Homepage outranking subpage for main keyword, but subpage is more optimized for the keyword.
-
Recently did a site redesign, 95% of the site and keywords are matching up in terms of keyword to what page is ranking for that keyword. All and all was expected and pleased with the redesign, except...
A subpage ( PA 1 ) really is a landing page for the main keyword in question is only one jump from the hompage, is it's own category and has the exact match anchor text to its page from the homepage, has a total of 14 total keyword usages.
The homepage has a PA of 28, mentioned the keyword once in the body text in form of anchor link, yet still steals the thunder from the main keyword. There aren't a ton of backlinks, but ones we do have 95% of them goto the homepage.
Subpage in question has a on page grade of A for the keyword, while the homepage has an on page grade of C. No backlinks at all for this page yet.
Subpage even uses the keyword as it's url name, so kinda at a loss to what else I can do, it's a new page, so alll I keep thinking is the issue is the page authority, it's linked to from other pages on the site.
Any suggestions?
-
I know I'm a little late to the game but one suggestion I would recommend reading your post is to take the synonym out of your page title on your home page. For example, I work with a lot of attorneys and if I create separate pages for "lawyer" and "attorney", I never get the respective targeted traffic ... google just ranks the more optimized, higher PA page for both terms.
-
Very good points guys thanks!
- To Patrick: Yes, bad, bad backlinks in some cases, I'm actually in the middle of a backlink audit ( looking at our backlinks directories seem to have scraped us and or even a negative SEO campaign. ) So I want to remove the directories and other sad excuses for backlinks, especially ones using the anchor text of our keyword.
- As for the homepage title I only removed the 1st part of the keyword and replaced with a synonym that was already ranking for the homepage. Reason I didn't want the homepage to rank, was that it simply doesn't give the searcher what they were searching for, yes it has the links, but not the meat. The subpage I want to rank for this, has about 6 additional paragraphs that explain the meat a searcher will want explained to them when searching for the keyword.
_I can send you a link to the site in private message. _
- To Dmytro: Yes it's a new page the subpage is, with a PA of 1, so homepage easily outranks it, and the homepage was ranking for this keyword before the redesign. So could be an issue of time google needs to see this page changed and the keyword isn't relevant any longer or I'll just need to build up the subpage to the point it takes back the keyword relevance.
_I can send you a link to the site in private message. _
-
I agree with Patrick.
I personally think that search engines simply prioritise your homepage over the subpages, as a result of higher PA, Links and so forth.
Also, you said that this is a new page, was your homepage ranking for that keyword before you've added the new page? What I think, is that the new page contributes to the ranking of the homepage, as it hasn't got enough ranking signals (e.g. backlinks) on its own.
I might be wrong.
It will be helpful if you can maybe post the link to the website.
-
Hi there
Without seeing your website, I can't say, I'm just here for ideas at the moment!
If you think your backlinks may be spammy (the fact that you said "cheap" and "directories" makes me nervous) I would look into auditing those, try removing bad ones, and disavowing ones that are outright bad or you don't hear back from for removal.
I would also be careful about changing your homepage title tag - if you are ranking for that keyword, I worry changing it might make you lose rankings altogether, so just be careful.
It's not bad that your homepage is ranking, more often than not your homepage has the most equity for ranking. I would keep your homepage as is and build equity around the subpage for that keyword through thoughtful linking and brand building.
Let me know if you have any further questions here!
-
Hello and thanks for the reply!
Backlinks / Anchor Text - ( Seems directories ( the cheap free ones ) have linked to us a good amount of times using our keyword )
Wonder if it will help to disavow some of these, because feel these are hurting us not just their quality but the pages the backlinks show up on changes based on how many backlinks they have, so the total number of backlinks changes + or - 1( or more ) because of these kinda directories.
Content - Homepage was completely rewritten upon redesign, the keyword we want to rank on the subpage doesn't appear at all, minus the anchor text for the link to that subpage. On the subpage itself, uses the keyword 13 times, as well in alt tags for images. Its hard to avoid the keyword being used that many times even, since it describes the material types as well.
Title tags are good, the homepage did have the keyword in it ( naturally ) but changed it to a synonym.
Seems a few backlinks using the anchor text with keyword will help pry the homepage away from the keyword relevance.
How do you feel about that?
-
Hi there
I would check the anchor text of the backlinks to your homepage, that may have something to do with it. It seems like Google is putting more emphasis on the homepage for that keyword, so they are seeing something you may not be at this minute.
Try adding an internal link (relevantly and organically) in the content of your homepage, rather than just the main navigation, to that particular page and see if that helps you. Also, you can try adding Schema to that page as a WebPage and add keyword data to the markup.
