Products displaying in SERP instead of category and vice versa

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  • SEO
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Hi,

I'm running an online business but I can't give a link of the website because it deals with sensitive subjects.

Almost everything is OK on my website, product categories are ranking in SERPs and my usual SEO method is working.

But there's a product category page which doesn't rank for its keyword. In the SERPs, instead of this category, a product of this category is ranked, even if it's not optimized at all for the keyword. For example :

I have a category which is called "Viking Sweatshirts" and a product called "Black Viking Pullover with a golden collar". Every time I search for "Black Viking Pullover with a golden collar", the Viking Sweatshirts category is appearing 24th in the SERPs. And every time I search "Viking Sweatshirt", the Black Viking Pullover with a golden collar is appearing in the SERPs...

And this situation occurs for ALL the products within this category, even if the title tag doesn't contain the keyword... The category page is ranking in SERPs for all the products keywords (about 25th place every time), and a single product is ranking on the category keyword.

As the category doesn't contain the keyword of the product when I search, Google doesn't use my meta description and it's showing content of the page, so that it can find the keyword...

I know that every page needs to aim a single keyword, and that's what I do. My other categories don't have this problem, even if my method is the same !

I don't know what to do...

Have you every had this problem ?

Thanks !
#category #displaying #products #serp #versa #vice
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    These days, Google doesn't really show a page because you put the keyword you want to rank for on the page. They show the results that they think the user wants to see - many times without the keyword appearing anywhere on the page at all.

    You can optimize all you want and when combined with other things, you MAY have that page show up for what you want it to show up for.

    What you can do about it is get backlinks to the page you want to rank better AND use internal links to give a page a bit of a boost. Without knowing your site, it's a given that your category page links to every product. Do any of the product pages link to the category (and I'm not talking about navigation bars)? If not, maybe they should. If all product pages linked back to the category page in the text, it may help that category rank better.

    Finally, if you're talking about "ranking" in positions #24 or worse at the moment, it really doesn't matter at all. If one out of a hundred people make it to page 3 of the SERPs to see your listing (let alone click it), I'd be shocked.
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    • Profile picture of the author realefr
      Thanks for this piece of advice !

      So, you think that I should link all the products inside a category to this category ? What I can do is adding a "View all the Viking Sweatshirts" below all viking products ?

      I'm currently looking for backlink and it can be a reason. But there's absolutely no competition for those keywords.

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
        Originally Posted by realefr View Post

        So, you think that I should link all the products inside a category to this category ? What I can do is adding a "View all the Viking Sweatshirts" below all viking products ?
        Sure, that's one way to do it. There are many different ways to link back to a category page as long as it makes sense and appears like a natural thing to do. And maybe don't do it exactly the same on every single page (although doing it the same way on some pages is perfectly fine)..

        Another way, for instance, would be to write "[Product Name] is one of the most popular [link]Viking Product[/link]. It features blah, blah, blah ..."

        or ... "Although [Product Name] may seem small, it's one of the most feature-packed [link]Viking Product[s/link]."

        or ... "The newest addition to the [link]Viking Product[/link] lineup, [Product Name] offers blah, blah blah ..."

        or ... "Like all [link]Products from Viking[/link], [Product Name] offers an industry-best 5 year warranty, a 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee and blah, blah, blah ..."

        Like I said, there are a lot of ways.
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        • Profile picture of the author realefr
          Thanks !

          Finally I decided to let my breadcrum appear on the product page. Now I have a link to the category, and also to the homepage. I hope it's a good way to do it.
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          • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
            Originally Posted by realefr View Post

            Thanks !

            Finally I decided to let my breadcrum appear on the product page. Now I have a link to the category, and also to the homepage. I hope it's a good way to do it.
            A breadcrumb is a navigation link - not the same as a contextual text link in the body of a page.
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  • Profile picture of the author fastreplies
    The more internal links you create, then there is better chance
    Google will stumble on what you want it to found.

    Originally Posted by realefr View Post

    Thanks for this piece of advice !
    BTW, if you really want to thank @dave_hermansen, then use "Thanks" button



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  • Profile picture of the author seoexpertinindia
    Maybe both the search intent are getting satisfied for the SERP results.
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