Privacy page ranking above home page in serps
-
I'm using OSE to try and get some clues as to why my privacy page would rank higher than my home page. Could anyone help me figure out which metrics to review to rectify the issue?
My key word is: Mardi Gras Parade Tickets
The url that is ranking is <cite>www.mardigrasparadetickets.com/pages/privacy</cite>
I'm happy to be ranking in the top 3 for the keyword, but I'd rather hoped it wouldn't be my privacy page.
Any help would be awesome,
Cy
-
Here's something else I noticed about OP's site:
Home page outranks privacy page when using site search -- yet home page appears to be filtered out of standard queries.
-
I think you need to diagnose the why before you start doing things like 301-redirecting. This could be just a matter of keyword competition or it could signal a serious problem with your home-page. For a privacy page to outrank your home page isn't a good sign, on the surface.
So, first things first - the home-page seems to be indexed. That's a good thing.
As @Cardigan said, you are using the phrase "Mardi Gras Parade Tickets" in every TITLE tag. I don't think that's the full problem, but it can certainly send mixed signals. Even though that's your brand, I wouldn't trail every TITLE with it - it just makes your tags too long and removes a lot of there uniqueness, IMO.
If I search the exact phrase "Mardi Gras Parade Tickets" in Google, you've got 4 pages ranking in the Top 10, none of which are your home page. That's definitely odd. It suggests that your site as a while is doing fine, but that your home-page may be selectively filtered or penalized for that phrase. This could be the repetition, but the impact isn't usually so extreme. It could be a long profile or anchor text issue.
You also don't rank for the exact title phrase "Mardi Gras Parade Tickets 2013", which is starting to look more like a penalty situation or severe technical problem (like malware, as @Deb mentioned). You can check for malware in Google Webmaster Tools, and I'd also check to see if Google can fetch the page properly.
You don't have a ton of links, so I'm not spotting any particularly bad ones. I also don't see you abusing exact-match anchor text much. Unless you've aggressively built links recently that aren't showing up in our system, my gut reaction is that Google thinks there's something wrong with the home-page.
Sorry, I see a and probably the problem. Your domain is almost an exact duplicate of:
http://www.neworleansparadetickets.com/
...including the copy. I think Google is aggressively filtering out your domain. If you're trying to target the same content with different EMDs, you're going to need to make it more unique. Otherwise, the tactic is going to backfire on you.
-
Hi,
Is the Home page of your website is malware affected? When I try to open the Home page, my system got restarted.
-
Thanks for your response.
This is a rails site, and I'm working with my developer to fix that issue.
-
Yes, to the above. Fill out your home page with more content and do something about your title tags. Presently the title tag for every page on the site is "Mardi Gras Parade Tickets 2013."
-
Thanks for the reply Ruslan,
If I 301 redirect, should I canonical the privacy page to my home page too?
And regarding your second suggestion, should I add more text to my home page so that the text/html ratio on my home page reflects or is better than my privacy page?
-
Hi Cyril,
What I would suggest to you is to make the 301 redirect from this page to home page. Then create another Privacy Page with slightly different URL. I believe this page has been ranked high because it has more text and better optimised than any other relevant page on your website. Second maybe someone has posted some external links to this page.
Another option can be cross linking. Try to make keyword "Mardi Gras Parade Tickets" as a link pointing to your home page.
Hope it helps,
Cheers,
Russel
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 plural keyword variations get their own targeted pages?
I am in the middle of changing a website from targeting just a single keyword on all pages to instead having each page target its own keyword/phrase. However, I'm a little conflicted on whether or not plural forms and other suffix (-ing) variations are different enough to get their own pages. SERP show different results for each keyword searched. Also, relevancy reports for the keywords score some differently and some the same. Is it best to instead use these as secondary and third level keywords on the same page as the main keyword for a page? See example below: OPTION A (Use each for different pages): Page 1 - Construction Fence Page 2 - Construction Fences Page 3 - Construction Fencing Page 4 - Construction Site Fence Page 5 - Construction Site Fences Page 6 - Construction Site Fencing ... OPTION B (Use as variations on same page): Page 1 - Construction Fence, Construction Fences, Construction Fencing Page 2 - Construction Site Fence, Construction Site Fences, Site Construction Fencing ... Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | pac-cooper0 -
A continuation drop in rankings
Hi All, We used to rank highly for the keyword 'Magazine Subscriptions' and after the past few months and have started to slowly go down the ranking. Recently we have spiked from #46 to #60 over the last few weeks. Anyone have any ideas on what could of caused this? Our website is: http://goo.gl/KnBkT9 We have kept updated the same as we have done with PRs, backlinks etc etc
Algorithm Updates | | DavidPatrick0 -
What do media queries have to do with the page layout update?
Who thinks the lack of media queries will have an impact on whether the page layout update affects a site?
Algorithm Updates | | kimmiedawn0 -
Why are Google Webmaster Tools' Google rankings different to actual Google rankings?
Dear Moz, We have noticed that according to Google Webmaster Tools one of our client sites is ranking very prominently for some of the major key phrases that we are trying to rank them for. However, when we perform a Google search for these queries, our client's content is nowhere to be seen, not even on the 5th page (we logged out of the Google account before performing the test). A long-term manual spam action on our client's site was recently lifted by Google - is it possible that Google Webmaster Tools is providing data about our client's estimated Google rankings, without taking into consideration the penalty of the manual spam action which was taken? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BoomDialogue690 -
Ranking gcctld?
I am working on a new site that uses a .io TLD. I have just started working to get the domain to rank for its own name. What are some others experience with ranking and SEO for gcctlds?
Algorithm Updates | | JoshAM0 -
Ranking factors
I found this page: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors Is there any new page with more up to date data ? Thank you i.
Algorithm Updates | | iivgi0 -
Correct usage of expired pages -410 or not?
Hi Mozzes, We're running a property portal that carries around 200.000 listings in two languages. All listings are updated several times per day and when one of our ads expire we report this via the "410 Gone", and place a link to our users: This ad has expired, click here to search for similar properties. Looking at our competition I seems that here are many different ways to deal with this, one popular being a 301 to the corresponding search result. We've tried to get directions from Google on what method they prefere, but as usual dead silence. Advices are mostly welcome.
Algorithm Updates | | PropertyPortal0 -
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