Keywords in TOP 5 then disappearing, then reappearing (ongoing for months)
-
Hello marketers,
I've built quite a few successful sites in the past, but I've never issued this scenario. Here's the case:
I have 1,5 year-old site that I've tried to build quality content & links over time. However, there are roughly 15-20 pages and keywords that constantly appear and reappear in the search.
For example, KEYWORD X:
- 1 week appearing in rank 3
- Then disappearing out of 100 for a week
- Then reappears in rank 3 and stays there for ~10 days
- Then again disappears from top 100 for a week or two.
- Then again, comes back at rank 3 for a few days, then gone again.
Now I understand if this is a new site and spammy content and bad links combo, but it's not. It's also not 1 keyword, but multiple keywords and multiple pages.
I know it's hard to say what exactly wrong, but could anyone lead me to the right direction. Is this CONTENT issue? Links issue? CTR issue? Site health issue?
I've also attached screenshots from 2 keywords and their rankings in the last 3-4 months.
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
-
Do you have multiple similar products that are targeting the same keywords, could the pages be keyword cannibalising each other and the pages keep switching in your rankings. If so you may benefit from canonicalising similar content pages that may not be direct duplicates or trying to further seperate the content.
e.g. Product review 1 ranks P3 then drops whilst another page say Product review 3 takes its place.
Do you track each url placement?
-
Structure shouldn't matter, but there has to be a reason why this is happening to you.
Have you had a look in Search Console to see how often Google is crawling the site and see if there are any anomalies in there?
Feel free to ping me an e-mail with an example page if you would like me to take a quick look for you. info [at] iqseo dot uk
-Andy
-
Hey Andy
Thanks for your reply. It's mostly a very narrow niche site that reviews different products in-depth (I have about 35 review pages). They are similarly structured, but they are unique for sure. 2000+ words each with images etc.
Perhaps I should rewrite the ones that are not sticking in the SERP?
-
Hi,
Had a very similar issue on a site and it turned out to be not content, but duplicate pages brought on by too many that were similar.
Perhaps this was a bit extreme, but I regularly found 4-5 pages trying to target very similar phrases which left Google wondering just what the hell it should index. Similar sort of thing - one minute at pos. 70, the next position 7. However, not all of them were being indexed.
What is your content like - could it fall into this?
-Andy
-
My first response to this type of problem is to check for duplicate content, such as when another person or bot grabs your content and posts it on another website.
My second response would be a check for a canonical problem, such as when your page can be identified by multiple URLs.
Those are the two best things to check for. However, I also know of a site that has this exact problem. The content is high quality, has been on the web for a few years, yet the pages can be in the top ten for good keywords, then disappear out of the top 100 only to return to the top ten. This has been repeating for a couple of months.
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
-
Google Is Indexing The Wrong Page For My Keyword
For a long time (almost 3 mounth) google indexing the wrong page for my main keyword.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tiedemann_Anselm
The problem is that each time google indexed another page each time for a period of 4-7 days, Sometimes i see the home page, sometimes a category page and sometimes a product page.
It seems though Google has not yet decided what his favorite / better page for this keyword. This is the pages google index: (In most cases you can find the site on the second or third page) Main Page: http://bit.ly/19fOqDh Category Page: http://bit.ly/1ebpiRn Another Category: http://bit.ly/K3MZl4 Product Page: http://bit.ly/1c73B1s All links I get to the website are natural links, therefore in most cases the anchor we got is the website name. In addition I have many links I get from bloggers that asked to do a review on one of my products, I'm very careful about that and so I'm always checking the blogger and their website only if it is something good, I allowed it. also i never ask for a link back (must of the time i receive without asking), and as I said, most of their links are anchor with my website name. Here some example of links that i received from bloggers: http://bit.ly/1hF0pQb http://bit.ly/1a8ogT1 http://bit.ly/1bqqRr8 http://bit.ly/1c5QeC7 http://bit.ly/1gXgzXJ Please Can I get a recommendation what should you do?
Should I try to change the anchor of the link?
