How can we stop an article ranking so highly?
-
We secured an article on national newspaper site for a client which now ranks number one for its own branded search term. Since we secured the article (over two years ago) the client has changed the direction of its business so the article is now no longer relevant and is actually causing a lot of trouble for the client. When people search for their business the article is telling readers one thing when their business actually does something else. How can we stop this article ranking so highly?
-
Have you tried organization schema to markup the brand, company name, etc?
http://schema.org/OrganizationI second the suggestion to try Adwords if you can't retake the first ranking. Should be pretty cheap if you're bidding on branded keywords with low competition and high-quality score for the client's site.
-
The OP doesn't have access to the site, so that's not an option.
-
The OP is actually asking about a post on another site that is not under their control.
-
One thing you might consider doing is building some goodwill with people who are searching for that service and those who provide it. When Moz (then SEOmoz) decided to stop doing SEO consulting, we were still ranking really high for it and people thought that's what we did. Instead of just 404, we created our recommended companies page, which gave some goodwill and helped people out.
-
Have you (or the company in question) tried contacting the newspaper to ask for the page to be updated/a new page/article written as the original version is so completely different to what the company now does?
-
Hi Heather!
There are some strong suggestions here, but I really like Donna's suggestion about the Barnacle SEO. Makes a lot of sense and the WBF was great!! Definitely look into that
-
Wow that sure does make things tricky. I like Monica's suggestion that you contact them directly. They maybe more receptive to doing an addendum to the article. Some web-masters are a tad jiggy about removing content or adding noindex tags when content is performing on their site well.
Best of luck, and since this is a unique question I gave you a thumbs up on the original question.
-
That's a tough one Heather. I've had a surprising number of people ask me that same question.
You have some good suggestions so far. I can think of one more. It's called Barnacle SEO. It's referencing an analogy where you make like a barnacle on a ship, attaching yourself to a higher authority site to outrank the one that's above you in search results.
Rand did a whiteboard Friday on it last summer. It's still not a quick or easy solution, but it could help.
-
I see you're in the UK. While I'm not a fan of the court decision, there's always Right to be Forgotten. While it doesn't affect other Google indexes (i.e. google.com) or the article itself, it would let you at least have the article de-indexed in your local European market. It might buy you breathing room and maybe get the attention of the publisher so you can have the record corrected (I don't think any press organization likes having bad info out there).
I would focus more on marketing to make up the shortfall. There just isn't any other guaranteed solution. Buy ads, Pay-Per-Click and media time if necessary. Be louder than this article is.
-
Have you reached out to the newspaper and asked them to no follow/no index the page? This is an extremely high authority kind of link that is usually best handled directly with the webmaster of the other site. They should be able to take the page down for you no problem. I wouldn't recommend removing it completely as the brand mention is good for your SEO, but if you can ask them to remove the indexation it will stop out ranking your branded searches.
This might seem like a silly question, but are you searching for this while you are signed it? Your search results might be a little off if you are. Try using the keyword analysis tool here to see if that article truly outranks your branded search. I would make sure of that before I remove the link completely.
If you cannot get in touch with anyone at the newspaper to remove the link the other thing you might be able to try is sending feedback to Google. You can do that at the bottom of the page. It will allow you to send a message to Google and show them exactly which SERP you want moved/ removed.
-
Hi,
If you can do as recommended above and get rid of the page completely then this would be the way to go. Since it is on a national newspaper site and a couple of years old I am guessing this might be tough to do (although worth a shot).
Otherwise you can try to boost your own rankings and grab more real estate by:
1. Making sure all your on page data is branded (page titles, company schema etc).
2. Use verified social channels and link to them from your site (especially google+ but fb, twitter, linkedin, youtube are all good).
3. Get a few more branded links into the site (I assuming you are in 2nd position, it is a bit unusual for a branded search to not return the brand as the first option - you might just need a few more (honest) links).
5. Short term solution: Adwords on your brand's search. You should get a 4 pack of site links + descriptions in it also so should give a fair amount of real estate above the newspaper article and should be inexpensive.
-
Thanks for your responses - unfortunately because the article is on a national newspaper site, we have no control over redirecting it or removing it. So I'm really after other ways of stopping it rank so highly. Thanks!
-
Yes, this is another option.
-
you could use a noindex tag so the bots do not index it
More info from Google can be found here https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93710?hl=en
-
Hello Heather,
If the article is completely irrelevant then the best thing to do would remove the content from the site which would prompt a 404 error. In time the article will stop ranking as it no longer exist.
