Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Page Rank Worse After Optimization
-
For a long time, we had terrible on page SEO. No keyword targeting, no meta titles or descriptions. Just a brief 2-4 sentence product description and shipping information. Strangely, we weren't ranking too bad. For one product, we were ranking on page 1 of Google for a certain keyword.
My goal to reach the top of page 1 would be easy (or so I thought).
I have now optimized this page to rank better for the same keyword. I have a 276 word description with detailed specifications and shipping information. I have a strong title and meta description with keywords and modifers. I have also included a video demonstration, additional photos and an PDF of the owners manual.
In my eyes, the page is 100% better than it ever was. In the eyes of MOZ, it's better also. I've got an A with the On-Page Grader.
Why is this page now ranking on page 8 of Google? What have I done wrong? What can I do to correct it?
-
Thanks Dirk -
I will try out your suggestions and let you know my results. I appreciate your help.
-
Hi Dustin
I checked the last example a bit more in detail:
Webpagetest indicates that his page is even heavier than the one I tested the first time - results here: http://www.webpagetest.org/result/150501_XQ_Q1H/ (load time ok - but page way to heavy)- page speed analyser results are not terrific either. Check also the links on the page - a lot of your css files seemed to be 301 to a new location - it's better to call directly the final location. Optimising shouldn't be too difficult - compressing images, js,..etc should really increase your scores.
Also on the technical side, probably good to clean the code a bit. You don't really have to pass the W3C validator test, but it seems your page generates a awful lot of errors.
From a content perspective - looks good. A remark could be that a lot of content is not directly visible when loading the page (read more, tabs). Google announced end of 2014 that they don't really like content that is hidden when the page is loaded (https://www.seroundtable.com/google-hidden-tab-content-seo-19489.html). Don't really think this would cause a drop - but it's something you could consider changing if you modify the HTML code.
Hope this helps,
Dirk
-
Hi Dirk -
It's actually another website, not included in my profile.
The page is: http://www.1-800-shaved-ice.com/simply-a-blast-snow-cone-machine.htmlI did the same optimization with some other pages, and we are ranked number 1 on the first page. These are the pages that have done extremely well.
http://www.1-800-shaved-ice.com/c-hc-8e.html
http://www.1-800-shaved-ice.com/swanblocshav.htmlThanks for your feedback
-
Hi Dustin,
If the site is the one mentioned in your profile - it's almost certain that it's a speed/performance issue. I checked one product page - and grade from google for desktop is 49/100 - 67/100 for mobile. Webpage test indicates the page size of 2700K - mainly images, javascript & flash. It should not be to difficult to improve these scores - optimising the images & the js will help a lot.
rgds,
Dirk
-
This can have different reasons - without having the actual example it's difficult to assess. Based on the info you give, adding all this content, video, images, it could be that your page became a lot heavier to load (check the page on webpagetest.org and with pagespeed insights). May be you exaggerated a bit with the optimisation - and is Google considering the page a bit too spammy.
If possible, can you give the actual url of the page?
rgds,
Dirk
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
-
Does having alot of pages with noindex and nofollow tags affect rankings?
We are an e-commerce marketplace at for alternative fashion and home decor. We have over 1000+ stores on the marketplace. Early this year, we switched the website from HTTP to HTTPS in March 2018 and also added noindex and nofollow tags to the store about page and store policies (mostly boilerplate content) Our traffic dropped by 45% and we have since not recovered. We have done I am wondering could these tags be affecting our rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Dec 26, 2018, 9:01 PM | JimJ1 -
Why some websites can rank the keywords they don't have in the page?
Hello guys, Yesterday, I used SEMrush to search for the keyword "branding agency" to see the SERP. The Liquidagency ranks 5th on the first page. So I went to their homepage but saw no exact keywords "branding agency", even in the page source. Also, I didn't see "branding agency" as a top anchor text in the external links to the page (from the report of SEMrush). I am an SEO newbie, can someone explain this to me, please? Thank you.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Nov 16, 2016, 2:05 AM | Raymondlee0 -
Google indexing only 1 page out of 2 similar pages made for different cities
We have created two category pages, in which we are showing products which could be delivered in separate cities. Both pages are related to cake delivery in that city. But out of these two category pages only 1 got indexed in google and other has not. Its been around 1 month but still only Bangalore category page got indexed. We have submitted sitemap and google is not giving any crawl error. We have also submitted for indexing from "Fetch as google" option in webmasters. www.winni.in/c/4/cakes (Indexed - Bangalore page - http://www.winni.in/sitemap/sitemap_blr_cakes.xml) 2. http://www.winni.in/hyderabad/cakes/c/4 (Not indexed - Hyderabad page - http://www.winni.in/sitemap/sitemap_hyd_cakes.xml) I tried searching for "hyderabad site:www.winni.in" in google but there also http://www.winni.in/hyderabad/cakes/c/4 this link is not coming, instead of this only www.winni.in/c/4/cakes is coming. Can anyone please let me know what could be the possible issue with this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Sep 6, 2023, 9:56 AM | abhihan0 -
Do I have to optimize every page on my site?
Hi guys I run my own photography webstie (www.hemeravisuals.co.uk Going through the process optimizing my page for seo. I have one question I have a few gallery pages with no text etc? Do I still have to optimize these ? Would it rank my site lower if they weren't optimized? And how can i do this sucessfully with little text on these pages ( I have indepth text on these subjects on my services & pricing pages? Kind Regards Cam
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Dec 3, 2014, 6:12 PM | hemeravisuals0 -
Domain Authority: 23, Page Authority: 33, Can My Site Still Rank?
Greetings: Our New York City commercial real estate site is www.nyc-officespace-leader.com. Key MOZ metric are as follows: Domain Authority: 23
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jul 9, 2014, 1:21 PM | Kingalan1
Page Authority: 33
28 Root Domains linking to the site
179 Total Links. In the last six months domain authority, page authority, domains linking to the site have declined. We have focused on removing duplicate content and low quality links which may have had a negative impact on the above metrics. Our ranking has dropped greatly in the last two months. Could it be due to the above metrics? These numbers seem pretty bad. How can I reverse without engaging in any black hat behavior that could work against me in the future? Ideas?
Thanks, Alan Rosinsky0 -
Different Header on Home Page vs Sub pages
Hello, I am an SEO/PPC manager for a company that does a medical detox. You can see the site in question here: http://opiates.com. My question is, I've never heard of it specifically being a problem to have a different header on the home page of the site than on the subpages, but I rarely see it either. Most sites, if i'm not mistaken, use a consistent header across most of the site. However, a person i'm working for now said that she has had other SEO's look at the site (above) and they always say that it is a big SEO problem to have a different header on the homepage than on the subpages. Any thoughts on this subject? I've never heard of this before. Thanks, Jesse
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jun 19, 2014, 12:23 PM | Waismann0 -
What is the best way to optimize/setup a teaser "coming soon" page for a new product launch?
Within the context of a physical product launch what are some ideas around creating a /coming-soon page that "teases" the launch. Ideally I'd like to optimize a page around the product, but the client wants to try build consumer anticipation without giving too many details away. Any thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Apr 18, 2013, 2:14 PM | GSI0 -
NOINDEX listing pages: Page 2, Page 3... etc?
Would it be beneficial to NOINDEX category listing pages except for the first page. For example on this site: http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/101/fsx-missions/ Has lots of pages such as Page 2, Page 3, Page 4... etc: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aflyawaysimulation.com+fsx+missions Would there be any SEO benefit of NOINDEX on these pages? Of course, FOLLOW is default, so links would still be followed and juice applied. Your thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Dec 6, 2011, 3:18 PM | Peter2640