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.
Why does the order of the keywords affect my SERP? And what can I do to improve?
-
Hi all,
So, if you google "london life coach" my site appears #2 (www.nickhatter.com)
But if you google "life coach London" my SERP seems to fluctuate between #3 up to #6.
If you google "life coach in London" my SERP is a solid #2/3.
I don't get it all. Would someone care to explain?
Also, if you have any tips on how I might improve the EAT of my website please do feel free to weigh in!
Many thanks,
Nick -
The answer Google would like you to believe is that it's possible for the word ordering to imply different intents. In reality though, I think it's mainly an artefact of them not fully understanding meaning, or not being able to classify all pages and keywords perfectly.
My colleague Sam Nemzer wrote a post with research on this topic that you might find interesting.
-
I have the same going on with one particular keyword. The best way is to get a good link for that keyword thats having a lower or different ranking then the other keyword. Then it should be solved.
-
Nick,
It's kind of a head smacker when you think of it. It makes sense that the order of the words in the query would make a difference in ranking. Different orders may mean different things. Also, since google is trying to match the searcher's words to potential websites that satisfy the searcher's intent, the order of words on a website definitely a site's ranking for specific keywords. Those these may be only subtle differences between site's copy, but still, someone has to rank at the top for a particular order and someone still has to rank at the bottom for that same order. It's the algorithm.
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
-
Can I add FAQS schema on my homepage?
Hello, can we have the FAQ code on the homepage (staff time)? we have written some questions and answers in the drop-down list on the homepage, and also add the schema code script to one tag of the page, but it does not work!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fbowable0 -
Can you index a Google doc?
We have updated and added completely new content to our state pages. Our old state content is sitting in a our Google drive. Can I make these public to get them indexed and provide a link back to our state pages? In theory it sounds like a great link building strategy... TIA!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | LindsayE1 -
Keyword Ranking Fluctuations
Hi Guys I am currently working on a website where one of the keyword targets is fluctuating. The keyword is fluctuating between page 2 and page 5. What makes this strange is that we are not experiencing the issue with any other keyword targets. They are all ranking fine. It is only 1 keyword. The keyword target happens to be the main homepage keyword target - not sure if this makes a difference? The homepage targets 2 keyword e.g. Business Offices & Accessories. The homepage ranks perfectly fine for e.g. Business Accessories but is fluctuating for e.g. Business Offices! Very strange. What makes it even stranger - the keyword variations of the fluctuating keyword e.g. office for business - these variations are all fine and not fluctuating. Its only 1 keyword. If anyone has any ideas or feedback that would be great! Thanks, Duncan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CayenneRed890 -
How to get sitelinks in organic SERPs?
When searching for "Madrid hotels" in google I see that the top organic search results have one row of sitelinks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lcourse
What can I do that also my site shows sitelinks if I am among the top organic search results?
Anything onpage that I can do to increase probability that google will show sitelinks? Strangely the text which shows as sitelink for SERPs from booking.com and tripadvisor does actually for most of the sitelinks not appear on the landing page (I also checked the source code).0 -
Subdomain replaced domain in Google SERP
Good morning, This is my first post. I found many Q&As here that mostly answer my question, but just to be sure we do this right I'm hoping the community can take a peak at my thinking below: Problem: We are relevant rank #1 for "custom poker chips" for example. We have this development website on a subdomain (http://dev.chiplab.com). On Saturday our live 'chiplab.com' main domain was replaced by 'dev.chiplab.com' in the SERP. Expected Cause: We did not add NOFOLLOW to the header tag. We also did not DISALLOW the subdomain in the robots.txt. We could have also put the 'dev.chiplab.com' subdomain behind a password wall. Solution: Add NOFOLLOW header, update robots.txt on subdomain and disallow crawl/index. Question: If we remove the subdomain from Google using WMT, will this drop us completely from the SERP? In other words, we would ideally like our root chiplab.com domain to replace the subdomain to get us back to where we were before Saturday. If the removal tool in WMT just removes the link completely, then is the only solution to wait until the site is recrawled and reindexed and hope the root chiplab.com domain ranks in place of the subdomain again? Thank you for your time, Chase
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | chiplab0 -
Can you buy backlinks from fiverr?
Hi Mozers, I though a while ago I heard that buying backlinks was a no go, until I seen and read this article: I notice the guy that wrote the article suggested that you can buy backlinks from fiverr, and also just make sure they are do-follow backlinks. Can someone please correct me and perhaps clear my confusion over this. As far as I knew it was best to build backlinks by doing guest posting and engaging in relevant forums? Heres the article: http://socialmediafuze.com/10-backlink-strategies-business/ Thanks guys
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | edward-may2 -
How to measure traffic for a keyword
Sitting in Country A I want to see how much traffic a particular keyword receives in Country B. Whats the best way to do it? Also, will the search results differ if I am analyzing the above sitting in Country A viz-a-viz Country B. In other words, will the IP of the country I am making the search from play a role in the results?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KS__0 -
Is it better to use geo-targeted keywords or add the locations as separate keywords?
For example... state keyword (nyc real estate) or keyword, state (nyc, real estate) = 2 keywords Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cyclone0