Main keyword not ranking in top 100 - but others are #1

[Londoning]

This post is deleted!

[Chris.Menke]

Over optimization?

That's not out of the question with EMDs. Sometimes that can be hard to get past.

Maybe you got a little spammy with it back in the day? You have the keyword all over your homepage, in most of your external link anchor text,  title, alt tags, internal links, etc?

That could be it.

[Londoning]

Hi Chris,

Over optimisation is something I’ve looked at and it’s fine tbh.

The #1 is a EMD .co.uk and other high ranking ones are EMDs too on other extensions.

I’ve got a sister site that compliments the main site , but this site has DA of 1. I used to have a link in this sister site’s menu with the the keyword as anchor text linking straight to my main site.

(The sister site is not spammy, no adverts, just info, but no backlinks)

I think this might be a problem and I’ve removed that menu link and all links connecting the two sites and hoping when Google picks this up it might resolve this issue.

What do you think Chris?

Thanks again

[Chris.Menke]

That doesn't seem like it would be the problem. Has that site always been that clean?

How about content quality? Good?

Have you considered just whitewashing the current URL that's been optimized for your main keyword and starting over with a new URL? Even if it is your homepage. Like, just  re-optimize that current page with a bland/ non-cannibalizing keyword and start fresh with a new URL, new copy, new images. No 301s, no rel=canonical, no  nothing. Could be worth a try. You  can always revert back to the originals if nothing shakes free after a few months, right?

[Londoning]

It’s an option, but I really want to get to the bottom of this.

By URL do you mean a new domain name?

[Chris.Menke]

No. Just a new page.

[gertseoleverage]

Any links pointing to the not-ranking URL that might have a negative effect? Sometimes penalizations aren't manual but algorithmic, and the effect would be that a certain keyword doesn't get ranked.

[Londoning]

Hi Gert,

Do you mean external links pointing to my homepage?

[Londoning]

Hi,

So, I’ve done a bit more digging:

7000+ backlinks

But only 5 high DA backlinks where the anchor text is the main keyword

All other backlinks are for other long tail keywords

Would this explain it?

[Chris.Menke]

I still think you should just shed the optimization for the homepage and optimize another url for that  keyword (let the homepage be un optimized or optimize it for something else).   I'm assuming that it's the current optimized URL (in this case, http://xxxxx.com)  that's taking the hit from google. The overall authority for the domain may still be strong, so optimize a different URL for your keyword and see what happens.