Google inaccurate results: Common or error?

[vtmoz]

Hi all,

While searching for our primary keyword, I can see 2 websites on second page results which are non-related to the keyword or industry but their company name is this keyword. Like if I want to rank and searching for "SEO",  there are 2 websites which called "seo trucks" and "seo paints". I wonder how Google is ranking these websites for high competition keyword with 1 million searches per month. So the keyword in URL and this keyword mentioned across the website being their brand name taking over the other potential ranking factors like backlinks, relevant content, user clicks, etc.....

Thanks

[Tenlo]

So, why do you consider the result inaccurate? If they are coming up that close to the top then perhaps a number of people are using that keyword to search specifically for those businesses. Google believes that their content is good, and, that you may have been looking for them, albeit with them on the 2nd page Google hedged its bets that you were not.

[vtmoz]

Thanks for the response Micheal. These 2 websites have very less traffic compared to the other websites which are trying to rank for the keyword. I have noticed that 10% of the traffic to these websites comes with search of that keyword. So, is that the only factor influencing a boost in rankings? Usually there is a lot of content about this keyword on many other websites; even though these 2 websites which are just got the keyword as their company name. Do u think the keyword in their domain name is major reason?

[willcritchlow]

Google is incredibly good at entity detection (i.e. figuring out when someone is searching for a "thing"). When there is a canonical right answer for that thing (e.g. the company website in the case of a company), it will often rank very well despite not necessarily having any of the "traditional" ranking factors in place.

Typically, when the search is unambiguously for the thing in question, the company will rank #1 even if there are much stronger websites and pages about that company. You will rarely find that a company is outranked on their own company name when it's sufficiently distinguished from other entities even if it's a really small company and there are (for example) major media stories about it.

There are a variety of other factors - like query sequences (e.g. a user searching [seo] followed by [seo trucks] in your example) that Google can use to associate more specific sites with more general queries as well.

Most importantly - I'm not sure there's a great deal you can do about it, not any general lessons you can apply to your own attempts in this market / keyword space - so I wouldn't spend too long worrying about it!