Do I need to not allow bloggers to make a review on my products? I'd love to hear what you recommend,
Thanks for the help0 -
Domain changed 5 months ago still see search results on old domain
Hi, We changed our domain from coedmagazine.com to coed.com in April'13. Applied 301 redirects on all pages, submitted 'change of address' to google but we still see site:coedmagazine.com fetching 130K results on google as opposed to site:coed.com fetches 40K results. Can anybody here throw some light on what might be going wrong? [ Site runs on wordpress, hosted with wordpress as well ] thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | COEDMediaGroup0 -
URL Keyword Structure and Importance
Hey Guys, I've done quite a bit of research on this but still can't decide what the correct answer is, so was hoping the Moz community might be able to give some clarification. Say I have a URL **www.yourdomain.com/product/domain-names **is there any benefit in changing my site's backend structure (a relatively lengthly process) so the URL can read **www.yourdomain.com/domain-names **without the 'product' slug? I understand keywords in the URL can have a small impact on SEO, but does the positioning to this degree play any part? Any advice would be great.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | paragongroup
Cheers.0 -
Two Webstites Targeting the Same Keywords
If I aquire a website in the same industry targeting the same keywords. Should I merge them into one? I understand it's a bad idea to have multiple websites promoting the same thing, but i'd like to capture the customer base of a competing website. What's everyone's thoughts? A- Merge new to main website with 301's? will google like that? B- Keep them separate? Will google like that? C- Don't bother. D- Toss the computer and get into Horticulture
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | residualboulders0 -
Best Keyword Taxonomy Discussion
Sorry to bring this up again but I think the title was very misleading resulting in helpful members ignoring the question/thread completely. Also, I believe this should be in the discussion section, but please correct me if I'm wrong? Hi All, This is my first post and hopefully a question that could help others in similar positions as I haven't been able to find a concrete answer on this anywhere. Say we are trying to rank for the keyword "security testing tools". Product name is "Sectest" and its a security testing tool. *We currently have an "SEO" section that is purely good content and the idea with this is to be able to rank for "security testing tools" talking about what to expect and look for in such tools and relevant content - Linking to our product page at the end of it. structure is brand.com/security-testing/tools and that would have a link to brank.com/products/sectest Obviously product pages would get their meta tags and content re-written so we don't compete for the same keywords. Is this approach optimal? or would google want us to link directly to the product page instead of "information" about security testing tools? Nobody in our sector is taking this approach and we have already started it, but I am starting to wonder if I am getting into big trouble further down the line. Thanks and best regards, 2 Responses<a class="image-button add-response-button"> </a><a name="post-131828"></a> | JorgeGarciaAspirant | about 22 hours ago |JorgeGarcia Just to make it clearer. Our competitors seem to be using "security testing tools" directly in their product pages. We would like to use "security testing tools" for a page with content on it and an introduction to our product and then link to our product page. | <a name="post-131872"></a> | SEO5Journeymen | SEO5Director - Marketing at SEO 5 Consulting Hi Jorge, How are your competitors ranking for their approach by using security testing tools directly. If they are doing well then i would adopt the same strategy and try to beat them with quality backlinks and good on site optimization. SEO is not the only thing you have to worry about , you also should keep conversion rates in mind. By first taking the visitors to a security tools page and then your product page you are increasing your conversion funnel and this might impact your conversion rates. At the end of the day , it's all about sales/revenue/leads/ROI so you dont want to do anything to jeopardize your conversions. That one extra step that the visitor has to take might result in fewer conversions. <a class="image-button add-response-button"> </a> | <a name="post-131946"></a> | JorgeGarcia |
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JorgeGarcia
JorgeGarcia Hi there, Although I do understand your reasoning, we have the resources and people quantity to focus on all things at once being a big a company. So at the present moment it wouldn't be a matter of prioritizing work - but rather - delivering the best future-proof strategy. I don't mind doing the same as our competitors, but sometimes stepping out of the sheep line is good. You do make a great and very valid point addressing that this is an extra step for the visitor and could lead to fewer conversions. This is holding me back a little bit. But, if properly implemented, wouldn't a content focused site rank way better than a product page would? I guess the real question is if prospects would really find value in the information about "security testing tools" or they would rather just get the product page instead. But just looking from Google eyes, what do you think of this approach? _After re-reading my post I realize I might sound as if all I want is you to agree with me and justify my approach, I don't really. I would really value any honest thoughts and reasoning 🙂 _ |0 -
Reconsideration request ignored for 1 month
| Oct 9 (1 day ago) | See question ive posted here https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/webmasters/Wz_pAz7_lk8/jR8DvSyn5T4JHi
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seogeek11
We've submitted 2 reconsideration requests in a month and google are not replying to us. They've caused huge loss in business for us over links that are now against google guidelines. I checked our links from the tools provided in webmaster tools and i can see some that are against google guidelines that have recently been spidered, however these links were built in 2008-09, long before the panda updates where this type of link would be classed as spammy.IS their anyone i can contact to speak with as clearly google are too big to care anymore or respond to such requests. http://www.cyberhostpro.com the responce ive got is | |
|
| On Tuesday, October 9, 2012 10:41:33 AM UTC-3, cyberhostpro wrote: however these links were built in 2008-09, long before the panda updates When we all rode horses to work there was no need for speed limits on the highway & byways... but then things change.In 2008-09 those links may have been worth something... why do you believe they deserve that value today?Get rid of all those 2008-09 links and you should be ok! If you could offer nay help or advice with this it would be most appreciatedRegardsDaniel0 -
Different Google result for same keyword in different countries
Why does Google display different results in each country for the same keyword and with the same language? how can I take advantage of this to position my website in an specific country? In this case de domain is always a ."com" domain.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | abellojuan0 -
Changing keyword target on home page? Will it work?
I have a site that is in the financial services niche and has around 20 pages talking about different services. I want to change the goal of the site and now just target Insurance. The current home page is a simple introduction to the website, I was going to change this to target the insurance keyword and put around 500 words content on the front page. I was also going to change the Page Title, Description and H1 tags too. My question is will the front page then rank for that keyword once google recrawls the site? Could I damage the PR of the site or any other factors from changing the front page. Here are some stats about the site 11 years old PR 3 Page Mozrank 5.58 Page Moztrust 5.61 Domain Mozrank 2.29 Domain Moztrust 3.17 Thanks for your help guys
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnPeters0