Home Page Not Ranking for Brand
-
I've got an odd issue (that I've never encountered in 12+ years in SEO). A client's home page isn't ranking for their brand term. It's a medical spa in Las Vegas, so physical location that takes online appointments.
We have an online booking system (which isn't a good one) that originally had a booking page replacing our home page. My thought is that Google associated that page as our home page because it was a stronger domain and the booking page is most used. That tool didn't allow the booking page to be noindexed (I know, crazy)- so I changed the name inside the booking tool away from the brand name as to not have both the site and the booking site optimized for the brand.
Other things I've checked:
- The home page is indexed
- Home page canonical tag points to itself
- Title tag contains brand name at front (rest of site it's at the end)
- Robots.txt is accurate (allows home page)
- XML sitemap contains home page (and accurate for other pages)
To make this even more confusing, if you search the brand name the physical location appears on the right rail with accurate URL.
Any other ideas that I may be missing?
-
Thank you for the screenshots. The first thing you need to do here is to edit the GMB listing title to reflect your real world business name. Right now, the title is what we call "keyword stuffed" and is in violation of Google's guidelines (see: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en-GB) Nothing but your real-world business name belongs in the title.
So, basically, best advice here would be to clean up the GMB listing and any other citations that may have been built with the stuffed titles, and then build up the authority of the actual brand, both on and off the website. Right now, you're basically being outranked by your reputation on third party websites, which, if you're positive that no penalties are associated with the website, would indicate that the website lacks both authority and clarity.
-
Thanks for your response.
This is a newer site, so it's an ongoing issue since launch and we don't have a lot of links outside of social media, yelp etc. So obtaining links to the home page is on our list to tackle, I just wanted to be sure there wasn't a technical reason that I may be missing.
-
Hello,
I understand how frustrating this is. Have you been promoting the clients homepage with "Brand Term" content linking back to it? Is this a new issue that just started or has it been an ongoing issue?
If all your Robots.txt files and everything else is correct like you stated at the top, then I would just start really promoting the "Home" page as much as possible.
I would also check and make sure no manual actions have occurred that may have caused a ranking change if it is a new issue.
Here is a link to an article regarding your topic. I don't know if it will help, but it is an interesting article.
https://icecube.asia/ranking-companys-brand-name-google-seo-branding/
Best Regards
-
You got it all correct.
Here is a screenshot of search results. The right rail is correct, URL is accurate.
The 4th result has been changed away from the brand name (as of today- so it hasn't changed yet in the index). When we made the change inside the booking tool away from the brand, it changed the only page ranking from our site to a random subdomain (which we are 301 redirecting to the home page today).
Thanks for your help!
-
Hi KarmaDigital,
I want to be sure I understanding this. You are saying:
- _A client's home page isn't ranking for their brand term. _
- _We have an online booking system (which isn't a good one) that originally had a booking page replacing our home page. _
- if you search the brand name the physical location appears on the right rail with accurate URL.
So it sounds like you do have a knowledge panel showing up on the right for the brand name search, but what is CURRENTLY appearing in the number 1 organic spot for this search? You said the booking page was originally replacing your home page. Is it still outranking your homepage?
Also, is there any chance you are able to share the actual search with us? If not, due to client privacy concerns, that's okay, but if you can, it will likely improve the helpfulness of the responses you get from the community.
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
-
Sudden drop across all rankings
Hi There, I have experienced a strange and sudden drop in rankings for main keywords for a website that has not been penalized (that I am aware of), has a great site speed, does not contain duplicate content and has not had a sudden drop in links. I can't explain this sudden drop in rankings. The site was ranked between #1 - #6 across: Custom Mouthguards Brisbane, Dentures Brisbane, Denture Implants Brisbane, and Brisbane Denture Clinic to name a few. https://denturehaus.com.au/ Not only was this a drop in regular SERPs but also local Google Map listings, where the website was previously #1 - #3, and now never comes up. I can't figure out what has gone wrong with the website to completely lose all rankings. Any troubleshooting or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks,
Local Website Optimization | | Kim_Lazaro
Kim0 -
How to Rank Local Website in Search Engines?
