1 domain dominating unbranded search terms?
-
Anyone have any insight or comments?
We’ve been negatively impacted by the last Google algorithm update - not by a penalization of our site but because another site is now grabbing the top 3-4 search results for long tail physician name searches thereby pushing us lower in the rankings. Being that we’ve never seen this happen with unbranded search terms, we’re not sure how to address it.
To see an example, click http://www.google.com/search?q=dr.+elizabeth+eads. You’ll notice that the top 4 results are all from 1 site - HealthGrades - with 2-3 of the 4 pages being canned, pre-written templates without any unique content (see malpractice & sanction pages). It seems that they are doing this by paginating their information into separate pages, thus appearing in multiple search results, instead of putting all the information on 1 page, as we do and Google’s best practices suggest.
Any advice or comments would really be appreciated.
-
Sorry; I assumed the first non-Healthgrades result was yours. Apologies. I agree with Nick P above that for a phrase like the doctor's name where there is little competition you should be able to out-rank them pretty easy. Use best of breed on-page SEO and then get a few links to your page with the doc's name as anchor text. It probably won't take more than a handful because the phrase (doc name) is so non-competitive.
I don't know that healthgrades is getting a free pass on anything but their sub-sub-sub pages probably are having just enough PR flow to them that they outrank a smaller site with a page on the same topic. But, again, you should be able to win this battle pretty easily with a tiny bit of focused attention. Now, if you have 50,000 doc names that you want to compete for then you may need a different strategy of external link building. You could always try it with 1 doc and see what it takes to outrank healthgrades. I'd actually be curious if 1 credible external link (on an indexed page with doc name as anchor text) does it, or if you need 5, or 50. Maybe you could run a one-doctor test and post results...?
-
If you are really keen to rank for Dr X then you'll be able to. Google isn't perfect, it does rank crappy sites for keywords that are almost irrelevant. However this is often the case when competition is low and no one has signalled Google to tell them what their content is about.
Feel free to PM me with your site details James, I might be able to help you out.
-
Thanks, but that is not my site you're looking at. Either way, are you saying it is acceptable by Google to have in its second and third results, pages with no data except "Dr X has no sanctions". There is a whole slew of competing web sites who have valuable and distinctive data. Is Heatlhgrades getting a free pass in Google because of their high PR and that they are keyword stuffing?
-
It looks like the page that is beating you has better on-page SEO for that phrase. They use the phrase in header tags, while you use it in SPAN and B tags. They have the term in a few IMG alt tags, you do not.
Have you run their page and your page through the On-page analyzer here at SEOMoz? That might give you a few suggestions to improve your on-page SEO.
Also, their root domain is PR7 while yours is PR6 (I know, toolbar PR is out of date and not a good indicator, but it may mean you need more external links to your subpages, for example), and might explain why they are higher than you if all other things are equal.
-
I'm a little confused. "dr. elizabeth eads" has no search traffic and is almost certainly beatable from an exact match title element and two or three anchored links.
When a search term's competition is so low, it makes it a lot easier for one website that Google deems as the most relevant to result in multiple listings. Are there any other examples you have?
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
-
Is anyone else getting this search result?
One of our blog posts (http://dress.yournextshoes.com/celebrities-dresses-skirts-wind/) used to rank well for "windy skirt", but we're not ranking anymore. When I search for "windy skirt", all the top 10 results are Youtube videos. Is anyone else seeing this? gs1eVsn
Competitive Research | | Jantaro0 -
What's the value of Exact Match Keyword Domains vs. Company Name Domains?
Hey Mozers, I was in a discussion this morning about the value of Exact Match Keyword domains vs. a company name domain and wanted to get a little more clarification. Let's say we are doing a site for a company called Favored Dental, and they have had the domain favoredental.com for quite a while and have their authority built up in it. Is it better to have favored-dental.com or favoreddental.co or keep its current form? The reasoning behind the alternate domains would be they have the exact match keyterm, in this case lets say "Favored Dental" is the keyterm we were going after. To my knowledge EMDs aren't as relevant as they'd use to be as Google would rather branding of companies instead of keyterm domains? Is this correct, or do EMDs of keywords you're going after hold higher authority? Thanks for the clarification!
Competitive Research | | MonsterWeb280 -
Few backlinks, no social signals and PR of 1 in the #1 SERP. How is this possible?
