Grade F pages - all first in Google

[MrFrisbee]

Any anyone explain what value the Grade pages are if, as in my case, I have 9 Grade F pages of which 4 are in first position on Google, 1 is in second and the rest are 4th!

I understand why SEOM might be flagging them as Grade F (keyword use in tags etc), but it seems it must be looking at the wrong clues if it still thinks that its recommendations are the most relevant to improving position.

These are not obscure terms (Spy devices, electronic surveillance, spy systems, surveillance systems) for a UK site (www.spycatcheronline.co.uk)

I appreciate that the points highlighted may need to be addressed, but clearly  the pages/site are doing something right to come first - does this not devalue the whole Grade system on SEOM?

Charles.

[donford]

The Grades are assigned by Keyword & Page.

To save others some time I believe we're talking about Google.co.uk not Google.com

Spy Devices = Your Home Page Rank #4
electronic surveillance = Your Home Page Rank #2
spy systems = Your Home Page Rank #1
surveillance systems = Your Home Page Rank #2

Your domain has a high authority and your home page enjoys a nice page authority. This helps you rank well for I would assume a lot of keywords on google.co.uk

Now that said, if you're evaluating a specific page for a specific keyword the grade report expects that the page is optimized for that specific keyword. When you start looking at multiple different keywords for a single page there is no way to optimize perfectly for each one.

This is because you can't put every keyword in the first part of your title, description, use it atleast 4 times on the page, emphasis it with bold or strong tags and give it top location in the h1/h2 tags.

The short, is you can't expect that a page can be perfectly optimized for anything but a single keyword with the grade reporter, by the nature of what it looks at.

Also remember if you were grading a non-homepage on the keywords listed, you actually don't know where Google is returning that page for that keyword because your homepage is more relevant then any other page according to Google.

Hope that helps, and there are some other things I noticed as far as SEO goes on the homepage, but the site looks good and  imagine it has done well for you.

[RobertFisher]

Good question Charles.

First and foremost you have to look at these results in context.

One reason you are ranking is... your competitors are not doing much on page either. (only looked at the one I saw first on the first query and then saw again on second. They are D while you are F on one term.

If you were competing in a vertical against people who were all over their SEO, you would find ranking much more difficult IMO. Yes, it is an opinion, but about the SEO.

If I had a spy equipment client in the UK and put my resources to bear, what would I do based on what I have seen?

First and foremost on-page SEO because - of the ones I looked at - most are not doing any. Of the main competitor I see, they outrank you by one or two and vice versa, but both of you are getting ranked on home page. I would build a spy equipment page that rocked. I would build a surviellance page that exploded. I would build a spy catcher page (didn't see one and thought it was obvious) and I would build pages around each keyword that had the kind of traffic i was interested in. I would also be the king of content and people would flock from near and far just to read what I had written about spying on people (I think someone is watching us...).

With every page, I would have a meta description that speaks to the searcher, correct on page, good links, etc. and all tied to the keywords.

So, again, with the grading tool you have to keep it in context. If you were in an area with thousands of competitors and you did not do quality on page, content, etc., you would find ranking much more problematic.

Hope this clarifies ( and I hope you go smoke your competitors with some major on page, etc.!!)

Robert

Edit: An additional point here - if you did the pages with great on-page, you would have the ability to rank for both urls given the home page is already there.

[MrFrisbee]

Thanks for the two quick and thorough responses.  The site is about to be re-launched and that will address a lot of the issues regarding on page etc.

It is interesting to read your thoughts (Robert - I think I understood yours a bit more than Donford, but both helpful).