My competitor pushed me down the SERP out of nowhere. How do I fix this?
-
Hi, my ecommerce site used to rank #2 (my homepage) for my primary keyword on Google for over a year. #1 has always been my competitor's homepage. Since Monday 10/10, my competitor's Shop page -- which uses this keyword only 6x within the content of that page and has NEVER been ranked -- is #2 bumping me down to #3
I feel this is a result of the last Penguin update. My best guess is their homepage popularity -- due to backlinks and being #1 SERP rank -- has transferred popularity to their Shop page. Is that normal for Google to do that?
Any advice or guidance would be much appreciated.
-
This can be anything but I'm suggesting to do comparison: links, anchors, content on your website and his website. Then with data you should improve your website. Can content be better? Correct it. Can links be better/stronger? Add them. Etc etc... I know this looks like general advise but if you need help with comparing top10 websites with your website, can help you.
There're more possibilities than penguin.
-
Thank you, Bernadette. But if my links got devalued, why does that make my competitor's Shop page appear out of nowhere? It's never been ranked before.
And regarding keyword density, I've always read good content and backlinks are the 2 primary factors in SEO ranking. So how can content be good if it doesn't refer to the keyword? How does Google recognize good content relative to keyword usage? Is there a primary SEO factor I'm forgetting?
-
Taylorw, you mention the number of times the keyword is mentioned on the page, 6 times... which really has very little to do with search engine rankings anymore. Generally speaking, keyword density and how many times a keyword is mentioned on a page is not a major factor now.
You alluded to links, and you're right, there is a good chance that your search engine rankings have changed due to the Penguin update that recently occurred. It could still be other factors, though.
I wouldn't think necessarily that it's your competitor pushing you down--it could be, in fact, that your site's rankings went down because of certain links that you have that have been devalued, dropping your rankings. Without specific knowledge about your URL(s), there's not much anyone can do to give you more specific advice.
I would, though, take a careful look at all of the links pointing to your website, especially looking for low quality links that may need to be removed and/or disavowed.
-
Can you share the query ?
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
-
Less relevant/not optimized competitor sites ranking higher in SERPs?
Has anyone else noticed their rank positions falling to competitor sites that aren't optimized and are less relevant? I've noticed that we've lost some rankings or have dropped over the past few weeks and the competitor pages that have replaced us haven't been optimized, aren't as relevant, and it doesn't look like there has been any updates (looking through archived versions). For example, their main "shoes" gallery is ranking for more specific shoe types, like "sandals", and "sandals" isn't even mentioned in their metadata and they have no on-page copy. Their DA is slightly higher, but our sites have a denser link profile (although, yes, I do need to go through and see what kind of links, exactly, we've gained). Has anyone else seen this happen recently, or have any ideas of why or what we could do to get our rank positions back? My main initiatives have been to create and implement fresh on-page copy, metadata, and manage 404s/301 redirects, but I'm thinking this issue is beyond a quick copywriting tweak.
Algorithm Updates | | WWWSEO0 -
Any important change in SERPs between Nov 17th and Nov 20th?
I've noticed important changes in visibility for some websites, between Nov 17th and Nov 20th. Also some of the webs that monitor SERPs have detected similar stuff (Including Mozcast). Do you know if an important change in SERPs took place during those days?
Algorithm Updates | | emerlo0 -
Looking to condense SERP reults
For several of our keywords we have two listings on page 1 of the SERP's, both pages on the same domain. It's the "top"
Algorithm Updates | | absoauto
level category and than sub category within that top level category. Ideally, we could condense and have just the one result, at a higher position in the SERP. I thought Google would eventually do this for us as I've seen in the past, but it's been a few years now and still hasn't happened. Any suggestions?0 -
Strange SERP behaviour
We were ranking 2nd while Google was showing only natural listings. Earlier this year, the same SERP started showing only three natural listings, followed by some business listings. We were included within the business listings, but were 3rd, so 6th overall. After a few tweaks we managed to become the 1st business listing, so 4th overall. Early last week, the SERP changed again. The business listings were removed and replaced with natural listings. Rather than return to the old rankings, though, the order of the sites was exactly the same as it was with the business listings being there. It felt almost like a bug. So we remained 4th. On Friday, the business listings returned! But the rankings are way different. The three natural listings at the top are the same as before. Then there are 7 business listings, and then more natural listings after that. We are the fifth natural listing of the second group, so have been hit rather badly. Can anyone shed any light on what's going on here? We made a major change to our site 10 days ago, but it seems there's too much going on for it to be that. If it helps, the search term is a two word name for what we do, followed by the name of our city - and we're in the UK. Coincidentally, someone from Google called earlier this week to confirm an address change I'd be trying to correct in Google Places.
Algorithm Updates | | Special0 -
Major SERP Fluctuation
I'm working on iDeal Chooser, a Comparison Shopping site and we've been having a weird problem with some of our major keywords on Google for the past couple of months. We keep moving between the first page of the results to disappearing completely. For example a Google search for "price drop alerts" returns idealchooser.com as result 3-5 for a while and suddenly doesn't return us at all, then we are back to the top results only to disappear again later. We can't figure out what causes it, we didn't see any pattern and it seems completely random. We can be the 4th result for 2 weeks and suddenly we are gone for another 2 weeks. SEOmoz PRO had some good SEO suggestions which we implemented, however nothing that could explain this and even after fixing these issues this weird behavior continues. Any idea will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | corwin0 -
Google automatically adding company name to serp titles
Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I was surprised to see that Google had algorithmically modified my page titles in the search results by adding the company name to the end of the (short) title. <title>About Us</title> became About Us - Company Name Interestingly, this wasn't consistent - sometimes it was "company name Limited" and sometimes just "company name. Anyone else notice this or is this a recent change?
Algorithm Updates | | DougRoberts0 -
How did a competitor's brand name get in google's related search list?
When doing a google search for the term "ulster county real estate" the related search list at the bottom of the serp includes 7 obviously related search terms and 1 brand name of a competitor. (see attachment) The competitor doesn't rank for this term organically at all yet he enjoys a link on the first page with those of us that do by being in the related search list? I don't get it. Anyone know how something like this happens? Innhs.png
Algorithm Updates | | jhogan801 -
Google SERP UI in December
For retailers (or commercial queries), it seems like PPC ads, product ads and google shopping links were allocated more pixel real estate in December than in previous years, and the amount of pixel real estate allocated to organic listings declined further. I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge on when these changes were rolled out.
Algorithm Updates | | enoch0