I've hit a wall. What's next?
-
I've been working on creating content and optimizing my website for the past 18 months, and have seen decent gains in organic traffic. Recently my keyword ranking increases have slowed dramatically, despite adding additional content. I'm hoping a fresh set of eyes can spot something that may be holding me back. I appreciate any feedback the MOZ community is able to provide.
One area of concern/confusion is the number of pages indexed according to GSC. The number tends to go up and down, and I can't figure out why. Of the roughly 8,000 pages that are submitted through the sitemap, it says only around 1,100 are indexed (sitemap page). The index status page says I've got 7,500 pages indexed. Kind of confused on that one.
Anyway, my website is MetroAtlantaHome dot com. Thanks everyone!
-
Matt,
Thank you for taking a look at my site. I really appreciate the feedback.
I had noticed the search results with parameter tags being indexed as well. I tried limiting Google's crawler to non-parameter pages about 8 months ago, but didn't seem to do much. I was afraid one of my settings was messing things up so I deleted it and selected let GoogleBot decide for all of them. Not sure why the paginated pages are being indexed too. I thought I'd read where the paginate tag was similar to the canonical tag and Google would treat it as a signal not to index. I would think if GoogleBot can crawl and index the paginated search pages, it could also crawl the listing results on all those pages. I do have a large portion of listing pages on my site no-indexed since they don't fall within my service area and I used to get a ton of calls about them. Maybe that is causing issues for all the listing results pages to not be indexed.
In regards to Screaming Frog, which settings did you use? I use the preset user agent GoogleBot Regular and have thousands of pages that it crawls. Wish I could replicate your scan to see what might be holding things up.
Regarding the Wistia sitemap, I put it in the robots.txt file to try and get the videos embedded on my site indexed. I didn't realize this was hurting more than helping.
Thanks again for your feedback and taking the time to review my site.
-
As far as the discrepancy in numbers, Google is indexing a lot of ?search= parameter results (as well as /listing/ results) but the search ones are not in your sitemap. Your site doesn't crawl all the way very well - I put it in ScreamingFrog twice and only came up with about 400 pages - some listings pages but not the thousands Google has in the index.
You have a number of paginated pages:
- http://www.metroatlantahome.com/contemporary-style-homes/300000-400000/?p=5
- http://www.metroatlantahome.com/contemporary-style-homes/300000-400000/?p=3
Your canonicals take care of this issue for the search index but your search page results seem to be "indexed" even though they aren't in your sitemap. See the attachment.
So I think you're gaining indexed pages from the search parameter but losing them from /listings/ that aren't indexed and harder to crawl. I would suggest submitting sitemap_0.xml directly to Search Console as a start. Then trying to figure out why those pages don't crawl very well.
The Wistia sitemap in your robots.txt is also NOT something I'd want Google to ever see but having it in robots.txt ensures they do. I'd try to remove that from robots.txt
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
-
More 'New users' than 'Users' in Google Analytics
Hey Mozzers, I'm seeing more 'New users' than 'Users' in Google Analytics (see screenshot). This is over a 3 year time period. Any idea why new users would be greater than users? Thanks! 6lYmU0j
Reporting & Analytics | | RWesley0 -
Why isn't my google analytics working on a subdomain?
I have a website with Google Analytics which works fine. I tried adding the code to a subdomain using http://www.verticalrail.com/kb/filter-in-google-analytics-to-track-subdomains/ as a guide. There is no data showing up though. Any ideas?
Reporting & Analytics | | EcommerceSite0 -
Ok. I'm just going to cut loose with my stupid question. What is internal link equity? What distinguishes an internal link with equity from one without equity?
What distinguishes an internal link with equity from one without equity? Is there a limit to how many of these I want? What's the rule-of-thumb? Cheers, Wes
Reporting & Analytics | | wrconard0 -
What's the problem with this code for Google Analytics
Hello, I'm using this code in my thank you page to track ecommerce sales in GA. The problem that I'm having is that in the google event the _trackPageview doesn't register the proper page but puts the url of the ecommerce website. The transaction is properly tracked. Any ideas of what could be the issue looking at this code? Maybe there could be other code could be causing the problem? Thanks a lot.
Reporting & Analytics | | nagar0 -
Penguin 2.0 has hit business
Howdy,
Reporting & Analytics | | MarzVentures
I represent a UK based workwear company called myworkwear.co.uk and our rankings have fallen following Penguin 2.0. We are a relatively small company compared to many competitors and have noticed the arrival of large companies in the serps. Many are not even in the workwear sector and pretty irrelevant which is annoying. We have not received any correspondence from Google, but our fall from grace particularly for the word workwear has been big. Do you think our link profile is an issue? Click here: Link Profile Is it worth emailing Google? We have attempted to remove bad links, is it worth using disavow? My feelings are we should: 1. Email Google via Disavow tool about the links we have already tried to remove with proof of attempt.Go through link profile with fine tooth comb and contact an even wider range of webmasters for link removal.Then email Google via disavow tool (best to try removal via email to websites first).2. Begin to build new content and links, even guest blogging is now coming under scrutiny from Google – There really is no bluffing Google anymore.3. Build site conversion.4. Develop a competition theme (10 years old anniversary) combined with say MyWorkHero, etc. Use this for social networking.5. Increase social networking, but is this experts are predicting this is the next kick up for seo.6. Having improved conversion, trial adwords.7. Continue to develop the site in a structured, non manipulative manner. – Look at it as a good site is a successful site in the eyes of Google and the rewards will follow. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.0 -
Can't figure this ranking out..
Hi, This is puzzling me. I've been in the second/third position for a week or so for my best keyword. That is for Google US unpersonalized, which is the one that brings more traffic, as far as I understand. It can't get MUCH better. Well, I can be first, but second and third position is really awesome in my case (highly competitive keyword according to SEOMOZ PRO). Then, why on earth my traffic for that keyword was 8 times better a year ago?? I mean, a year ago I received an average of 800 visits per day and now I can barely reach 90 visits per day being in the second / third place. Visits can't increase from 90 to 800 just for increasing one spot. I've never seen in my stats such drop in my rankings. I thought that due to google updates my site was sent below the 20th position or something. But my I was shocked today when I saw that I still have the second/third position Am I crazy or this looks wrong? The page title and description that shows in google hasn't changed, so people looking for that keyword are seeing the same as one year ago. It is not a seasonal or time sensitive keyword. My best guess is that people are now always logged in and results are personalized. Don't know much about personalized results but I don't think you can optimize much for those. If that's the case, then how on earth can we optimize a page if everybody is using personalized results? Is there a way to improve your rankings in those cases? Thanks, Enrique
Reporting & Analytics | | enriquef0 -
Google API Tools - Next Analytics
Have you used any API tools like Next Analytics and/or can you recommend another tool that is particularly useful for a SEO?
Reporting & Analytics | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
List all URL's indexed by google
Hi all i need a list of all urls google has indexed from my site i want this in excel format or csv how do i go about getting this thanks in advance
Reporting & Analytics | | Will_Craig0