Need help with home page on site

[santiago23]

Hello!  Thanks for reading in advance!

I've got a relatively old site (12 year old domain) that has experienced a drop in rankings specifically for our home page.

Some of the key terms that I'd assume we would rank well for are:

"expedite us passport"

According to SEOMOZ, our on page optimization receives a C for the termr.  also, the root domain and page have decent links, etc.

However; looking at Google (logged out and in incognito mode in chrome), a page on our site http://www.passportsandvisas.com/passport/index.asp ranks well and our HOME page isn't listed in the top 50 or 100.

THis is the case for a lot of keywords we used to rank well for.

I would have thought our home page would have at least outranked an internal page.

Any thoughts would be very, very helpful!

[mad2k]

Hello,

Few directions

1. IP Canonicalization - not present

2. Social impact ... really low (only 4 G+1)

3. Your position (6th in google.com) for keyword "expedite us passport" is for the page http://www.passportsandvisas.com/passport/index.asp

4. Many of good places are images not text containing keyword (H1, H2 ...), like "Looking For US Passport .... - image

bullet list below ... image, In my opinion it is a best place for main slogan in H1.

5. keyword stuffing in meta description "Expedite US passport and travel visa service : Expedited US passports ( new , renewal, lost, child ) : Nationwide Service" ... it is not a description ... it is stream of keywords

Other (low impact on SEO) but also important:

No mobile css ... but it has low impact

Increase Text/HTML ratio

delete keywords tag (

no language description

no microformats, Geo Meta Tags ... etc

no feed

You can spy competition:

http://visahq.com - best one and others http://us-passport-service-guide.com, http://itseasy.com, http://travisa.com, http://abriggs.com, http://passportvisasexpress.com

and check what they have especially http://visahq.com

And also ask the question who is your client? (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/passportsandvisas.com#)

female 45 - 54, connecting from work ... Whether a website is attractive to customers?

Regards,

Marek

[RyanKent]

"I would have thought our home page would have at least outranked an internal page."

A site's home page is designed to pull in traffic for those who want the general idea of the company / website, while the inner pages offer more optimized content.

For example, when I search Google.com for "auto insurance", the first result is http://www.allstate.com/auto-insurance.aspx rather then the allstate.com home page.

Ideally, each page targets a single keyword. Your site is not based on a brand but rather keywords. The keywords you have chosen are "passports and visas". That is a particular keyword phrase.

A quick glance at your home page shows it is not optimized. A few points:

1. Your domain name is "passports and visas" but you are trying to rank the home page for "expedite us passport". If you were trying to rank your home page as #1 for "expedite us passport" with a keyword strategy, you would want expediteuspassport.com. To be clear, I am not recommending that approach but rather following the approach you have chosen to its logical conclusion.

2. If you wish your home page to rank high for "expedite us passport" then your ideal title would be along the lines of "Expedite US Passport". Instead you have a title of "Expedite US Passport Service & Travel Visa Service"

3. You mentioned one of your inner pages outranks the home page for the term. Well, the inner page title is "Expedite Passport Service : Fast New Passport Renewal". The breadcrumbs show the page as "Expedite US Passport Services". You are cannibalizing your own SEO by having multiple pages compete against each other for similar terms.

In summary, you either need to invest some time learning SEO or hire a professional. If this is a site you are starting and are on a limited budget, you likely have more time then money in which case you can start with the Beginner's Guide to SEO. If this is an established business then I would recommend seeking professional assistance.