New Google Update - weird ranking
-
Hi
I wanted to get your thoughts on this keyword ranking.
This page - https://www.key.co.uk/en/key/albatross-heavy-duty-office-chairs-24-stone is now ranking for heavy duty office chair 30 stone
We don't mention 30 in the content anywhere, apart from the USPs at the top of the page - could this be it?! I don't know how to change this, or I guess Google is still figuring things out and maybe this will drop off?
Love to get some thoughts on this!
Becky
-
Hi Ed
Yes would love to see the whiteboard Friday on it!
No, not seeing it as an issue, more trying to workout why it's happening and how I can provide the customer with the 30 stone option - we don't sell any so I've mentioned it to the product managers.
My other struggle is the changes I can actually make to the product page - this is controlled by a development team in France and we have little room to make changes which can be frustrating.
You're last point about product pages interfering with one another will be a big one for me. I have so many products which are almost identical,
say I have 4 x high back faux leather chairs with arms, these pages will always compete & how do you get around this? We've tried to optimise so we have variations of the keywords in the titles, so they're all slightly different, but if Google knows these are all related surely they're always going to compete?
Thanks!
Becky
-
Google may well be responding to implicit user feedback. So they gather data through chrome that people who want 24 stone chairs often also want 30 stone chairs. Rankbrain is trying to guess with it's AI that these people want the same things.
Why would you not want to be ranking for both? Is it because you don't sell the 30 stone version? There have been some quantum shifts in ranking over the last few weeks and many sites are seeing their content being picked up in lots of search terms not mentioned anywhere on the page. There's a whiteboard Friday about it somewhere. Mods please could you help remind me which one it is for Becky?
I've noticed since writing about endodontics that Google is now calling us an endodontist. This is a problem for us because it's illegal to call yourself a specialist if you're not one. And I've not mentioned anywhere that we are specialists but the content is obviously as good as what an endodontist would produce.
So it's a tricky one. I'm not going to de-optimise. Instead were hiring an endodontist! So perhaps a pragmatic solution might be to ask your client to get some 30 stone chairs in stock or see what the demand is like and get ready to order if people start asking for them.
It's not a problem, or if it is it's a great problem to have! Perhaps you could help me with more specifics on the background and why this is a particular issue for your client? There are ways to de-optimise but I'd usually save them for different brands. So Company X 25 stone chairs and 25 stone chairs both contain the words 25 stone chairs, so might intefere internally with one another, stack in the serps or depress results. So in this case I'd just use the brand names and not the descriptors. Or choose one word for one and another word for another. But make sure google doesn;t consider those words to be the same. You can test this by typing in something like 'E-cig' and if 'Ecig' is highlighted in bold in the meta descriptions of the results then google considers it the same thing.
But I'd not be concerned. This is a growth opportunity!
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
-
How can I discover the Google ranking number for a keyword in Brazil?
Hello, how can I discover the Google ranking number for a keyword in Brazil location. I need to know what is the position in Brazil location for the keyword "ligação internacional" in the Google search engine for the webpage www.solaristelecom.com/ligacao-internacional. I tried to use the Moz tools to discover it but only shows that I am not in the top 50, then I want to know where I am, and if I am listed or not. I tried to search it in my browser and didn't show the name of my website. Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | lmoraes1 -
Google's Mobile Update: What We Know So Far (Updated 3/25)
We're getting a lot of questions about the upcoming Google mobile algorithm update, and so I wanted to start a discussion that covers what we know at this point (or, at least, what we think we know). If you have information that contradicts this or expands on it, please feel free to share it in the comments. This is a developing situation. 1. What is the mobile update? On February 26th, Google announced that they would start factoring in mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. The official announcement is here. Of note, "This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results." 2. When will the update happen? In an unprecedented move, Google announced that the algorithm update will begin on April 21st. Keep in mind that the roll-out could take days or weeks. 