Google is alternating what link it likes to rank on wordpress site and
-
Hi there,
I'm experiencing a problem where google is pick and choosing different links structures to rank my Wordpress site for my main keywords. The site had pretty good #1 rankings for a long time but recently I noticed Google is choosing to rank the page in one of two ways. Let me just say that the original way where it held good rankings looked like this for example: flowers.com/the-most-beautiful-wedding-bouquets/ this is just an example it' is not my site.
And when google decides to switch it up it uses this link structure:flowers.com > weddings (this still points to this link flowers.com/the-most-beautiful-wedding-bouquets when I hover my mouse over it) however this link structure that never appeared before and now does, usually has much lower rankings. Please note it's not both link structures being ranked at the same time for the keywords. It's one or the other that google is currently alternating in ranking and I believe it's hurting the sites position.
I'm not sure if this is a wordpress settings thats gone wrong or what the problem is but I do know when shows the expanded and descriptive link structure flowers.com/the-most-beautiful-wedding-bouquets the rankings are higher and in 2nd place. I'm hoping by rectifying this I can regain back my position.I'm very grateful for any insight you could offer on why this is happening and how I could fix it. Thank you.
PS Wordpress site has several SEO plugins
-
Hi Christy, it's not resolved yet, I'm still seeking help. My rankings are going lower because of this daily and I don't know what to do.
-
Hi Tom,
I just noticed your reply here, somehow I didn't get the email update. That would be great if you can find something. I checked my PM box and it's empty as of now.
Thanks
-
Hi Danny,
Thanks for your reply. I checked the SEO plugins Yoast and Seopressor both which are active and they are not set to have anything to do with sitemaps as far as I can tell.
Sitemaps
Google XML sitemaps plugin is handling the sitemaps. I do have two sitemaps submitted for the site however, one in the form sitemap.xml and the other sitemap.xml.gz both of which are identical just in different format. Could the two sitemaps be the cause of this problem? The other competitors are not having this issue, only my site is being affected.
Whenever google shows my site with the shortened form the site shows with substantial loss in rankings, however when it's in the normal descriptive longer form (not that long at all and doesn't require breadcrumbs or anything like that) it ranks well, which is great but it doesn't last long.
Permalinks
The permalinks are set to the correct setting as suchhttp://example.com/sample-post/
CachingCan you elaborate on this and what I should look for?
URL Length
The length is not long and my competitors have the same length or longer without the problem I'm having. This is an example length and it's no longer than this. http://example123.com/test-that-this-the-the-example/
Appreciate your insights and feedback. please let me know
-
Hey Z,
i got your PM just wanted to update you I will run an audit on that for you tonight. Sorry for the delay I've been out of town seeing my family was on a vacation. Please look for my response in the private message tonight around 8 PM Eastern in addition I will update the board here and tell you that there is a letter for you and your private mailbox.
All the best,
tom
-
Hi there, thanks for your question! Were you able to sort this issue out? We'd love an update, thanks!
Christy
-
Hey Z, it looks like SEO plugs ins are conflicting each other, creating several sitemaps for Google and Google doesn't know which links has higher authority, main one or redirect, it could be permalinks as well or cashing.
If url is the same, then most likely is too long and Google is trying to shorter it down with some type of their beta testing.They usually do run tests all the time.
I don't advice several SEO plugins, if not being used.
-
Hi Tom, I sent you a PM with the url and info, please let me know what you think.
-
Oh I see, sorry about the confusion, I made the URL up and I guess it happens to work at the same time. I will PM you now.
-
try http://flowers.com/the-most-beautiful-wedding-bouquets
I thought you gave a real domain please use example.com so I will know.
without the domain I think it is wordpres adding the / can you PM me the domain?
Thanks,
Tom
-
Hi Tom, thank you for your reply, however please note as I stated the flowers.com reference was just an example, it's not my site. I think that would probably change your advice?
-
Hi
So you know wordpress adds the forward "/" to urls that are categories for have been set up using regex /?$
Or you have it set up the right way
Source: ^/flowers.com/the-most-beautiful-wedding-bouquets/?$
1. Redirect A Page
To redirect one page to another page, just fill in the fields like so:
Name: Redirect my contact page Domain: www.flowers.com Source: ^/flowers.com/the-most-beautiful-wedding-bouquets/?$ Destination: /new-path/contact-us/ with or with out "/" Redirect type: 301 Permanent
NOTE
-
This Redirect Rule will match a URL of http://www.domain.com/old-path/contact-us -or-http://www.domain.com/old-path/contact-us/
-
The variation is because of the Regex Syntax “/?$”
-
The Question Mark “?” makes the Trailing slash Optional
-
It will also only match the Source if it Starts with a “/” (note the carrot “^” ), or ends with either “s” or “/” (note the ending “$” )
-
See
-
check your canonical's
-
use Yoast SEO it will add canonical's for you then the you will not have the tracking added like I see on all pages ?cm_sp=flowers--globalnav--birthday-topcat-D10147
-
| rel="canonical" href="http://www.flowers.com/birthdayflowers" /> |
| | -
Correct this code https://github.com/bunchoup/alert_site/blob/master/tmp/menu_FD4.xml
-
Use Deepcrawl or Screaming Frog to find & fix
I hope this helps,
Tom
-
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
-
Just moved to CDN and site dropped in Google
Hi there, I have been modifying a clients site for months now trying to get higher up in Google for the term "wedding dresses essex" on the website https://www.preciousmomentsbridalwear.co.uk/ It's always ranked around 7th / 8th place and we want to try and get it into 4/5th position ideally. I have optimised pages and then due to the site speed not being that great we moved it to MaxCDN this week which has made the site much faster, but now we have dropped to number 10 in Google and in danger of dropping out of the first page. I was hoping that making the site much faster for desktop and mobile would help not hinder! Any help would be appreciated! Simon
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Doublestruck0 -
Is it likely that google uses bookmarks(favorites) in chrome as a ranking signal?
