Odd pages ranking for niche keywords

[ToffeeLa]

So I have a aged site which ranks and converts pretty well in its niche. It also hits targeted keywords, but the odd thing (to me, at least) is that it is occasionally not the pages I would expect which are ranking...

For example, let's say it is a site about dogs.

The main nav would have a link to a general page about dachshunds which includes links to the dachschund silo : (/dachshund.php)
The silo would consist of, say, the following pages:
more detailed dachshund information (/dachshund/)
dachshund products (/dachshund/products.php)
dachshund photos (/dachsund/photos.php)

The page which is ranking (and doing pretty well) for generic 'dachshund' terms is the /dachshund/ one, not the /dachshund.php one. I have used this structure on a number of other sites and elsewhere the 'higher' silo entry page is always the one that ranks. The /dachsund.php page also obviously has more internal and some external links pointed at it.

I understand the concept that Google is trying to tell me what it would prefer to see on a page in response to non-detailed 'dachsund' phrases. I have tried expanding the content on the /dachsund.php page with stuff like faq schema but that seems to drive it lower in the results.

My question is 'what would you do in this case?':

• leave well alone - your site is ranking even if it isn't the page you expected.
• move the informational content onto the page higher in the site hierarchy and do something else with the other one.
• delete the dachshund.php entry page and link directly into the /dachsund/ folder from the main nav.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

I'm taking it that /dachshund/ just lists all pages in the /dachshund/ silo. If that's so, I'd keep the nav menu link to dachshund.php, and link to all pages matching /dachshund/*.php from dachshund.php. I'd then meta no-index /dachshund/.

If /dachshund/ is a detailed article, then I'd: move the article on /dachshund/ to /dachshund.php; add links to all pages matching /dachshund/*.php to dachshund.php; keep the nav menu link to dachshund.php; and no-index /dachshund/.

A silo head links to all child-pages. This makes category pages silo-heads. If you believe that a detailed article is a silo head and also have a category page for that silo, then something's not right, as you actually have two silo heads. That's what I think is going on. I think Screaming Frog has a view for this, where you can check the page levels on your site. The PageRank value for /dachshund/ and /dachshund.php might be very close.

 

[ToffeeLa]

I'm taking it that /dachshund/ just lists all pages in the /dachshund/ silo. If that's so, I'd keep the nav menu link to dachshund.php, and link to all pages matching /dachshund/*.php from dachshund.php. I'd then meta no-index /dachshund/.

If /dachshund/ is a detailed article, then I'd: move the article on /dachshund/ to /dachshund.php; add links to all pages matching /dachshund/*.php to dachshund.php; keep the nav menu link to dachshund.php; and no-index /dachshund/.

A silo head links to all child-pages. This makes category pages silo-heads. If you believe that a detailed article is a silo head and also have a category page for that silo, then something's not right, as you actually have two silo heads. That's what I think is going on. I think Screaming Frog has a view for this, where you can check the page levels on your site. The PageRank value for /dachshund/ and /dachshund.php might be very close.

/dachshund/ does have content on it, including images, but the general outline of the page is a collection of paragraphs with each ending in something along the lines of 'if you want to know more about dachshund poop, visit our poop page here'. A bit more like a WP category page but with more words and not exact match excerpted.

I think you are absolutely right about Google seeing it as two silo heads - it's just a bit bizarre as the 'page content profile' of the 'interior' page is obviously weighing more than the better internal and external link relevance (plus relevant content, if at a less extensive scope) of the 'higher' page.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

/dachshund/ does have content on it, including images, but the general outline of the page is a collection of paragraphs with each ending in something along the lines of 'if you want to know more about dachshund poop, visit our poop page here'. A bit more like a WP category page but with more words and not exact match excerpted.

I think you are absolutely right about Google seeing it as two silo heads - it's just a bit bizarre as the 'page content profile' of the 'interior' page is obviously weighing more than the better internal and external link relevance (plus relevant content, if at a less extensive scope) of the 'higher' page.

k. So /dachshund/ is a category page with some text or something like that. Yeah, then I'd just merge it with /dachshund.php and no-index /dachshund/ so that there's only one silo head.

Who knows what the algorithm is concluding, since we can't see the weights or scores. I get this problem with my site too when blog posts for head terms are ranking for long tail keywords, where we have blog posts specifically targeting that long tail keyword. For my site, I just leave it and pump out more content. The algorithm can adjust itself on its own -- that's the Search Engine Engineer's job in Mountain View, CA. But, for you, it looks like your silos are fucked up.

Doing a technical SEO audit with a spidering tool, such as ScreamFrog, can show this issue. 1 or 2 unaccounted for link patterns, such as in a php code, can screw up the whole site structure.