3. Will this affect my desktop rankings? As best we know - no. Mobile-friendliness will only impact mobile rankings. This is important, because it suggests that desktop and mobile rankings, which are currently similar, will diverge. In other words, even though desktop and mobile SERPs look very different, if a site is #1 on desktop, it's currently likely to be #1 on mobile. After April 21st, this may no longer be the case. 4. Is this a boost or a demotion? This isn't clear, but practically it doesn't matter that much and the difference can be very difficult to measure. If everyone gets moved to the front of the line except you, you're still at the back of the line. Google has implied that this isn't a Capital-P Penalty in the sense we usually mean it. Most likely, the mobile update is coded as a ranking boost. 5. Is this a domain- or page-based update? At SMX West, Google's Gary Ilyes clarified that the update would operate on the page level. Any mobile-friendly page can benefit from the update, and an entire site won't be demoted simply because a few pages aren't mobile friendly. 6. Is mobile-friendly on a scale or is it all-or-none? For now, Google seems to be suggesting that a page is either mobile-friendly or not. Either you make the cut or you don't. Over time, this may evolve, but expect the April 21st launch to be all-or-none. 7. How can I tell if my site/page is mobile-friendly? Google has provided a mobile-friendly testing tool, and pages that are mobile-friendly should currently show the "Mobile-friendly" label on mobile searches (this does not appear on desktop searches). Some SEOs are saying that different tools/tests are showing different results, and it appears that the mobile-friendly designation has a number of moving parts. 8. How often will mobile data refresh? Gary also suggested (and my apologies for potentially confusing people on Twitter) that this data will be updated in real-time. Hopefully, that means we won't have to worry about Penguin-style updates that take months to happen. If a page or site becomes mobile-friendly, it should benefit fairly quickly. We're actively working to re-engineer the MozCast Project for mobile rankings and have begun collecting data. We will publish that data as soon as possible after April 21st (assuming it;s useful and that Google sticks to this date). We're also tracking the presence of the "Mobile-friendly" tag. Currently (as of 3/25), across 10,000 page-1 mobile results, about 63% of URLs are labeled as "Mobile-friendly". This is a surprisingly large number (to me, at least) - we'll see how it changes over time.
Algorithm Updates | | Dr-Pete15 -
Google Site Links question
Are Google site links only ever shown on the top website? Or is it possible for certain queries for the site in position #2 or #3 or something to have site links but the #1 position not have them? If there are any guides, tips or write ups regarding site links and their behavior and optimization please share! Thanks.
Algorithm Updates | | IrvCo_Interactive0 -
What is this new feature on Google?
Hey everyone, I typed "Vancouver Colleges" into Google and this new feature came up which I have never seen. It displays popular schools. Could someone tell me what this is called? And how do I get our college on here? Thank you! 4hnT7bV.png
Algorithm Updates | | jhinchcliffe0 -
What would you recommend i do to improve my rankings?
I am looking for some advice as to what I need to do to improve my rankings? website: www.funktiongolf.co.uk Thanks Ben
Algorithm Updates | | funktiongolf0 -
Meta Title Not Showing up in Google
Hello Friends, I have a website, www.bollywoodshaadis.com. On 1st may we changed our servers and revamped our website as per SEO updated guidelines. For some strange reason Google is not showing site Meta Title when you search the website on Google. All it shows is the domain name in the meta title. However, when you search info:www.bollywoodshaadis.com it shows the right Meta tags. Any reason for this happening? I have never seen this before. Thank you in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | SEOcandy0 -
Can AJAX implementation affect the rankings in Google Panda?
Hi there, I have the following situation with one of our job sites. We migrate the site to a new application, which is better from design point of view and also usability. For this we use a lot AJAX especially in searches. So every time a user is filtering down their search new results will be shown on the page, at the same url and with no page load. But, having this implementation. affected Bounce rate - which increased from 38% to nearly 60%, PI/visits - which are now half, at 3 and also Avg Time on Site is half that is used to be coming to 2,5 min from nearly 6 min. From Rand post, it is clearly that the content is very important in Google Panda, and all of these parameters we should consider, as it is telling the quality of the content. So, my question will be, can this site be hit by Panda updates (maybe later on) because Bounce Rate, PI/Visits and Avg Time on site, decreased in such way? At the moment we don't measure the Ajax impresion, but as I understood that we can do that though virtual pages in GA, does anyone of you have the experience how to handle this? Won't be this an artificial increase? Thanks, Irina
Algorithm Updates | | InformMedia0 -
Does Google index Wordpress pages with frames
Does Google or other search engines index Wordpress pages that use frames? Here is the site in question: http://www.source-nutrition.com/son/
Algorithm Updates | | BradBorst0