Why did one of our keyword score an F but is first place on Google search? The key word is "Barista Classes Los Angeles"

[ckroaster]

We're working with an SEO company that provides monthly details on what keywords have improved and needs work.  One of our keyowords (Barista Classes Los Angeles) climbed up to number one on Google's search box.  However, on SEO Moz, the same keyword got an "F" under the On-Page category.

Can someone help us out and define why this is happening?  This way, we can adjust and see how we can improve.

Thanks!

[KevinBudzynski]

For long-tail keyword phrases (such as "Barista Classes Los Angeles") that do not have much competition you can easily have poor on-page seo and rank well. Another example is that if you have poor on-page seo but strong backlinks, you can easily outrank competitors' sites for that kw phrase.

[WhoWuddaThunk]

Kevin is completely correct, but I wanted to expand.  The grading on SEOMoz is a measurement of how well you are following on page SEO best practices.  It takes a look at things like Keywords in Title, H1, etc.  Having a poor grade on SEOMoz doesn't mean that you aren't capable of ranking well for the term, it just means that you haven't taken advantage of known ranking factors.

What that tells me is that you may be in 1st right now, but it wouldn't be hard to pass you up.  If you do improve your on-page SEO, though, you will make it harder for people to pass you.

[DonnaDuncan]

There's another possibility too Ronald.

You could have more than one page eligible to rank for "Barista Classes Los Angeles":

• One that achieved a low ranking on Google and scored a "F" on the on-page optimization reports.
• Another that ranks #1 on Google and scored higher than a "F".

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Ranking signals are extremely complex, and On-page SEO is only a fraction of the pie (although sometimes it's a very large piece!)

For a broader perspective, run your keyword through Moz's Keyword Analysis Tool - then run a "full" report. This will show you dozens of on-page and external ranking factors for the top ten websites returned for that search query.

.... and this still isn't the full story.

Questions like this help us learn how Google's search algorithm work, and why some sites rank higher than others, even when we don't expect it. Keep questioning everything!