However, it may make more sense to capitalize on its success if at all possible. One possible way is to 301 redirect the page to a different page explaining the change of direction from what was previously stated in the article. This way you still get the initial traffic, and maybe convert those viewers to the new business model.
My thoughts, hope it helps,
Don
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
-
Should I create additional pages for to try to rank for alternative keywords?
Hi I have my primary product page https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-training/ - that ranks well for and is optimized for "primavera p6 training". However, I'd the same page to rank well "primavera p6 online course". Do I create another version of this page optimized for these different keywords? Or do I try to get the 1 page to rank for both? A bit confused here as to what to do. Thanks.
Keyword Research | | plannerguy0 -
To switch high-ranking keyword for one with higher volume?
I have a client who already ranks very well for the keyword "odor removal service" (#3 average rank). I'd like to use this as my primary keyword phrase, but the search volume is not very high (avg. monthly search of 90). A similar keyword phrase like "odor eliminator" has a search vol. of 4400 and the same competitiveness. Even its long-tail derivatives like "natural odor eliminator" still have a much higher volume (360) and would be a more accurate description of the service. In cases like this where you are already ranking well for a relevant keyword (but are still not generating much traffic), is it worth losing that keyword ranking in the hopes of ranking better for a keyword with higher volumes. Just to be clear, I'm not referring to a secondary keyword, but to the main keyword phrase around which we'll be building primary and secondary related keywords. Thanks for any feedback.
Keyword Research | | Mike_E0 -
Importance of news headlines for their search rankings
Hi there, we're trying to determine how to best write headlines to make our articles more findable. We're a Theater content and ticketing site (theatermania.com) and we're about to publish an article describing outdoor Shakespeare in New York City. We've discussed a few headline options (we automatically use the headline as the page title, although we aren't married to this) below. Are any of these much more findable than the other? For example, are we shooting ourselves in the foot if we lead with "Fill your Summer...." in the first option? Fill Your Summer in the City With Free Outdoor Shakespeare Summer in the City With Free Outdoor Shakespeare Free Outdoor Shakespeare This Summer in the City
Keyword Research | | TheaterMania0 -
Which page is currently ranking the best for a particular keyword?
Hi Guys! I have approx. 50 keywords that I'm tracking for a website that has about 80 pages. I am wondering is there any way that I can find out which page on the site is currently ranking best for each of the keywords on my list? Ideally I would like to export the entire list with the keyword in the first column and the page that ranks best on the website for each given keyword, in the second column. Apologies if the wording of this post is confusing - I am not quite sure how to make it clearer. The aim of my task is to determine which keywords should be allocated to each page on the site so I need to work out which keywords are working already for certain pages so that I don't take those efforts away from the well-optimised pages. Many thanks! Meaghan
Keyword Research | | StoryScout0 -
When targeting a particular keyword, how many articles should I write that target it?
I have a keyword phrase that's a high value target for us. Should I write just one - or several articles that target that keyword as their main focus? Thanks! Andrew
Keyword Research | | seowhiskey0 -
How can I do to improve ranking for head keywords?
Hi guys, I'm currently working for an italian restautant finder web site http://www.cibando.com The site currently do not rank for any of the cityName pages eventhough all this pages received a B grade in the on-page report card by Seo Moz and have a great amount of internal links. This is an example of the pages I'm speaking about: http://www.cibando.com/ita/ristoranti/milano/milano As I can changeso little on this page, I'm thinking about creatinng a new cityName page having this URL http://www.cibando.com/ita/ristoranti-milano in which I add some text about the city and the restaurants people can have dinner at and add some link to the currently cityName page and categoryCuisine page. Is it a good idea? Do oyu have any suggestions? Any expert out there give an insight? Thanks in advance. Francesca
Keyword Research | | Francy0 -
Search Engine Rankings Going Down
My google keywords has gone down from 100 per day to around 400 words in amonth. Did I get penalize for something. I remember making a local copy of my website on my serer to do a CMS upgrade. I didn't do the met=noindex until a week later. Now I have it passowrd protected. Do you think that could be the reason?
Keyword Research | | anoopbal0 -
International Keyword Ranking
I want measure my ranking for keywords in various countries and search engines. If I use a tool such as rank checker to determine my rank for google.uk, google.au.com, etc... is that accurate, or does my IP still affect the rankings I see? If I use a VPS such as Hide My Ass (or another product you would recommend), would that make my ranking results more accurate? I also want to measure my ranking in Russia, where Yandex is very strong so a tool to measure my Yandex ranking + Google would be ideal. What method you would recommend to accurately determine my rankings in different countries? Thank you!
Keyword Research | | theLotter0