Why am I ranking high for a keyword that is nowhere on my page?
-
There is a specific keyword phrase that I am ranking in the top 10 search results for. When I run page optimizer in Moz, my page is given a score of 73 and I'm predictably told I need to include this keyword somewhere on the page. This specific keyword phrase is not included anywhere on the page - not in image files, image alts, anchor text from inbound links (that I can find), text content, meta-titles or descriptions - it's nowhere.
Meanwhile, a keyword phrase which Moz' page optimizer tells us we are scored 96 for we aren't even in the first three pages of search results for. What's going on here? On the surface, this seems to be telling me the Moz page optimizer is kinda...broken?
Why am I ranking in the top 10 for a keyword phrase nowhere on my page?
Thanks in advance for any help.
-
Hi Jeffrey,
These questions are always so interesting but to give an accurate answer we'd need more info like what the keyword is, if it's at all relevant to what you do etc.
In short, it's been many moons since Google just ranked you for words and phrases that could be found on your website. They do still help, but it's absolutely possible to rank for something without mentioning it, provided the topic is similar.
For example, if you run a car hire company and only ever use the word "hire" across your site, you will definitely still rank for "car rental" as well. For several years now Google has been improving the way they "understand" the content on your site.
As these improvements continue, just how far removed those related terms can be also increases. If a human can make the logical connection between two topics, chances are so can Google and so you can rank for these connected things. I actually wrote quite a lengthy response that covered this same topic a few weeks back which might be worth a read too. Basically, the shoe company Hype DC here in Australia almost never uses the word "shoe" or "shoes" yet their rankings for those terms are excellent.
Hope that helps!
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
-
Why is my page ranking lower when my moz stats are higher?
There are several keywords that I search for and I notice we rank lower than a couple of competitors. When I use the mozbar and view the stats, I see that are PA and DA are higher and in some instances the ones who rank higher don't even show all the keywords in their meta descriptions. If this is the case, how are they still ranking higher?
Moz Pro | | Smart_Start0 -
How can you tell how many pages rank for a particular keyword?
I know with ranktracker I can see a page that will rank for a certain keyword. What if I have multiple pages that rank for this keyword? How can I see all pages that rank for it?
Moz Pro | | Sika220 -
Importing Keywords... WITH tags?
Is this possible? I've found how to export to a CSV and copy/paste these into the usual keyword management page. Ideally, I would like to export/import the full information, along with the tags...... I have several brands that have a brand.com and a brandstore.com Any other cross-domain features I should be aware of? Thanks in advance......
Moz Pro | | EliteErikSEO0 -
Not all pages are being crawled
I am set up on the PRO plan, I was under the impression that it would crawl up to 10,000 pages. My site has just over 200 pages, but whenever I am crawled it only crawls 121 pages. Is this normal? It's hard to know how reliable my data is because a significant amount of pages are missing.
Moz Pro | | KristinHarding0 -
Pass Page LinkJuice? Or Pass Keyword LinkJuice?
I have a popular page that is not one of the three pages that I am hoping to raise awareness of (want to focus on). The dilemma I am trying to understand is that I really don't want to encourage all the flow from the popular to ONE of my hopeful pages (focus pages). Rather, I want to focus the keyword portions of that page to help the three hopeful pages. So I consider the rel=canonical tag.... err no. rel=canonical would pass ALL my popular page link juice to ONE of my three hopeful pages. What's the best way to pass the keyword link juice relevant to each of my three hopeful pages their, um, portion, of the popular page link juice. I'm white hat by preference. All four pages are good legitimate landing pages, and of course I dread sabotaging the popularity of what is working. Suggestions? Advice?
Moz Pro | | iansears0 -
Bad on page optimization grade, still displays high in SERP
I'm looking at the keyword on page optimization report for my site and I have keywords where my landing page is showing up first on the SERP, but my SEOmoz on-page optimization grade for them is an F. Am I ranking high for these terms because no one is optimized for the terms? They are almost all directed at my home page, does domain authority play a role in me ranking high for them? Thanks for any insight.
Moz Pro | | ClaytonKendall0 -
Tracking Keyword Positions
Hello! I've been working with the various Google Docs Spreadsheets out there taking advantage of web scraping using xml and the seomoz api. I want to be able to track keyword rank by week, I've been playing around but can't seem to get it nailed on, I'm looking to put keyword in column 1, domain in col 2 and keyword rank on google uk in col 3. Anybody done/seen anything like this in a G spreadsheet? Cheers Jamie
Moz Pro | | ChapterEight0