacting with your site is vital - and creating a deep connection with the right customer is integral to sustained success. If people have a good on site experience they will talk about your site and come back.

Ask away for clarity on any point.

[T0BY]

Thank you, very helpful!

[Alick300]

Hi Toby,

There are various other factors that affects ranking apart from DA & PA so it is not the best way to judge ranking only on the basis of same or similar DA.

Please check similar below thread so you can get whole idea on this.

http://moz.com/community/q/higher-pa-and-da-but-lower-ranking

https://moz.com/blog/going-beyond-moz-metrics-to-answer-why-is-this-site-outranking-me

Hope this helps.

Thanks