Category Pages in competition with Homepages
-
I am finding it a real uphill task with a few of our clients with there either product or category pages competing against other sites on main keywords.
The sites either categories or product specific pages are in direct competition with other sites homepages and I am finding it increasingly more difficult to break into positions.
What are other peoples experiences with this ? Do you feel the way the pages are ranked within the xml sitemap with priority could also be a factor.
-
Yeah sorry about that Garry - EGOL helped clarify.
-
thanks EGOL some great replies. On the sites in question it ranks NO1 for its major keyword on google .
Its a very competitive term in the supplements industry.
Whey protein which other competitors target from their homepages. The sites page is the highest ranking non "homepage"
-
alan I am well aware of the complexities (Granny and suck eggs) comes to mind
Not looking for a in depth response just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this difficulty with category pages.
-
When I read the question I assumed that Garry was talking about the homepages, category pages and product pages of retail sites.
Really hard to get links into those types of pages - especially good links. However, informative pages on the same site can attract links from other websites - and if they are really informative attract enough links to compete.
Search for "hiking boots" and look for the REI page about how to pick a hiking boot.
If I was going to attack "poker" I would do it with an interactive probability game with feedback that every statistics professor on the planet would link to from his .edu webpages. "Don't go along with bets when the odds of drawing your needed card are smaller than the multiple of potential winnings compared to the size of the wager."
-
EGOL,
What did I not read in the question that allowed you the ability to provide a recommendation? We're talking multiple sites. In unknown markets. Without any insight into the quality of the on-site SEO or the off-site signals for these sites, right?
Just checking in because if I missed something and was way off in my response, I need to understand how that happened.
-
I've found that the best way to break in is to produce "information" pages that attract links.
That will get you into the difficult SERPs. Then you either feature a sales item or two on a content page or pull them into your retail pages with seductive ads or links.
A better alternative is an information site with a store.
-
Garry,
With all due respect, you're asking a question that is impossible to answer with anything resembling a valid, helpful answer. SEO is such a complex set of multiple factors, not the least of which is that every site is unique, every specific market is unique and every primary topic within every market has a unique set of circumstances determining why some sites show up higher than others.
Your situation could be due to improper information architecture, topical dilution, lack of off-site authority - or any of a host of other issues, or a combination of all or part of these.
The only way to know is for you to perform a proper audit for each site compared to each competitive landscape. Barring that, any answer you get here would be throwing darts on a wall while wearing a blindfold.
Without any more specific examples, there's just now way to point you in a healthy and wise direction.
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
-
Ecommerce category pages & improving rankings
Hi Moz 🙂 I work on an ecommerce site & am getting stuck with how to improve rankings on category pages. I have a competitor who writes loads of content for their category pages under tabs & they perform very well. The content isn't particularly helpful, more about their range and what they offer. I have tested adding similar content under a tab to some of our category pages - with some performing well & others not as well. I know this isn't ideal, and I'd like some help with an alternative. Does anyone have tips on improving rankings on category pages? I don't have much control on the layout, this is controlled by our parent company which restricts us. I am researching writing user guides, but these will be on other pages not directly on the category page & the way we have to add them is a lot of manual work for our webmaster, so I can't get them up as quickly as I'd like. I have seen REI have a small bit of content at the top of their pages that link to guides e.g - https://www.rei.com/c/static-and-rescue-ropes But obviously their domain authority is so high already, that they don't need as much help as me 🙂 At the moment I have some new Chair pages I need to rank, these are competitive and any ideas would be great 🙂 Here are some examples: http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/ergonomic-office-chairs http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/executive-office-chairs Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
How I can improve my website On page and Off page
My Website is guitarcontrol.com, I have very strong competition in market. Please advice me the list of improvements on my websites. In regarding ON page, Linkbuiding and Social media. What I can do to improve my website ranking?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | zoe.wilson170 -
On 1 of our sites we have our Company name in the H1 on our other site we have the page title in our H1 - does anyone have any advise about the best information to have in the H1, H2 and Page Tile
We have 2 sites that have been set up slightly differently. On 1 site we have the Company name in the H1 and the product name in the page title and H2. On the other site we have the Product name in the H1 and no H2. Does anyone have any advise about the best information to have in the H1 and H2
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CostumeD0 -
Pages with Duplicate Page Content (with and without www)
How can we resolve pages with duplicate page content? With and without www?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | directiq
Thanks in advance.0 -
Question about optimising an inner pages apposed to the homepage
Hi Everyone, I'm currently looking to optimise the inner page of a website opposed to the homepage itself. I was wondering if I should stick to some kind of link distribution? For instance, say my website is about widgets and the url is http://www.widgets.com, I want to optimise for a much easier "blue widgets" term on an inner page with the url: http://www.widgets.com/blue-widgets. Does google discriminate against a website with a higher number of links pointing to an inner page than the homepage? If so, what would you recommend a safe distribution between the two? Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated, Peter.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RoyalBlueCoffee0 -
Why is page still indexing?
Hi all, I have a few pages that - despite having a robots meta tag and no follow, no index, they are showing up in Google SERPs. In troubleshooting this with my team, it was brought up that another page could be linking to these pages and causing this. Is that plausible? How could I confirm that? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SSFCU
Sarah0 -
Denounce competition
Hello, Well I have a problem with a competitor. What happens is that when i search for the keyword "Cadeira de rodas" in www.google.pt a site of a competitor appears in the first place and I'm in second. Well thats life, right? My problem with that competitor (http://www.cadeirasderodas.net/) is using a page exclusively to the keyword. The title, domain and the only keyword is all "Cadeira de rodas" and then there is a redirection to another site after you enter. Since Google consider this as a fraude, where can I denounce this situation? Tks in advance! PP www.invacare.pt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PedroM0 -
High number of items per page or low number with more category pages?
In SEO terms, what would be the best method: High number of items per page or low number with more pages? For example, this category listing here: http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/90/fsx-civil-aircraft/ It has 10 items per page. Would there be any benefit of changing a listing like that to 20 items in order to decrease the number of pages in the category? Also, what other ways could you increase the SEO of category listings like that?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Peter2640