Keywords Directing Traffic To Incorrect Pages
-
We're experiencing an issue where we have keywords directing traffic to incorrect child landing pages. For a generic example using fake product types, a keyword search for XL Widgets might send traffic to a child landing page for Commercial Widgets instead.
In some cases, the keyword phrase might point a page for a child landing page for a completely different type of product (ex: a search for XL Widgets might direct traffic to XL Gadgets instead).
It's tough to figure out exactly why this might be happening, since each page is clearly optimized for its respective keyword phrase (an XL Widgets page, a Commercial Widgets page, an XL Gadgets page, etc), yet one page ends up ranking for another page’s keyword, while the desired page is pushed out of the SERPs.
We're also running into an issue where one keyword phrase is pointing traffic to three different child landing pages where none of the ranking pages are the page we've optimized for that keyword phrase, or the desired page we want to rank appears lower in the SERPs than the other two pages (ex: a search for XL Widgets shows XL Gadgets on the first SERP, Commercial Widgets on the second SERP, and then finally XL Widgets down on the third or fourth SERP).
We suspect this may be happening because we have too many child landing pages that are targeting keyword terms that are too similar, which might be confusing the search engines. Can anyone offer some insight into why this may be happening, and what we could potentially do to help get the right pages ranking how we'd like?
-
Yeah, we had suspected that just having too many keywords that are too similar could be causing confusion for search engines, but it's good to have a third party affirmation to support that assessment. We do intend to rework and "un" optimize some of our pages that are competing with one another and see what happens. Thanks for the assistance and for sharing that blog article too.
-
Thanks for the response and linking to that article, some helpful tips there.
-
I think you answered your own question - there's confusion for the search engine. Similar keywords can do that- even though you say it's clear to you what page is optimized there's some data to prove that the search engines aren't in agreement. (I have a lot of pages and run into the same issue.)
Have you run the competing pages through the Moz optimization tool to see what feedback it gives you? If you see each page is an "A" for the same term, there's some information you can work with to start reworking your content to "un" optimize the pages you don't want to rank.
I like this article Rand wrote that addresses how to correct this issue: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions
-
Check out this post on the subject
Make sure your internal links to the landing pages have the correct, distinct anchors.
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
-
2 pages competing
Hi all, My website currently has 2 pages that address the theme 'property investment in manchester' or 'buy to let manchester'. https://www.knightknox.com/developments/manchester/ https://www.knightknox.com/investments/manchester I am a bit concerned that we are competing against ourselves for these keywords. In my opinion the /investments page provides better content, but the /developments page ranks higher in Google. What do you think would be the best course of action?: Leave as is Merge the contents of both pages Redirect the /developments to /investments Or something else? Any ideas welcome. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | brian-madden0 -
Keyword On Page 1 Everywhere but Google (Site Specific)
Website: www.wheelchairparts.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mike.Bean
Keyword: wheelchair parts My website is #1 or #2 on almost every search engine besides Google. Google has us bouncing between the bottom of page 2 and top of 3. However we are on page one for "wheelchairparts". I need to get a link building campaign going for this site. I feel it's more difficult for ecommerce websites and nothing seems to fit in with Rand's Mozcon 2016 Link Building talk except hacks. I need to find a flywheel. Either way, my question is what can I do other than link building to get on page 1 of Google for the term "wheelchair parts"? Thanks in advance! - Mike Bean1 -
Keyword position history?
Are there any tools out there to see historical positions of keywords for competitors? I haven't been tracking the keywords, just wondered if there is any cached data anywhere?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman100 -
I want my website to rank on the first page for a very competitive keyword
I am a WordPress designer and can service national clients. I want to rank on the first page for the keyword WordPress designer. This is a highly competitive keyword MOZ gives it a 68% difficulty. I rank locally in nj for WordPress designer nj and a multitude of local WordPress based key words. I rank on page 10 of serps doing a private browsing session. Some of my national competitors rank on the first page with not many links in. How could i be so low on the serps for the base keyword WordPress Designer but for local WordPress designer nj be number 1 everytime? What should be my best plan of attack if i want to Rank much higher for this one specific keyword hopefully page 1. I think this one keyword could increase business greatly so it is a top priority for me. I appreciate all advice 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | donsilvernail0 -
Showing on page 25 for url keyword/ brand, is it a penalty?
Hi I have a site which shows on page 25 in G serps for the main brand keyword which is also the url its a .com and as far as I can see has no penalties and has unique content. The keyword itself has no competition and the site should be no1 in G for it. Our site domain is 11 years old.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MoneySite0 -
301 / 404 & Getting Rid of Keyword Pages
I had a feeling that my keyword focused pages were causing my site not to rank well. I do not have that many keywords. I have 2 main keyword phrases along with 6 city locations. For example (fake) "tea house tampa" "tea house clearwater" "tea house sarasota" and "tea room tampa" "tea room cleawater" "tea house sarasota". So, I don't feel that I need that many pages. I feel like I can optimize my home page and maybe 1 or 2 topic pages. Right now, I have a keyword for each of those phrases. These are all internal pages on 1 domain. Not multiple domains. Sooo... I tested it by 301ing a few of my "tea house" KW pages to the home page. And low and behold... my home page rose BIG TIME! Major improvement! I'm talking like 13th to 2nd! Here is my question... how should I proceed? My SEO has warned me against 301ing too many pages all pointing to the home page. He says that will negatively impact my ratings. Should I 404 some pages? Should I build a "tea room" topic page and 301 that set there? What is worse? 301 or 404? How many is too many? I'm really excited by these results, but I'm scare to move forward and hurt what has happened. Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Interlinking from unique content page to limited content page
I have a page (page 1) with a lot of unique content which may rank for "Example for sale". On this page I Interlink to a page (page 2) with very limited unique content, but a page I believe is better for the user with anchor "See all Example for sale". In other words, the 1st page is more like a guide with items for sale mixed, whereas the 2nd page is purely a "for sale" page with almost no unique content, but very engaging for users. Questions: Is it risky that I interlink with "Example for sale" to a page with limited unique content, as I risk not being able to rank for either of these 2 pages Would it make sense to "no index, follow" page 2 as there is limited unique content, and is actually a page that exist across the web on other websites in different formats (it is real estate MLS listings), but I can still keep the "Example for sale" link leading to page 2 without risking losing ranking of page 1 for "Example for sale"keyword phrase I am basically trying to work out best solution to rank for "Keyword for sale" and dilemma is page 2 is best for users, but is not a very unique page and page 2 is very unique and OK for users but mixed up writing, pictures and more with properties for sale.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | khi50 -
How to increase the traffic ?
Hi Everyone, I am a bit a newbie in SEO and I read different articles and comments regarding the SEO but I am a bit stuck to get traffic through www.organicur.com. It's a really new website build through Prestashop (1-2 month). I used the tool keyword analysis to look after keywords not to competitive. I used the on-page optimization of Seomoz until to have A for every pages and I have started to build backlinks. But the traffic doesn't improve at all. Does that mean my keywords are not relevant enough ? Do I need to wait and carry on the links building. Do I need to go through PPC ? Thanks a lot for your reply, K
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | NeSEO0