Article Not Ranking for First Four Words From Title

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   eugbugposted 4 years ago

   I have a fairly old article which doesn't rank for the first four words from it's title in the first 130 SERP results ("What causes electric shocks"), however there are no other articles with those words at the beginning of the title. Ubersuggest says that there's low competition for the search term.
   Is it unusual for an article to appear so low in results even if there's no other competition matching the search string?
   
   This appears top of the results and doesn't give a useful explanation:
   
   https://kidshealth dot org/en/kids/electric-shock.html
   
   This is my guide to what causes shocks and how to stay safe:
   
   https://dengarden.com/safety/Electrical … ctrocution
   
   Views are down to about two per day.
   
   I added the "RCD" bit into the title to make people curious, but maybe it's either scaring or boring potential readers.

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      OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      To my dismay, I am finding that any articles from Dengarden are generally not listed high in the search results.  I think that it is because people won't click on anything from Dengarden just as they used to skip anything from HubPages before the niche sites because they knew that there was a lot of crap there.  I wish that Google would show the author name for the Dengarden articles so that searchers could distinguish authoritative authors from the other dross on the Dengarden site.  Is anyone else finding this true of the other niche sites?

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      1. 94

         eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         The Site Diversity Update has a lot to answer for. If there are other similar articles on a site, the chances are only one of them will rank, and the other won't be anywhere in the SERPs for the keywords that match the ranking article. Google say that at least two articles may be listed per domain if they think it's appropriate, but that's not my experience. On Dengarden, they dumped one of my articles and on Owlcation I can't rank for three of the essential keywords because there's an older article on a similar topic.
         
         This one doesn't rank either for the first six consecutive words in 220 SERP results, although it used to be on page 1 or 2 for the title.
         
         https://dengarden.com/gardening/5-Ways- … our-Garden

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      2. 77

         lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Dengarden is actually doing pretty well compared to some other niche sites such as caloriebee. Based on stats on SEMRush, the monthly traffic to Owlcation is surpassed by just one of my dengarden articles in the summer or one of my caloriebee articles 2 years ago. Dengarden gets approximately 812k monthly visits while caloriebee gets 8k monthly visits. Owlcation is still doing well at 1.2M
         
         These are just estimates based on rankings by SEMRush, they are not accurate but a good ballpark figure.

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            OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I'm surprised.  Whenever I am searching a topic on Google that is covered by Dengarden (other than gardening articles), even if I go to pages 5 and 6, I very rarely see Dengarden articles in the search results.  Yet if I go to the Dengarden site, I find several articles on the topic that I am searching.
            
            I'm wondering if a stumbling block is that Google does not indicate who authors the niche site articles.  I never click on them in Google searches because I don't know if the article was written by an authoritative author or an amateur whose shaky article was edited by an editor who has no expertise in the topic.  On the niche sites themselves, the names of the authors are listed on the article capsule so I know immediately if the article is worth my time to read.

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            1. 77

               lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, the author's name is not shown. How many of the people coming to your articles through search engines have ever heard about you and among them how many will go ahead and remember you? In a percentage, this number is going to be really low.
               
               I and I know many others do not really care about the website (unless there is a negative association with it) but rather look at the title and the description to decide if it would answer a query. I also doubt that there are many people who have negative associations with Dengarden in general. The content here is a lot better than wikihow, The Spruce, etc. that rank well.
               
               I have a few on Dengarden that are not gardening articles, "kill termites naturally" without quotes brings my article on the 2nd spot for instance. This may differ across places.
               
               I have personally found your articles through search and you write well and also keep basic SEO in mind when you create your titles, headings and content, either intentionally or not.
               
               There are many that do not do this and their articles are not anywhere near the best on the web in the sense that they do not comprehensively answer the query. I would not expect these to rank and new articles also tend to begin ranking around page 3 or 4.
               
               I came up with a pretty interesting case study with my hub on watering tomatoes which is still ranked #1 for most terms after I covered the topic exhaustively. It can still be improved, but it's a lot better than the other alternatives out there and this has been rewarded over time. I encouraged others to do the same when I created my hub on Hub Pages SEO. That piece is pretty outdated, but if I recall I added some of these stats there.
               
               Last year I updated my article on tomato fertilizers and from page 5 I jumped to the first and second spot for most terms. It was already on Dengarden, all I did was make sure that it was better than the competition.
               
               Another example of an article ranking well is "improve home security" on the #1 spot by Eugene.
               
               If all this is good, then there comes the actual competition, etc.
               
