Penalty????
First off, anyone reading this, know this is NOT TALKING about a penalty caused by my use of "GSA!!" 
Let me briefly explain: I have a page that I'm trying to rank that, by all indications, SHOULD be high in the SERPs for certain KWs, comparable to how other pages perform on that same site, optimized similarly.
Instead, the root domain from that same URL comes up in searches, on some on page one, on others on page four, instead. This page is not optimized for those KWs. The page I'm trying to rank once did rank in those slots, apparently. I've done some work with promoting the page via SER, but it's still missing.
I think it's a penalty. Other SEO work was done before I used GSA with this site.
When I enter at a GO0OGLE search prompt: site,.com/page-i-wanna-rank
G returns that page at position 1 as it should.
Anyone know if this suggests a penalty or not?? Thanks..
Comments
In SE, nothing is immediate, if you get a penalty today, it will probably take a few week to month to impact your ranking.
So if I read correctly, your root domain is appearing for certain keywords instead of your inner pages which are better optimised for your target keywords?
If that is correct, then it could be google still deciding which url from your site is the most relevant to the keyword search. While it decides it is delivering your root url until it figures out where to position your inner page url. Quite normal to see especially if you have been doing any link building and are tracking changes daily.
Also if you boost the root url and increase the domain authority, it will have a better chance of ranking for your keyword as it will be more authoritative compared to the page authority of the inner page.
Atleast until you increase the page authority of your inner page...then the combined on page seo (which is better optimised for your keyword) and the increased page authority of the inner page will eventually start appearing higher than your root url.
Best case scenario is if you target both root url and inner page with same set of keywords, you will eventually have both urls appearing for the same keyword in google.
But I don't see it as a penalty...just a reshuffling by google till it decides where to rank each url for each keyword.
Also consider link loss as another reason for changes in rank. New links push ranks up and lost links push ranks down.
The only thing that it's coming up for, it seems, is the inner page URL search itself.
"So if I read correctly, your root domain is appearing for certain keywords instead of your inner pages which are better optimised for your target keywords?"
Yes, but it's just one page that once ranked better for long-tails.
"Best case scenario is if you target both root url and inner page with same set of keywords, you will eventually have both urls appearing for the same keyword in google."
I do this, so I guess I'll just keep on going with it. Maybe it's that the KW got more competitive over the years (it did) and now only the root domain has the authority?
"But I don't see it as a penalty...just a reshuffling by google till it decides where to rank each url for each keyword."
I HOPE so.
In the meantime, check to see if you've lost any important links. The loss of high DA tier 1 links to the inner page url will certainly explain why the inner page no longer ranks for those long tails. Also if your tier 2 links have died over time and you've not replaced these lost links with new ones, this will make the page authority of the inner page reduce and also impact rankings negatively.
Especially if you were using web 2.0 links as tier 1. Very powerful for ranking with, but if the link ever disappears, then the rank will drop back to the position it held before the link existed.
I would also look at the anchor ratios for the links that point to the inner page. Too many exact match anchors and not enough branding type links will definitely have a negative impact on rankings with google.
Also check to see the indexing rate of these tier 1 links and tier 2 links that point to the inner page url. Backlinks can and do get deindexed by google. When that happens, it will have the appropriate negative effect on rankings.
OK, cool. I was wondering if my promotional efforts could continue. Good to see I can keep working toward the goal, either way.
"Especially if you were using web 2.0 links as tier 1. Very powerful for ranking with, but if the link ever disappears, then the rank will drop back to the position it held before the link existed."
I have a number, but maybe not pointed at this page so much? I think a lot of movement downward was just this phenomenon you describe, overall, in my past, regarding ALL sites and pages I've worked on. Most SERP drops are just link losses.
"I would also look at the anchor ratios for the links that point to the inner page. Too many exact match anchors and not enough branding type links will definitely have a negative impact on rankings with google."
Lately, I've been building blind.
OK. I've def been NSEOed in the (not-so-near) past, by competitors raising my main KWs far out of ratio! It did not come up as a formal G penalty, but until the ratio was restored the site was gone. Snapped right back, after anchor ratio was fixed w/junky linksw/varied anchors!
So apparently there were no "hard feelings" about that, as it snapped right back, from Glootgile and that other SE that sounds almost like it...Flootwhile™.
Oh wait, anyone here thought I was actually referring to that ABCD SE when I wrote Glootgile ? hahah Nope.
I have to check if I've messed up this time and accidentally did this to myself. I am usually good with ratios
There was one other page like this, but I have not explored where that third page is in the SERPs.
I think those three pages just didn't have the "link weight" to compete any longer for those KWs, as these markets have all gotten a LOT more competitive in recent years, with more ppl vying for positions on page one, and more resources thrown at accomplishing this goal.
That includes some mind-boggling sums for the purpose of getting this done, apparently. Big companies release info like that...
and in google eyes backlinks all linking to root domain and zero for the other pages looks very suspecius and worth penguining , so u will get penguin attention evantually, also even if u pass the penguin due to him being lazy . U will finally meet the boss monster,, the damn human.. the will check ur backlinks manually and decide to give u sweet penalty and not . So ur main focus is to be as irregular and human like as possible
The OTHER page that does not show the sub-page but rather the main URL in the SERPs instead, seems to require attention.
I see in site data portal it gets a 403.
I don't have ANY of those bots blocked on PBNs, let alone a MS. I am hiding nothing; I have nothing to hide. Trying to make uber-quality T1s, anyway.
So if the bot from the site data place is blocked, so will be Google?
Hmm..I did testing with that page migrating to new domain, maybe I messed up. Will check .htaccess and see.
Like I said, the other page that was missing in SERPs with the main URL in its place was recently fixed by blasting page with random anchors, as I stated. Waaaay too many Kws out of balance on that one caused it to disappear from SERPs until corrected. On correction, immediate return.
I checked out the .htaccess. Works, but then if I can access and G can, I was guessing it must either be disproportioned KW ratios like other page, or just not enough link weight.
This KW has become way more competitive.
So Ill keep fixing the ratio tho it seems good and do some competitor research, want to see what's ranking and what their metrics are.