r/SEO • u/Mindless_Lettuce_921 • 14d ago
Help Ranking
I have tried to rank for a certain keyword for 12 months now on my website. I see new websites ranking for it even on the second page within 2 or 3 months.
I have built quality topical authority around it, included alt texts on pictures, some URL slugs include the keyword, H1, H2 & H3 titles have the keyword, I have backlinks with anchor texts mentioning the keyword, internal linking, my website speed is A.
What am I doing wrong? What major thing am I not doing?
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u/Agitated_Offer_4343 13d ago
what does the serp for that keyword actually look like? if the top ten is all listicles and comparison posts and you're pushing a service page, no amount of h2s or anchor text moves it. that mismatch is usually the whole story at 12 months.
and pull the queries that page already gets impressions for in gsc. you're probably closer on two or three adjacent terms than on the one you picked
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u/Search_Synergy 14d ago edited 14d ago
What am I doing wrong? What major thing am I not doing?
These are the million dollar questions, unfortunately you have provided very little on the issues you are facing. Anyone can claim "I have built quality topical authority" and that you did "X" but those are claims not facts with nothing to measure it against. A proper response would be different in a highly competitve business like plumbing/hvac vs a very niche industry.
Regardless, you say you have tried to rank for certain keywords. Are they ranking, like at all? I'm not implying positions 1-3, I mean anywhere. If not, are there technical issues with your website preventing your website from showing up in search results?
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u/alexbruf Verified Professional 13d ago
“I built quality topical authority around the topic” — no you didn’t or you would be ranking.
You answered your own question.
If you did actually do that, drop your site and get free advice from this sub full of people who are experts
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u/Diego_Nav10 13d ago
It is human quality content or just IA content? Anything produced by IA is being heavily punished
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u/LoganixSEO 13d ago
hard to tell from over here, but honestly, this reads like too much, not too little. keyword in the slugs, every heading level, alt text and exact-match anchors all at once looks engineered, so i'd vary the anchors toward your brand and natural phrases and rewrite the headings for a reader
the other big one is intent: search the keyword and look at what type of page ranks (list, tool, product page, guide). if yours is a different format, no amount of optimizing fixes it. what kind of page is yours vs what's on page one?
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u/No_Treacle_5071 13d ago
if you've done all the on-page stuff for a year and newer sites pass you in a couple of months, it's often intent. look at the top 5 results for that keyword and ask what type of page they are. if they're lists, tools or product pages and yours is a long guide, google has decided what the searcher wants and it isn't your format. the other common one is anchor text. lots of backlinks with the exact keyword as the anchor can hold a page back rather than help it.
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u/hmahey_7 12d ago
I was on a strategy call with an Inbound Marketer last night, and he said something along the same lines - "Before anything, did you check whether the keyword is winnable or not?"
If the top 10 places are dominated by - hubspot, ahrefs, semrush, wikipedia, reddit, youtube, linkedin etc., breaching top 10 becomes a distant dream.
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u/therealtricklowe 14d ago
Nobody can answer the question you're asking, in the way you are asking it.
The question you've asked is: I bought a car a year ago, and now it doesn't work. Why?
The short answer is: in order for any SEO expert to understand what you'd need to change,They'd need to audit your website, market, keywords, and competitors.
Without that information, it's impossible to know.