Category page "took" my keywords

[KishoSRB]

Hello guys,

after this google update i have some problems with website.

I have some stabile rankings or some terms until this update (9 may for my site)


Keywords went from pos 4-7 to page 8... sometimes some keywords are back, some keywords ddidn't, but they found other path.

Have a problem that my category pages took some of my keywords from their inner pages which is previously ranked fine for 3-4 months.

So right now i losed rankings and category pages is now ranked for that keywords on 8-9 pages.. This is not one case,i have set of keywords which are not ranking at their pages ...

Im using YOAST and my categories are set to be INDEXED ,and i have about 200-300 words of content.

Just to note that my site is from the beggining structured like now, i didn't make any changes before drop.

 

[set23]

Is it a problem of keyword cannibalization?

 

[KishoSRB]

No,category pages don't comtain that keywords or LSI.
To note again: this is changed after google update,not for all keywords..
Ps. Some gone to homepage path..

 

[JamaicanMoose]

How is your internal linking on your site? Are the articles within that particular category linked to one another? If they aren't internally linked to one another, yet all link back to either the homepage or the category page, that could explain why the category page is ranking higher.

In any event, noindex the category page.

 

[piloters]

You need to improve your internal page and build links to them as right now, it would seem like your category page has better optimization.

 

[Lightproxies]

If it was an update, then your site is definitely dancing around - I experienced that a few weeks back, but my ranking is now stable at the moment.
Category and tag pages used to command a lot of authority in the past, as somehow the search engine has provisioned that in such a way - thus, with the update, they could be adjusting the ranking in that manner.
Just wait 2-3 weeks and see if the problem persists. Otherwise, if it doesn't improve, then there's always a hardcore way to fix this - change canonical of the category page to your intended page, and the canonical link acts like a silent 301 to tell the search engine that they should be indexing/listing the target canonical link instead.

 

[KishoSRB]

How is your internal linking on your site? Are the articles within that particular category linked to one another? If they aren't internally linked to one another, yet all link back to either the homepage or the category page, that could explain why the category page is ranking higher.

In any event, noindex the category page.

Have sense,cause all inner page is linked to his category (silo) page.. but didn't have problem for 6 months till this update...

 

[ContentWriter]

Must be your category page eating up everything you should be getting for your pages. However, you should also check if you're dealing with dance.

 

[KishoSRB]

Site still drancing for one month. I losed some positions,but as i said its still unstable with rankings...

 

[Poker Rakeback Mafia]

Is it a problem of keyword cannibalization?

This!!!!!!!!!

The recent Google updates seem to be stricter with exact match keyword backlink density.

Some of my pages have stopped ranking for keywords because of the density/percentage of exact match anchor backlinks, so other pages are now ranking for those keywords instead but in lower positions. They are effectively penalised by an algorithmic penalty. I will try to fix it by building more naked URL links to those pages to dilute the keyword density. It would be worth you trying the same thing if you think that this is a possibility.

 

[set23]

This!!!!!!!!!

The recent Google updates seem to be stricter with exact match keyword backlink density.

Some of my pages have stopped ranking for keywords because of the density/percentage of exact match anchor backlinks, so other pages are now ranking for those keywords instead but in lower positions. They are effectively penalised by an algorithmic penalty. I will try to fix it by building more naked URL links to those pages to dilute the keyword density. It would be worth you trying the same thing if you think that this is a possibility.

Can you explain to a noob in this field (me) a little simpler?
Some of your pages (internal pages) they have lose ranking why you were super optimizating the keyword (Long tails or main KW?) into those contenent?
Did you get too many backlinks exact anchor match from the outside (other pages)? Or are from internal linkbuilding?

 

[KishoSRB]

As i said, i dont have problems with canibalisation.
Also i really dunno what canibalisation have with off page seo.
At last, i have very healthy anchor ratio by backlinks, i think i never used excat kw.

In other case,maybe my interlinks are awful...

My rankings are finding paths,but losed from #5 to 8 page.. i see that google is slow these days.

This!!!!!!!!!

The recent Google updates seem to be stricter with exact match keyword backlink density.

Some of my pages have stopped ranking for keywords because of the density/percentage of exact match anchor backlinks, so other pages are now ranking for those keywords instead but in lower positions. They are effectively penalised by an algorithmic penalty. I will try to fix it by building more naked URL links to those pages to dilute the keyword density. It would be worth you trying the same thing if you think that this is a possibility.

 

[set23]

Must be your category page eating up everything you should be getting for your pages. However, you should also check if you're dealing with dance.

what you mean with ''category pages are eating upp everything you should get on page''?

Do you mean he uses the same KWs in the pages of the KWs in the categories?

 

[set23]

If it was an update, then your site is definitely dancing around - I experienced that a few weeks back, but my ranking is now stable at the moment.
Category and tag pages used to command a lot of authority in the past, as somehow the search engine has provisioned that in such a way - thus, with the update, they could be adjusting the ranking in that manner.
Just wait 2-3 weeks and see if the problem persists. Otherwise, if it doesn't improve, then there's always a hardcore way to fix this - change canonical of the category page to your intended page, and the canonical link acts like a silent 301 to tell the search engine that they should be indexing/listing the target canonical link instead.

do you mean using the canonical to make appear the pages as ''category pages'' links?

When an user search for a KW which is in the pages get redirect to the category (unstead of the pages)??

 

[michealcay]

According to the PHPbuilt's guide, the reason here is you overoptimized the inner pages. So try decreasing keyword density on your inner pages.

 

[Poker Rakeback Mafia]

Can you explain to a noob in this field (me) a little simpler?
Some of your pages (internal pages) they have lose ranking why you were super optimizating the keyword (Long tails or main KW?) into those contenent?
Did you get too many backlinks exact anchor match from the outside (other pages)? Or are from internal linkbuilding?

To high a density of exact match backlinks from external websites.
Google seems to have clamped down on it

 

[KishoSRB]

2 months and still dancing... :/

 

[maxchanwl]

If your category page tookover your keywords from your primary articles, but if your ranking is somewhat similar even with cannibalization happening - then there's nothing to worry, as furthermore, G has been updating their algorithm monthly this year.
If your cat page tookover, and whenever they fight for that position, your site disappears or perform poorly, then you should point your category page's canonical link to the intended post instead, and G will then start to rank the intended page thereafter.
But I think your meta-description could be poorly written, as there could be several keywords overlapping that is causing the cannibalization issue.