Homepage outranking all my category pages?

by cwwltd
8 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hello

I'm trying to figure out why my category pages are not ranking for keywords. Instead my homepage is ranking for the category keywords, I have tried interlinking without success. The pages have authority but it seems more and more pages keep dropping from the SERPs and the homepage takes over. Should I ramp up unique content on the category pages? Should I shrink the category pages down so more link juice gets spread out? Any ideas would be appreciated

My website is cwwltd.com
#category #homepage #outranking #pages
  • Profile picture of the author Miroslav Chodak
    How do you know the home page is outranking your categories? What data are you using? I just searched Google for "SEDIMENT & TURBIDITY WHOLE-HOUSE FILTERS" and your category page came up.
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    • Profile picture of the author cwwltd
      Originally Posted by Miroslav Chodak View Post

      How do you know the home page is outranking your categories? What data are you using? I just searched Google for "SEDIMENT & TURBIDITY WHOLE-HOUSE FILTERS" and your category page came up.
      I'm using google webmasters and serp lab. Literally 90% of the keywords I'm targetting on internal pages is making the home page rank for said keywords.

      Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

      I'm not sure if it really matters which page is ranking as long as one of your pages ranks well for the keywords you want to rank for.
      It does matter because it's hurting conversion rates. It seems the more backlinks I get the stronger the home page becomes and takes over all my internal pages from the serps.

      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      I didn't look at your followed backlink profile but your internal URLs don't make any sense.

      Your category pages aren't even categories, they're just webpages with no parent/child hierarchy structure.

      Example, no category:
      • hxxp://www.cwwltd.com/hydronamic-reverse-osmosis-automatic-shut-off-valve-1-4-quick-connect-asv-2000w/



      Based on your breadcrumb on the content pages your content page URL should be like the example below.
      • hxxp://www.cwwltd.com/accessories-and-water-filters-parts/automatic-ro-shut-off-valves/hydronamic-reverse-osmosis-automatic-shut-off-valve-1-4-quick-connect-asv-2000w/

      Granted that's a long URL but that's how you've nested the breadcrumb hierarchy.

      Right now you literately have nothing in your categories.
      Interesting, I used to have the hierarchy you mentioned before but did it the way it is now because of URL length. Do you think changing to the breadcrumb style URL will solve this issue? I assumed google knew categories or would use pages in sitemap over the homepage keywords. Would this change hurt SERPS temporarily or will it be a unnoticeable transition. Thank you for your input
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by cwwltd View Post

        Interesting, I used to have the hierarchy you mentioned before but did it the way it is now because of URL length. Do you think changing to the breadcrumb style URL will solve this issue? I assumed google knew categories or would use pages in sitemap over the homepage keywords. Would this change hurt SERPS temporarily or will it be a unnoticeable transition. Thank you for your input

        Usually the reason one page ranks instead of an intended page is the ranked page has better internal links and followed backlinks pointing at the ranked page URL, again, I didn't look at your link profile. I just noticed your internal URLs don't have any hierarchy. All the pages on the site are the same level child pages of the Home page URL.

        I'm not sure how old/established the site is, whether you're ranking for any decent keywords or even what exact keywords you're targeting but If it was my site, I would fix the category hierarchy issue. If you're ranking pages now then I'd start with the easiest keyword/category and overhaul those URLs to test/prove the overhaul is working as intended.

        Keep in mind messing with a URL for a ranked page can drop any pages involved like a brick in Google SERPs so tread lightly.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I didn't look at your followed backlink profile but your internal URLs don't make any sense.

    Your category pages aren't even categories, they're just webpages with no parent/child hierarchy structure.

    Example, no category:
    • hxxp://www.cwwltd.com/hydronamic-reverse-osmosis-automatic-shut-off-valve-1-4-quick-connect-asv-2000w/



    Based on your breadcrumb on the content pages your content page URL should be like the example below.
    • hxxp://www.cwwltd.com/accessories-and-water-filters-parts/automatic-ro-shut-off-valves/hydronamic-reverse-osmosis-automatic-shut-off-valve-1-4-quick-connect-asv-2000w/

    Granted that's a long URL but that's how you've nested the breadcrumb hierarchy.

    Right now you literately have nothing in your categories.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    I'm not sure if it really matters which page is ranking as long as one of your pages ranks well for the keywords you want to rank for.
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  • Profile picture of the author easyvbapps
    If you are on a website that doesn't have much influence on categories pages, then it's good and you can also disvow category pages. That's a good seo.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    Only took a quick look.

    Several of the Categories I looked at didn't have title tags and main content that matched particularly well.

    For example cwwltd.com/membranes/

    Title Tag: Reverse Osmosis, Nano & Sea Membranes - Canadian Water Warehouse Ltd.

    H1 Heading: MEMBRANES (RO, NANO & SEA)

    Anchor Text of internal links (the Categories sidebar links): MEMBRANES (RO, NANO & SEA)

    From an SEO perspective they don't have to be identical, but they should all support the main SERP(s) targeted on the webpage.

    Right now the title tag targets "Reverse Osmosis, Nano & Sea Membranes - Canadian Water Warehouse Ltd." and the content/internal links targets "MEMBRANES (RO, NANO & SEA)".

    It's not best SEO practice, this will weaken the overall targeting and is probably a factor in why your Home page is ranking higher.

    BTW the title tag is VERY important SEO wise, by having your site name in the title tags (I assume sitewide for branding reasons) it makes generating SERPs much more difficult.

    If you want your Google search results to have the format:

    Title Of Webpage - Site Name

    Google tends to add the Home Page title tag to the end of titles. If you dropped the "- Site Name" part of your title tags, Google will in most cases add the home page title tag to the end (if there's room).

    I use this setup at the Stallion Theme site (see sig links), search Google for "Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin" and the Google title for my site (2nd listing) is "Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin - WordPress SEO Theme", but the webpages title tag is only "Stallion WordPress SEO Plugin". Google added the "- WordPress SEO Theme" part because there was spare space.

    David Law
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    BTW there's nothing wrong with your Categories structure per se.

    The folder/directory structure is irrelevant, every webpage on your site can be at root level (or on sub-domains or other domains for multiple language versions), Google doesn't care about directory/folder structure (since most sites are dynamic it's not even a real directory structure any more).

    Changing the URL structure would be a really dumb SEO move, especially creating really long URLs isn't best SEO practice.

    What makes a Category page is what content you link from it. I only took a quick look, but you've Categorized products and added them to specific webpages (that's a Category).

    It doesn't matter how you built it, all that matters is the content on the webpage and how everything links together.

    Is it categorized? yes it is.

    Do some research on silo SEO (another term for categorizing/niching content), but ignore any advice about categorizing content in specific directories. All that matters is how content is linked together, not the URL/directory structure.

    David Law
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