Hello everyone, I've been busting my head now for a bit and for the life of me I can't understand how this website is ranked #1 or #2 for a moderately competitive keyword (45% According to the Keyword Difficulty Report). Anyone has any idea how is this possible or how are they doing it? Please note page and domain authority as well... Included: reports from SEOmoz and ahrefs Thank you in advance! With the purpose of protecting mi client's identity, I've hidden keywords and domains. Keyword Difficulty Report ahrefs_comp.png SEOmoz_comp.PNG
Competitive Research | | 7decode0 -
I must be tripping. How is this site ranking for the term "SEO Company"??????
When I go to Google non-custom search results and search the term: seo company The website "greencowseo.com" is ranked 3rd. OpenSiteSearch shows nothing. And get this... the domain was registered 14 days ago by somebody in Egypt. Do I need to quit my SEO Moz membership and hire this guy? 🙂
Competitive Research | | Bo-Jangles0 -
Root Domain Metrics Stagnant for 3 weeks now
We are doing a Competitive Domain Analysis for a client and 2 of their competitors. The results from the Root Domain Metrics have been ok from the past months where in the results we are getting changes every time the website is re-crawled by SEOMOZ to update its analysis. However, in the past few weeks, the results we are getting for the Root Domain Metrics have remained the same even after three weeks. We have attempted a separate Open Site Explorer analysis for the client and their competitors but be are getting the same results. From the "Domain Authority" to the "No Followed Linking Root Domains", the results have remained the same for three weeks. Could anything be affecting the results or is it just the fact that the links have not changed (not a single one, for three websites) in the past three weeks. Hope you can help me clarify my issue. Thanks!
Competitive Research | | TheNorthernOffice790 -
When providing search results for SEO purposes to you use the exact results in Google Adwords
Hi Mozzers Just quick question When an SEO company are supplying their testimonials for example
Competitive Research | | mcliddy
Keyword Search Term has 33,000 visits a month
Keywords is in position 1 but the search volume they are showing is broad, i was always brought up to do research on exact results unless im using the reserch for a PPC campagin? Has anyone got any ideas?? should it be braod im looking at or exact?? Many Thanks Matt0 -
Domain name advice please
Hi i am trying to work out what is the best when it comes to domain names. What i mean is, should you go short or should you try and fit in what you need. So as follows. say i need a domain name that i wanted to buy which i have done research and found that these two words together are good keywords. please note that this is an example the two keywords are manchester airport and the next two keywords are cheap flights should i get a domain name that say manchesterairportcheapflights or should i have a shorter domain name like manchester cheap flights or another example say i wanted a domain name that fitted the following two keywords in manchester hotels budget accomodation should i just get a domain name that says manchester hotels or should it get the following manchesterhotelsbudgetaccomodation I am looking at buying a number of domain names and i am trying to find out if shorter is better or if a longer domain name is better
Competitive Research | | ClaireH-1848860 -
How can my site not ranked on easy keyword while it currently ranked 1 on difficult keyword??
The site in question is http://ikt.co.id The site is perfectly optimized (or even over optimized) for keyword "Bikin Website Murah" (in Indonesia it means "develop an affordable website") currently if you search on both google.co.id AND google.com, it ranked on #10 (on google.co.id) and it ranked on #7 (on google.com), and both term only return 1.3 million results I have A LOT OF pages that started with 'bikin website' , or 'website murah' ... there are a lot of them, and i have had a lot of backlinks on those pages too (have been manually building a lot of links, starting from creating a tutorial article and blog submission and many other way) .. the site has been perfectly optimized for that keyword For example we have http://ikt.co.id/blog-category/bikin-website-murah-promo-terbaru.html (for newest promotion) http://ikt.co.id/blog/bikin-website-seo-murah-discount-40-sampai-31-juli-2011.html (for discount 40% promo that lasted untill 31 juli 2011) AND YET, if you search on google.co.id for keyword "2000 likes facebook" , our lone page that i created when our facebook likes reached that amount, RANKED #1!! , and please let me tell you this term return 400 million results++ (on google.com this keyword ranked #19, on 500 million results++). And let me tell you it take that SINGLE page (which has absolutely 0 backlinks) 2 days to ranked #1 .... and her brother if you searched "1000 likes facebook" also show similar result (though not better then the sister) How ?!? and Why ?!? , i dont understand this at all.... my domain does not contain any keyword, they uses the same engine and yet that lone pages which have absolutely no backlink ranked so well on a very competitive keyword, while my Target Keyword ranked poorly.... And what is even more bizzare? "Bikin website murah" might not rank good, but "bikin website" ranked better x_x ... arghh i dont get it... why my site ranked poorly on easy keywords and ranked high on difficult keywords :(( .... Why I am not smiling because those easy keyword is actually my primary keywords 😞
Competitive Research | | IKT0