We are being penalized for one specific key word (and phrases it appears in), how can we figure out why?
-
Overall our SEO efforts have worked well, slow and steady increases in rankings across the board for all products and categories, EXCEPT for one particular brand name. Key words and phrases for that brand consistently under perform all other key words and phrases. Strategies etc. are the same, and we have not received any notifications about 'manual action' but I'm convinced there is something affecting our ranking on that brand. This has been going on for approximately two years, prior to that we ranked very well for this brand.
What sorts of tests can I run to try and find the problem?
-
Problems like this can be really hard to figure out. But, in my experience it is quite uncommon for a site to get any sort of penalty or demotion for a particular keyword.
I think that sometimes it can look like a particular keyword is demoted when the page previously had rankings that were propped up by the power of links that are now being detected as unnatural.
Sometimes when there is just one keyword that is not doing well, I look at the possibility of keyword stuffing. The keyword stuffing algo runs continuously and can indeed cause a particular page to not rank well if it thinks it is keyword stuffed. And in my opinion, it's not always consistent how Google determines keyword stuffing. There are plenty of keyword stuffed pages that still rank. And often two pages that look similar can be affected in different ways. But still, this is something to consider.
-
The above answers are excellent. Cross checking algorithm updates would be first point of call. On a granular have you undertaken a backlink audit for the specific page that is not ranking ? Reviewed anchor text, quality of links to that page etc? Have you made a comparison analysis of backlinks to competitors for the comparable page?
Hope that assists.
-
Hi there
I would take a look at Google's algorithm changes and line up when you saw these rankings/traffic drops. That will inform you if you need to do a backlink audit or content audit. I would also take a look at the pages from a competitor standpoint to see what they may be doing that's helping them rank.
There are a lot of ways you can optimize for eCommerce. Here are some resources that will help you:
The Ultimate Guide to SEO for E-commerce Websites (Kissmetrics)
Thin & Duplicate Content: eCommerce SEO (Inflow)
The Definitive Guide To Ecommerce Search Engine Optimization (Neil Patel)I would also recommend Schema on every product, as well as breadcrumbs, reviews. This is an immense help when it comes to search! BuiltVisibile has a great resource here as well (thanks to Erica for the heads up!)
It may also be that the keyword/brand is a very competitive space and that's just the way it is. In that regard, I'd look into ways you can build your domain and page authority to give you a little more edge in competing for your desired keywords and queries.
Let me know if this helps! Good luck!
-
Only us, and the other websites which are ranking well for the same brand are competitors with us across many other brands, product types etc. where we are very competitive against those sites, and are ranked higher on most of the other key words/phrases.
-
First, I'd note that using the same strategy for similar keywords doesn't necessarily mean they'll have similar results. Sometimes, keywords need very different strategies, content-association, and have different competition / difficulty.
Is it only you who are having ranking issues for this brand, or are other websites having the same issue?
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
-
How can I discover the Google ranking number for a keyword in Brazil?
Hello, how can I discover the Google ranking number for a keyword in Brazil location. I need to know what is the position in Brazil location for the keyword "ligação internacional" in the Google search engine for the webpage www.solaristelecom.com/ligacao-internacional. I tried to use the Moz tools to discover it but only shows that I am not in the top 50, then I want to know where I am, and if I am listed or not. I tried to search it in my browser and didn't show the name of my website. Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | lmoraes1 -
Should one end URLs with or without a slash?
Moz, I am noticing that I need to go back and update my outbound links to your site. There are a lot of them because your content is so great and we love you guys. Could you explain your logic for making the change? Example on my Valid JSON-LD image sizes page: [https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed/](https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed/) redirected to: [https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed](https://moz.com/blog/state-of-searcher-behavior-revealed)
Algorithm Updates | | jessential0 -
How can I submit a reconsideration request while not having any manual action?
Hello, My URL is: www.BannerBuzz.com and it has been penalized by google algorithm and my all ranking are getting down so i have found some links and disavowed them in google webmaster tool and now I want to submit a reconsideration request with google but I am not able to do the same. When I Click on "Request reconsideration of your site." it takes me to Check any manual action against my website. After Checking the manual action it says "No manual web spam actions found." and After that No Option to Submit My Request! Can we submit a request while not having any manual action against the site? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | CommercePundit0 -
Site refuses to improve rankings. Can someone else put a set of eyes on this for me and see what I am missing?
