Google Not Ranking a Page I Prefer

[greenfiend]

Hi all,

I'm at my wits' end with this problem I'm having and thought I'd see if anyone can provide some insights or possible solutions.

I recently updated and better optimized two topically different (but in the same industry) pages for the purpose of ranking them for their own separate keywords. It's been over a month since the pages have been indexed and ranked, but Google decided it was best to rank both pages for the same keyword. Not only that, but they've both seen steady increases in rankings for their separate keywords but for the one page, almost mirroring each other in performance. While that sounds great and all, that's not what I want. I've been trying to make tweaks to the other page that's not ranking for its keyword, but nothing is working. They both only have equally about a dozen or so citation links as well.

What I have noticed though that on Google SERPs, both keywords can be seen bolded for the same search queries in the description field, which has been making me wonder if Google regards both these keywords as similar and conflating them.

I'm open to try any and all suggestions at this point.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Can you share the pages? Do they rank well?

I think you are right that Google is seeing the keywords/topics as being similar enough that they want to show them both. Have you considered combining them into one strong page if that's the case?

 

[greenfiend]

Hi Colan,

I can share that the keywords I'm referring to are personal injury lawyer and car accident lawyer. Any variation of those keywords, whether plural or even adding a location + keyword, the personal injury keywords are all ranking for the car accident lawyer page.

I went as far as removing all mentions of car accident on the PI page and vice versa, but nothing so far.

Because, as I mentioned, those keywords appear to be interchangeable in Google's eyes, I have actually thought about using a single page optimized for both keywords. None of the other practice area pages are having this issue. They all rank for their intended pages. However, in terms of how the site is structured per practice area, PI is at the top of the chain and then silos down through the other practice areas under PI. I suppose I can still make it work for just PI and car if that may be my only recourse.

 

[Orlando Sydney]

If on page doesn't help, internal link anchor text doesn't help, then maybe off page signals might be the next thing to try