Strange Ranking On 1st Page Of Google For Competitive Keyword
-
Hey all, So, I've noticed a site ranking on the first page in Google for a keyword that I have been targeting for years. The keyword is "mixtapes" and pretty competitive. The site, http://www.newyorkmixtapes.com is ranking around #4 in Google. It seemed odd to me so I looked into the site using some of the tools here. Open Explorer showed that they have minimal links. The actual site is pretty spammy also. Does anyone have any idea how this site ranked so high so fast? Is it ranking because I am located in New York? Does Google still put lots of weight on exact match domains? It's just been bothering me because it's a keyword that I put a lot of work into and then the site rolls around an ranks well for it with barely any backlinks. I just wanted to put it out there and see if I'm missing something obvious. Thanks everyone!
-
Thank you guys! It's definitely personalized results. It's still such a weak domain though to show to me so highly ranked in Google. I guess that's an exact match domain type of thing though. Sometimes I wish my site had my main keyword in it
Thank you all though for your quick responses. Sorry if it was an obvious answer.
-
Can you please take a look at this question(see link below)? It's kind of similar but Google results don't make any sense based on results from different SEOMoz tools.
http://www.seomoz.org/q/keyword-ranking-authority-information
Thanks.
-
Yeah, it's your personalized results. If you go to http://www.google.com/search?q=mixtapes&pws=0 (the &pws=0 removes personalization), you won't find it on the first page, or in the first several pages of results.
-
I couldn't find it in the first 15 pages of Google either. It could be that it's someone in your social circle that has shared it and that's what is pushing the results up higher.
One thing I like to do before I panic too much is fire up Safari, go to Edit -> Reset Safari to set everything to like it's a fresh install (clear cookies, history, etc. in one easy step), then search when I know that I have a minimum amount of personalization.
-
I believe the keyword has personalized results being shown for you. I just checked the keyword on Google as well as the keyword difficult tool and neither of those are ranking http://www.newyorkmixtapes.com on the first page. Location and a variety of other factors could be affecting your SERP page to have them at number four. Hope this helps.
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
-
No Ranking Keywords in Moz
I am using the link explorer to search my website https://bestsportsmask.com/ in Moz. But it is showing no ranked keywords but in other tools it's showing some keywords. What could be the issue.
Moz Pro | | DanielMaier0 -
Keyword cannibalization
Hello - We have a blog that ranks for 124 different keywords (URL: https://www.clickboarding.com/18-jaw-dropping-onboarding-stats-you-need-to-know/), and it's cannibalizing other keywords that I'm writing blogs specifically for. For example, the blog mentioned above ranks for "employee onboarding process," and I have a different blog I wrote with "employee onboarding process" as the focus keyword that's not ranking at all. Any suggestions or insight is hugely appreciated! Julie K.
Moz Pro | | Julie-Kuepers0 -
What is considered a keyword score that is too competitive?
I'm researching my keywords trying to strategise content around keywords I can optimise. Most of the high search volume (1000 + searches per month) keywords I want to optimise are in and around 0.5-0.6, is this good? Is this score range considered highly competitive...?
Moz Pro | | JordanStodart10 -
Universal rankings has made my page not show in rankings any more
We've had a page with a video on it for ages; it always ranks well, generally around no. 5. But I've noticed that it's now ignored in SEMOZ as a page, and only shows as a Universal Result - so it looks as though our top page is no. 22, even thought the video shows as an icon still in the same position, no. 5. That's annoying as I now have to explain to my stakeholders how come our rankings appear to have dropped off a cliff - when i fact they haven't. The page appears in google SERPS exactly as it always has. Can anything be done to make it appear back as it did in SEMOZ? Thanks
Moz Pro | | challMOZ0 -
What is the easiest way to track historical ranking across keywords?
I could not find a way to look at past data dynamically via the SEOmoz interface which would be an amazing feature. For example, people able to change the time period like in Google Analytics to see past results. Has someone developed an excel template to keep track of this data historically if this cannot be done within SEOmoz itself?
Moz Pro | | BlueLinkERP0 -
Rank Tracking results
Hi, Some problem with rank tracking from research tools: I rank #1 for this keyword "w immo" for URL : http://www.wimmobiliere.com in my campaign monitor (ranking tab) In rank tracking for the same Search Engine (google.be) i am not in the 50. Do you know why? Some images that might help... Rank_1<a class="attachment-title">Rank 1</a>Rank_2<a class="attachment-title">Rank 2</a>
Moz Pro | | VOUS0 -
How can I change the day my keyword rankings are updated?
I have several campaigns which currently get their weekly keyword ranking reports updated on different days. I'd like all of them updated on the same day, so I can just check in one a week for everything.
Moz Pro | | RichardDavies0