Hello! We've been successful with over 40 clients and getting them to great results in our industry, insurance. We recently acquired a new client who had an existing website with prior SEO results a very spammy blog and many spammy links. We've removed many of the blog articles and links using the Google Disavow Tool We've been monitoring this site in a campaign on Moz, but we're seeing zero improvement week to week. Can someone put another set of eyes on this and see if we're simply just missing something? Results for all 30 of our tracked keywords, zero are in the top 50! I would guess this was an algorithm penalty, but it has been 3 months now since we've made the changes and nothing is changing... not even a little bit! Any help/suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you and enjoy Labor Day weekend!
Algorithm Updates | | Tosten0 -
Why are rich snippets not appearing?
I'm helping out on a site (www.treadmillreviewguru.com) which formerly had rich snippets appearing in Google. They use hCard markup. All of the markup is visible on the page. The search preview in Google's rich snippets testing tool show a picture, a rating and all that. However, nothing is appearing in search results. Here is an example page: http://www.treadmillreviewguru.com/nordictrack-treadmill-reviews/nordictrack-commercial-1750-treadmill-reviews-ratings/ This page ranks in the top ten (for me, global results) when I search [nordictrack commercial 1750 treadmill review]. Does anyone know why Google would display the rich snippets a few weeks ago and then not display any at all?
Algorithm Updates | | DanDeceuster0 -
Penalization.... please help me...
First of all, sorry for my english but i'm an Italian girl seo. Before Panda update seo was clear and easy: good quality, good natural backlink and so on... Now there is an update fast every week and it's a mess! I work as seo for a big italian e-commerce and (more or less) one month's ago in google webmaster tool I tried a message frome Google who told me the site: www.giordanoshop.com is penalty for innatural backlink. But I ve do noting against Google politicy: no pay backlink, no fam and so on.. There are some streing link but I can't delete it because I don't do it. I ask the riconsideretion of website but google still tell me it faund innatural link. What shoud I do? The pr of the site is the same but all keyword has lose ranking: from 1 page to 3 and from 1 to 6 page... What can I do? I risk to lose my work sob.
Algorithm Updates | | giordanoshop0 -
Can anyone explain these changes to our Titles in the SERPS?
Hi there, We've been doing well in the SERPS over the past few weeks. Our previous meta title was displayed as: "Hunter Original Tall - Buy Original Tall Online Here" However, recently we've seen the title in the SERP switch over to: "Hunter Original Tall - Cloggs.co.uk" This has occurred on several of our product pages which display a particular style of a certain brand. So for example: "Ugg Bailey Button - Cloggs.co.uk" Has anyone else experienced these changes or can explain why this may have happened?
Algorithm Updates | | NigelJ
There is not change to the source code and our Titles have proven to have good click through rates in the past. Any ideas mozzers?0 -
Website "penalized" 3 times by Google
I have a website that I'm working with that has had the misfortune of gaining rankings/traffic on Google, then having the rankings/traffic removed...3 times! (Very little was changed on the site to gain or lose "favor" with Google, either.) Notes: Site is a mixture of high quality original content and duplicate content (vacation rental listings) When traffic crashes, we lose nearly all rankings and traffic (90+%) When traffic crashes, we lose all rankings sitewide, including those gained by our high quality, unique pages None of the "crash" dates appear to coincide with any Panda update dates We are working on adding unique content to our pages with duplicate content, but it's a long process and so far doesn't seem to have made any difference I'm confounded why Google keeps "changing its mind" about our site We have an XML sitemap, and Google keeps our site indexed pretty well, even when we lose our rankings Due to the drastic and sitewide loss of rankings, I'm assuming we are dealing with some sort of algorithmic penalty Timeline: Traffic steadily grows starting in Jan 2011 Traffic crashes on Feb 19, 2011. We assumed it was due to a pre-panda anti-scraper update, but don't know. Google sends traffic to our site on March 1, then none the next day On June 16th, I block part of the site using robots.txt (most of the section wasn't indexed anyway) On June 17th, Google starts ranking our site again. I thought it might be due to the robots.txt change, but I had just made the change a few hours ago, and Google wasn't even indexing the part of the site I blocked Traffic/rankings crash again on July 6th. No theory why. Site URL: http://www.floridaisbest.com Traffic Stats: Attached I know that we need more backlinks and less duplicate content, but I can't explain why our Google rankings are "on again, off again". I have never seen a site gain and lose all of its rankings/traffic so drastically multiple times, for no apparent reason. Any thoughts or ideas would be welcome. Thanks! t8IqB
Algorithm Updates | | AdamThompson0