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 is my homepage ranking BELOW a subpage?
-
Search "peer to peer lending".
The page http://www.ratesetter.com/peer_to_peer_lending.htm appears higher than the homepage.
I don't think this is because of keyword density on page either as Zopa (competitor) have zero mentions of this keyword on their homepage.
What are your suggestions for getting the homepage ranked higher?
Thanks, Simon.
-
Remember you don't need to have that phrase exactly to be ranked for it. If the content has "peer" and "lending" in it, with some good off-page ranking "points" they could show higher than your site. Good luck!
-
I didn't dig into their site but I can tell you there is some sort of co-citation going on there. Rand did an awesome WBF a little while back that probably explains exactly what is going on.
-
Thanks vzPRO, appreciate you doing an on-page. I've done this already and recognise the good ratings of each page. The subpage is more keyword rich but if you refer to my reply to Kevin this is what is confusing me.
-
Thanks TommyTan. Yes indeed it does, but see my reply to Kevin above.
-
Thanks Kevin. This is what I find odd though, if you search the term "peer to peer lending" our competitor Zopa appears top with their homepage as the result. They have NO mention of "peer to peer lending" whatsoever on their homepage.
-
I've seen strong correlation between the keyword being in the page name / url and rankings but in general a sub-page is generally more targeted for a keyword.
I just ran the seomoz on-page report card for your home page and sub page with the keyword being peer to peer lending and though they both received an "A" there were more factors helping the sub page.
-
Google feels that that page is more relevant for that keyword than the homepage. Just looking at the on-page factors, I agree w/Google. The url, heading and overall copy seems to reflect that term more than the home page. Also, this page is much better landing page than the home page for people searching for info on this term.
-
Hi Simon,
I just have to say it even though it may not be the reason, does your subpage have more keywords and content than the home page for bots to crawl?
Another reason may be because you are getting more backlinks and social share on your subpage than your home page. Google may find that your subpage provide the better result to searchers than the home page because it might have more backlinks or contents for them to crawl.
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
-
zero ranking keywords
My website, pescoonlinebill.com, shows many queries in console but there are zero ranking keywords in MOZ dashboard.
Link Building | | realdy1 -
How Many Backlinks does I need to rank?
A keyword Olehana private label cosmetic company that also my competitor have 4k ref domain for this keyword. So Do I need more than 4k ref domain with anchortext "olehana" Please help me. Thanks.
Link Building | | arainbadami0 -
Should I build internal links to my homepage?
Ive done a lot of internal linking before but its always been for other inner pages but now I need to do it for a websites homepage but this got me thinking if its even worth doing and should I be doing it at all? For the first question I was thinking that surely the homepage has more authority than any of my inner pages so how would internal links from inner pages help and for the second question Ive read a few posts like this Kissmetrics one here where it says you shouldnt do it. There are two types of links you should avoid using in your content: Homepage. Most sites have too many links to the homepage as it is. You would rather strengthen internal pages to boost the overall SEO of your site, rather than simply point more links at the homepage. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/commandments-of-internal-linking/ thoughts?
Link Building | | linklander0 -
Rankings Dropped After New Backlinks.
I have a low-traffic website (under 100 unique visitors per day) and I've encountered a strange issue started yesterday morning. I acquired three back-links, one of these back-links is contextual and the other two are site-wide. The site-wide back-links are from PA 40+ blogs. It looks like the back-links are already indexed by Google. Despite these new back-links, my rankings across multiple keywords have dropped several positions. I'm new to SEO, but I would assume new back-links would improve my rankings. None of these back-links are low quality links, they are from real established blogs with high domain and page authority values. Could anyone give me insights into why my rankings may have dropped with new back-links?
Link Building | | poke11 -
Backlinks from subdomain, can it hurt ranking?
I just started doing an SEO audit and noticed I have 40,000 some odd back links from an OLD version of our site that has been moved to a subdomain. The back links are for articles that already exist on our main site. I don't think Google is picking it up as duplicate content because that site isn't being crawled anymore. Could this hurt us SEO wise? I plan on removing the site, but how long after it's been removed should those back links disappear?
Link Building | | MMAffiliate0 -
Homepage Vs. Inner Page Backlink Building?
If I'm trying to rank multiple inner pages, when does strengthening the homepage become more productive than strengthening the inner pages themselves? Is there a strategy to this? For example, maybe you build up a few dozen backlinks to each inner page, and then focus all your efforts on the homepage? Because, from my understanding, strengthening the homepage will go a long way towards helping your inner pages rank. Is that correct?
Link Building | | JABacchetta0 -
Is there a way to Rank above wikipedia?
Is there a way to Rank above wikipedia? Please share any strategies.. Thanks
Link Building | | DmitryP0 -
List of High Ranking Directories
Hi, Does anyone have a list of high ranking free or almost free directories that have high search engine rankings and have an opportunity for a link or links for a personal development site in the USA? The directories should have the following qualities: Old Site Age A lot of unique content (or as much as a directory can have) A clean site Plenty of Backlinks going to it Facebook followers (if possible, though this might be stretching it) high search engine rankings I think you get the general idea. I'm looking for directories that are high ranking and in for the long haul. They don't have to be free, but it's best if it's inexpensive. Thanks!
Link Building | | BobGW0