Why does Google display the home page rather than a page which is better optimised to answer the query?
-
I have a page which (I believe) is well optimised for a specific keyword (URL, title tag, meta description, H1, etc). yet Google chooses to display the home page instead of the page more suited to the search query.
Why is Google doing this and what can I do to stop it?
-
Thanks Lydia. I will expand on the internal links. I'm assuming:
- Links from within body copy (eg. product descriptions) is better than any kind of nav link?
- Anchor text needs to be mixed up and not all 'exact match' text?
Thx
-
It is also possible that the lack in external back links is a part of the issue as well, if there are a significant amount more pointing at the homepage (if it is also relevant at all to the term that you are referencing).
-
Thanks James. Yes, I'm beginning to wonder of it has been over-optimized.
There are no external backlinks, but there are a few internal links and I noticed they use 'exact match' anchor text. The same keyword is used in the URL, title, meta desc and H1. So maybe over- optimization is the 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
-
Highly interlinking a particular page shows up in Google search results?
Hi All, As we can see the below statement from Google about internal linking: "The number of internal links pointing to a page is a signal to search engines about the relative importance of that page."
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/138752?hl=en So if we interlink a page highly than other pages, will it rank on search results instead of homepage? Moreover if the page have "keyword" in URL slug...like www.website.com/keyword. Thanks0 -
Google SERPs displaying Tracking Tags
Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me! Can you tell me why Google would be displaying the tracking URLs in the SERPs (screenshot - http://i.imgur.com/gbskD26.jpg)? I'm thinking it may have to do with the canonical URLs, but I'm not sure.. Thanks in advance! gbskD26.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mindstream_Media0 -
Google update this wknd or page title issue?
Hi, I've seen a big ranking drop for many major terms, for a particular site, just on Google. This happened Fri 20th or Sat 21st just gone. I don't see any news on an algorithm update over the weekend.I had changed many of the sites major page title protocols 2 weeks ago but a) I would have expected any negative effect before now and not all at once b) the protocols were carefully crafted to avoid traffic drops for major terms and c) i'm seeing traffic drops for keywords that still start at the beginning of the page title d) im seeing drops for some pages which are still using the OLD page titles. I had even tested the protocol on a number of pages in advance to ensure it wouldn't cause problems. As a bit of background - the title protocols were changed to make them more user friendly and less keyword heavy. CTR from search improved so was hoping for better not worse rankings! Ideas, gratefully appreciated.Andy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AndyMacLean0 -
How does google treat dynamically generated content on a page?
I'm trying to find information on how google treats dynamically generated content within a webpage? (not dynamic urls) For example I have a list of our top 10 products with short product descriptions and links on our homepage to flow some of the pagerank to those individual product pages. My developer wants to make these top products dynamic to where they switch around daily. Won't this negatively affect my seo and ability to rank for those keywords if they keep switching around or would this help since the content would be updated so frequently?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ntsupply0 -
Google+ Page Question
Just started some work for a new client, I created a Google+ page and a connected YouTube page, then proceeded to claim a listing for them on google places for business which automatically created another Google+ page for the business listing. What do I do in this situation? Do I delete the YouTube page and Google+ page that I originally made and then recreate them using the Google+ page that was automatically created or do I just keep both pages going? If the latter is the case, do I use the same information to populate both pages and post the same content to both pages? That doesn't seem like it would be efficient or the right way to go about handling this but I could be wrong.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | goldbergweismancairo0 -
How to redirect whole site to home page without breaking wordpress
Hi all I had a phpprobid site which was heavily indexed but got hacked. I have deleted the old site and installed wordpress and a holding page. I can't work out how to 301 redirect all the old indexed pages to the home page without the existing wordpress redirect. Anyone care to help?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RaceMedia0 -
Indexed Pages in Google, How do I find Out?
Is there a way to get a list of pages that google has indexed? Is there some software that can do this? I do not have access to webmaster tools, so hoping there is another way to do this. Would be great if I could also see if the indexed page is a 404 or other Thanks for your help, sorry if its basic question 😞
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnPeters0 -
Does many unique pages mean better SERP position?
My site has about 50 pages. All of them are unique 500-700 word articles. Almost every page is on its keyword at the 4-8 position in google/yahoo/bing. I can add a lot of relative unique pages on my site, about 100-200 word content per page. They all will be unique, with unique description and title. I can make about 1000+ pages. Would you suggest me to do this? Will this action boost my SERP position. Do more pages mean better SERP position?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nycdwellers1