Check your title tags as well and make sure that you are not abusing the keyword by spamming in your content. For now, that would be my recommendation as a place to start: checking your backlinks, anchor text, and content. Some of the links to your homepage might be able to be changed to the category page if it's more relevant to the content it's being linked to from.
Let me know if this helps! Good luck!
Patrick
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
-
Should I target two pages for the same keyword, but two different intents?
When people type in a certain keywords in my industry space (animated video), they usually have one of two intents: some want to see videos (for inspiration or entertainment or whatever) and some want to hire a company. We have pages that meet each intent. Some "Best of..." blog posts for the crowd that want to see videos (that might be top-of-the-funnel prospects, potentially) and a landing page for the buying-intent people. I'm seeing each ranking page as essentially two, kept in proper balance to meet search intent by click-throughs. So I'm betting that my landing page won't cannibalize the "best of..." page. Is that the right way to see it, or not?
Link Building | | Wagster0 -
How Many Keywords & How Will They Take to Rank?
Hi Guys Just taken on a new site with around 80 keywords with no links because the site is new. Each page is optimised correctly, very user friendly with completely unique content for each and every page. I'm interested to know what would be your online marketing "plan" for such site to begin ranking. Thanks Gary
Link Building | | GaryVictory0 -
What is the best backlink? Homepage or specific post?
I am working hard to get backlinks from other blogs by submitting deal tips. I am a deal blog so I am wondering - is it better to get a backlink to a specific post that will expire because it is a time sensitive deal or sale? Or is it better to get a backlink to my homepage? I focus on the best blog with PR of 7 and DA of 72 as well as others that are high up there. In case I am not being clear, which backlink is better? A. www.mysite.com B. www.mysite.com/awesome-sale-of-the-day Sometimes I won't have a choice but just wondering what I should focus on or if it even matters. Thanks!
Link Building | | dealblogger0 -
Simple Question Regarding Keyword Landing Page
Hi guys, I run a small online business in Singapore want to try to DIY SEO. Been doing alot of reading and using the wonderful tools at Seomoz. This might be the first dumb question here. Its very basic but i cant seem to find anything on it (maybe its too simple). Let's say i want to rank 3 keywords - A, B & C. Do i use homepage as landing page for all 3 or do i use 3 separate pages? ( i tend to think the latter is correct). If I use 3 pages and do all necessary optimization and start a link building campaign, do i get backlinks to point back to homepage or the kw targeted page? Eg. an article submission exercise (not the best thing to do i know but i promise ill only submit to good sites). Are these the right things i should do? Keyword: car horns. landing page: carshop.com/car-horns write a 400 word article about car horns and use as content on carshop.com/car-horns write another 400 word article about car horns and post to say carhornarticles.com at the end of article mention a line about my business dealing with car horns and hyperlink 'car horns' pointing back to ??? (carshop.com or carshop.com/carhorns) repeat, writing unique articles each time but changing anchor text to something different each time, maybe 'purchase car horn' etc. Or should links be divided between both carshop.com& carshop.com/carhorns? I swear i used the search function before asking this question. Hope it's not so silly i dont get any help. Thanks guys!
Link Building | | babooni0 -
Keyword + "intitle:resources"
Will Google penalise if I earn links with keyword + "intitle:resources" query?
Link Building | | JohnChena0 -
Best way to get more keywords to rank
I have a flash site and have been very successful at getting my keywords that are in my site title and also in the text of my page to rank well. What is the best way to get additional keywords to rank without increasing the text on your page. Is it just getting more anchor-text backlinks pointing your site with the new keywords in the text?
Link Building | | photoseo10 -
Paid Directories and On-page Keyword SEO
I have a new website and I am getting ready to submit to a few paid directories to get my links started. I wanted to optimize my domain name/keywords for those directories and also for my on page SEO. My domain contains my keywords. For example "www.horsebuggy.net Questions: #1 Should I target the horsebuggy.net in my on-page SEO or just target horse buggy? #2 When I submit to a paid directory which should I choose for my company name. (I currently have a DBA for each term....for ex.. horse buggy and horsebuggy.net . Thank you, Boo
Link Building | | Boodreaux0 -
Which parameter does google value more: number of incoming links or on-page optimizations (meta data and keywords)?
I am just starting with the SEO and I have a client in the travel industry whose website is not ranked well on the search engines. After doing the seo audit we see that the website's on-page optimization (meta titles, meta description, meta keywords and h1, h2, etc tags) is bad. At the same time there are very few incoming links into the website. These are the key 2 issues we found. In order to proceed most effectively, what do you think would be more effective to focus on first? Doing the on-site optimization or focusing more on the link building? Do the search engines, in particular, google - weight more either of these parameters? thanks so much for all your advice! all the best egle
Link Building | | queenz0