               Having a well-written article is one thing and literally all we can do. The domain etc. is important too and I would say Dengarden is pretty strong and all those on page 5-6 can easily be edited to come to the first page. Maybe not the top spots, but the first page should be possible.
               
               An example of a bad domain is Caloriebee, where I went from ranking #1 for the term green apples and green apple benefits for at least 5 years, to now being nowhere in sight. (bottom of page 2). I am not surprised that  I do not rank for the general term green apples, that is an improvement to the search engine, but I lost rankings for the main topic too after the YMYL update came into force even though I at least have a lower degree in Biology.

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                  OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks!  I always appreciate your insights.

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               2. 94

                  eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                  I didn't realise that security article had gained a snippet, it doesn't get much traffic though, only about 20 views per day, so it mustn't be a term that's searched for much. I've got the snippet for "how to sow seeds" and that's more lucrative, over 300 per day this early in the season and that's double what it was this time last year.

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                     lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                     Nice. I lost my snippet on watering tomatoes, but I am glad I did because the new Google update moves your result to the 11th place if you have the snippet, you can not have the snippet and position 1 anymore. On the most popular page of my private website, I noticed the drop due to this. Some days I lose the snippet and have noticeable increases. Not statistically sufficent to be sure that it's not just some kind of correlation though.

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                     1. 94

                        eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                        Would there be any benefit to you if I added a link to your "Growing Tomatoes From Seed" article, or could that have unforeseen consequences as regards Google? (e.g. they think it's an attempt to game the system). It doesn't seem to appear in the related hubs list.

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                        1. 77

                           lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                           It would actually help. Internal linking is a good thing and I pitched this to the editors a long time ago. It does not show because it's not among the hubs in the category with the most traffic right now. Related is not really related from what I noticed, it just goes to the lowest category and picks the top hubs from there. During the summer months, it may show on its own I'll also take a look at your article this weekend and see if I can link out. I have already linked out to a few unknown authors here and there because good internal linking helps the entire website.

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                              eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                              Ok, well I'll let you suggest the text surrounding the link I'm thinking maybe it could be placed down in the list where I suggest the types of annuals that can be grown, or further up if you want, whatever you think.

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                                 lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                 I'll get back to you this weekend. Have to first go through the article

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                                    eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                    Ok, no problem!

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                              OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                              Is it considered internal linking when I link my own articles?  For instance, every time I mention mulch in an article, I link to my article on mulch.  I've been trying to have at least one such link in each of my articles,

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                              1. 77

                                 lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                 Yes, it is. Search engines do not distinguish at the author level but at the domain level. You should link out more often if you are doing it just once. Internal links are strong factors that help in ranking. Don't overdo it though. I almost have a web of links between my tomato hubs. You can do a lot better as you got much more and a variety.

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                     2. 100

                        DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                        That is an interesting change. Do you think the featured snippet is no longer something we should be shooting for? I have set up lists on my last few hubs and have got the featured snippet on several of them--now I am wondering if that is a good thing?

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                           lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                           If you are on the first page I'd say go for it. But if you are on the first page and in the first or second spot already then I'd have to say I'm not sure what is best. I personally would not try to get it based on what I've seen so far.

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                              DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                              I just checked my October article on guard dogs that dont shed much. It has the snippet and so there is a place to click with the title, just below the snippet, so it still kind of looks like number one. I am not sure of the search traffic on that phrase but it already is doing well amongst my other articles.
                              Also, at the very top of the page it says "According to Pethelpful.com" and is an active link. That has to help, and since I have over 300 artiles on that site I think that is a good thing too.
                              I went through the search results and did not find my article again at number 11, and eventually abandoned the search. (I think most readers would have given up by this point too!)

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                                 lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                 Oh that's weird that it was not anywhere to be found. I haven't really looked to check after the first day when it was announced. Yes, there are links to the hub from the search results, but in the past you had that one spot and a spot just below as yours, too. So you've essentially lost 50% of the real estate on the page.
                                 
                                 Click through rate stats that I've seen showed that the snippets receive less clicks than the actual organic results. But this can be skewed as there are some snippet results that answer the query without the reader having to go through to read the entire article.
                                 
                                 Do you see any changes in search traffic to this hub when you compare the first half of Jan and the second half of Jan to that of last year?

