Welcome to the Q&A Forum
Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.
You should be good, but it's always something that you can A/B test without compromising the integrity of the content!
No they never performed all that well. Here's a chart of the avg. keyword position and impressions for AU-based searches over the past 16 months.
Strangely, here's the average keyword position for NZ-based searches (where we don't target at all).
They changed the blog URL pattern, and changed to secure in around November of 2017.
It doesn't HAVE to be an exact match title tag in order to generate favorable rankings. Semantic search has come a long way in interpreting the meaning of content, rather than the exact keywords you feed it.
In the past, Google only knew about a page what you told it. This is no longer the case, in that it can read in between the lines and understand the intent of a search, and match it up with content that will sufficiently answer that intent.
However, the system isn't perfect, and as you can see in this article, there is a slight correlation between exact match keyword usage in title tags and position. I also wrote an article that confirms the importance and continued relevance of on-page optimization.
If I can get an edge, I'll take it. I still use exact match (unless it feels forced or otherwise compromises the integrity of the content).
Woo, thanks for the help!
We have not changed the domain, except for switching over to a secure site in November of 2017. The footer link was removed about 30 days ago.
I took a deeper look. This doesn't seem to be the issue. My competitors have similar inbound link profiles by region origination. Scratch that one off the list!
Correct, this content does not exist on any other domain.
That's good thinking. I took a cursory look in AHREFs and found the inbound links to be fairly similar in origin to local competitors, but I didn't really evaluate them as thoroughly as this. Thank you!
I don't think that would be the problem because we are only targeting the AU and English language, so we never set up any regional redirects (there would be nothing different to redirect to). We only use the ccTLD '.com.au'
For starters, congratulations on the improved metrics you're experiencing! I would have to also agree with EGOL on this one, in that it will be important to observe how those numbers are pulled, because it's very easy to get false positives with small amounts of data after large changes.
Some tips:
**As for rankings...: **
In my opinion, if the numbers are true, in a very cursory observation, it seems that you have created a better experience for visitors. I would imagine that this **may **result in better rankings. At least, there is a better chance than not resulting in better rankings.
Apologies, SEOs never seem to give clear-cut answers, and qualify every statement 
Jeff
It doesn't HAVE to be an exact match title tag in order to generate favorable rankings. Semantic search has come a long way in interpreting the meaning of content, rather than the exact keywords you feed it.
In the past, Google only knew about a page what you told it. This is no longer the case, in that it can read in between the lines and understand the intent of a search, and match it up with content that will sufficiently answer that intent.
However, the system isn't perfect, and as you can see in this article, there is a slight correlation between exact match keyword usage in title tags and position. I also wrote an article that confirms the importance and continued relevance of on-page optimization.
If I can get an edge, I'll take it. I still use exact match (unless it feels forced or otherwise compromises the integrity of the content).
For starters, congratulations on the improved metrics you're experiencing! I would have to also agree with EGOL on this one, in that it will be important to observe how those numbers are pulled, because it's very easy to get false positives with small amounts of data after large changes.
Some tips:
**As for rankings...: **
In my opinion, if the numbers are true, in a very cursory observation, it seems that you have created a better experience for visitors. I would imagine that this **may **result in better rankings. At least, there is a better chance than not resulting in better rankings.
Apologies, SEOs never seem to give clear-cut answers, and qualify every statement
Jeff
I have a bit of an odd scenario for you.
I'm working with a content marketing company based in Sydney, AU**.** Oddly, this web property ranks for almost 4x as many keywordsin the US than the AU. (See attached). It also ranks much more favorably for target keywords in NZ.
This is despite having an AU ccTLD, proper geolocation targeting in GSC, and Google My Business and other NAP citations pointing towards an AU address.
To add to this geo-targeting issue, the site has absolutely bombed in search visibility over the past year. We are talking more than halving our search exposure.
**What's been done: **
**Despite these necessary corrections, I haven't seen a blip of life. **
TL;DR,
Correct, this content does not exist on any other domain.
Woo, thanks for the help!
We have not changed the domain, except for switching over to a secure site in November of 2017. The footer link was removed about 30 days ago.
They changed the blog URL pattern, and changed to secure in around November of 2017.
No they never performed all that well. Here's a chart of the avg. keyword position and impressions for AU-based searches over the past 16 months.
Strangely, here's the average keyword position for NZ-based searches (where we don't target at all).
1/14/2020 Re-optimizing content can be a powerful tool for increasing traffic, but it’s easy to do wrong. Learn how to re-optimize the right way in this step-by-step guide.
11/5/2019 Imagine it: the worst has happened, and a code deploy wipes your site from Google's index. What do you do? Take notes on this real-life hard lesson when their search presence was cut by 1/3 due to exactly that.
12/3/2018 How does newly written, original content perform over time, and which factors may impact that performance? Check out the results in this correlation study analysis and see where it might be smart to focus your efforts (and what to stop doing).
8/14/2018 How well can a keyword research tool predict where you'll rank? See which of the top 6 keyword research tools scored highest in this correlations study conducted by Brafton.
6/11/2018 When even a fraction of your pages rank well for a high-intent query, the impact on your traffic can be astonishing. But to see surprising results, the process for creating content needs to be rigorous and heavily supported by data.
2/20/2018 One content marketing agency was able to improve their rankings within 60 seconds of being reindexed—and after careful, thoughtful retooling of the page content. Learn how they successfully catered to Hummingbird and what process they followed in this case study.