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
-
Can I have multiple GeoShape Schema for one page on one domain?
Hi Mozers, I'm working on some Schema for a client of mine, but whilst doing the research on GeoShapes with my developer, we came across a potential issue with this particular mark-up. My client is B2C business, operating in numerous places across the UK. I want to use the Circle property from GeoShape to draw out multiple circles across the UK, but am I able to do this? From looking at some other websites, most seem to just have one GeoShape. Can I have multiple on the same page and same domain? Thanks! Virginia
Local Website Optimization | | Virginia-Girtz0 -
Location Pages
Hi all, Business who has 2 locations.. They have 2 separate pages for their locations https://www.jacobsallen.co.uk/contact-us/jacobs-allen-bury-st-edmunds/ https://www.jacobsallen.co.uk/contact-us/jacobs-allen-haverhill/ But the location and address details also appear on https://www.jacobsallen.co.uk/contact-us/ and the home page. Is this going to be hurting their local SEO? In my opinion yes and the address info should just be on the 2 location pages. Thanks in advance
Local Website Optimization | | LMW0 -
Maintaining Rank During a Domain Change
Looking to the community for any insights on our situation. We moved a decently ranked domain name that was ranking between 3rd-6th in organic search results to a new domain that we thought would serve us higher position in the long term. We went through Google's change of address tool and over a period of 2 to 3 weeks we went from being off the map with our new domain to showing up again around page 2 - 14-18th position. It seemed that our climb back corresponded to Google indexing our new urls. Each time a large batch was indexed we seemed to jump back up. But, in our last report we noticed that we didn't budge any higher and some of our non-branded keywords actually dropped a little. The old domain was "citychurchfamily.org" and the new domain is "citychurchbloomington.org". We were thinking that the latter would be a stronger domain in the long term. Any insights on why we haven't fully retained our former ranking value at this point or anything I should be focusing on? We are trying to rank for this phrase "churches in bloomington, in". Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | a_toohill1 -
I have a Wordpress site that ranks well and a blog (uses blogger) with slightly different URL/domain that also ranks decently. Should I combine the 2 under the website domain or keep both?
I realize that I am building essentially 2 different sites even though they are connected, but on some local town pages i have 2-3 results on Page #1. Nice problem to have eh? But i am worried as for a lot of my surrounding towns my competitor has the top listing or definitely ahead of me, so i am wondering if i combine or convert my blog into the same domain as my site, then all of that content + links should hopefully propel my site to #1. Anyone have an experience like this? thanks, Chris
Local Website Optimization | | Sundance_Kidd0 -
URL and title strategy for multiple location pages in the same city
Hi, I have a customer which opens additional branches in cities where he had until now only one branch. My question is: Once we open new store pages, what is the best strategy for the local store pages in terms of URL and title?
Local Website Optimization | | OrendaLtd
So far I've seen some different strategies for URL structure:
Some use [URL]/locations/cityname-1/2/3 etc.
while others use [URL]/locations/cityname-zip code/
I've even seen [URL]/locations/street address-cityname (that's what Starbucks do) There are also different strategies for the title of the branch page.
Some use [city name] [state] [zip code] | [Company name]
Other use [Full address] | [Company name]
Or [City name] [US state] [1/2/3] | [Company name]
Or [City name] [District / Neighborhood] [Zip Code] | [Company name] What is the preferred strategy for getting the best results? On the one hand, I wish differentiate the store pages from one another and gain as much local coverage as possible; on the other hand, I wish to create consistency and establish a long term strategy, taking into consideration that many more branches will be opened in the near future.1 -
404 error from linking page that does not exist
We migrated our site from php to wordpress about a month ago. All of the old website files have been removed. I ran Moz analytics and get 17 critical 404 errors from linking pages that do not exist. 404 : Received 404 (Not Found) error response for page. http://www.preventivesupport.com/freeestimates.php404010http://preventivesupport.com/freeestimates.phpN/AThe www thing is interesting but freeestimates.php does not exist?
Local Website Optimization | | KrisIrr0 -
Is it okay for my H3 Tag to appear above my H2 Tag on the Web Page
Hello All, I am currently doing my H1 ,H2, H3 Tags on my redesigned website We have the ability to have links to relevant DIY Guides on the bottom of our webpage and these are currently displayed under a heading "DIY Useful Guides" above my on page content which is at the bottom of the page. My H2 Tag will obviously be the title that sits above my On Page Content at the bottom of the Webpage and I was going to do the H3 Tag for my DIY Guides Is it a problem if the H3 tag sits above the H2 Tag on the Page or not ? Or have i got this wrong and I need to move the DIY Guides (links) to below the on page content so the H3 tag sits below the H2 tag? thanks Pete OTmPbbR
Local Website Optimization | | PeteC120 -
Local Rank riddle
Here is a very odd scenario which to me makes very little sense. How can a site rank on Page #1 of Google for let's say "Boston party planner" yet on Page#2 for "party planner Boston"?? Would love some insight on this one. thanks, Chris
Local Website Optimization | | Sundance_Kidd0