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                                    DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                    It is almost evening here, so I have a little time on my hands. I just checked another one where I have the snippet. The same thing. It is a very popular search term and I have had good traffic from there since 2014. It does not show up again in the first 10 pages, so I assume this is something new and the page link is only going to show up as the snippet. Traffic has not gone down so I do not see much effect from this.
                                    The lists that I have as featured snippets are getting page views because I do not think searchers are getting enough just reading the names. Maybe they want to see pictures too? Who knows, maybe they even want to read the article.
                                    My traffic from the search engines has not gone down but for some reason I lost all google android traffic last spring and it was a huge blow, thousands a day. I did not see any change in the main google site or in the google for each country.

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                                       lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                       Interesting. I'll poke around and find out more about the result disappearing from the SERPs other than the snippet. Yeah, I do remember that whole Google android traffic drop.
                                       
                                       I have an idea and I have a feeling that it was when people read your work through their phone feed. When on an android and you use Google chrome and are signed in you see a feed that Google things you are interested in based on your reading history. My feed is a good source of info for me, and I can't think of any other source that would say Google Android. Most likely wrong, but who knows.

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                                          DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                          Several years ago you helped me find new keywords for five of my articles that were just doing so-so. (Thank you again for that!) Anyway, at that time I told you that I had a traffic goal, which was high but definitely something I could reach. I figured it would take a year.
                                          Ha. After that android fiasco I am further away now than I was then. Maybe I can offer free medical services to the dogs of Google employees and get back in their good graces? Come on, Google, all I want is to be on everyones feed!

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2. 100

   DrMark1961posted 4 years ago

   When I looked it up the featured snippet was emedicinehealth.com and the number one was webmd.

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3. 91

   Titiaposted 4 years ago

   When I looked it up I went all the way to page 17 and your hub never showed up. When I put the first four words in quotation marks your hub came up as number 3 on page 1.

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   1. 94

      eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      That's because putting a search term in quotes forces the browser to only list results with those exact consecutive words. However most of the time people don't bother doing that unless they're looking for something specific. Using "+" between words makes it list everything with those words, but not necessarily consecutively (I think, but from my experience it normally tries to help by finding results with only some of the words which can be annoying). .

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4. 60

   Anita Haschposted 4 years ago

   God what nice people we have on this earth.  Maybe you should walk in somebody else's shoes for a while. Somebody less fortunate than yourself.

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      DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      ?

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         PaulGoodman67posted 4 years agoin reply to this

         I'm guessing this was posted on the wrong thread or something?

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            DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I put that in response to "God what nice people we have on this earth.  Maybe you should walk in somebody else's shoes for a while. Somebody less fortunate than yourself." from Anita Hasch.
            I am not sure if she was being mean to OldRoses, Eugene, or someone else on this thread. I hope she just posted it here on accident, but I made a useful comment to Nate (on how he might improve his traffic) and he came back with a hateful comment like the one above. Unfortunate.

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5. 94

   PaulGoodman67posted 4 years ago

   For me, the ranking is less important than the potential and actual views and earnings. According to Ubersearch the average search volume is 210/month for the keyphrase: "what causes electric shocks". That means that the top result in the SERPS could well be getting just 4 or 5 views per day. Not sure if that's worth chasing if you are after views and/or earnings (it's only worth 8 cents for every thousand views according to advertising estimate).
   
   Unless I'm reading this all wrong, I would move onto something with more potential, if I were you. I guess it depends if views and earnings are important to you, maybe you are motivated by other things. Sometimes Ubersuggest is wrong too, but it's generally a fairly good indicator.

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   1. 94

      eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      It was originally actually an article about DIY/gardening electrical safety, rather than what causes shocks, but I wasn't getting much traffic so I changed the title several times over the years. Now that I use Ubersuggest, I'll try to find a less competitive title relating to safety.
      
      Edit: "Electrical safety" gets 3600 views per month, but it's competitive - level 46 according to US.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Well, I'm not sure whether changing the title is that useful unless it is also accompanied by a major rewrite. My philosophy is, as you know, to build the entire article around the key phrase targeted, not by keyword stuffing but making sure there are related headings, content, etc that bolster the keyphrase used in the title. Just changing the title has little effect in my experience.
         
         I don't pay too much attention to the difficulty level myself, especially if it's just 46 which is not particularly high, is it? It can be worth targeting the keyphrases with bigger views and potential earnings, if the article succeeds in ranking well. If someone else from HP/Maven has written a good article that ranks well on a certain keyphrase, I leave it alone, but otherwise I will often have a go...
         
         Having success with the small views/small value keyphrases can often turn out to be a hollow victory.
         
         It's all a guessing game anyway. Good luck!

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            eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I've switched to using "GFCI Outlet" in the title which has 60,000 hits per month and rearranged the article a bit. This is even more competitive, but I'll see how it goes.

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