Is it likely that google uses bookmarks(favorites) in chrome as a ranking signal?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lcourse0 -
Open Site Explorer - Spam analysis: need help with inbound links... from my site!
hallo, reading my spam analysis report from open explorer, I found somenthing I don't understand (please see attached image): The long list of links inside the red rectangle are inbound links with a spam score of 5 coming from my same site. How is that possible? Should I remove those links? Also , I see that many of those links are links present in the top navigation bar (about page, home page, service description etc.) or in the sidebar section of the website (categories, recent posts, recent comments). Should I treat them differently? Thank you for your time.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | micvitale0 -
My site shows 503 error to Google bot, but can see the site fine. Not indexing in Google. Help
Hi, This site is not indexed on Google at all. http://www.thethreehorseshoespub.co.uk Looking into it, it seems to be giving a 503 error to the google bot. I can see the site I have checked source code Checked robots Did have a sitemap param. but removed it for testing GWMT is showing 'unreachable' if I submit a site map or fetch Any ideas on how to remove this error? Many thanks in advance
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SolveWebMedia0 -
How to recover google rank after changing the domain name?
I just started doing SEO for a new client. The case is a bit unique as they build a new website and for some reason lunched in under another domain name. Old name is foodstepsinasia.com and new one is foodstepsinasiatravel.com OLD one is a respected webites with 35 in MOZ page authority and with +15000 incomming link (104 root domains) NEW one is curently on 0 The programmer has just that build the new website has set it up so that when people write or find the old domain name it redirect to the front page of the new website with the new domain name. this caused that my friends lost a lot of their rankings was so I believ it was a very bad solution. But I also think I can get most of the old rankings back, but my question is what to do now to get as much back of the rankings as fast as possible?? A) I believe I must change the domain name back to foodstepsinasia.com on the new website ? O B) Should I on the old website try finding the url of the pages with most page authority and recreate these urls on the new website or should i redict them to a page with related content? Looking forward to feedback from someone who have experience with similar cases. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nm19770 -
If linking to contextual sites is beneficial for SE rankings, what impact does the re=“nofollow” attribute have when applied to these outbound contextual links?
Communities, opinion-formers, even Google representatives, seem to offer a consensus that linking to quality, relevant sites is good practice and therefore beneficial for SEO. Does this still apply when the outbound links are "nofollow"? Is there any good research on this out there?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | danielpressley0 -
Site wide footer links vs. single link for websites we design
I’ve been running a web design business for the past 5 years, 90% or more of the websites we build have a “web design by” link in the footer which links back to us using just our brand name or the full “web design by brand name” anchor text. I’m fully aware that site-wide footer links arent doing me much good in terms of SEO, but what Im curious to know is could they be hurting me? More specifically I’m wondering if I should do anything about the existing links or change my ways for all new projects, currently we’re still rolling them out with the site-wide footer links. I know that all other things being equal (1 link from 10 domains > 10 links from 1 domain) but is (1 link from 10 domains > 100 links from 10 domains)? I’ve got a lot of branded anchor text, which balances out my exact match and partial match keyword anchors from other link building nicely. Another thing to consider is that we host many of our clients which means there are quite a few on the same server with a shared IP. Should I? 1.) Go back into as many of the sites as I can and remove the link from all pages except the home page or a decent PA sub page- keeping a single link from the domain. 2.) Leave all the old stuff alone but start using the single link method on new sites. 3.) Scratch the site credit and just insert an exact-match anchor link in the body of the home page and hide with with CSS like my top competitor seems to be doing quite successfully. (kidding of course.... but my competitor really is doing this.)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nbeske0 -
Static links google guidelines
Google recommends to have static links it in guidelines Are breadcrumbs and static text link the same ? or in addition to breadcrumbs do I need static links on my page going from page A to B etc... The issue I have with static links this way is that if I look at the PR paper that would decrease the juice of my homepage ( which is the page I want to give the most juice to ) Thx,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0