Hello, I'm the owner of a rubbish removal company based in London - Frank Rubbish Removal and trying to optimize the website of the company for search engines. Until now, I have hired a couple marketing companies but without success. What I want to achieve is to rank for local keywords in the rubbish removal niche, for example, Rubbish Removal Chelsea, waste clearance Hackney, waste removal Harrow...and similar local keywords. I have spent a lot of money on marketing companies and the website still can't go on 1st page of search engines in the UK. Can you tell me what I can do or who can hire to bring my website on 1st page for the local keywords?
Local Website Optimization | | korado112 -
Do you use HREF lang tags when each page that is localised only exists in that language?
Hi, I have 2 questions I am seeking an answer for. We have a home page in english GB, we then also have products which are specifically served in US. For these pages where the phone number is american, the spelling is american, the address is american, do we need to implement href lang tags? The page isn't a version of another page in english, the page is only in the native language.Secondly, is it recommended to create a second home page and then localise that page for US users?I'd be really greatful if anyone has any pointers as googles forum doesn't explain best practice for this case (as far as I can tell).Many thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Adam_PirateStudios0 -
Service Location links in footer and on the service page - spamming or good practice?
We are are a managed IT services business so we try and target people searching for IT support in a number of key areas. We have created individual location pages (11) to localise our service in these specific areas. We put these location links in the footer which went to the specified IT support pages respectively. Now we have created a general 'managed IT services' page and are thinking of linking to these specific pages on there as well as it makes sense to do it. Would having these 11 links in the footer as well as on the 'managed IT services' page be spamming? or would it be good practice? If this is spamming, which linking location should hold preference. Would appreciate the feedback
Local Website Optimization | | AndyL93
Thanks
Andy0 -
Ranking could be better - wondering why
Hi there, I do SEO for the page conny-ehm.de. I improved the subsite http://www.conny-ehm.de/bewerbungsfotos-freiburg.html to receive an A grade by the on-page grader for the words Bewerbungsfotos Freiburg. However when searching for Bewerbungsfotos Freiburg it is not the subsite that shows up but the main page www.conny-ehm.de. This however get an F in the on-page grader. What should I do to improve the ranking? I do not care which one shows up but I think it should be feasible to get under the top 3. a) Should I improve also the main page for the keywords? I think than I am building an internal concurrence to the subsite which is maybe rather bad. b) Should I place a del canonical on the main site referring to the subsite? c) ??? Thanks for your answers Best regards Marc
Local Website Optimization | | RWW0 -
SEO Client not rankings in Google
Hello, I have a client that has continued to be problematic for my team and I. They have fair to middling rankings in Yahoo and Bing, but none in Google. I realize that they are three separate search engines each with their own criteria, but this client is the only one experiencing this problem. There is no significant duplicate content that can find, same with restrictions in the robots.txt file. These seems to be no reason why all my tools say that this client has no presence at all in google, especially when the client gains most of their traffic through Google. Can anyone assist me in finding out what is going wrong? Client website for reference: http://www.volvethosp.com/ Best, BeyondIndigo
Local Website Optimization | | BeyondIndigo0 -
How does duplicate content work when creating location specific pages?
In a bid to improve the visibility of my site on the Google SERP's, I am creating landing pages that were initially going to be used in some online advertising. I then thought it might be a good idea to improve the content on the pages so that they would perform better in localised searches. So I have a landing page designed specifically to promote what my business can do, and funnel the user in to requesting a quote from us. The main keyword phrase I am using is "website design london", and I will be creating a few more such as "website design birmingham", "website design leeds". The only thing that I've changed at the moment across all these pages is the location name, I haven't touched any of the USP's or the testimonial that I use. However, in both cases "website design XXX" doesn't show up in any of the USP's or testimonial. So my question is that when I have these pages built, and they're indexed, will I be penalised for this tactic?
Local Website Optimization | | mickburkesnr0 -
Home page links -- Ajax When Too Many?
My home page has links to major cities. If someone chooses a specific city I want to give them the choice to choose a suburb within the city, With say 50 cities and 50 suburbs for each city that's 2500 links on the home page. In order to avoid that many links on the home page (or any page) I would like to have just the 50 cities and pull up the suburbs as an ajax call that search engines would not read/crawl. This would be better than clicking on a main city and then getting the city page which they then can choose a suburb. Better to do it all at once. Is it a bad idea to ajax the subregions on the home page and to code it so Google, Bing, other search engines don't crawl or even see anything on the home page related to the suburbs? The search engines will still find the suburb links because they will be listed on each main city page.
Local Website Optimization | | friendoffood0